By Cheryl Ellis, Photos by Zac Arbuckle, Aaron Dill and Cheryl Ellis
It has become an annual tradition for the scenario ballers who dare to converge on Hell each May. Hell, Michigan that is. This year was no exception. Living Legends was held May 16-18 at the notorious Hell Survivors Paintball and Campground, and just to make it an extra special event, it coincided with Hell’s 40th Anniversary.
The games began on Friday with a Magfed tournament and mechanical-class, pump-style center flag game. This was followed by the heated cornhole tournament.
This year, the owner’s of Skirmish USA, Paul and Cleo Fogal were inducted into the Paintball Hall of Fame. Skirmish USA was one of the original tournament fields in the heyday of woodsballs, and the Fogals have run the field continuously since its opening in the 1980s. The field is now the home to the largest scenario game in the world, Skirmish IoN, a reenactment of the Normandy Beach landings in World War 2. In addition, Cleo is on of the sport’s original photographers, having started documenting tournaments for first paintball the magazines, and she still works events today.
Both Paul and Cleo were on the field fighting, and gave the Red team the chance to fight along true living legends of our sport.
Saturday, after it was established that shooting the wild life was strictly forbidden, the main game began, and Red Commander Junior Wong faced off against Blue General Jacob Easter of the Toxic Teddy’s.
As game play began Saturday morning, the blue team immediately showed dominance and never let up. Rather than own the front of the field, they moved to occupy all of the bridges in the back field, the choke points that cut-off the Red team’s access to the back field. This move was executed to precision. The front of the field saw plenty of action as walking tanks moved front lines around the castle, and the endless battle in the grinder ensued. The back and forth push of the line ebbed like the tides as paint and air supplies dwindled. But the choke hold that the blue team maintained on the bridges decided the game.
Sunday, the teams switched sides, and the Red team made a valorous attempt to regain the ground lost to field dominance on Saturday. But, as fate would have it, the deficit proved too much to overcome, and the Blue team did, in fact emerge victorious.
In the midst of the chaos, there were games within the game, and stories within the story.
One side game included a Sniper Challenge hosted by Jon Metcalf and Matthew Biga of Sidewinder Paintball. We never did get the rules on this one, and we aren’t sure who won, but the competition was fierce and the First Strike rounds seemed to be everywhere.
In addition, there was a story of hope from the blue team as well.
Rachel “Rae” Ford Cleveland has been attending Legends for six years now with her husband and family, traveling from Alabama to play the game and see their paintball friends. She says that it is more than just paintball for her. It is about family, and it is legitimate therapy.
“We played our first event at Joliette, and when we came home and shared it with my nephews, they wanted to join in, too,” she said.
The following year they came back under the banner of Marvel City Mofos, and it has grown each year to the point that their family in North Carolina is now coming as well.
“It helps with my depression. It helps with my anxiety. And it helps keep me young,” she said. “I realized on day two, and I looked at my husband and said, ‘I haven’t taken my anxiety meds in two days, and I’m doing just fine.’”
What makes Legends special over other paintball events is the familiarity, camaraderie and the impetuousness of the community as a whole.
“There is freedom in it. You’re free to be whoever you want to be when you are there. It’s like DJ said to me once: ‘You’re in a mask. No one knows who are anyway.’”
“The Blue commander was so sweet and encouraging people all day,” she said. “At one point we were in a firefight and I heard him say, ‘I’m not leaving y’all. Y’all don’t leave me.”
Her proudest moment of the weekend came at the final battle.
“Me being so little, I can hide behind stuff that most people can’t. I got behind my tree – I call it my tree because it was the perfect size for me – and I heard one of the field commanders yell, “Runner are you ready? I’m going to count to three.’ So I gave him a little thumbs up,” Rae said. “He counted down, and when he got to three, I just went. Three or four other shooters just started shooting and giving me cover until I got that little blue block into the bin and I made it back. I did that three more times until I was spent.”
“The commanders this year were amazing. Not to disrespect anyone I have played for in the past, but this year they were exceptional. They were constantly telling people where they needed to be, and they really made me feel like I could accomplish anything.”
Towards the end of the day on Saturday, Rae’s strength began to fade and she injured her foot. So she took the long road back from the far side of the Bridge to Nowhere, around the back of the field, and through the town to the blue insert. On that walk, she shared that she has several health issues including lupus, a benign brain tumor, and recently received a breast cancer diagnosis. In addition to that, her mother is in kidney failure, and was tested for a rare genetic disease that causes chronic stones and tube failure. Cleveland tested positive for the same gene mutation, and she knows that dialysis is an inevitably for her.
She lamented that dialysis will likely mean the end of her paintball career.
As she walked through the net the first person she ran into was the notorious and legendary Daniel “Barney” Alamo. Barney has been dealing with renal failure for the last few years, and started dialysis this past April.
“Yes, it’ll be on going until I get a new kidney. I am currently working at eleven to twelve percent. I go three times a week for 4 hours,” he said.
This unfortunate commonality between the two provided an opportunity for Barney to encourage Rae in a personal way.
“[I told her], there’s other parts of the game you can still play. Even shooting with first strike rounds,” Barney said. “You give me a radio and I’ll get you some kills, and or complete a mission. That’s the way you have to look at it. Besides, all my friends are in paintball.”
For Rae, that was more inspiration than she could bear. Through tears, she thanked Barney and told him that he had given her hope. Before meeting him, she was convinced that she had to do all of her living now, because once dialysis starts, that was it. Life would be over.
“He gave me a different outlook on everything,” Rae said. “He gave me hope. [Barney] is living proof that there is life to be lived.”
And there is always a place for us in paintball.
