.. width="425" height="350" ..Why we do what we do. M. Marshall said it best..."It happens on a random Monday. Coming back from an event or late on a Sunday night, right before you get on the plane and your about to be frisked for the third time. Your driving...your flying....your sitting in an airport seat with boys from the team. Your drinking stale coffee trying to stay awake. Your explaining a fat welt on the side of your neck to a confused stranger or a best friend.....or running through the sidewalk at LAX trying to catch a plane. Your coming back to the other life....the one without paintball. Where no one understands why you do it....your tired....working off little sleep and a question creeps up and you try to ignore it. Why do I do this? Why the travel? Why the losses? The missed worked...the missed school...hours of practice and the complaining girl friend....because the lure of living a paintball life is just to potent and the products of the road, the travel, are memories forever and trips and strange lands with stranger people. At tournaments it feels like for once you get to live as loud as you want. Its worth the sacrifices....its worth all the bullshit. Because if you work hard enough, a Sunday will roll around and you'll be in the huddle...screaming.....with your hand in....one among ten playing for the world title and suddenly all those clichs you've ever heard make sense and you are defined. You say it to yourself and it means everything, I am a paintball player and this moment right here is my life."From the DVD Sunday Driver
I have been in the paintball world for a little over 15 years now. I have played MSPA, CFOA, PSP, locals, and scenarios. For about 8 years I had played and coached a tournament team. We were first known as Team Carnage. We played local 3 man and 5 man events and the team dominated. As in all cases though the team grew up and grew apart. We started finding new blood and new direction and after our first PSP event we decided it was time for a change. We started with the name. Then the look, and then the play style. We started playing CFOA in 2004. The first event or two was a rocky start but nothing the team couldnt adapt to. They ended up taking 4th over all for the season and make one dang good show. So good that one of our players "Matt Kress" found his way one yr in the Rookie division on his way to being a Pro withing weeks of the 2004 season being over.From here it went south in my opinion. As great of a player and freind some of the guys on the team had become, we just lacked that jell. We lost and picked up players for 2 years like they were flap jacks. Some were over confident, some were nieve, some were just not what we were looking for. We were starting to hurt. So it was, X-Ball. This is the nitch. We took back players, picked up players, we even had a few players that had not stepped on the field in 2 years playing with us and the team was amazing! Again it started... going south. It was almost like they wanted too much too fast, were not ready to work for what would eventually come. So in the end of the 2006 season I mad a deal. I got a new team started. We were only taking serious players. People who wanted to work to win and after the first event it happened again.I couldn't put my finger on it, something was missing. Then I figured it out. It took a long time, lots of heart ache and lots of wear and tear on my mind, body, and personal life. Then it came to me. I wasnt having fun. I wanted to have fun, I wanted to play, I wanted to do.... a scenario.In May of 2007 I started playing scenarios with a group of guys that played recreational at my field. This group of guys were playing for the exact reason I was looking for. FOR FUN!! No worries of sponsors, team mates not showing, who won, why did we loose, what prizes can we sell to break even. It was just fun.And with this it came to pass. Atlanta Phoenix was dying off from the tournament scene because I was not willing to just hand a free ride out, so in turn we slowly became Atlanta Phoenix Tactical.Now with a group of 15 friends we travel and play and have fun. With no worries of ripping each others throats out for screwing up the finals play that cost the team the event, we just have fun shooting people, sitting at the dinner table laughing about the antics and head home looking forward to the next event.The Atlanta Phoenix tournament team is in retirement for the time. When players start realizing they have to work to get something, nothing comes for free, people really do try to help, and that you are not a Pro player till you are on a Pro team, then and only then may it come back, but untill then R.I.P. Atlanta Phoenix Tournament 2004-2007 and welcome to the world of fun Atlanta Phoenix Tactical.
