Since no paintball media decided this was newsworthy last year, I’ll just publish it myself. Take that media!
Godspeed?
Dale Card
I met with Mike “Electric Wop” Bianca on a balmy sweltering evening in July at his Starkville, Mississippi home to find out the answer to the recurring question around the NPPL Pro Division: Just who is Godspeed and why are they playing their first year as pros? Mike is the Field Captain of the team.
Q: Originally we were going to try and catch up with you at the beginning of the season and we couldn’t make it happen. The original focus of our interview was going to be what it’s like for a new team to enter the league, now the focus looks like it’s going to be what it’s like to try and stay in the league. Can you give us your thoughts on where you’re at, how you got there and how you’re going to get where you want to go.
A: (chuckles) Well, I guess the best way to do that is literally .. To start at the beginning. A lot of people don’t take Godspeed seriously..and they..they have some valid reasons why they don’t. But I think in order to explain where we are and how we’ve been doing you have to go back to the beginning. Godspeed originally started as a rookie team, The Corporation. To this date myself and Mikey McGowan are the only original team members left from that situation. What happened was we.. we got to the finals at Mardi Gras 2003 and played really well, matter of fact we beat the team who ended up winning it, the Texas Archangels.. but we messed up the next two games, so we ended up third place. It was great, great times, great fun. But, after that, Sam Mclean the current Captain of the team, I guess I’m classified as the Field Captain. He’s the Captain of the team and one of the main sponsors, his company, Ultraliner. What ended up happening prior to that was we got offered a sponsorship deal to literally have paint, entry fee, everything, you name it paid for by a local field. I’m not going to name that field because I do not want to give any props to them at this point because of what had happened and that explains why Godspeed is Pro. This particular field sponsor said he would pay for everything, however because he heard that the NPPL and the PSP would be televised, and he knew that only the Pro teams would probably get televised, he didn’t want a rookie team, he didn’t want a novice team, he wanted a Pro team. (laughs) WELL,,of course you know, ever since..well.. Push..most paintball players today maybe, I don’t know maybe I’m just talking out of my bohookus here, after seeing Push everyone that I knew wanted to be a Pro player. So here was a great opportunity to see how we stacked up against the Pros, you know. So we didn’t expect to be taken seriously and we .. aren’t. After HB, I think we placed 17th out of 25. Our sponsor decided to drop us, because he didn’t think he was getting enough bang for his buck. At that point Godspeed was faced with a dilemma, do we drop down to where we really should be or do we stay Pro. Well, the more we thought about it we were learning a tremendous amount. We knew we would be made fun of, we knew we would be laughed at, but we were learning a tremendous amount so we decided to tough it out. We said, “You know what, we are going to learn some vital information and some playing skills” and we decided to stay Pro.
Q: How much of the bill was your original sponsor footing?
A:….everything.. So when it dropped we did loose some players. Some players said we can’t afford this, we can’t do it. So we rebuilt the team.
Q: So they (the sponsor) dropped you right after the tournament?
A: Right after HB. A month to find some new team members and a month to come up with the money.
Q: That’s remarkable.
A: (laughing) Yes. But it showed a lot of heart and a lot of belief. We didn’t do terribly bad at HB. We had a lot of things go wrong. We got fired up and ready for Tampa. We got the money together and we went down there and probably played the worst paintball of our careers, every one of us. But, when most teams would say you know what, this is stupid, this is idiotic. What are we doing. We didn’t listen to it. We had a lot of people telling us “you’re idiots, you need to play your division”. We didn’t listen to it because we’re not quitters. And we were gonna stay at it, we felt we were learning a lot and we still do feel that way. We just finished Denver and we didn’t play to our potential and we had a lot of things to go against us. But we learned some more new stuff AND we have a steady roster. I think that was part of our problem. We were interchanging players at practices and etc. and we weren’t gelling.
Q: The roster for Huntington Beach had played together for how long?
