Tippmann Three Man Challenge - Skirmish USA

The Tippinators made their first journey into international waters, competing in the Tippmann Three Man Challenge held at Skirmish USA, Jim Thorpe PA on August 20. The Tippinators entered two teams for the tournament and one was able to come away with a third place finish. The 32 hour round trip drive was worth every second for the great fun and fantastic learning experience.

The Tippmann Three Man Challenge attracted a wide variety of players with a common attitude of fun and sportsmanship shown by all. Twelve teams with players of various abilities entered the tournament. Teams with very little tournament experience, teams who normally play woodsball, teams who normally play tournament airball with electros, and a handful veterans who have been playing tournament speedball for over 15 years.

Both Tippinators squads faired well with the Grey Squad of Austin 'Juno' Flaherty, Richard 'Krush' Robinson and Josh 'Fireball' Boiduk finishing 9th in only their second tournament. The Green Squad of Scott 'Hired Gun' Knowles, Jim 'Jimbo' Langlois and Bruce 'Charon' Johnston ended the day on the podium in third behind two Thor Omega teams. Thor Omega are feeder teams for the Tippmann Effect whose players are highly skilled and a great bunch of guys to sit and talk with. Watching the Omega players work the field was impressive to say the least.

Dawn Allcot, Editor of Paintball Sports Magazine and her husband freelance, photographer, TJ drove from New York to Pennsylvania to meet up with the Tippinators. Charon told Dawn the week before the tournament to bring her mask and marker. When they arrived Dawn was presented with a Tippinators team jersey and told that she was going to play with the team. TJ was taking lots of photos including great shots of Dawn hanging the flag for the win in one game.

Tippmann Three Man Challenge was the reason the team went to Skirmish, but the standout event of the weekend was getting to play on the Skirmish Tippmann Castle field. The sheer size of the building is daunting, let alone the number of players defending who had no remorse about dumping paint at the attacking forces. The team didn't need to be told twice that they could insert into the game. As soon as they got through the netting the barrel covers came off and the paint started to fly.