Red Sevens Paintball

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While paintball is a popular game in the United States and in the Europe, it is still considered as an uncommon game in Asia. With an estimate of more than 10 million US players (Action Pursuit Game Buyers Issue, 2006) and an unaccounted figure in Europe, the game of paintball is ever increasing in popularity. However, in recent years, countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan are also starting a new wave of paintball culture in Asia. The recent conclusion of the 5 Man World Cup Asia held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 6th – 10th December 2006 saw a participation of 79 Asia teams, 1 Pacific team and 2 European teams competing in 4 different divisions. Several milestones were set in this first ever World Cup Asia tournament, the largest ever International Paintball Tournament in Asia, the formation of the Asia Pacific Paintball Federation (APPBF) and the 1st ever Ladies Division for an International Paintball Federation. This event has received endorsement from the Mini!
stry of Tourism Malaysia as one of the “Top 50” events for the “Visit Malaysia Year 2007”.

The precedent events leading to this Asia World cup was the Nation Cup in 2004 and the Asia Pacific Paintball Championship in 2005. Both events were supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia and the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia. In 2006, Taiwan and Thailand organized the Taiwanese International Paintball Championship (TIPC) and International Thailand Paintball Championship (ITPC) respectively. In the August 2006 issue of the FACEFULL magazine (an internationally renowned paintball magazine) it quoted “While the latter two countries (referring to China and India) have not yet developed a solid player base, they are already heavily involved as manufacturers of paintball goods. There is a different story for the “Tiger States” like Malaysia, South Korea, SINGAPORE. They already have plenty of paintball fields, shops and domestic leagues”. However, this is not the case in Singapore. Paintball started in Singapore about 9 years ago, while the game has taken presence recreationally, the developments of paintball as a sport in Singapore has been slow and close to none. However, with paintball being an uprising sport amongst countries in Asia, it will be soon before Singaporeans begin to appreciate the competitive side of the game. With the formation of the Red Sevens Paintball Team, who claims to be the first competitive paintball team in Singapore and their aspirations to participate actively in the development of competitive paintball in Singapore, it will be a matter of time when Singapore are aligned with what is mentioned in the magazine article as “plenty of paintball fields, shops and domestic leagues”.

Playing in their maiden 5 man tournament, the Red Sevens team has managed to raise a few eyebrows by qualifying for the 2nd Round of the Xtionpaintball Cup 2007, MPOC 2007 2nd Leg. Out of the 28 participating teams, only the top 16 teams will qualified for the 2nd Round and the Red Sevens made it there by clinching the 11th position in the 3rd Division tournament.

Playing against teams such as PI Fortier, PI Visunita, CMX, GANG and PYOC during the Qualifying Rounds, the Red Sevens team was considered as the underdog team among the hot favourites. The former 2 Penang teams were podium winners of the last MPOC Leg 1 series. Given no training resources in Singapore, the Red Sevens team displayed an outstanding mode of communication and team work on and off the field. Assisted by players such as William (Slow Poke) from the ex-Tornado Team and Daryl (Darlie)
from Neighbour Pulse in their lineup, the team was able to gain valuable insights of paintball as the tournament progresses. With 2 Singaporeans and 4 Malaysians (of which 2 are working in Singapore) forming the Red Sevens, the team hopes to set a precedence for more Singaporeans to be aware and be involved in this adrenaline rushing sport.