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"Jägermeister, the blues have Jägermeister" someone yells behind me. I turn around and recognize Evil Jared, the bass player of the Bloodhound Gang, who is currently telling two Red Troopers to storm forward with him. All three jump up and run wildly shooting towards the full trenches. – Of course they go down in the hail of bullets, but in the end they come back with a smile, because they can still tell their grandchildren about this action.
It's the 3rd day of the Big Game Numero 23 scenario and I've seen so much on those hot days in late August.
But let's jump back to the beginning. I arrived on Thursday afternoon with my blue press vest, 3 cameras and lots of SD cards. It is not my first visit here in Poland on Gotcha Spielfeld Nord and therefore I know that nowhere is there better food and cheaper beer when it comes to paintball. I definitely don't have to worry about the supply.
The campground is well filled, each of the 1000 visitors has found a place, either in their own tent, in the mobile home they have brought with them, or in one of the many rooms in the main building.
When I registered, I suddenly faced two very attractive nurses who handed me my press card and two patches. On the one hand it says "Infected" and now it also occurs to me why the ladies dressed up like this. Not only is paintball played and celebrated here, but the S in the SBG stands for Scenario. Every mission in the coming days is part of a big story, it is about the production of a vaccine to fight a dangerous virus that threatens humanity. Only the vaccine and the successful completion of the game missions can save us all from the safe ending. – You can see that this story is not only on paper, but actually lived, at every corner of the event site. Here we really worked with attention to detail and created a captivating backdrop.
I spend the rest of the first day sightseeing in the tradeshow and have lots of good conversations with other players and visitors. A little note on my part, the tradeshow could use a little more variety. Here I would like a few more dealers from the scene to be represented.
On Friday morning I went to the MagFed Event for the first time, which was supposed to take place in a specially separated area, a little out of the way from the main field. The troops were moved by air-conditioned bus or on the loading area of a platform truck and led past the 40ha BigGame field.
When I arrived at the destination, I quickly realized that there was also a food counter and a real bar with cool drinks, a small event in the big paintball festival. The 250 players who got hold of one of the MagFed tickets were divided into a green and a yellow unit and brought to their starting points on the really nice field. For the morning it was time to arm the camera and capture house warfare, hill and bunker conquests with 100 FPS (frames per second) and beware of the numerous snipers. It was really fun and I was well involved in the process from both sides.
Around 2 p.m. I sat on the platform truck and drove back to reality. After a delicious Asian meal, I started editing the MagFed video and was looking forward to the evening. The 6-piece cover band "Right Now" from Berlin was supposed to perform on a stage that I expected at a real music festival. And after a short warm-up phase, they were able to sweep away the somewhat unusual audience and set the mood well into the night.
On Saturday morning I strengthened myself at the really rich breakfast buffet for the day and went to the big game field. Here around 700 players should fight for the rare and precious ingredients for the antidote. Supported by real in-game tanks and numerous other vehicles, every meter was fought on the premises. And suddenly I hear Evil Jared fire up his comrades next to me. I knew he was booked as a DJ for the festival in the evening, but seeing him here next to me was a nice surprise. I accompany him a little and quickly realized that he likes to go to the areas that hurt a little. He storms to the front cover again and again and shoots around with his Luxe in Rambo style. If you turn around, he is already 3 covers further or stands on one of the tanks and drives in the middle of the enemy lines. He's really having fun here on the SBG.
He later tells me that this was not his first time playing paintball, but he has never seen an event like this, even in the USA there are not many BigGames like this. In general, everyone I meet is enthusiastic about this event, even the old SBG veterans tell me that Bertl, the boss of the whole, has something new at the start of every event and still puts a shovel on top. How he does it remains a mystery to me, the admission prices have been almost the same for 10 years, this 4-day event costs just as much entry as a box of paintballs in other fields. In addition to the Big Game and the MagFed Event there is another event on the 4 days. -I only say zombie night, pistol duels, MagFed courses, a bubble ball tournament, a first strike shooting contest where targets are shot over 100 meters away and lots of good music. No matter if live bands, Evil Jared as a DJ or a fat electro bunker party underground. Here everyone gets their money's worth and that for a really narrow coin.
When I go home on Sunday, the field is playing again. The main event ended with a big award ceremony on Saturday evening. Team Tactics TT for short, which was represented on the field in the color blue, is the winner. Nevertheless, everyone celebrated, sang and drank together. For me it is already clear that I will go to SBG # 24 next year on April 30, because there is currently nothing comparable in Europe. Basically, there are many beautiful BigGames in Europe, but this is really unique.
