On Saturday the 18th, I drove a very long way to a little California town called Plymouth to play paintball at Infinite Edge Paintball Park with my team, the Wicked Few.

The Wicked Few Gargoyle

It’s been hard lately getting the whole team together in one place due to scheduling conflicts, which makes every team outing a special event these days. I miss those guys. I wish we had more opportunities to play together.

To tell you the truth, I don’t consider myself a very good paintball player given the amount of time that I’ve invested in the sport. I play two to three times a month; and at best, you could probably rank me a mediocre player who occasionally hits a lucky streak. Even so, every time I play with my teammates, I shoot a little straighter, I snap a little faster, and I just feel like a different player. My team is made up of a good group of guys. I’m glad they’re on my side.

For as long as I have been a part of the team, we have never found the time to take a group picture with all members present. Saturday, unfortunately, was no exception. A few of us couldn’t make it out there to Infinite Edge that day. Still, we made the best of things and posed for this group shot below.

Although I think the picture came out well enough, it kills me to see all of that negative space where our missing teammates should be standing. So, through the magic of Photoshop, I seamlessly integrated our missing team members into the photo. You can barely tell the image has been doctored.





Okay, fine. I admit it. I’m not the best at Photoshop. Could you please just do me a favor and ignore the fact that Josh is ghostly pale compared to everybody else, and that Chris and Jenn seem to be lit by a completely different light source, and that Robert’s cell phone hand is freakishly huge?

Actually, you know what? It feels like there’s something missing. I’m going to give this one more try.

There we go. Perfect.

Here we are, folks. This is my team. Paintball is good, messy fun, and it only gets better when you play it with friends. It is an honor and a privilege to say that I play alongside these guys as a member of the team. Here’s to paintball, here’s to friendship, and here’s to us, the Wicked Few. Fear the gargoyle. Fear the sombrero.