Got home from the 9 hour, storm ridden drive at nearly 10:00pm (after leaving Las Vegas at 1:30 so I am really pooped. I will gather all my notes and pass on most of what I saw and did.
Since I left long before the stock class or finals, you'll have to check WARPIG for the results.
I did meet up with and hang with a number of industry and player celebrities, including Bill Mills and Jessica Sparks. But the coolest thing, was that Miscue and I met! We walked around and checked out the "dealers row", got barrel "cozies" for our guns, met up with Jeff from www.paintballdaddy.com (where I got some big stickers for my truck), and then we bumped into Bill Mills. Bill had us do a "bumper" for PIG-TV, so you can see us both there when the Pan-Am videos go up. Bill is one of the most personable fellows I have ever met. Despite being an industry big-wig, he comes across as if we were old friends and that made a big impression on me. Even today, as we saw each other in passing, it was "Hey Dave!" Well, he goes on my "A" list! Miscue has digi-pics of us all and I took normal film of two days that I will also get up soon.
Oh yeah, I'm jealous! Miscues gun is as SWEEEET as it gets, pictures do not do it justice!
Today (Sunday), I was watching the indoor pre-lims when a familiar looking lady comes up to me and starts talking as if we were old friends. It slowly dawned on me that she is Jessica Sparks, which is why she looked familiar; we've ALL seen her in APG and Paintball! Well, turns out she DID sort of "know" me. It seems that Ms. Sparks lurks these pages, and with me wearing my ARMY shirt and hat, she knew I could only be that guy from AO. Is that cool or what?! Nice, nice lady, and really knows her paintball. Hmmm...can't imagine why?
I had Big Red with me at the AGD booth, and could have sold a half dozen Z-grips after letting guys shoot my gun! Jeff, the AGD rep, is a super guy. He let me be in his booth as if I worked for him, and had no problem letting me hand out advice or trying to sell some product! He was able to talk a few girls into wearing VERY tight dresses (drool) with his logo on them. They MAY be in the magazines when coverage comes out on the games.
Met up with Dan Bonebrake too, in the Pan-Am trailer but I didn't recognise him at all until one of his employees said "hey Dan", then the big click went off in my head! Another really nice guy, but he never stops long enough to enjoy the party he is throwing for everyone! Shook hands with Dave Youngblood in the big-rig DYE trailer.
The tourney was pretty big, with 6 fields in play at all times, I'm not sure how many 5 man teams were there. I went around trying to find all the Automags in use, but didn't find too many. Most of the teams had some level of sponsorship from WGP or Angel. Team Pierre Pressure, from South Dakota, used 3 guns: an RT Pro, and 2 Emags with Warps. They reported "0" problems with either guns or Warps shooting Diablo Inferno despite the wretchedly filthy playing fields. Las Vegas is powdery, sticky, dirty sand and white dust (you can't use white paint, you'll never see a hit), and to dive into a bunker was to cover yourself head to toe in dirt, including your whole gun and hopper. This was a good test of AGDs durability in adverse conditions. Another 'Mag user was a member of Team Guahan, all the way from Guam. His RT is the lone wolf in a pack of 'cockers! He also reported less than zero problems, and later on was looking at getting an RT Pro or Emag. Ed, from Team Mean Streak was shooting his MiniMag with great success, and his son was blasting with his RT Pro, I have action pics of these guys and will post them.
I missed his name, but a fellow had his truck mounted compressor running air for everyone. The line for air was always short, and fills were accomplished quickly. He built a multiple station system, so six or more tanks could be filled at once. Very efficient and fast as a whole team could get air together.
Since this was my first BIG tourney I have attended, I was favorably impressed with how things ran. The logistics of that many teams, that many fields, in a set amount of time to get everyone played and placed must be enormous and nerve wracking. Props must go out to the organizers who kept everything running smoothly. The Pan-Am was held at The Sport Center, a large "arcade" style of sport chalet; Batting cages, home-run field, indoor skate park, volley-ball courts, go-cart raceway, climbing wall etc... The indoor field took over the skate park, while the outdoors fields were in what looked like a BMX park. Good location for a tourney, as it is at the southern edge of Las Vegas itself, and not out in the middle of no-where as it was last year.
Best move I saw, was during the first round of eliminations on the indoor Sup-air (4 Sup-air fields, 2 dirt mound and debris fields), after doing a text-book slide into the left Dorito, the players Angel jammed. In an instant, seemingly without thinking about it, he ripped the lid off his hopper, dumped a big pile into his hand, and rushed the center coke can throwing the paint onto to that player AND GOT THE OUT! It all happened in about 7 seconds and got a huge cheer from the crowd. Funniest, was a player going for a bunkering in the snake when he tripped about 10 feet away from it. He stumbled just long enough to crash down on top of the snake and crack the other player in the head with his barrel! Even though the Refs called both out, the crowd all agreed that the barrel tag should have been legal!
I'm really tired now, so I'm heading for bed.
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