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.
Profile: Nicky Cuba
Some random dude rolls around the side of the dojo, and blasts Nicky in the face, blowing his Call of Duty character to pieces. On the replay we see the bob and weave, the face blasting.
“Goddamn it!” Nicky clenches his giant fist in the air, sitting on his bed,
Mike Paxton laughs and gives him shit, “Damn, you are just getting handled right now.
Nicky grimaces, fist stays up in the air, ready to smash it down on some imaginary enemy as he starts to walk out the room. “I was protecting that dumb ass who should have been running the flag in”, he turns around, reaches down for his headset, and yells into the mic, “Hey Alex whatever your name is, grab the flag dumbass and run it in next time.”
“God Nicky, what if he like twelve or something”, Nicky’s girl, Melissa, says half joking.
“Yeah, what if it was your kid?” I say, continuing to mess with him. We love seeing Nicky get riled up, it’s one of our favorite things about him.
“He needs to learn to play the game, I’d do the same thing if I was my kid. Even more so.” He says quite sincere.
Nicky is an intense person. Though he has become less emotional and more logically sharpened doing his turbulent career and life, he still wears his strong heart on his sleeve, especially during any sort of competition, whether it’s Call of Duty, paintball, or a casual game of beer pong.
“Alright let’s do this interview”, I say.
“Fine,” Nicky says now calm, but still fronting funny mock anger at his COD loss. We sit on the dark couch in the living room as Nicky warns me of cat pee section.
“Whoa, whoa, don’t sit there, sit here”
This house is owned by Indian John Almera, a Dynasty coach, and former Ironman back in the late nineties. Located in Bay Park, just east of Sea World, with a clear view of Mission Bay from it’s roof top patio, it was actually built mostly by John and Yosh Rau, another tenant, a couple of years ago, and is one of the central crash pads/paintball houses in San Diego. Skinny Kevin, Dynasty’s coach, lives here. Angel Fergoza stayed here for a couple of months on an eventually aborted move to San Diego. Alex Fraige used to live here as well.
Matty: So, first practice of the year.
Nicky: Yeah first team practice of the year, knockin’ of the rust, seeing what we’re working with.
Matty: How many guys are showing up, what are you working with?
Nicky: We have eight, well actually seven cause Mikko doesn’t have a visa yet; he’s in Finland for the holidays. Xalo is in Brazil, and he has a visa, but we’re waiting to hear what happens with Mikko Hopefully both of them can return.
MM: So seven.
NC: And then anyone else coming out that guys have, but I’m not sure if anyone is coming. I was talking to a couple of people, but I’m not sure if it’s going to go through, people want a lot of money these days and there’s not a lot of money to give out.
MM: How is it out there right now, the climate, the attitude of the pro guys, in your opinion. Or just in general.
NC: We’ll I’ve only really talked to my guys, a few others, and yourself, mostly, but the feeling it that everyone is just weathering the storm, seeing what’s going to happen, seeing what they’re going to do outside in their regular life, seeing how they’re spending their money and see what we can expect this year, what they can make, what will make us professional. We’ll see if it’s going to be good or see how far into recession things are going to go.
MM: So the recession has hit pro paintball, but everyone knew that already.
NC: Yeah its time has come. With the new rules, with the eight man rosters, only having that number of players…
MM: How do you feel about that?
NC: I don’t like it all, I wish we could have deeper rosters. I understand, but at the same time there are a lot of injuries cause he go hard, and sometimes they come in waves, and then you have three guys down and what do you do? Call up those dudes you let go cause of the cap and you couldn’t have on your team, or have to cherry pick the guys that are left over, guys who are pretty much getting the shaft from pro tournament paintball because the NPPL closed down and the PSP has lowered the roster size. If that’s what they’re going to do, then it’s fine well make it work, but I just wish we could have more guys.
MM: Have you seen the other league, they have pretty long list of pro teams, some teams I’ve never heard of, at least playing at this level.
NC: At the pro level?
MM: Yeah.
NC: So that’s for sure going through?
MM: I guess, I saw the press release, they’re going to have the first event in Huntington beach and…
NC: That’s cool though, Huntington Beach is the shit. It’s just a badass event, it was going to be weird to think of a year without it. I’ll go there, I don’t know if I’m going to playing in it, but I’ll go, I just want to play in every tournament possible.
MM: And again I don’t know how the prizes work yet.
NC: I think it’s, at least on the pro side, the teams invest money but they don’t win money. Just trying to get the league started and see what they can do. Honestly right now I don’t know if it’s going to work. Cause we’ve been trying to get one league for so long, trying to get the companies together to make the sport better. I thought it was bad it closed down, but a good thing overall because it was a weight lifted off our shoulders as far as the internal battle between the sponsoring companies just going at each other through the two leagues.
MM: Another things that scaring me is we have a horrid situation with the economy, before some people we saying it wasn’t that bad, but now everyone understand it’s really really bad, though some people are feeling it more than others. But with all these leagues gearing up for grassroots support, it’s going to be hard for them all to survive cause they’re all going after the same dwindling player base. Like the PSP has been growing is grassroots support for the lower divisions, and doing well. There are a lot of seven man teams out there. But how many teams are going to stop playing this year, it’s going to be interesting to see, there a lot up in the air as far as the greater economy we don’t have control over.
