Sun, beaches,drinks and paintball - Adventures in Greece

We have been to Greece several years in a row now for Anthrax very own Med Cup, its a 2 day event with the best hosts,atmosphere and people gathered for the love of the sport ,to play and to have fun and party together.

This year Kosta and the Anthrax crew took it further than ever for the players. From Tuesday to Friday before the event they rented bungalows at the beach,boats and professional trainers for the players making Anthrax Tropical Booth-camp!

And all their hard work really showed, this was an amazing trip!

Tuesday we were brought to a place called Porto Elea, a small port with cabins and a great view of the sea.

We got the instructions for the camp and did some bathing before we ended the day with a great Greek meal and a Ozuo party. The Greek people usually eat around 22(!) but since we were a lot of people from different countries they met us half-way at 20 :) 

We were loads of different nationalities at the camp; Norwegian, Swedish,Danish,German,Iranian,American,English and Greek but that never matters. What culture you have or where you come from doesn't matter,its the love of paintball that brings us together and makes us family.

I'm very grateful for paintball, not only for the sport, the achievements and the great people and friends in general but also for the great way I get to learn about other cultures and traditions. I can think of no other sport where you get to experience this unique fellowship.

Wednesday started off with morning run at 0815, the coach Valentinos ( Vale De Sports) led the group up a hill and combined jogging with a nice view of the place.

After breakfast it was time for a combined beach- hopping and strength and agility exercises. It was hard work and arms and legs were shaking and feeling like hurting jelly there for a while, but still the amazing view and the bright beaches made it all worth while. The night was ended with a Mojito party. 

Thursday we were just told we were going out with a boat,and what met us was a sight for sore eyes. The Anthrax crew had rented a luxury yacht with a big sun deck with lots of room for training on it without falling into the sea.

We traveled to a well hidden place with see through green water, its hard to describe how awesome it was. The water felt good and the spirit was great. We did some kickboxing exercises, some yoga and lots of diving and swimming. 

In the evening we had a bonfire by the shore, sharing laughs and old war stories.

Friday we had the morning jog and some relaxing at the beach, with some more swimming of course, before we headed in to the city of Thessaloniki for some paintball. Friday was practice day and it felt good to knock off some rust and shoot some people again. The day ended with a party on the roof at the Anthrax factory headquarters.

This year for the tournament our Fight Back Design factory team (Anthrax Norway team) was made of players from 3 different teams. Not one of us had played serious high level paintball for quite a while and only a few of us had played together before. We figured that the fact that we are really good friends and work well off the field would be our edge on the field as well.

Saturday was the first tournament day starting off with a 3 man tournament first and then the nations cup! Since we were not enough Norwegians, Swedes or Danish people we entered as Scandinavia national team. Some people thought it was an own county so it was no big deal. In the team we had 2 Swedes( Andreas and Richard) 1 Danish (Freddie) and 3 Norwegian (Stian, Tor Anders and me).

It was from the start a slightly crippled team.Together with my knee injury we also had 3 more knees with meniscus injuries,but off we went! The sport of paintball makes people make less smart decisions :)

We played a round robin game and we won all our games besides the one against Netherlands (Bad Boys Oss), that ended 2-1 to them, ending us in 2nd place. We have to be satisfied with that, the Bad Boys guys are a really great team.

So 2nd place in Nations Cup and a big grin on our faces. Paintball is the best!

Sunday the crippled squad limped out of bed, cos we were going to play paintball! This time it was 5man xball race to 4.

We started off against Anthrax Lady Allstars, a mix team of girls from different countries. Its not often you have 6 girls on the field at the same time :) We won the game 4-1

Next up was Balkan Brothers, a team we have played against in Med Cup before, they are a wolf in sheep clothed kinda team. We have underestimated them before, they don't always look smooth and technical,but they really can play. This time we came up on top, win 4-0.

Last game in the prelims was against the German team Biohaze, we had seen them play and we were expecting a tough game and we got it. By this time, besides the injuries got worse, the Greek heat was starting to get to us. It was harder to concentrate and we did our best to drink and eat to not get dehydrated and totally lost. Both teams fought well, but we won 4-3

So there we were,undefeated in the prelims, knackered and hurting - we were through to finals! With our damaged squad we wondered one time if it was really possible to play another game, then the rush of paintball kicked in and we threw ourselves out there again.

Our final game was against Kingsize Berlin a well known German team with good experienced players. The game went back and forth for each point, it was hard gun -fights, long points. There were a lot of sacrifice from the whole team, at one point Tor Anders was hopping between bunkers cos he blew out his hamstring in the break.We were so tired and had no spare resources to find, the injuries got worse and we had to borrow a player so we didn't have to play with 4. The game ended 3:2 to Biohaze in overtime and I don't think we would have another point in us anyway. We ended 6^th with the same score at 5^th place. Even though we always want to be on top we have to be happy with this. Since we got beaten by Bad Boys in the Nations cup it was good to see they ended under us in the scoresheet this time :)

We gave it our everything and even some strength we didn't think we had. We left blood, sweat, skin and tears at the field, but we had the time of our life :)

Traveling home with a 2nd place and a lot of great experiences feels awesome :)

A big thanx to everyone for making this amazing camp and event happen :

Everyone in the Anthrax family,Valentios, Prive cruises and Aquavibe

A special thanx to Kosta and Nil for yet again opening their home to us. Thanx to all the teams and players, especially Bos and Georgio. Our Fight Back Design team: Andreas Østin, Richard Østin, Stian Hagen, Tor Anders Gunnerød and myself:) Freddie Brockdorf for joining us in the national team.
Thanx to Moments by K and Juha Lagerqvist/Qvisted Media for making us look good :)​

And a great thanx to Planet Eclipse ,Virtue and Anthrax for making the best equipment there is and supporting us in all our adventures. We couldn't have done this without you.


Love from Kristine Myhre Andersen