ProPaintball.com Up & Coming Player of the Week: Dan Norcross

Young and talented Dan Norcross recently made his Pro Paintball debut at the NPPL Huntington Beach 2010 Event. Having played on such teams as Velocity Wrecking Krew and Shock-Kidz, Dan’s rise to the top of the ranks has come at a young age. Read on for more about Minnesota’s own Dan Norcross.

Name: Dan Norcross

Age: 18

Hobbies other than paintball: When I was younger I played hockey and baseball for a number of years, I still love both and spend a lot of the cold Minnesota winters on hockey rinks with my friends, but nothing competitive anymore. I decided to play paintball over everything else when I was about 14 and haven’t looked back since.

Current Team: Indianapolis Mutiny (NPPL), G.S.E. (PSP)

Home Field: If it’s Mutiny home is Asylum paintball in Louisville, KY. Paintball Plex in Indy or Badlandz and Fox River with G.S.E. As far as back home goes, I live a mile from a paintball field called Northside Sports where I cut my teeth back in the day and I still make it up there once in a while.

Position you play on the field: Usually a dorito insert, but I go wherever I’m needed. More than often I find myself holding down a lane trying to keep my front guy alive

Previous teams: Shock-Kidz, Velocity Wrecking Crew.

Favorite pro team when you were growing up: I remember watching the NXL when it was its own league and loving the Oakland Assasins, every time I saw those guys I thought they were the most-raw players out there. I was a huge fan of that league because of its intensity and the karnage that resulted from it.

You’re now in your first pro season with Indianapolis Mutiny, what do you like best about the team? I love the fact that everybody is hungry. We are such a young team with limitless potential and I love all of the guys. It seems like everybody is on the same page and is always there to help you out when you need it, I couldn’t be more excited for the team’s future.

What’s the paintball community like in Minnesota? Paintball in Minnesota is pretty small, there’s only once decent indoor field and considering we have snow on the ground 5 months out of the year I spend a lot of time driving 8 hours to Chicago or flying to San Diego to play. As far as player base goes there’s not much above the rookie level, it’s growing though and there’s a few solid local tournaments but as far as national level competition it’s almost non-existent. I definitely trying to pave the way for other MN players and help them get out of the state and make it happen so we can build the scene around home.

Who do you look up to in paintball and why? My mom and dad, all the Mutiny guys, Leif and Darrel from KM, Aaron Tholey, Nick Slowiak, Jason Stypula, the list goes on forever. All of these guys have given me a ton of help throughout my career and haven’t asked for much in return. Someday I hope to help a kid like they helped me.

What keeps you playing paintball? I love playing paintball, plain and simple. No two games are ever exactly the same, everything’s always changing so I could never get bored with it. The second thing would be the friends I’ve made throughout the years, I can’t even imagine my life without the sport or the people I’ve met through it.

What are your plans for the rest of 2010: Keep grinding it out with Mutiny and play on every Sunday.”

This article was authored by Brandon Mason – who has written 35 paintball news and gear articles.

In 2002, Brandon Mason and Matt Wojdynski began tracking the internet activities of Kyle Johnson, aka V. Gnome, an 18-year old computer gamer. They monitored and recorded Kyle’s AOL instant messages and gathered information about his friends and family from other sources on the net. Blending this data with scenarios from videogames and sci-fi films, they developed a mythology in which Kyle is “singled out as the savior of the human race.” The story is told in Gem Missile: A Tribute to V. Gnome, a 40-page book that incorporates photographs of Kyle and excerpts from his personal correspondence. In August 2003, Mason and Wojdynski showed up on Kyle’s parent’s doorstep in Thousand Oaks. Mason introduced himself as “Z. Figiam,” Kyle’s “mentor from the future,” presented him with the book, and left without further explanation. The plot thickened several days later with Kyle posted a detailed description of the encounter to an on-line gaming forum, along with digital photos of every page in the book. Members of the forum quickly added their own theories and responses, which ranged from close readings of the text and speculations about the gender of its authors, to admissions of jealousy and accusations that Kyle had invented the story in order to get a high rating for his thread (which in a few weeks had received over 40,000 hits). A year passed after this initial contact. In August 2004, Mason and Wojdynski mailed Kyle a package containing a photograph of their meeting a year earlier, along with a note, a certificate, and a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Kyle was met at the airport by a man in a beat up Lincoln Town Car who identified himself as “The Gatekeeper.” For two days, Kyle was led around the city in search of robots, buried treasure and information needed to save the future. Mason and Wojdynski involved numerous actors and another on-line gamer who, equally baffled, was driven with Kyle to a forest and abandoned there. At some point, Kyle noticed that his new friend had mysteriously disappeared. “I stood there alone in the woods, in Minnesota, with a shovel and a large black locked box, more confused then I have ever been in my life.” Kyle survived the trip and posted a detailed account of his adventure, concluding, “it was a great experience, and I would not hesitate to save the future again, if the chance ever arose”. Today, V. Gnome believes he is the savior of Paintball. SIDE NOTE—– WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 1122, Newport Beach, CA 92659. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.