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Bolter

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Aug 19, 2003
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I’ve known Jeremy Salm since he was the captain of Washington Reign more than ten years ago. I admit I don’t know him all that well, but well enough that I was stunned when I saw first hand what he did at the 2002 World Cup. In the space of a few short minutes, Jeremy Salm, the field captain of Avalanche, went from one of the most respected players in the sport of paintball to one of the most despised. Sneaking into the woods adjacent to one of the World Cup's ten-man fields, he shot at numerous members of Ground Zero Gold as they played against Avalanche. Salm was caught red-handed, suspended from the ’Cup and from an entire year of professional tournament play, and his team was stripped of its scores and removed from the event. He was dropped by his sponsors and fired from his job at Warped Sportz.
When asked by one of our reporters why he did it, Salm replied, “While playing the five-man [part of the event], I noticed the possibility of pulling something like that off, but then never thought more of it. It was literally a last second thing, and I really don't know why I did it. There was really no need to do it. It was true that I was in pain because I had broken my hand; maybe the painkillers clouded my judgment. However, I'm not going to use that as an excuse. It was more of a last second decision, and I have no idea what caused me to do it.”
Decent people do indecent things sometimes. That’s simply the way it is. Since the incident, Salm was hired by Renick Miller, owner of Chicago Aftershock, to coach and run his team. It’s been two years since Mr. “U” literally dragged Salm out of the woods at that World Cup and I for one, haven’t forgotten what it felt like that day. I can only imagine what it felt like for him. - John Amodea
76. Fall, 2002
i remember reading this (guess which magazine?!) thinking "what the f*ck was he thinking?" great story! :)
 

Robbo

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Jul 5, 2001
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i remember reading this (guess which magazine?!) thinking "what the f*ck was he thinking?" great story! :)

I was there when that happened and Mr U didn't actually drag Jeremy out of the woods; what he did do was chase Jeremy down till Jeremy just gave up [Pete U was a pretty fit guy].

Jeremy pleaded with Pete to let him off and not make him walk back to face the consequences but Pete did the right thing and made Jeremy go and face the music.

I was of the opinion at that time that Ed Poorman, captain and owner of Avalanche was blissfully unaware of what Jeremy was up to but let's say I have changed my opinion on that.
I think more people on that team knew what was happening than didn't ...... a lot more.

I have always hated cheats but I gotta hand that one first place for ingenuity and bare-faced cheek.
 

SabreWolf

Active Member
Jan 25, 2005
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It was nice to be around in the world of paintball from almost the start, soooo much nostalgia, from reading my very first issue of PGI, at the age of 13 in august 1991 with the preds on the front cover sporting, white sposored jumpers and sterling STP's as tourny winners.

My local site was running splat masters and nelspots back then with a splattering of the odd new razorback pumps, and we had those hard plastic face plates and over the mask labratory looking goggles lol

Still, reading through all of that reminded me of alot of things forgotten, like the first hyperball event which was won by the banzai bandits, which they failed to mention in that american history of paintball and the first time i saw a semi auto marker, which was a brand new poison which if i remember rightly, paul garry who had just joined the newly formed manchester lions had just bought.

Good old days :)
 

Bolter

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Aug 19, 2003
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It was nice to be around in the world of paintball from almost the start, soooo much nostalgia, from reading my very first issue of PGI, at the age of 13 in august 1991 with the preds on the front cover sporting, white sposored jumpers and sterling STP's as tourny winners.

My local site was running splat masters and nelspots back then with a splattering of the odd new razorback pumps, and we had those hard plastic face plates and over the mask labratory looking goggles lol

Still, reading through all of that reminded me of alot of things forgotten, like the first hyperball event which was won by the banzai bandits, which they failed to mention in that american history of paintball and the first time i saw a semi auto marker, which was a brand new poison which if i remember rightly, paul garry who had just joined the newly formed manchester lions had just bought.

Good old days :)
Prepare to feel nostalgic :)

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[youtube]HutLpQ9a0Sc[/youtube]
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[youtube]IFMbWkezycU[/youtube]
[youtube]w4ouRBIddYY[/youtube]
 

SabreWolf

Active Member
Jan 25, 2005
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Just watched it again, that was just brilliant, old school balling at its best :)

Shame they ruined such a good video with that crappy camera work in the final :S
 
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formely known as size6feet

Captain Team Venom
Jul 2, 2009
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its a shame theres noone has got a copy of the sky sports programme sports unlimited that did a 5 minute 3 segment piece on the hyperball championship had
me playing with the original firm(aka jimmy frenshams norfolk n chance against shades of grey) great times great tourney and a british invention that the world now follow
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
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It was that event that changed paintball forever because it showed everybody that paintball was an exciting spectacle; the only oversight that Ged Green and the rest of the WDP guys made was to fix the 'bunker' positions.

This was something that Laurent Hamet had realised when he attended because he went away and created Sup'Air on the back of what he saw at this HyperBall event ...basically he stood on Ged's shoulders and saw a slightly different future for paintball whereby the sport would be better served by having inflatable, movable bunkers.

It seems ironic to me at least that it was us Euros that showed the Yanks where to go in terms of putting on a show; historically, the Yanks are past masters at the showbizzy stuff and we are normally scurrying around in their shadow but this was an era of European revolution headed up by WDP and Laurent Hamet.

Paintball owes an enormous debt to those guys, an enormous debt.