A: A month and a half.
Q: A month and a half? And you still went pro? Why?
A: We wanted the experience, we saw it as an opportunity to learn. We wanted to see what it takes. And let me tell you (chuckles) it takes a tremendous amount of not just skill, but it’s little things too. Like making sure markers are working flawlessly, making sure everyone’s where they are supposed to be on time, that you walk the fields seriously. You have to see more than just a three dimensional field, you have to look past a lot of things. You have to foresee a lot of stuff, as well as the little stuff like making sure all the equipment is working properly, and making sure your teammates are in the right frame of mind. It’s truly fascinating. The Pro’s , the real Pro’s..you know these guys…
Q: You are a real pro.
A: I..honestly would not..and my team may have a problem with this but..I do not feel that we are a real pro team..
Q: You’re not an established team.
A: We’re not an established team, exactly, we’re not an established Pro team and I think we have the potential to do really well and there is no doubt in my mind that they are going to drop us back down to the amateur level.
Q: How do you know that?
A: Basically 2004 is the last year…they will take the top 17 pro teams from this season and the top am team from this season, and that will be your Pro division next season.
Q: So are you saying it’s mathematically impossible for you to make it?
A: Oh, I’m sure that if in San Diego and Las Vegas if we were to make the top 4,,Yes. There’s always the possibility..
Q: New teams come in, some don’t show up….
A: Right now they will be taking the top 4 scores, now understand that there are some teams that would normally be at the bottom of the hill with us, but are also playing the millennium series and the millennium series counts toward that as well. So if they do well in Europe, don’t do so well in America, they still have the potential to do well.
Q: How does the rest of the team feel after Denver?
A: I believe the rest of the team actually is fired up, because if you look at the scores you’re not getting the full effect of what happened. If you were there to watch the games, you’d see that we did play a strong game. ..Um, in Tampa we sat back and decided to play a defensive game, which was stupid because A) that’s not how we play and B) the pro’s are super aggressive and they’re aggressive because they know how to beat through those defenses. So we took a 50\50 approach in Denver. We said look, we’re gonna make big moves, we’re gonna take a super aggressive approach. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t, what have we got to loose at this point, so let’s have some fun and that’s really what it boils down to. We’re living a dream, maybe not completely the way we want it to be. But not only are we living a dream, we are also having fun and learning a tremendous amount, and making some great friends in the industry. And I think that’s a lot of what we lost focus of. It got so serious. And that’s what happened right before Tampa, it got so serious nobody was having any fun.
Q: Maybe you could tell us where the team is from. I was going to ask you how do you think that the team could play together and have fun when you’re so spread out and teams like Dynasty practically live together?
A: That’s a good question, and it would be so easy for me to use that as an excuse for losing, heh, however we don’t look at it as an excuse, we don’t look at is as a crutch. We’re at a slight disadvantage, but that’s not an excuse and we won’t use it as an excuse.
Myself, I drive 10 hours round trip every weekend for practice. We have members from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia who converge to practice at our sponsor in Atlanta, Ultimate Paintball. By the way, I do think it’s important that part of the reason we are having so much fun and things get done the way they are is because of great sponsors like Ultraliner, Insane Paintball, Ultimate Paintball, JT USA and Viewloader.
They stepped up and saw something in us, saw potential and believed in us. And we believed in us and if we don’t have a sponsor that believes in us.. then we don’t want ’em. So yes, it is difficult. We do practice once a week. Sometimes we get lucky and have a two day, we’ll share a hotel and practice Saturday and Sunday, but mostly it’s just Sundays.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your teammates?
A: Sure, that would be great. I’ll start with Mike “lil Mikey” McGowan.
