Paintball Magazine Premier Issue, May 2015 | Page 58

An Interview
With Fabian Gruetze
By John Amodea

In the United States there are a handful of amazing
paintball big games/scenario games. Oklahoma
D-Day, Living Legends, Fulda Gap and the SuperGame
are some of the best games the U.S. has to offer.
But across the pond there are also a number of
legendary big games, not the least of which is the
EuroBigGame, held in Germany. I recently cause up
with Fanbian Gruetze to learn a bit more about the
game. Don’t forget to check back here next month
for full coverage of the EuroBigGame.
Fabian, what is the history of the EuroBigGame?
How long has the event been running? What are the
origins? Etc.
The event started as a gathering of some paintball playing
friends in 1996. 1997 was the first “official” EuroBigGame
with a stunning –for that time- 80 participants. Due to
problems with German authorities, who did not like the

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military character of the game, the event was held in
France. It remained there until 2004 and reached a peak
of 1000 players.
Finally, the decision was made to move the event to
Germany. A field was found in Mahlwinkel in a former
Soviet air base, and fortunately the locals were very
open-minded about paintball. It was there when we
first introduced armed vehicles to the game and the
EuroBigGame cracked the magical number of 2000
participants. Unfortunately, the field was closed a few
years later, so the EuroBigGame had to move on to
another former military base in Falkenhagen, near
the border to Poland. But that was merely a short visit,
very quickly the decision was made to move back to
Mahlwinkel and use a different, way bigger part of the
same soviet site as before. And here we are now, with an
exciting field, a huge camping and party site, real tanks
and the history that still is noticeable between all the
buildings and hangars.