Shatnerball Through the Eyes of Tom Kaye

[AGD]

All,

It was such an incredible experience I wrote down my perspective in a 7 page essay. I have attached it here as a plain text file because it is too big to logically post. You can read it with notepad.

AGD


ps It seems that if you just click on it in Explorer it opens without any paragraphs. Might be best to right click, download the file and then open in a word processor.

[TransMan]

Thanks Tom i too had a great time although there were some short comings i will do it again with out a doubt.

[Drgnwyng]

Yeah Im new I joined right when i got back form the game cuzz AO is great there all so nice and freindly great player all around amazing people And thank you all of you for opening up to some kid that datapimp69 drag out there : } and Thank you Yes Tom the game was incredible and just all around fun im with Transman on this

TransMan Thanks Tom i too had a great time although there were some short comings i will do it again with out a doubt.

Thank you Tom

[Army]

Open Toms report in Word, it fits fine.

[Fred]

Tom,

Next year, please try to push for a better location, such as Hell Survivors in MI, EMR out East, or any other field that has actually run scenarios (successfully). The lack of organization on the field due to rules, refs, and especially air filling facilities just made it a crappy day.

Hanging with the AO group made a bad scenario weekend a great success as far as fun goes though.

PS. I hope everyone enjoyed the donuts at the orgy, while the Assimilators and GPEA were duking it out with the pumps over on the hyper-ball fields... (yes, I'm still bitter about our lack of sideline support...)

---Fred

[theraidenproject]

Of all the pictures and descriptions of Shatnerball, none made me wish I was there as much as that. Thanks, Tom, for the great read. I NEED to be at the next one.

[Tunaman]

Dont second rate yourself Tom...

"For me it was the end of an experience that was so incredible I can't find the words to describe it. To be on par with a Hollywood legend and radio superstar on stage and in battle will never happen to me again. I could only think that I didn't have the right to be there, it should have been Zena or Schwarzenegger or Mel Gibson, certainly not Tom Kaye from Airgun Designs - who the heck is he? It was very emotional to actually have so many people WANT to be on my team, to have Shatner and Mancow include me in the on and off stage stuff, and the fact that these two superstars would agree to even PLAY paintball. After so many years of my industry being ignored, suppressed and legislated, it's just emotionally overwhelming to see it explosively break out with this event. The fact that I was a major part of it made it one of the biggest highlights in my life and also the most humbling. I want to express my sincere gratitude to EVERYONE that participated and especially to JJ for having the vision. If someone had told me twenty years ago while I was watching Star Trek reruns that someday I would be the only person to ever battle Captain Kirk for real, I would have bet him a million dollars he was wrong. Sometimes million to one odds do come true".

Tom Kaye
Borg General

An incredible masterpiece of journalism...
If it wasnt for you, this whole event never would have happened. If ANYONE deserved to be there, that would have to be you. You bring more excitement and fun to the sport of Paintball then I ever thought possible. I only wish I could have been there. Face it TK...you are the King now and forever ...
Long live AGD!

[LaW]

I would have to say that it was very well written. Sums up the entire day very well. I was right there when you were making the alliance with mancow and it was very exciting to hear.

[Dayspring]

If you open it in Notepad, all you have to do is click on "Word Wrap" and the paragraphs reappear.

I'll post my thoughts on it in a bit.

*EDIT*-- Jealous Tom... VERY VERY Jealous.

[Havoc_online]

Tom, I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had on the entire trip from you showing us Airgun and telling us about your hobbies to working the booth and running the front line in attacks that got us kills by the 10's...I can't wait for the next one!

Suddenly this HUGE Tiger tank shows up! Our side starts scattering as this behemoth moved slowly toward us. Paint marks start appearing on its sides and I know this is useless since only a LAWS rocket can stop a tank. Now I am running away looking for cover!! Will I get robbed of my bragging rights? Is this going to go on even longer? Suddenly the Tiger just starts turning around and going away!!?? I don't know what exactly happened, I can only speculate one of our guys did it in and saved the day! KUDOS to whoever that was!!

