PaintballX3 Magazine October, 2013 | Page 87

TOURNAMENT Empire DFender Without a doubt, the most talked-about new paintball gun at the 2013 PSP World Cup wasn’t even a tournament marker, but rather a woodsball/scenario/tactical marker, the Empire DFender. With markers from the BT line like the TM7 and TM16 Empire has long been a contender with high-performance woodsball markers, but they really kicked it up a notch with their DFender, a high-tech, futuristic, bullpup-looking marker with an Empire Z2 force-feed hopper built into its buttstock! While Empire may not be the first to-bat with the hopperless concept as Tom Kaye tried it with the Warp Feed system, placing the hopper in unused space alongside his Automag marker between the shooter’s arms and the Mag-fed clan has been duking it out hopperless for some time now, LLX3.COM Empire has truly integrated a fast, forcefeed hopper system entirely into the body of the marker, allowing the player to sight along the top of the marker and eliminate hopper hits from the realm of possibility once and for all. An electronic marker with shift-on-the-fly shooting modes, a standard uber-ported Freak-insert-ready barrel, a single-point sling swivel, bottom-line mounted on/off bottle adapter/regulator, plenty of accessory rails and an adjustable vertical/angled foregrip, the Empire DFender won’t be priced like an entry-level marker but it certainly brings innovation, performance, features and an aggressive look to the battlefield and if World Cup was any indication, Empire has another hit on their hands! Look for a full review soon in PaintballX3 and learn more online at www. EmpirePaintball.com. 87