To Win ION you need Brute Force !!!

Every year, the Invasion of Normandy event is held at Skirmish Paintball in Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania. ION is a legendary event, and since its beginning in 2001 has become an icon for scenario paintball. With thousands of attendees and hours of play, ION is not an event to be missed. And missed it was not for Team Brute Force and it's PnL brothers; Steeel Reserve and Connecticut Commandos.

After traveling for several hours through the peaks of Pennsylvania, Brute Force arrived at the summit of the Poconos late Thursday afternoon. Thankfully, we had a few days to acclimate to Skirmish's high altitude before the big game on Saturday. To our surprise, Valken had been kind enough to leave us a fenced-in camping site behind their booth on the vendor strip. The courtyard was the home of the PnL teams for the event, and also a safe-haven from the heavy guns on the battlefield just a short distance away.

Friday turned out to be a "lazy day", which is an exceptionally rare occurrence in paintball. Activities included socializing with other teams, walking the field, and scoping out vendors. There were many great vendors on-site at the event, including our sponsors Planet Eclipse Valken and PnL Paintball. Thankfully, they were carrying everything we had forgotten at home, making pre-game preparation very easy. When we saw the boats on Gold Beach, we knew there was a tough battle lying in store for us Saturday morning. Typically, Allies never broke through the tree-line that separated the German-infested forest from the merciless beach, but that was a stigma we were devoted to breaking.


The time was 11:45am on Saturday morning, and the boat was Omaha. A mere 15 minutes before the doors dropped, tensions were running high. Despite encroaching fears, the boats were loud and patriotic with chants of "USA!" and other battlecries. By the time the 10-second countdown began, the front of the U.S.S. Omaha was packed with PnL teams. Once the timer expired and the door was forced down (yes, forced down), Allies across the beach were scrambling for bunkers.

Within a half-hour, Allies on the far-right side of the field had forced their front lines into the woods. With the enemy fighting a two-front war, the German regime was pushed back to their insert point by the 1 hour mark. It was a much appreciated victory, but alas was cut short when the Germans strengthened their core and eventually forced the Allies home. Saturday was a back-and-forth battle, but when the dust settled at 10pm, the Allies were ahead by about 30 points. With Valken hosting a free BBQ for the entire Valken Corps Saturday night, the lead was well enjoyed by everybody with a Corps badge and sponsored teams. However, since Sunday had 44 points up for grab, both sides needed to be at full force for the final four hours of play in the day that followed.


The first three and a half hours of Sunday's play consisted of scattered missions and frightening encounters with the devious French (serving as the game's 3rd entity) throughout the forest. Though the missions were intense and created paranoia among the players the last half-hour was a lot more battle-heavy. The final mission was to carry your nation's respective flag across Gold Beach, which was far from a simple task. At 12:45pm, 15 minutes before the game ended, Allies were taking heavy fire from the Germans very close to home. The mission looked hopeless, until encouraging words from Ally commanders Nyxx, Ninja and Madkow gave Allies the motivation needed to push the Germans all the way back to home during the final minutes of the game. In an unbelievable comeback, the Allies took home victory.


Once the game ended, hostilities between the two sides ended. Everybody still hated the French, but the German and Allied players were friendly. Many interesting prizes were thrown during the raffle and awards ceremony, including delicious lunch meats and cardboard boxes. When it was time for the Allied generals and XO's to give out their awards, we were all tired, aching, and wanting to go home. Then, they announced that the PnL Teams including; us, Steeel Reserve and Connecticut Commandos had won the award for "Most Valuable Team", and an unimaginable sense of accomplishment swept over us. The frame of time in which Justin and Bane of Steeel Reserve were handed the MVT plaque will not soon be forgotten.

Without the help from our friends and sponsors we would have never been able to accomplish or do what we do. Major thanks goes out to P&L Paintball for there unrivaled support, Valken for treating us like rockstars and feeding us like kings, Planet Eclipse for providing the best markers and performance gear in the world, keeping us on the field and NEVER having to fix our guns. Finally a major thanks to our brothers in arms Steeel Reserve and Connecticut Commandos for without you we would never be able to share the MVT title!

For more information about Team Brute Force, our sponsors, and our friends please check out our website via www.teambruteforce.net