Profile: Alex Fraige

Alex Fraige is a life artist. He moves with a frantic, reflective walk, mashing down each new life experience into his vibrant, always churning brain. At 26, he’s seen more of the world than most people ever will. This is fact, not some randomness assembled to make a paintball player sound cool. He is hungry for knowledge and new things, new places, new feelings. Other than Oliver Lang, and Ryan Greenspan, there is no other paintball player who has won as many events, and his opinion is gospel to everyone from league presidents to pro captains to corporate suits. The powers that be listen to what he has to say, may be you should too. He talks to Transcend briefly about Dynasty in 09, big game heroics, why he still plays this game, and Spirit of the Wolf.

Matty Marshall: Lots of changes this year on and off the field, just break down for the fans what Dynasty is up to this year and who Dynasty is going to roll with. Some guys had to go, you picked up a new players, break it down for everybody.

Alex Fraige: Well with the changes to the format you can’t have a full staff of players, you can only have eight rostered players an event, you don’t really have the luxury anymore of keeping guys you might need in certain situations, you need guys that are going to play for sure at the tournament, you need guys that are reliable, experienced, skilled and that are going to perform the duties necessary to win the tournament. So, there are really very few guys out there, who have the ability to go out and play every point,

Matty Marshall: Who have the skill set…

AF: Yeah, the skill set who can go out there and be effective every time at this level. So we have consolidated our team down to all veterans. There’s not one guy on our team who hasn’t won a tournament, or multiple tournaments. Everyone’s been pro for four or five years at least. Most of them are original dynasty guys.

MM: Well the rawest dude on your team is LJ (Justin Swartz) and as far as kill count goes, he definitely kills his fair share of dudes.

AF: Yeah Justin is our least experienced guy on the team, but he’s one of the most experiences guys in the luegue. He’s definitely paid his dues and he can put a plan together. We have a good group of guys….and most of the guys are pushing (chuckles a bit) ya know thirty-five, forty, so we’re getting up there a bit.

MM laughs) I mean you’re forty-one right?

AF: Yeah, you’re right I’m forty-one. But when time gets tough I just call on the power of the wolf, I summon the power of the spirit wolf and ya know

MM: I thought it was more like Sampson with those beautiful locks you have right now energizing you up.

AF: (laughs) Yeah that’s where all my power is, in my hair, I’m actually terrible at paintball, my hair just channels the power through me

MM: Like a prism

AF: (laughs) I’m actually stoked for my team this year, it’s a lot of veterans, we’re all on the level, there’s no one out there, on our team at least, that we need to baby sit or groom or up their pedigree, we know what it takes so we just need to get out there, practice put a good game plan together and make it happen. Everyone’s heard the speech a thousand times, so we don’t need to do that shit anymore, just go out there and handle business.
MM: How do you feel about the year, I mean I know you are stoked on the team cause you are all crusty veterans, or crafty, or crazy, but just in general.

AF: No crusty and crunchy that’s what we are. Yeah, with the economy and the situation with the two leagues, with the emergence of the uspl and the demise of the nppl it makes things a little unclear for the future, but, you know, just like every year after the off season, not having played for awhile I’m just excited to play the game, that’s thee main reason I play, to play the game of paintball, and play with my friends. With that in mind everything all the other things are just a bonus. Hopefully the leagues have good turn out, and the companies and the sponsors get more business and things stabilize.

MM: What’s motivating you these days, is it just playing with your friends? The way things are going it’s obviously not money, or the need to win another championship to prove yourself. ‘Cause there are no million dollar contracts out there, no need for anther Dynasty championship to satiate your need to glory. Why do you still play the game?

AF: Other than the fact that I love to play the game itself, I like going to practice, or a tournament, and figuring out the best way to play a field with your team. And complete that challenge, or take on that challenge and try to succeed. And then the feeling of actually succeeding with your friends, being on that level, chasing that high, that a lot of people never find in their lives, to be the best in the world at something, and to do it with your friends and your teammates, that’s a profound thing. It’s only maybe for a couple of moments in your life and when you get there… You know how it feels… It’s one of those things that are up there. I haven’t had a kid, I haven’t been married, but it’s one of those things that ranks. I could say some of the best moments of my life were at paintball tournaments, or at least at the end of them. Yeah and I also think that I’m playing because the game of paintball has given me a lot, those feelings and those friends ships, and the game deserves people like me to give back to it, so I’m going to do what I can, and our team is going to do what it can, to help the game grow and to be ambassadors for the sport.

