In 2006 I graduated WSU and was eager to begin paintballing seriously. I had already been playing for years, but mostly in the woods. I had traded my Angel Speed for an Ion so that I could play over the summers, (using the extra cash for paint!) The first check I got, I went out and bought an 06 Ego, brand new. A friend of mine came out to play one summer weekend, and he brought with him the rest of what would be OTC.
This was at Hole in the Walls new field in the Maple Valley area. We decided we’d make a team and play tournament paintball, and entered in a tournament a few weeks later, at Black and Blue Paintball. We won, but only because there were only three teams (including us!) in attendance, and it was a very relaxed day. It was a hot day, and we brought beer, much to our and the other two teams enjoyment.
Afterwards, we decided that we would compete the next year for the entire 2007 season. Later, I would find out that only because we’d actually won the tourney did the team stick together. During the fall we practiced hard at the best place that I had found, DBS’s indoor field during Thursday nights. We liked Thursday nights because the competition was stiff, and we still had our weekends to goof off, work, or recover from wicked hangovers. It was at that those Thursday nights I met most of the DBS Kidz, and a lot of other good paintball friends.
The roster for OTC consisted of Ryan Burgess, Justin Hylen, Brandon Gee, myself, and my brother, Gino Santamaria. Ryan, Brandon and Justin had all known each other for years, and were mutual friends with my good friend Andy Lake (who unfortunately never played tourney ball again after the Black and Blue win) We had a rough start the 2007 season. We got beat handily at the NWPS, but managed to eek out wins at the Smoking Guns series. At the time Smoking Guns was handing out cash for prizes, and it was nice to walk away with some dough in our pockets. Losing at the NWPS kept our drive to practice high.
We kept practicing Thursday nights, but our team focus was quickly turning from paintball to drinking. In retrospect, we really were a drinking team with a paintball problem. But it’s what paintball is really about, having a great time with your friends and replaying the memories over and over in your head at work the next week. Getting up at 5 am to drive across state to adventure at some mud pit, and sharing dreams with tired eyes and friendly faces. The pain of losing, the joy of winning, and being able to loudly talk it over with too much beer later that night.
The Smoking Guns series had ended prematurely and we had ended up on top, but we were having trouble in the NWPS. We were essentially tied for 1st with Syper. We managed to finish ahead of them in the tournament, and played them best of three for the series. We bended the rules to play 5 man since both teams had 5 players, and the format was 4 man. Winning meant a lot of respect, and win we did. We were ecstatic.
On the way home, Justin Hylen quit paintball forever. He left on top.
We did well the rest of the season, playing about 16 tournaments total, including Ninjaball and Survivor series. At the end of the year, we had actually made a few hundred out of winning the tournaments, which was really great. 2008 was our rookie year. Our record for the previous year included two series wins and numerous 1st in partial series we had picked up along the way, but trouble was ahead in 08…
Next week: The Death of OTC Paintball
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