Editing Yosh Rau (section)

== Early career ==

Rau grew up in Northern California and began playing paintball with school friends and neighbourhood players, including [[Ryan Greenspan]], in Sebastopol.

At approximately 15 years of age, he began working as a paintball marker technician at Pacific Paintball, a business later associated with [[KAPP]] (Kick Ass Paintball Products). His work included maintaining and repairing [[Autococker]] and [[Automag]] markers.[1]

Rau and Greenspan subsequently became involved in organised tournament competition at Mare Island Paintball, where field operator [[Eric Crandall]] introduced them to [[Alex Fraige]] and [[Oliver Lang]].

The group became part of the Northern California tournament scene and competed with [[IronKids]], a youth team that helped develop several future professional players.[1][5]