Left to Right:
Steve Rabackoff Mike Paxon Rich Telford
Event accounts written by: bryan.inception
Inaugural Iron City Classic 10-man Tournament
The idea of an event that was able to pit mechanical teams and electronic teams against one another was an unprecedented event structure. On July 29-30th, 2017 Urban Assault Paintball in Pittsburgh, PA hosted the inaugural Iron City Classic 10-man tournament with only a small core of supporters. The former facility of the NPPL from the mid 1990’s to the early 2000’s, Urban Assault allowed teams to get the full "classic" experience by pitting teams against each other in the woods, on the Hyperball field and on the notorious mounds field.
Inception has long been an advocate for "inclusive" paintball. We manufacture and distribute products for many styles of paintball with a large focus on Autocockers and Pump Guns. Although we do have many products for mechanical paintball guns we feel that events that are mechanical only, magfed only or electronic only have the possibility to divide rather than unify the paintball community. The Iron City Classicis a unique trend setter by allowing both mechanical players and electronic players (limited to 5.5 bps) to compete on the same field.
The event organizer and visionary Tim Montressor of Tampa Bay Damage has brought back styles of play that were popular in the early 90's - 2000's. Styles like Hyperball, Woodsball and the infamous Mounds fields are what many players originally fell in love with and are what have kept them in the game. The variation of styles creates an amazing set of challenges that many of the team of today are not exposed to. Things like field craft, communication, and team work are essential to be successful. Modern airball Supair™ fields have set lanes and possibly predictable team game plans where woodsball and mounds are constantly changing and evolving throughout the game. This constant change is part of the excitement and draw for players, a player could play a woodsball field or mounds field many times and have a completely different experience each time.
The inaugural Iron City Classic 10-man tournament hosted 18 10-man teams. Those in attendance were treated to a who's - who classic old school style event. Pro players from the past had come together to re-live the old days with the friends / teammates they still remain close too. Players like Rocky Cagnoni, Danny Love , Rich Telford to name a few. It was like we had flashed back to the early years of paintball. The competition was tremendous and at a very high-level. The competitive nature of these professional athletes was intense when on the field, but once they were off the field they were best friends again telling stories, busting balls and having a blast.
Second Iron City Classic 10-man Tournament
The success of the Iron City Classic event was undeniable. The weeks and months after the ICC players were still talking about what a great experience it was and how much they couldn't wait for next year. A videoof Mike Paxon shooting one of our Inception Predator Autocockers has been watched over 41,000 times. Tim Montressor could pat himself on the back for a job well done, but he did not want this "movement " to be looked at as a novelty game. Tim continued to promote the Iron City Classic brand and began asking what worked, what could be improved and what needed to be done to ensure that this would not be a one off "fluke" event. Upon opening registration for the second year for the ICC many players jump in quickly remembering what a great experience it had been the previous year. The event continued to gain steam as rumors of current pro teams showing interest, teams like San Antonio X-Factor and AC Dallas. The idea of modern pro teams and historic pro teams completing on the same fields was exciting to say the least. The event grew closer and closer and participation numbers continue to increase until just before the event there were 34 teams registered to play in this epic record setting event. 34 teams "what?", how will they handle that many teams? Will the refs be adequate? Is that to many teams? As questions started to surface and chatter started to swarm it would all be silenced soon enough. The second annual Iron City Classic was again held at the famous Urban Assault Paintball field in Pittsburgh, PA on August 4-5, 2018. Thursday evening venders started rolling in for what would become an event hosting over 600 players. We rolled in and setup the Inception Support Trailer and began to see how extraordinary this event would become. "There is Ryan Moorehead , there is Colt Roberts, there is Chris Lasoya as the legend started to arrive even those who don't often get star struck were amazed at the amount of professional players that had come to play. The gates opened on day one and the event was underway. Tim had done it again the games were up running and even ahead of schedule at times. . . what? how was this possible. The event that everyone feared had a high possibility of becoming a "shit show" was running smoothly. Venders were selling, spectators were soaking in the sun and the camaraderie of all who attended. Classic teams like Ground Zero / Master Blasters with players like Greg "red" Hastings, shooting his Inception RETRO Hornet Autococker, Steve Cusanoand Will Arrayo and modern teams like San Antonio XFactor found their way through the hyberball, woodsball and mounds fields. The Inception Support Trailer was where I spent much of the event helping to keep the guns performing at their highest level. Players that have been out of paintball for a while and those who still play at the highest level would stop by to see the newest product we had to offer. Some came to purchase a new set of pneumatics to get their classic "go-to" up running again or they just stopped by to reminisce and watch a bit of PUSH as it played in the backrgound of the trailer. No matter weather their team was winning or loosing everyone had one thing in common the were having a great time. I was talking with a bunch of guys who had put together a team last minute just to play. I asked "how is your team doing"? One member replied "We are doing horrible but man this is so much fun!" That brought a smile to my face, to know that this style of paintball is fun win or lose . . . well done Tim. Throughout the weekend some teams advanced and many were eliminated but at no point did the positive energy of this event ever subside. Sunday the final day and we had reached the final game to determine the winner of the 2018 Iron City Classic it was down to San Antonio Xfactor and Bad Company who rosters Tom Cole the head of the (NXL) National XBall Leagueand UWL Ultimate Woodsball League who was showing he still has it. When the final flag was hung X-Factor had come out on top. X-Factor's presence on the field was something to see. We were able to capture some of the ICC action LIVE through our Facebook Page. CLICK HERE watch some of this amazing event. 
If you missed this event you need to make sure that this is on your list for 2019. Thank you to Tim Montressor for hosting this amazing event.