Anyone who is into paintball would instantly know what we are talking about with the mere mention of “PbNation”. The question becomes what do we know about the people behind PbNation? Sure we all know it is THE biggest paintball website in existence today. The Catshack Reports is very pleased to introduce Mr John Dresser, a man with a history firmly ingrained in the sport of paintball and one of the many people behind PbNation.
Quite often interviewing the many personalities that are involved in paintball is as much a learning experience for me as it is for those who read the Catshack Reports interviews. Today John Dresser, one of the men behind the scenes chats with The Catshack Reports about his history and business with PbNation.
Hi John, when and where was your very first paintball experience…please tell us all about it
I first played in the winter of 1990 in Jackson, Tennessee at a woodsball field that only rented Splatmasters. Nearly everyone was playing stock class. My brother and his friend brought up a college and high school group and the field put all of the “kids” on one side and the experienced players on the other side. I only know I shot one person but I do remember pulling the flag a couple times and hanging one on their huge wooded field. I was hooked I don’t think I’ve taken a month off from the field since.
Over the years have you had opportunity to paintball, could you give our readership an idea as to your level of competition
I played competitively on the national tournament circuit for a decade. I’ve played in around 100 national tournaments, even more local events and dozens of scenarios and big games. I’ve somehow managed to win dozens of tournaments including some national and international ones like the Tolouse Millenium, Commander’s Cup NPPL, Mardi Gras PSP and the first Huntington Beach NPPL. A win at Skyball always eluded me but I think we placed every time we played. I did win at least one Canadian Pro event at the indoor field Richmond Italia used to own called Tombstone. That was an amazing field and a fun event to play.
I first turned Pro with the rest of Farside back in 1998 when we still played 20 minute games in the woods and I “retired” from playing Pro in 2008 when we sold our NPPL pro spot. I played most of my national tournament “career” with Farside and Evil Factory but I guested with some old school teams like Jacksonville Warriors and Nemesis along the way. I also played with some friends as Chicago Resistance when they had that 3-man televised league in Vegas. I played with Vicious and won Commander’s Cup and pump with Mutiny as well as the LA Hitmen when we won the Old School Challenge (OSC) pump tournament in St Louis. I’ve played numerous big games and scenarios, most notably with the PbNation Modsquad, a loosely organized team of players who all also volunteer their time to moderate PbN.
What were for you some of the greatest highlights of your paintball experience?
There are simply too many to list and I don’t think I am close to done.
Playing indoors at the old Splat 1 Knoxville Indoor was my first real glimpse of competitive paintball outside of the local level. Pro and amateur teams played head to head with no divisions so you could play against the best teams in the world in a real tournament.
Playing professionally back in the woodsball days of the NPPL was beyond cool. The team broke up at the end of ‘98 but it was still a great experience.
The first Skyball event was like stepping into a whole new reality of what paintball could be as a sport.
I was one of the first people to play X-Ball when we were part of the first exhibition at Disney.
I played in a 7-man tournament with Tom Kaye, inventor of the Automag and owner of AirGun Designs. The event was actually scored similar to X-Ball with multiple points and we used the just-released E-Mags. Tom and I both played as guests of the Jax Warriors.
The first Huntington Beach NPPL was nothing short of amazing. There had simply never been a US tournament like it and it set a new standard for tournament paintball across the globe. We had players, fans, vendors and paintball right there together on the beach. To top it all off, we were a brand new team (Evil Factory) playing our first event together. We actually won the D1 division (there was no semi-pro, so that was one step down from Pro) and I was named MVP. I don’t think I have ever bunkered as many people in a single event and I even had a game where I got to shoot all 7 guys on the opposing team. It made for a fun weekend complete with my grandparents making the drive up to watch us play.
We followed that HB win up by winning Mardi Gras and then the first PSP event in LA of the year as well. Three different formats and three wins in a row is something I don’t believe a new team has managed to repeat since. We won the NPPL series title the following year as well as winning overseas in Tolouse (France), New Zealand and the Tampa NPPL event which meant we earned a Pro spot for the following year.
Playing inside the enormous castle at EMR, home of Blue’s Crew is something every paintball player should try.
Playing the first two Living Legends games at CPX alongside some of the people who helped create the sport was incredible.
Playing last year at Wayne’s World Grand Finale last year had several moments including playing in the near dark surrounded by the opposing team with Ben from Hater Paintball and ambushing some people that had beyond no clue there were opponents even close.
Playing out of the country in New Zealand, Aruba, France and numerous trips into Canada all made the years fly past. I actually played with several Canadian teammates over the years like Dwayne Summerhayes, the owner of Flagswipe in Ontario.
As far as your career path, what is your current vocation?…OR has managing PbNation.com become a full time job?
I actually work for PbNation full time. I’ve been working in the paintball industry since 1995 and full-time since 1999. In the past I have managed a paintball field, helped local stores, managed customer service at PMI, managed QC at PMI, managed customer service at Lucky and worked here at PbNation.com.
I don’t manage PbNation. PbN is a 
community more than anything. We have 500,000 registered users since inception and more than 7.7 million unique users that visited the site last year alone. That is an amazing amount of paintball players and people being exposed to paintball all in one place.
I work in conjunction with over 100 volunteers that do an incredible job on the site helping out new players and visitors to the site. The moderators on PbNation are truly a unique group of people that do an amazing amount of good for paintball just because they want to help out. We have med students (some might even be doctors now), paintball designers, field owners, store owners, company representatives, casual players, pump players, scenario players and professional paintball players all working together as moderators on the site. We rely on their input and judgement on a daily basis. Some of their bios can be found here:
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=2890722
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Stay tuned as tomorrow we pick up where we left off with Mr. John Dresser of PbNation on what its all about and what goes on behind the scenes of the biggest paintball website in existence today.
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