If you’ve floated through the Special Ops forums for long, you’ll likely have come across a chap going by the name of Thalion. Helpful, insightful, and quick to respond, he’s been the saving grace of many a new player in need of advice. He’s also been a key player and organizer in Minnesota paintball, and takes roles of leadership on and off the field. In this issue, RECON takes a look at the man behind the goggles.

Underbakke’s involvement in the sport began in the spring of 2003, in fairly traditional fashion, outlaw ball. He recounts “a couple of friends from school invited me over to their outlaw woodsball course. They lent me a Tippmann 98, and it was game on from there.” Since that day, Underbakke has owned and used many markers, originally using a PMI Piranha, and now including an AKA Viking, Palmer’s Hound Tooth, and a Tiberius Arms Tac8, among others. He enjoys playing with limited paint markers, saying it is “a new addiction far stronger than paintball in general”, but has been known to play all styles of paintball.

In 2005, he briefly entered the tournament scene in Minnesota, but was not enthralled by the structure of the team, and left to rejoin the woodsball world. After that experience, he and some paintball-playing friends formed the Sentinels, a scenario paintball team which has begun attending major events such as Oklahoma DDAY and the Viper Invitational Scenario in addition to regional events. Thalion was also a founding member of MNRAT (Minnnesota Rural Assault Team), an organization which helps local players and teams network and collaborate on upcoming games.

How’d you get your nickname:

My nickname is inherited from a past hobby prior to paintball—online PC gaming. I had chosen Thalion as a handle while I was leading a Jedi Knight II clan. The original inspiration of the name comes from one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth languages, literally meaning “dauntless.”

Advice/Tips for young players:

Always remember to have fun. It becomes so easy, even in the world of recreational woodsball, to forget that paintball is only a game which we are playing to have fun. Even experienced players can forget this, myself included.

Favorite Paintball Memory:

It was the 2007 Hunt for the Cure charity event. It was my first time serving as an XO. I saw the best of both worlds in scenario paintball that game, both functioning as a commander and getting to play up with the guys trading paint. My general utilized my team as a means for real-time frontline updates. We traveled across the field, accomplishing missions and keeping the troops organized. For our efforts, my team was awarded the MVT award and one of my teammates was awarded MVP, I have never been prouder of my team than that day.

Future Plans in Paintball:

The Sentinels are planning on attending more national events in 2009 and beyond, including returning to Oklahoma D-Day and attending at least one Viper event. I personally am pursuing a general position at one of Splat Tag’s 2009 events.

Behind the Gogs:

While paintball is one of my main hobbies, I’m also involved in martial arts. I hold a 2nd degree black belt in karate, and I have cross-trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as supplementary training. When I have the means and time to film while playing paintball, I run with a helmet camera and produce paintball videos. I’m a computer science major at the University of Minnesota, graduating this December. I’ll be looking at a software engineering position from there.

Piece of gear you could not live without and why:

As I sweat very easily, I can fog up incredibly fast.  I could not live without my Vforce Profiler, as it has been the only mask I’ve owned that doesn’t readily fog in normal paintball conditions.

Paintball Heroes

: Farmland Paintball Club, a local club in Minnesota, and Damage Inc. are also heroes to me for introducing me to the best form of paintball I have ever known - pump play. The last is one of our own, Tyger, as he was the one that introduced me to the concept of helmet camera technology in paintball.

In His Own Words:

I take my role as a team captain, an experienced player, and as a Christian seriously. Not only am I representing my team, my game, and my field, but my Lord as well. I’m not perfect, we’re all human, but I always do what I can to correct the mistake. I’ll admit, I’ve reacted to frustrating circumstances. We all have. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and do your best to repair the problem. We, the experienced players, are going to be the ones setting the example for the newer players out there. I’d like to think more of us were setting a positive, family-friendly example. Do we really need to be so antagonistic over a game? Do we really need to have a poor attitude because the mission isn’t going as smoothly as we had hoped it would? Do we really need to let that string of profanity out when that player bonus balls us a few times too many? The new players look to experienced ones for an example, and if they see this destructive behavior coming from us, they’ll emulate it. I know I’m preaching a lot, even to myself (especially to myself in fact). I’ve heard many complain about the state that paintball is in—we blame the “pros” or the “tourney crowd” or any number of other things, but at the end of the day, we, the experienced players out at the woodsball field, are going to be the ones that make the biggest impact on a newer player’s image of what paintball is all about.

The Lowdown

Birthplace: Edina, MN
Hometown: Plymouth, MN
Special Ops Brigade Name: Thalion
Current Team: The Sentinels (http://www.sentinelspaintball.com)
Sponsors: The Sentinels are sponsored by Splat Tag, our home paintball field located just across the Minnesota/Wisconsin border near Hudson.
Honors/awards/command: Most Valuable Team at the Hunt for the Cure 2007 charity scenario
XO for several Splat Tag events in 2007 and 2008

« Back to Profiles.