Fun little
firefights

>>The Montreal NRG team wants to
pop a paintball in the competition’s ass

LIKE A GAME OF CHESS: The Montreal NRG team

by ERIK LEIJON

William Sinka’s Montreal NRG Paintball squad is like any other local sports team. They wear identical jerseys, they practise on a weekly basis and there are a multitude of strategies and skills they need to learn before hitting the field of competition. But don’t think just any weekend warrior can slap on a mask and play like a pro—the CXBL (Canadian Xtreme Paintball League) is a major step above the typical frat boy fun and games.

“People tend to assume I just play paintball with friends, wear coveralls and run around in the woods,” says team owner Sinka, who has been playing paintball for over 20 years and founded the Montreal NRG paintball organization in 2003. “When I came back into the sport (after a layoff in the late ’90s), it was loose groups of teams of friends or people who played some tournaments together. I came back because there were a lot of people who had an interest and were passionate, but unless they had a sufficient level of expertise and a group of similar friends, they were left to their own devices.”

In addition to having national and international teams in the past (NRG played in the now defunct American World Paintball League, and were featured on American television in 2006), Sinka established NRG to scout and teach young people how to transform their favourite hobby into something more serious.

Loading talent

The Montreal NRG team is one of eight Quebec-based top division paintball teams in the Montreal-headquartered CXBL, which has become the largest X-Ball rules league in Canada. Other teams in the division are based out of paintball fields in Mirabel, Laval, LaSalle, Mont-Tremblant, St-Jovite, Chomedey and an American squad based in Roxboro. Sinka himself runs a team in the American X-Ball league (AXBL) in Syracuse.

Because of the number of teams competing for the same talent, Sinka has been looking outside Montreal and Quebec for potential players, frequently going to Ontario and upstate New York to find both hardcore gunmen and blue chippers. “The talent pool is small, so you have to attract players from a wider geographic area, and if you do that, you need to be able to offer them something,” he says.

Since players are not paid for their exploits, sponsorships are the primary means of attracting a player to play competitively. Players could have their weapons, called “markers,” and their bullets partially or fully subsidized by companies. One of the world’s largest dealers of paintball supplies, ProCaps, is based out of Montreal and offers incentives to CXBL players to use their products. The company’s owner, Richmond Italia, invented the X-Ball paintball format and his namesake is used for the CXBL’s top prize, the Richmond Cup.

The Canadian-invented X-Ball is a team-based, five-on-five version of paintball that plays similarly to hockey. Each team can rotate three lines in between points, as each team tries to make a successful flag hang (placing a flag) in their team flag station. Other paintball formats tend to include number of players hit and successful hits as well in the total score. They play two 25-minute periods.

With the CXBL only in its fourth season, Sinka explains the reason why many leagues folded in the past was because “they didn’t embrace change. They were just doing the same thing until they realized people were no longer showing up, and then they would change. CXBL has jumped ahead of the curve, doing things that people have always wanted to see but haven’t before.”

LOADED AND READY: NRG

Aiming high and low

Taking the step from playing on weekends to playing in tournaments is a big jump, and it’s Sinka’s responsibility to find hidden talents throughout the city who show the potential to be better paintball players. The CXBL has three lower divisions, so he frequently attends those tournaments, and he also scouts paintball fields around and off the island. The average age of a roster is typically between 17 and 25, says Sinka, although there is precedent for players to be in their late 30s or even as young as 12. Women have also played alongside men—and there have been women on Sinka’s teams in the past—although none tried out this year, he says.

For a paintball hobbyist, getting used to the upgraded equipment can be a challenge. “A standard marker will only shoot about three or four bullets per second, maybe five if you’re really quick,” says Sinka. “CXBL markers have a limit of 15.4 bullets per second, and it’s not mechanical either—the markers are electronic with computer chips inside to regulate shot speed.” Professional markers can cost around $1,000 each, not including the barrel, ball feeder and compressed air-based customizations one can make. The CXBL has its own rulebook about equipment restrictions, but there is no current governmental body in place to establish standards like in other sports.

Although as part of the WPL, Montreal NRG played in larger U.S. venues like Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and Raymond James Field in Tampa, currently the CXBL doesn’t sell tickets to their events. Usually, they take place at regular paintball fields, although this year’s schedule includes seven weekend tournaments, with appearances in Mirabel and Mont-Tremblant.

No violence, just shooting

Sinka, a 41-year old manager in the telecom business, can understand the perception many have of paintball as a violent sport, despite it being a strictly no-physical contact game. The idea of shooting someone, even if only recreationally, and potentially leaving a large welt (as paintballs often can) may too closely resemble actual gunplay, considering it’s a sport enjoyed by many young people.

But the amount of strategy that goes into establishing a winning team—understanding signals, manoeuvring around the inflatable obstacles called bunkers, and working as a team—is far more complicated than simply running and shooting. “If you watch from the seats as a spectator in a larger arena, the way the players move strategically—moving diagonally down the field or players switching positions—it almost looks like a game of chess,” says Sinka. “It’s all about getting your angles, getting your pieces in place before the other team and taking advantage.”

Sinka adds, “For something to be violent, you have to have one side that wants to inflict pain on another. In paintball, that’s not at all the case—you’re not here to harm anyone.”