NC: I like the idea of one scenario, one actually style of play, so it can be worldwide and everyone follows it. But I don’t know if I like the race to seven. If you look at last year games, there were a lot of comebacks that happened, like 7 -2, 7-3 games that came back and made it entertaining for the fans. Skunkings are bad for the show.
MM: There are two side of the coin though cause every time we make a change people hate on it.
NC: yeah, I knocked the other one too, I was like “race to nine…. that’s gay” but it was ended up cool.
MM: I felt they was some of the most dramatic paintball I had seen last year, but it doesn’t matter, everyone is always saying “what’s the ideal format, what’s the ideal format?” but these decision are being made in spirit of sustainability.
There are ton of ways to hit a ball with stick. How many different ways are there to throw or kick an inflated ball around a field, how many different variations? Paintball has that similar aspect; it’s so varied, so many different ways to play the game. But the question is where does the tip of the industry want to put it’s emphasis and what do the fans want to see?
NC: I want to see people get stomped out some kicks to the face (laughs)
MM: (laugh) Yeah, people are bitching about the drop in the speed of the guns, shit, let’s drop the rate to ten, lower the speed to 280, take off the facemasks, and give guys mouthpieces.
NC: Hell yeah, old school.
MM: Like back in the day.
NC: We didn’t even wear mouthpieces.
MM: Yeah we didn’t, and you can see your face. (Laughs) Who knows where it’s going to go, but as far as the Ironmen, there’s been big transitions every year, and that’s paintball, it’s not like you’re not used to things changing a lot.
NC: Yeah there have been big transitions on Ironmen, and I’ve seen major changes on XSV, but this year it is really drastic. Because of the rule changes, player changes and because we’re losing Shane, who has been the main contributor in analyzing games, practices, watching games at the events and he is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle, controlling us animals on and off the field, keeping us in check.
MM: Which is quite a task.
NC: Yeah it is! Last year we lost a bunch of veterans, Mr. U (Pete Utchig), Ryan Williams, Josh Hill, and Todd Adamson, and Billy Ceranski the year before that, the first year I got on. Every year it’s been big name guys leaving, and now it’s our coach. It’s just obstacles put in front of us, reasons to make us play harder, that brings us closer together as a team to overcome this next obstacle. Yeah, we don’t have Shane, but we still have each other. We have to look to each other now, but that’s why I think this team is good. People are moving down to San Diego (Scott Kemp and Brandon Short have moved to Pacific Beach) so we are getting to see each other a lot more, train a lot more, and we are now a closer unit.
MM: You guys still look solid. First of all, you guys did great last year, except that last event. And second, you still have a lot of younger guys coming into their own, and a lot of older guys, and I can now say that about you….
NC: Hahaha, like a fine wine….
MM: Shittttttt, you heard Ving Rames/ Marcellus in Pulp Fiction: “If you think you age like a fine wine, you don’t. If you mean you turn to vinegar…you do.”
NC: (laughs)
MM: But yeah, you have a lot of older guys in now in their prime. You especially, now you are one the more responsible, clutch guys, which is the complete opposite of what you were at the start of your career, when you really couldn’t count on you to do shit off the field, or be there on time, when you were wild and crazy, run to the fifty,
NC: (laughs), catch balls in my face
MM: I mean I count on the fact you would shoot people….
NC: ….but not consistently
MM: yeah, but now it’s the opposite, how did you get here? Cause it’s the truth.
NC: It’s just tough love from you guys, and from all the teams I played on. I took it from the older guys on the teams I’ve been on. I would just try to be a sponge, take what I need to help my game out, and then I got rid of what wasn’t helping me. I think that’s what I got from west coast, from the east coast and the Midwest, from going everywhere are in our nation to grab a little bit from all the best players in each region. I think I owe a lot to that, traveling, being around everyone, around hardcore competition all the time.
MM: So you guys are going to play Xball, are you going to play the other league, and what are you plans internationally?
NC: Yes, for sure playing Xball, the other league still undecided, we went to the first meeting, checked that out and I’m waiting to hear back from what’s going on. Europe maybe, if someone’s wants to fly me out there and pay me, then I’d be down. Other than that I’m just doing stuff nationally, getting New Skool out there, more into effect, promoting it better, getting more of my line out there. Growing up a bit more, this is a side of my life that I’ve had on hold for a bit, designing the clothing line.
MM: When’s that coming out and where can people check that out?
NC: Should have some stuff out in the next couple of months. By June, around the time of Chicago, I’ll have a new run of t-shirts, hoodies, and the rest of the line by the end of the year. Go to nicky-cuba.com. Check out my Myspace, which is the same.
MM: Get your social networking on, get your Facebook on.
NC: Don’t have the Facebook yet; I’m not as cool as you guys, that’s next.
MM: Then how are you going to market to all the highbrow college students and hip professionals?
NC: It’s coming baby, it’s coming.