MM: As far as riding the chaotic edge, flying by the seat of your pants enjoying life, and trying to create those experiences? What stuck out in your head this year on the field?

AF: Going into last year we hadn’t won an NXL tournament. After being in the NXL for two years, that was two years, no victory. We were still the NPPL series champs so I really wanted to win an NXL event and we were able to win two. We didn’t win the World Cup, but we won more events than any other team. We won 2 out of 5, which I’m really happy with, and we beat many of the best teams convincingly, that was a new pinnacle that we hadn’t been able to achieve yet. It was new thing for us, most people think we have accomplished it all but, and we had beaten those teams before, but not in that platform and it was elating.  And in seven man, with the Houston event being cancelled because of the hurricane we were way too far behind to come back in the NPPL series. There were three teams ahead of us, Ironmen needed to finish dead last and we need to win the event, I mean it was just literally out of our hands. And for the previous two years we had been down on points heading into the Commander’s Cup, to XSV and Impact, and we ended up edging them out but we had a bit more control in those situations because it was a close race. But last year, 08, it was out of hands, and then (laughs) commander Mo (the famous now deceased Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees fame, a paintball fanatic, whom the event is named after) opened up the clouds, smite the Ironmen down to the ground and we won the tournament. It was awe inspiring and it was more than us just winning the tournament, it was divine intervention.

MM: What about you personally, any moves you made, and you can swing the range from practice to Xball to seven man, big games, whatever stood out in your mind, move wise, as far a your play is concerned. Because we need that in paintball, people need to have those signposts, both fans and players, those high water marks, like Tony hawks 900. Our sport is very visceral, it’s not judged, I mean we have refs, but one person shoots another, that’s the way it is, there no judge of the side lines going “well you did that so much more artfully than Oliver so I give you a 9.7 and he gets a 9.5”.

AF: Yeah, I have moments on the field when everything falls into place for you, you dive into the snake and two dude’s backs are to you, then you crawl down to the next knuckle and bunker a guy, those games are in there at events and you have them at times. Sometimes they come at moments when you need the game, and that’s the best. I started playing the game for the rush. Now, I get the biggest rush the ten seconds before the game, because when the game starts you’re just so focused trying to win that you’re acting off your knowledge and your instincts, so you don’t get to enjoy and savor it while you are doing it. After the game your like “yeah that was sick” or somebody comes up to you and says, “great move, you won the game”. But when you’re playing in something like a big game you’re there for fun and you can slow down, you have more time, and you can really savor the good time, you’re laughing, it’s playing, like you’re at the play ground. I went to some big games this year and one of the craziest paintball experience I’ve ever had was at that game in New York with you guys: You, Ollie, Me, Nicky, Yosh, Joe Cuba-Nicky’s brother- when it was like 9 on 100 but with everyone reincarnating it was like 9 on 200 is what it felt like. This thing was like you’re in war with, in battle with, your fucking comrades (laughs) it was intense. I had never experienced that before, I mean, I’ve played in big games like that before, but

MM: (laughs) I could hear it your voice when you came running up the ramp, and dove horizontal through the door screaming “It’s me Matty, get out of the way!” when I was holding down that ramp to the rampart.

AF: (Laughs) I felt like it was the end, that this was it, we were going to hold this castle, and we were out of paint, out of air, and they were flooding in like ants. That was intense, and it’s for moments like that is why you play paintball. That and coming up over a hill at a big game and bunkering like ten people at once, that’s a pretty insane feeling you can never get in tournament. But winning a tournament against the best in the world, having a good game shooting two or three guys, I’m going to have to say that is the top. Just knowing those guys are on the same level as you, the playing field is equal, that’s the apex of any competition, of any sport.

MM: Are you guys going international at any point this year?

AF: I don’t know yet if the team is going to but a lot of the guys are, so if the whole team doesn’t go you will see Ryan Greenspan, myself, Yosh Rau, and a couple of the other guys possibly head to some interesting places, South America, and possible Iran, there talk of going over there. We’ve done the whole European thing and sponsorship is kinda tight right now so we will see what we can afford.