NEW ULM, Minn. (AP) - Tommygun’s Paint Wars was born out of a business plan Tommy Strenge put together as a college student in 2001.
He’d grown up playing paintball with family and friends, back when paintball guns were pump action, the Mankato Free Press reported .
Sixteen years later, the operation on a patch of rural land near New Ulm has become a popular spot for hobbyists, weekend warriors, birthdays, bachelor parties and company retreats. Tournaments haven’t been as common in recent years, until last week. Strenge and his regulars put together what he described as a “laid back” two-on-two tourney for area paintballers.
Winners get bragging rights, along with a free steak from the grill. For everyone else? Hot dogs, and likely a few welts to bring home with them.
Strenge and his team can reconfigure the battle field each weekend, using obstacles with names like doritos - the triangle-shaped ones - Aztec and Mayan temples and snakes.
The teams start on each side of the enclosed field before dashing to more advantageous positions. All the while, they’re trying to dodge an onslaught of paintballs following their every move.
Strenge watches over it all as referee. He’s seen and participated in plenty of matches through the years, and said strategic movement is one of the most important parts of paintball.
“Move with a purpose,” he said. “Don’t just wander through the field.”
To wander is a recipe for getting eliminated. Two-on-two rounds go by fast, done within a few minutes or even within seconds.
Jordan Houg, of New Ulm, has been coming to Tommygun’s since its early days. He said a good paintballer uses speed and agility to seek out the right lanes to fire on the opponent. Scouting the field before the match can help identify these spots.
“You try to get your lane, where you shoot a bunch of paintballs down in one area,” he said. “You want to try get a guy out on the break to better your odds.”
As Strenge’s sister, Liz Altmann put it, “there’s a lot more strategy than people realize.”
Strategy can only get you so far, though. Once the paintballs start flying, instinct kicks in, said Travis Heidebrink of Mankato, another long-timer at Tommygun’s.
“If you hesitate and you know you should probably make a move and you don’t, then it’s too late,” he said.
So you have to establish a strategy, executive it without hesitation and of course, shoot straight. Falling short on any of the three can spell doom, which in paintball only amounts to a bruise that’ll fade soon enough.
Adrenaline helps stamp out the pain. And it’s adrenaline, Strenge said, that keeps people coming back.
“It’s a rush,” he said. “It gets your blood going.”
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Information from: The Free Press, https://www.mankatofreepress.com
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