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Spec Ops Creates an Epic Experience in Utah!  Paintball celebrities, industry giants and the media joined sixty Special Ops Brigade members in Salt Lake City, Utah for the experience of a lifetime June 22-24, 2007. Conceived to be the ultimate weekend of scenario and tactical paintball and advertised as such, Spec Ops delivered on their promise and created a truly unique and amazing event for their loyal players. Spec Ops inaugurated their first Elite Weekend as attending Brigade members converged on the new company headquarters in North Salt Lake City, met by industry giants, paintball celebrities and the media. Dennis Tippmann, Junior and Erich Garbers of Tippmann Sports were there waiting for the lucky sixty, as was Eric Engler, creator of the most unique and amazing firearm-replica paintball guns in the game, including AK-47s, Thompsons, Browning machine guns and more. Dewayne Convirs, creator and promoter of the legendary Oklahoma D-Day scenario, the largest game of paintball ever produced, was in attendance, as was longtime professional player and star of the Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball line of paintball video games, Greg Hastings, along with wife Renee.  Procaps Direct President and founder of Pev's Paintball, Mike "Pev" Peverill came, along with Procaps Senior Vice President and longtime industry innovator Craig Miller. Duane "Kahuna" Bell of Atomic Ordinance grenades and LinePair night vision systems attended with plenty of his products, as did Matty Poole of Hoffman Paintball Apparel, makers of the coolest shorts and most visible ref jerseys in the game. Creator of the most technologically advanced paintball pistol ever made, Tyler Tiberius, attended, as did Naomi Tirado and Dave Weir of Site Manufacturing, makers of the Stiffi line of carbon fiber barrels for teams like Joy Division and the Psycho Clown Posse, who were represented at the event by several team members. Jayson Orvis, founder of Spec Ops and the mind behind the Elite Weekend, welcomed the lucky attendees to the Elite Weekend, introduced the many celebrities attending, then began to bury the players in free gear provided by his company and the many sponsors of the game. Each player attending the game was handed a brand new Tippmann X7 paintgun, all the Special Ops modifications and upgrades they could carry, a custom-made and fitted loadbearing vest, a set of Spec Ops camo pants and jersey in a custom camo pattern never to be produced again, a pair of new camo VForce goggles, all the DraXxuS paint and high pressure air they could shoot for the weekend's festivities and plenty of free food and drinks to keep them going.  After gathering up their pile of presents, attendees were treated to a tour of the impressive Spec Ops facility, including a look at the most complete collection of paintball guns ever assembled, from the earliest Splatmasters, Uzis, Nelspots and Bushmasters to early semiautos and electros. Literally hundreds of collectable paintball guns make up the Spec Ops collection, a literal roadmap of paintball's history, providing a chance for the players at the Elite Weekend to learn where their sport has come from. Players and the industry members ate a catered lunch at the facility, then headed up into the mountains to the private Spec Ops paintball field, where a skid of DraXxuS paintballs, push-button air and a covered staging area awaited them. After splitting into groups, players moved into the woods for instructional seminars on all aspects of scenario and tactical paintball. Though the weather was hot, the air was dry, Spec Ops provided plenty of water, and no-one complained. As afternoon turned into evening, the Brigade members split into two thirty-player teams and faced off in an SPPL scenario challenge-style game on a field featuring everything from thick, wooded terrain to bunkers, fortifications and an almost un-climbable ridgeline.  Once the sun began to set across the Great Salt Lake, the players lined up for a catered dinner at the field while Greg Hastings and wife Renee broke out the big screens and Playstations for GHTP Max'd video game battles. Kahuna walked the players through a night vision combat course and after dark, players skirmished into the night using his night vision equipment. Saturday's festivities began on a slightly pushed-back schedule that allowed the exhausted but excited players a little extra sleep. Divided into ten-player groups, the Brigade members rotated through various clinics in the hills above Salt Lake City, including a Downed Pilot Mission course teaching land-navigation and map reading, a Tiberius pistol course, obstacle course with zip line, a sniper mission and an attack and defend course, all taught by Elite players and instructors well-versed in the art of successful scenario paintball. A helicopter constantly buzzed the course, carrying the media, industry members and lucky players on a tour over the field and providing views of the Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City and the Special Ops playing course. As if all this wasn't enough, players were also shuttled up to the very top of the mountain on ATV's and troop carriers to shoot several fully-automatic machine guns, sniper rifles, assault rifles and sub-machine guns under the watchful eyes of Dewayne Convirs, Eric Engler and prior US Army Special Forces service member Lane Oberg. Weapons on the firing line included the legendary Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, SAW, AK-47, H&K MP5 and UMP, Israel Military Industries Uzi, Auto Ordinance Thompson, Colt AR-15 and the M60. Even industry members like Pev, Dennis Tippmann Junior, Erich Garbers, Craig Miller, Josh Silverman and Renee Hastings got in on the shooting action. Once the day was over, players ate pizza and partied at Jayson Orvis' house, only a few minutes away.  After a few hours sleep, players piled into busses and vans for the hour-long trek into the snow-capped Utah mountains to Spec Ops' Monte Cristo field facility, a high-desert field featuring rolling mountain terrain, scrub brush, thick woods and numerous fortifications. Joined by local players and SPPL team members (as well as the celebrities and media), the attendees played a "red vs blue" big game with Duane "Kahuna" Bell and Dennis Tippmann, Junior acting as generals. Spec Ops tanks roved the fields and the helicopter returned, not as a vehicle for the media, but rather as a gunship, as lucky Brigade members were given the opportunity to act as door gunners, firing down into the players thanks to a safe but intense door gun setup supervised by Douglas "Montydoom" Montgomery.  Though the red team thoroughly put the hammer down on the blue team in a game that saw artillery strikes, port-a-john ambushes and numerous captures of opposing bases, it was all the attendees at the Elite Weekend who were the real winners. Displays of sportsmanship and honor were the rule, rather than the exception, and smiling faces were everywhere, even after hours and hours of intense play on challenging terrain in hot weather. Prizes were awarded to top performers on Saturday's various challenge courses, including Tiberius pistols, Stiffi sniper barrels for the sharpshooters and much, much more. Jayson Orvis and the staff of Spec Ops, including Chris Serfustini, Rob "Tyger" Rubin, Dawn Allcott, Lane Oberg, Jared Orvis and the rest received a standing ovation from the players for their tireless hard work in producing one of the most amazing and unique weekends of paintball ever conceived, and the weekend was over. Both industry members and players alike pronounced the first-ever Spec Ops Elite Weekend a great success. Dewayne Convirs even went so far as to call it a "turning point" for the sport, and the players, whose opinions were the most important, said things like "they called it the weekend of a lifetime, and that's a tough promise, but they delivered it and more." With those kind of rave reviews and support from industry companies including DraXxuS DXS Paintballs, VForce Vision Systems, Tippmann Sports, Tiberius Arms, Stiffi Barrels, Atomic Ordinance, Line Pair, Hoffman Paintball Apparel, Engler Custom Paintball Guns and Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball, expect information on 2008's Elite Weekend to come out of Special Ops soon, but probably after they recover from giving their customers a weekend of a lifetime. 2007 Elite Weekend Photo Gallery www.specialopspaintball.com |
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