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THE GREEN MACHINE

INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AND TRAINING

PAINTBALL TEAM

CURRICULUM VITAE

The Green Machine has been the world's predominant traveling and demonstration paintball team since the game was invented. Officially formed in 1984, "The Machine" attended it's first "National" level tournament when it won admittance to the 1985 National Survival Game National Championships in Houston, Texas. At the time conquering a "Regional" event was a prerequisite to National Championship attendance, and "The Machine" had won both the Maryland State, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships. Since that time, "The Machine" has been a regular at National events, but has also endeavored to promote the sport, and it's own enjoyment of it, by staging "Traveling Paintball Shows" and events worldwide.

Among the members, past and present, are the "International Coordinator" for the IPPA, the Director of NAPRA, the Director of the IPPA's Tournament Division, the legal counsel for NPPL, the owner of one of the DC area's prominent playing fields, and owners of several other paintball related companies. Most members are either IPPA members, NAPRA certified, Lively Referee certified, CPR/First Aid/EMT certified, or some combination, and all have had tournament play and referee experience.

The following is a chronology of the Demonstration events produced by "The Machine". Tournaments attended are too numerous to list here but "The Machine" has participated as a team in dozens of events all over the USA and in (so far) seven foreign countries. Industry sponsors for our travel events have included R.P. Scherer, Bushlan Camo, Tiger Stripe Products, AirGun Designs, Bullseye Paintball, Worr Game Products, Scott Goggles, Adventure Sports, Vent Goggles, Smart Parts Products, Unique Sporting, Palmer's Pursuit Shop, and Lively Productions. Please feel free to call us with any ideas or suggestions, and particularly sponsor partnerships, as, despite managing to arrange some discounts here and there, we all pay our own way for the vast majority of this. Please also feel free to call any of the above listed sponsors for feedback on the value of their partnership with the Green Machine.

Demonstration and Travel Event Chronology

October, 1985 Montreal - Canada. "The Machine" organizes the first International event ever, by taking 3 American teams totaling 68 people to Ontario for a showdown with the "Commando Game" folks. Baltimore TV Channel 13 (NBC) sent anchor Al Sanders, and a news team along, and the event became a 3-part mini-series on the sport. "The Machine" emerged victorious.

April, 1986 Daytona Beach - Florida. After altogether too much bragging by the regional paintball supplier in Florida about their sponsored team, the "Black Sheep", "The Machine" sent a full page flyer down, stapled to an old glove, challenging them to a duel. The team captain of the "Sheep" was slapped in the face with the glove by the distributor at a team meeting and challenged to a "duel" complete with a monetary wager. Another first, "The Machine" flew a team of 20 to Florida to stage a one-on-one challenge. "The Machine" emerged victorious once again.

November, 1986 Sacred Falls - Hawaii. Another first. "The Machine" travels with one other stateside team to Hawaii and stages an event with the locals. One of the attendees even took the opportunity to get married out there. We were, again, victorious.

May, 1987 Leesburg - Virginia. "The Machine" organizes and conducts the "1991 Spring Invitational". Team members refereed, manned the concessions, worked the air-fills and paint sales, and put on a professional event for a dozen area teams.

September, 1987 Manassas - Virginia. "The Machine" sets up a booth at the "Outdoor Adventure Fair" between the fly-casting and trout pond booths. This "booth" is actually the size of a small barn, and target shooting, live one-on-one shootouts, and all day videos attract the biggest crowd on the grounds. Paintball in the DC area is suddenly being talked about on the local radio stations.

May, 1988 Johannesburg, Durban, Capetown - Republic of South Africa. A significant amount of wheeling and dealing went into procuring the sponsorship necessary to underwrite a trip to this continent. In a whole team visit to the South African Embassy, the ambassador expressed the hope that his country would soon come around in the eyes of the world and encouraged our trip to his country with our mixed-race team as a tacit political statement. In a two week dervish, the entire country was toured, and no less than 4 tournaments held. We were victorious in all four, and left our hosts with a two year head start on their local competitors, and all of our equipment.

