Tippinators Have Fun at Season Opener
The Tippinators came out in force to the event that many players
consider to be the unofficial opening of the Atlantic Canadian paintball
season, Black Friday. The Event was held on Friday April 6th, 2012 at
Mersey Road Paintball in East River Nova Scotia. The Tippinators like
many other ballers in Atlantic Canada descended on Mersey Road ready to
shoot some paint and have some fun.
Black Friday is a special kind of event where after a winter of being
able to only play the occasional game of indoor reball, the Tipps plus
legions of woodsballers, and speedballers, gather for a day of fun
before players gravitate back to their preferred style of play.
Black Friday is a non competitive event. ‘Event’ may be to strong a
word. Black Friday is a one of a kind paintball gathering. It is a
gathering where players of any skill level and experience can play
together, and against each other, as long as the players only want to
have fun.
Another aspect of Black Friday that makes the game special is there are
no landmarks to be taken, no points awarded, no commanders yelling
orders, and no winners announced at the end of the day. The Tippinators
head out onto the field, hook up with whomever they come across and
start playing.
The game was immediate respawn broken into 90 minute halves. The teams
switched ends of the field at the lunch break. The non stop game made
for non stop action all over the field. There were ghillie suits next to
colourful speedball jerseys, high end electros playing side by side
with pump guns.
The Tippinators like many other players come out to Black Friday to bang
the rust off skills that lay dormant over the winter. The Tipps also
use the Black Friday game an opportunity to renew relationships with
players that haven't been seen since the previous fall.
At the end of the day Tippinators were tired but smiling. The team
enjoys any day they can run around the field, shot paint, get hit and
come back for more with no other objective in mind other than to have
fun.
The team was ready to pack up but not before a prize draw the team had
organized to give away equipment and apparel generously donated by
Tippmann Sports (www.Tippmann.com), PBL Action Sports (www.BuyPbl.com),
and Vforce (www.dxspaintball.com).
"I love Black Friday" said Johnston, "It is the one event where the only goal is to shoot some paint and have some fun."
In many areas paintball participation has been in decline. The exact
opposite is true for paintball in Atlantic Canada. The official
attendance of nearly 300 makes Mersey Road’s Black Friday the most
successful annual event in Eastern Canada.
The high attendance at Black Friday, the continued growth and expansion
of the Atlantic Tactical Woodsball League (ATWL), and the Atlantic
Division of the Canadian Xtreme Paintball League (CXBL), proves that
paintball in the region is as strong as ever.
Black Friday once again showed how both woodsballers and speedballers,
can come together in the spirit of the game, and play for fun. If Black
Friday is any indication of what is in store for the remainder of the
2012 paintball season will be one to remember.