(laughs) It’s actually interesting you say that, the fact is the reason that I decided to go Pro with this team is that I saw it as an opportunity for some of the younger players who have some mad skills to use Godspeed as a stepping stone maybe some bigger pro team would see the talent that these kids have will pick ’em up and they’ll run with it. And that’s part of why I’m with the team, I’m probably the oldest guy on the team. I think of Mikey McGowan, he’s a 16 year old baller, incredibly aggressive, and he’s just so hungry and he’s got the skills.
Zack Hanson, he’s a mad baller, another 16 year old kid who is a tremendous player, incredibly fast. He was making bunkers nobody should have made in Denver.
Nick Scott, Skippy another 16 year old kid, great skills, these kids, they are so hungry and they’re so alive and have that youthful energy, yet they have this maturity on the paintball field that’s all business and that’s why I’m doing it, so these three can move on and get discovered and make names for themselves. It’s too far gone for me (chuckles).
Mike Fabian, big dude intimidating, bald, we call him Mister Clean, not really, not to his face (laughing)
Q(chuckles) Might as well now.
A: Might as well now, he stepped in, he had the most experience in tournaments. He had played a whole season in the NPPL with team Demented. Hell he came in and said, Look If we’re gonna be pro, we gotta act pro, we gotta look pro and he came in with the experience and some great drills.
Kevin Jones, mad baller, he knows everybody. We go to these tournaments and he just talks to everybody, great player, fast, aggressive. He’s from Chattanooga, mad skills, he should be picked up too.
Travis “the frEek” Faith. We call him Grizzly Adams because of the way he looks. Travis is one of those players that I started playing with, he’s the one who taught me actually how to play the sport and then he just stepped out of it, but when we were playing 4 or 5 years ago, he should’ve been Pro then. Of course the game changed and evolved into what it is now, and he’s playing catch-up. For Travis though it’s like riding a bicycle and now he’s stepped up there and he’s killin people. And then there’s me.
Q: How did you start playing?
A: When I was in college I had some guys I knew and they had this game called paintball.
Q: How long ago was this.
A: Oh gosh,….7-8 years ago. They owned sl-68 II’s by Tippmann. It was just a bunch of grown up kids that would go out in the woods in Mississippi. It was just a ball. When I saw my first game of speedball I remember going, “That takes no skill, no talent. All you‘ve got to have is a fast gun.”, like most people do when they are introduced to speedball. The more I hung out with Travis the more I realized there was a lot of skill involved. I like to compare it to chess, capture the flag and high tech tag. You mix those up and you have the current game of paintball.
Q: If you could just give us an idea of how the team evolved from The Corporation to Godspeed, because that happened in a really short timeframe and the original intent was, I believe to play a lower division in NXL.
A: That’s actually kind of complicated..the team was gonna go NXL, division 3 I think. Since we were rookies, we knew the NXL was getting a lot of exposure, it was the new thing, we were so pumped up about it. We had a day of NXL practice and let me tell you…you have got to be a physical man or woman. You have got to be cardiovascularly, (chuckles) is that even a word, cardiovascularly well adept. And you know, if you don’t have a paint sponsor for that, (laughs) you are in trouble, because you are gonna shoot a lot of paint. It didn’t work out for us because there are some of us who were being realists and some were dreamers, there was never a schism about it. The more we thought about it, the more it didn’t seem practical. And that’s a good thing, because it gave us the opportunity to be where we are now. I’ve given up trying to defend Godspeed because we’re doing what we want to do, and that’s play paintball, we just happen to have an opportunity to play Pro division, so we jumped at it. Everyone always says, hey, if you want to get better at paintball, you have to play teams that are better than you. What better place to find them than play the best players in the world, in the Pro division.
Q: What are your thoughts on possibly being on Fox Sports Net when the next season comes out.
A: (chuckles) I’m not gonna lie to you, I mean that’s an exciting idea.
Q: You’re watching it at home going “Yeah”, that’s a different perspective than somebody down the block channel surfing and going, “Hey, that guy lives right down the block from me.”
