Amazing Thailand

14 March 2010, Pattaya, Thailand – Organized by the Thailand International Paintball Association, the Pattaya International Paintball Championship 2010 was held on 13 – 14 March 2010 at the National Eastern Seaboard Stadium in Pattaya, Thailand. 39 teams from 8 countries participated in this event to vie for the top honours of being the Asia’s best. Teams from Malaysia, UAE, Taiwan, Philippines, Iran, Australia, Singapore and host country Thailand compete to win the prize money of up to 100, 000 baht. Supported and sponsored by the Pattaya Tourism and Sports Commission, this event was attended by more than 800 participants and spectators.

Singapore was represented by 2 teams in this tournament, team Red Sevens and team Contract Killers playing in the Division 2 and Division 3 category respectively. Red Sevens was established in 2007 as a competitive paintball team with aims of promoting and developing paintball in Singapore. Since its formation, the team has travelled to Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand for paintball competitions. In 2007, the Red Sevens became the first competitive paintball team from Singapore to participate in the World Cup Asia (WCA) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They were subsequently invited to participate in the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) Asia held in Desaru where professional paintball teams from the United States were competing in the professional category. In 2009, the Red Sevens was invited to participate in a paintball demonstration event by the World Games organizing committee in Kao Hsiung, Taiwan.

Like many Singapore paintball teams, in order to maintain the team’s competiveness, the Red Sevens often travels to Malaysia to compete in the Malaysia competitions such as the Malaysia Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC) and the Malaysia National League (My-NPL) which is a 5 legged tournament per year. In Singapore, the team trains regularly in Red Dynasty Paintball Park located in Bottle Tree Park. The team often conducts paintball workshops for beginners who are keen to pick up paintball as a competitive sport and they also helped to organize the Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS) for the local paintball community in 2008 and 2009. “There are more competitive players in Singapore now as compared to a few years ago. Paintball as a sport is slowly growing in Singapore but given the current firearms law it is difficult for paintball teams in Singapore to train regularly with their personal equipment”, exclaimed Ben Seow, the captain of Red Sevens and a paintball promoter in Singapore. “Paintball sports has been around for many years, millions of people have played the game and enjoyed the sport. For paintball to reach its full potential, governing bodies need to give flexibility to competitive players to compete with their personal equipment”.

Playing for their first time in Division 3 tournament, the Contract Killers team is one of the top local teams in Singapore. Formed in 2008, the Contract Killers were frequent winners of the local paintball league. In WCA 2009, the Contract Killers won the 1st Runner Up medals in the Division 4 category competing against teams from Philippines, India and Malaysia. “This event is surely an eye-opener for everyone in the team. We are glad to be representing Singapore in this tournament and hope to have more Singapore teams taking up overseas challenges” stated Mohd Shakil, a founding player of the Contract Killers. “Even though we finished the tournament with 6th position, we would like to send a message to the rest of the other countries that Singaporeans given our strict firearm regulations can still do well in international tournaments”

Red Sevens finished the Division 2 category by claiming the champion medal and prize money worth USD1400.


 

Words by Ben King from http://singaporepaintball.blogspot.com