I'm not sure if I can take credit for this(actually I really doubt it) but during that attack I ran on top of the closest hill in the field to find 5 fed's shooting at our guys who were so far back they didnt need to worry about it, after these few seconds another battle quickly began with the Fed's that were left trying to hold us off from behind the few hills out there.

I found myself running on top-hill after hill surpirsing the few Fed scum that were left. By the time I got to the last hill I suddenly got hit by more balls than weltman, I dropped to the floor getting ready to hold my gun up when I couldnt find a break, I yell for a ref and get him to spin me around to find out I'm still in! Without thinking I fill my hopper and put 20 balls into every opening I saw on the tank(I filled my hopper again).

By that time I slowed down from exhaustion, a few other guys were running hard from behind me on the tank yelling "shoot the holes!" when a ref waves them to stop cause the tank is a goner...I didnt get what happened, I was to tired to care at the moment but I had to good of a personal victory with all the kills I got in that raid that I gave up for the day to go help at the booth.

[the123]

BORG BORG BORG BORG BORG

This was probably the most fun i've had playing paintball YET! Rubbing elbows with the big guys, Cow, Shatner, Orr, Red(Redz), Manike (you sure are tall), and last but not least TOM, it made for a day that couldn't go sour no matter what. The hearty clan of AO'ers there made it even better. Thanks LOAD SM5 for the stickers, it made it simple to know who had your back.

My day started a little late, and I missed the initial insertion(paint line). Thank you CPX. Got onto the field at and headed straigt for Bedlam. At this point it was overrun with the Federation and it was a real pain to take. I ran out of air and had to go back to fill.
SO i get my 1900psi (thankyouCPX) and return to find we have now taken Bedlam and are in the process of taking Armageddon. I push with JonAGD up the armageddon tapeline and bolted up into a tower. Now my heart is pumping good and i'm taking out federation player after player. I lost my voice trying to command the field pushing the Feds back into their own insertion. That was the best part of the day. We must have held that insertion point of theirs at bay for at least 1/2 the day.
On to the final battle..
I strayed off TK's plan to sweep around the feds and bolted into Bedlam's north east building with about 12 other experienced players. With just us, we held off the Klingons from making ANY forward progress on the north side of the field. As well as shooting away all our air. What the Feds did, by rushing over the hill, was very brave and I commend them for absorbing every single ball I shot at that HORDE of players running twords us
Thanks LOAD SM5 for the stickers, it made it simple to know who had your back.
Thankyou Riotz? for the Ninja stickers.
Thankyou Gambit for hosting the barbecue and beer orgy.
Thankyou Rusty and Law guys for stopping the ememy tanks in their tacks very quickly.
Thankyou JJ for inviting me to Whirly Ball (awesome time).
And
Tom, thankyou for .. everything. lvl 10 too Not 1 broken ball alll day. 2+ cases.


This sums it up for most of us Borg:
All around me the Borg were glowing, knowing they had finished the day in typical Borg fashion, with superior firepower against an unsuspecting sacrificial opponent. -TK

[PaintballChannel]

Tom,

Beautiful write up. You expressed the feelings of many of the players out there and captured the event in its entirity.

And, yes, you did deserve to be the leader of the Borg.

Cheers, and here's to next year!

[Python14]

crimeny, That was good tom....almost brought a tear to my eye. Next year, go to Skirmish, they are one of the best run fields I've ever been to.

[agdemagman69]

Shatner is SUCH a liar, we were walking through the woods when I saw this arm sticking from behind a bunker, so i shot the arm... and long story short we captured shatner

[DSMPilot]

I had a great time as well. It was nice to meet alot of the friendly AO people and for all their offers of non paintball related activities. Thanks MXRacer for driving me around and TK for taking the time to take a pic with me. The only downfall of the event was the air fills and some thief that took my 1/2 case of paint(must've been those damn Klingons). I woulda had just as much fun just hanging around with my new friends than playing paintball. The whole trip to Joliet was well worth it, count me in for the next big game!
TC