Boss Paintball (www.BossProShops.com) and E.P.I.C Unit (www.epicunit.com) produced Operation: Shining Shield on Saturday, January 26th, 2008. I had been playing at Boss for a few weeks preceding the scenario and had been listening to the field sponsored team, E.P.I.C Unit, talk up the event. It was essentially American Forces against Korean forces. Two weeks prior to the event, they were still pushing it and it sounded like only 40 people had signed up at that time and they were offering free t-shirts to the first 100 people to sign up. When asked, they said that they expected between 100-110. You could almost hear the underlying tone in their voices that finished the answer with “we hope”. The week before the event it was rainy and cold and pretty much no one played that week and I had totally  let the event slip my mind. I had fully intended to pre-register (hey, who doesn’t love a free t-shirt?!). Of course, I forgot until the morning of the event and showed up a little before the recommended 8am for a 9am start.

Instead of 110 players, over 250 showed up to start World War III…

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