Bob Long, 2022 Hall of Icons Inductee

The Master Planner

Notable Teams: Ironmen, Assassins, Blast. 

When it comes to pursuing greatness, no player did that with more passion than Bob Long. A professional player from the late 80s and all the way into the mid-2000s, Bob was able to win World Championships in three different decades of paintball while being one of the most respected and vocal business owners in the game. After he retired, he became one of the best coaches in the game's history, with many all-time great players coming from his coaching tree such as Tyler Harmon, John Marques, Rich Telford and nearly every other professional player from California. Bob was a master planner on the field and was the centerpiece of many great Ironmen championships during their golden era run of the 90’s. He continued to find success into the early 2000s with his team, Oakland Assassins. Bob had the unmatched ability to walk onto any field, and consistently formulate winning game-plans whether it was in the woods, on the hyperball field, or on the airball field. He demanded excellence both on the field and with his business BLAST, which ignited the tech wars of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He pushed paintball technology to its limits and was consistently ahead of his time in both design and implementation of new ideas into the sport of paintball. ​