A: That is a pretty cool idea, the whole team’s excited about it. That was the whole point of our original sponsor who bailed on us, in my mind HE didn’t have the heart or believe in us, and he may’ve been right but the idea of being on Fox Sports or the Outdoor network or what have you that would be great. It’s an exciting time for paintball, for any paintball player, not just us. I really hope these TV rights get ironed out and the public gets to understand it and get exposed to it, because I think we will be an Olympic sport in the future, go America, go USA, cause we’ll own it.
Q: You said you talked to Greg Hastings in Denver, what did you talk about?
A: Ah, I just saw him and said hey, I wanted to ask him about the videogame, but I don’t think he can talk about it. What’s really cool is to be there and to stand next to Bob Long and the Ironmen(Oakland Assassins) after the game. We had two one for one’s on us for hopper hits in the first 30 seconds of the game, and to stand there next to one of my hero’s and have him talk to you like “yeah man” because he understands you and you’re part of the same world, it’s great. Bob Long is just a wonderful guy and incredibly intelligent. It made me feel good. After we played Avalanche, those guys they came up to us, talked to us. The guys from Sedition, great guys, wonderful, just incredibly kind and willing to help as much as they possibly can. And to be seen as peers, and talk to us..in order to get respect, you have to give respect and we respect every team out there, even the ones that may be behind us, because they’re doing it just like we are. To sit there and stand next to Chris Lasoya and have him complain about the same thing you’re complaining about to Chuck Hendsch, you’re like comrades in arms even though you don’t know each other. The guys from Dynasty man they were really great. In Tampa we went up to them after the game and asked them what we did wrong, and you know what, they told us what they thought we did wrong, and you know what, they were right. It’s just really cool to have that opportunity.
Q: After Denver do you think it’s just a matter of the team having to gel, or do you have a bullet list of items to fix.
A: I wouldn’t say it’s a big list, but it’s a combination of the two. We also need to find a couple more guys. We’re grilling the Pro’s and asking how some of them drill. So we have a wider array of methods to approach practice alongside letting the team gel.
Q: What about the turnaround, I guess it just happens when it happens, so beyond this season, if you get relegated to the next division under, does the team go on?
A: Absolutely. When our first sponsor left us high and dry, a lot of us said, “look, I’m in this for the long haul”. It has taken a lot of effort and creativity and financial finesse. The turnaround will come..I think we’ve turned around, we turned around in Denver, I think we’ll turn around in Las Vegas, I think we’ll turn around in San Diego. You have to believe that, you have to believe it or you’re half beaten and I’m not beaten. This whole team’s not beaten, we will not be beaten, you can sit there and a pro team can destroy us in under a minute and that’s fine, we had a great time and I’ll guarantee you we walked away from that game and learned something. So in essence we did win. We learned something and we’ll be better prepared next time. That’s how we look at it. We have a positive outlook on everything. Now if we lose a game, I’m not gonna say someone doesn’t throw something when they get back to the tent (guilty chuckle), it happens, you’re gonna have that. That’s ok, because outside of paintball, we’re all friends, and I think that’s where the turnaround is gonna come from. We have this set group and we‘re all in it for the long haul. We have the same dreams, the same drive. That’s where it’s gonna come from, from in here, the heart. And one day it’s all gonna click, and we’re gonna do the right things at the right times, and everybody’s gonna be, “who the heck is Godspeed and where the heck did they come from?”
Q: So you’re more focused on coming back to any division next year than just winning a championship this year to say you won it.
A: No, we’re not chasing that championship. We’re chasing respect, and fun. If you can combine those two, I think you’ve got a paintball team. If we wind up am, hey, more power to us, because that’s probably where we needed to be anyway, and if we don’t end up performing in am, that’ll tell us something to. But I have a feeling we would perform in am. And I look forward to it, no matter where next season sees us, pro, am, what have you. That’s fine with us, because we have a good time together, we play paintball, and that‘s what we want to do.
