Monday, October 18, 2010

What's Up With the "1"?

While the word "prime" does mean "first rate, of the highest rank," team PR1ME has sought more emphasis in the mathematical surrounding prime numbers.

Unity
A prime numbers is any number that is divisible only by itelf and one other number, in this case, 1. Another way of putting it "(of any two or more numbers) having no common divisor except unity: [for example ]The number 2 is prime to 9." (Dictionary.com) Because the number is only divisible by itself, it is NOT a prime number. Extracted to a team concept, all members of PR1ME are united under the common single unit, the team.

Infinite
There will always be a larger, undiscovered prime number than the largest one known today. To a team, this means we are always improving.

Adaptable
Every integer can be expressed is either prime or can be expressed as a product of primes. To the team, this means that no matter which opponent we face, we can always adapt and evolve to win.

This prime number concept is also in dedication to Mrs. McGowan, a high school and college math teacher and the patron of team PR1ME along with Mr. McGowan.

The actual usage of numbers for letters is actually called "Leet" or "Leetspeak" for those of you n00bs that didn't know.... More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=numbers%20as%20letters

Wow, my head hurts from all this learning.

Next time, we'll cover building a field and the difficulties that arise so that the next person may not have to encounter the same issues.

TEAM PR1ME: How It All Began

The team now known as PR1ME was never a guarantee. Most of the current members were teammates on a team called Red NRG for Division 3 X-ball in 2008. Red NRG was a union of members from the previous season as well as teammates from Mississippi and three former members of team Godspeed (a long-standing team from Alabama probably most known for its misguided pro-level venture).

The 2008 season saw Red NRG make steady improvement throughout the year, only to be halted by the then deep and successful Cross-Eyed Paintball program. Red NRG introduced many of the players to professional drilling regimens and incite courtesy of several professional players, including the Ironmen’s Mike Paxson for two events and Naughty Dogs members Kevin Fillers (now coach CEP Div1) and Adam Smith (now Aftermath) Many friendships were formed with teams like N10CDX and many of the CFOA staff. However, for various reasons, the team was not able to continue into the following season leaving many players unable or unwilling to start from scratch. This left nearly the entire roster off the field for almost the entire 2009 season. Some players still carried on enjoying the game, throwing lines together at local tournaments. Then World Cup happened.

World Cup motivated the team to “get suited up” and “bring the band back together again.” Many questions were asked that winter: Who’s still willing to play? Will all of those individuals be prepared to “do it right” this go around? Then, finally, where would we play? These conversations took place for the most part between Mike McGowan (current captain) and Mike Bianca. This new team would need a home.

A home it found in a beautiful 40acre property outside of Birmingham, Alabama. The McGowan family ranch or “the farm” as it is now affectionately called. On the property was built a level, sodded field equipped with drainage and sprinkler systems creating turf on par with most people’s front lawns much less paintball fields.

Most members knew this team would be the final chapter of most players’ paintball careers. Most had been on every team and hosted by every field in Alabama, Mississippi, and even Georgia. Mike Bianca, even ran his own field, Legends, in Mississippi. With all the sacrifices that had been made over a decade of tournament experience there would be no more dallying, no more settling, over-zealous or profit-seeking management, and no more tolerance for mediocrity. A unified desire to learn, win, and prove to the paintball world that grassroots teams can be built and flourish in the Southeast would be the foundation of the team.

This new team would now just need a name that could fit the bill.

PRIME PAINTBALL BLOG DEBUT

Welcome to the Prime Paintball blog. This will be the official and the unofficial site chronicling the adventures and misadventures of team PR1ME. As well as the mental meanderings of its Captain, myself, Mike McGowan. In keeping with the paintball tradition of “Y’s” at the end of paintball greats (Rocky, Nikky, Matty, Shorty, Poopy, Ollie, Billy…) most people call me Mikey. This is also to distinguish myself from my Co-Captain and longtime friend, Mike Bianca; who will doubtless also be a contributor under his once-upon-a-time radio DJ alias, Electric WOP. Others from the team or guests may stop in as well.
Our intention is to let people know who we are, what we are about, and hopefully capture the ins-and-outs of what it takes to take a team from Division 3 into the paintball stratosphere. This web log will not just be limited to the team though. Other posts may include: pics, videos, tournament commentary, product reviews, or article-esque work (aka something approaching “real writing”). Perhaps we’ll explore this “Y” phenomenon or I’ll just copy articles from Tim Montressor (dude can write), Paxson’s pages, or Rich (Richy?) Telford. Then I’ll try to pass them off as my own. For example I could explore whether or not playing Call of Duty can improve your pball game; or I could try to keep it “realer” than Rich Telford; but then they haven’t invented HDHD yet…
Next article will cover the beginning of the nascent team PR1ME. Again, welcome to the Prime Paintball blog.