A history lesson about the D (divisional) List- part 1

"It came from the woods" (as Baca Loco's description) and no, I'm not talking about the latest horror movie.

Few players know how we got where we are in tournament paintball. Now is the closest paintball has been to a mainstream sport. (Well, if the economy improves soon). Paintball, as it is known now, is much different from the "Survival Game" as it was named back in the early days. You can call "The Survival Game" the first chapter, where our story begins. Back then the game was brand new and this name was the first effort on branding the future sport.

Now looking back, that name might have turned you off if you were a new player. It also shows why the sport took the huge jump in the number of players we saw during the 90's and 2000's. The Survival Game was just as it sounds, pretty much war with paint guns. Paint was $100 or more a case and a case would almost last you a year. Back then there were no divisions, and no competition. In the 80's you would have called paintball a hobby, because it was played on the weekends, and only for pure fun.

Then in the 90's, along came the sport's time of change...the very beginning of the progress out of the woods. This is the point where the "Legendary" paintball players of today got their start, Bob Long, ChrisLaSoya, Dave Youngblood. The legendary teams, Aftershock, Avalanche, Ironmen , All-Americans, Doom Troopers (actually 1986). At this time in the evolution we moved from hobby to more and more of a sport. You had your tournament 10 man. Your first "Professional" players were here, competing on the weekends and working on home-made paint gun modifications during the week, after long days of work. DYE (DaveYoungblood Enterprises) started in a garage making aftermarket barrels. The Autococker and Automag came into existence evolved from pumps. Pump guns became semi-automatic paintball markers. Tippmann made the first semi-auto marker. The Shocker Sport, the Angel series of markers also came into the scene. Sypder and Tippmanns were high-end markers. We began using goggles, (no not the full face masks of today, but skiing-type goggles) rather than shooting glasses, or no protection. Paintball was still in the woods however. And still in the woods we had our first shot at the "Big Time", the Holy Grail of paintball, the best way to market anything to Americans, television