June, 1989 Quantico - Virginia. "The Machine" and several other teams put on a massive demonstration event on the Marine base. As the Colonels looked on (occasionally throwing in a smoke grenade for effect), Marines fought paintballers, paintballers fought paintballers, and in the end, everyone fought everyone in a last blast chaotic rumble. The Colonels loved it and a few even joined in.

Spring, 1990 The entire team signs up with the "International Paintball Player's Association" as a show of support for the volunteer efforts of that organization.

Summer, 1991 Most of the team goes through "North American Paintball Referee Association" training, and in so doing also get First Aid and CPR certified.

November, 1991 Newcastle - Australia. Halfway around the world we go again, to attend the first ever International tournament to be held in that country, fully orchestrated by "The Machine". Largely illegal Australian paintball gets a shot in the arm, as local politicians begin to cave in to what now is clearly international support for paintball's cause. "The Machine" comes in second against Australia's best, and promises are made (and subsequently kept) by the Australians to travel to the US the following year.

September, 1992 Bolling AFB - Washington DC. Another first, "The Machine" conducts an all day demonstration of paintball at the joint military's "Country Fair" on the grounds of the base inside the city limits of our nation's capital. Live demonstrations, audience participation, free magazines, and all-day videos kept the amazed fair-goers enthralled.

May, 1993 Paris - France. After having hosted the president of the "Association du Jeu de Paintball" of Paris the previous September to participate with us in the National Amateur Open in Pittsburgh, the Machine travels to Paris to co-produce a benefit event for a local children's hospital. Visits are conducted with the Cultural Attaché's of both the French embassy in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Paris to introduce the respective governments to the nature of our sport and our trip. The Machine split into two 5-man squads and took first and third in a hard fought tournament against France's well-armed best (the only pump gun in the event was on the Machine's "A" squad). After the smoke cleared, about $7500 was donated to the local Children's hospital, and paintball got yet another positive representation, courtesy of the Green Machine.

May, 1994 Moscow - Russia. This was one for the record books. Another first, the Green Machine traveled to Moscow for Russia's first ever International Tournament, co-orchestrated and organized by the Machine. A tremendous amount of organizational effort went into this one, with visas, security checks, letters of passage from the Embassy explaining our "unusual" sporting equipment, a nightmare getting a skid of paintballs shipped in, "special fees" levied by Russian officials at critical junctures, and on and on. As usual, the Machine had arranged contacts with the embassy, and the Russian Military and Cultural Attachés even made an appearance at a Machine practice in Virginia, learning first hand what a paintball welt felt like. Not only was APG reporting the event in a feature article, but the story also made it's way into a NBC special once the local Moscow correspondent found out about it. NBC's Amy Roth was so enthralled that she donned some cammies and played in a warm up game herself, capturing the flag in her first-ever paintball experience! Green Machine squads took first and second against the predominantly military background Russians. All of the sponsored prizes were, of course, awarded to the top placing Russian teams, who made off with Automags, paint, goggles, and other loot. Russia's paintball industry was immediately on the map after this adventure.

August, 1994 Pittsburgh, Pa. The Machine, while participating in the yearly "Amateur Open" helps put together a show on Paintball for the new Discovery Channel series "Amazing America", hosted by Kevin Nealon of Saturday Night Live fame. Machine members are extensively interviewed, and the team featured throughout, as Paintball makes it into prime time.

May, 1997 Sao Paulo, Brazil. These folks were no "fledgling operation", and, while we helped with the promotion of the event and donated virtually all of the prizes, we had our asses handed to us in the tournament. Nonetheless the Green Machine adventure to Rio and Sao Paulo generated a lot of interest with the local teams in getting more involved in the International circuit and participating in other International events. In the season and year that followed the "Fighters" from Rio became a force to be reckoned with back stateside as they cut their teeth in and on the U.S. circuits.

November, 1999 Caracas, Venezuela. Altogether too cool, this two-day tournament was immediately followed by a 5-day jungle trip to Angel Falls. Due to a string of last-minute cancellations, only three of us landed to play in the 5-man tournament and we had to scramble a couple of walk-ons onto the squad. Needless to say, we didn't take home the trophy, but managed to bat 500 despite the disadvantage. The jungle trip was awesome and details are right here.