PB#4: Game ON!!!

*Deep breaths...*

(Mentally counting) * 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..*

"GAME OOOWWWWNNNNN!!!", shouts the head referee.

*pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak pak*
(the sweet sound of marker firing and pallets hitting bunkers)

For those of you still scratching your head wondering, this is what the first 20 seconds of a paintball match is like. As describable as it can be described. In words, of course. :-D

Another take on Team Wolverinez. Geng leh?! XD
*pic from www.my-npl.org // get more action here*

While the back players are 'spraying' paint, the front players run like MAD to their destined bunkers. They need to get as far out to the centre as they can, while the back players suppress with paint 'spray'. Well, that is in theory, at least. One thing is for sure, you can plan plan plan and strategize on paper until the cows come home, but once you're on the field, its a very different thing all together.

Teams must play like a pack of wolves in order to survive, and ultimately win. It is a prerequisite in every match. Play on your own, and you risk your team's win, and also asking for trouble - being the last man standing, in paintball, may not be a thing. Imagine this: getting showered with paint from 3 opponents. You may eliminate one, but the other two will rain down pallets and your bound to get HIT! More than once, that is. Doesn't sound too funn to be hero now, does it? XD

After the first 30 secs of breakout, it all boils down to communication -- something we all claim to be able to do and are good at. =/ Every player must scream shout out the location of any opponents they see so that everyone knows who is where. The louder, the better. Having a plastic mask on can make one quite deaf on the field, as i have personally experienced. Once an opponent's location has been identified, the backplayers would usually guide the frontplayers and/or will team up to take down a certian opponent.

Having said that, the formation would be 2-1-2; ie. the backright covers front right and vice versa for the left side. Backcenter, which is usally the captain, keeps an eye on both sides of the field and has to always be on their toes and cover any position of teammates who are eliminated. Shielding themselves from paints, they would also have to give out commands on where to shoot and who to take out. Somehow, strategy still plays an important part here. :-)

In essence, the backplayers would have a better view of the field compared to the front players because #1. They don't have to run; just focus and see where the opponents run to at breakout, #2. They have more cover from the back bunkers at which they are positioned. Backplayers are literally the eyes for the frontplayers. And because the layout is a mirrored (oppents have same bunker layouts as you), the backcenter usually cant see the opponents backcenter because there was a giant bunker right smack in the middle of the field.

SHOUTING, SHOUTING, and MORE SHOUTING!!

Blessed with a super loud voice, i must admit i seriously LOVED the SHOUTING bit in paintball. There's nothing more exhilirating for me than to scream from the top of my lungs, through the plastic facemask, during the match, any match!!

I know this sounds insane, but i seriously feel good when i get to shout in the field. I mean, compared to utterly useless screaming by myself on an empty field, getting to shout AT OTHERS, during an adreneline pumping paintball match, is like the bestest feeling on Earth lah!

All stress and anger is release at every shout. "Left dorito, left dorito, LEFT DORITO, LEFT DORITO...!!!!" Syiok lar, i tell you!! When you can't see the opponents, "Mana mana man??!!! Where where where?!! Hai pin tou??!! Hai pin tou?!!". And when you're under fire, "Woi.. cover me.. cover me... COVER ME!!!!!!"

Especially during some matches you're so stressed at either at the hot sun, or at one of your mate's outrageous performance; shouting out laud really makes you feel a whole lot better!! I'm gonna rank paintball as No.1 on my stress reliever list.

I urge you to do the same. Then contact MAPAAC to arrange for your paintball game. You'll never feel happier.. :-P

(err.. shout shout also, must refrain from uttering foul words.. if heard, will be disqualified. Yikes!! T__T)

WINS, LOSSES and MAKING HISTORY...

We did well in our fisrt two games. We won by eliminating all our opponents and grabbed their flag. Now, what happened after that was, we got cocky from our earlier wins. Over confidence is a major killer in paintball. Guess Team Yakuza had it the HARD WAY. But it was a good lesson.

Beaten in our 3rd game against WF4, we reevaluated ourselves. And we realized that we were the 1st D4 team to make history... Ready for this? :-)

We were the 1st D4 team ever who were penalized with the "ONE FOR ONE" penalty. This only happens in extreeme cases where when a player gets hit, and is called out by the ref, but plays on, the ref will pull that player out, as well as the nearest teammate to that the player that got hit!!.

Guess who got pulled out when EVo was hit in the head, with the head shot so obviously in sight?
No prizes for correct answers. XD XD XD
(EVo, told 'ya i wasn't gona let you forget it.. LOL! chill yahz.. bfadm.. XD)
Note: EVo thought the paintball has bounced off his head, that, why he didnt respond to the ref's call. Or he couldn't hear. Or was it both? LOL. Anyhow, it was a funn learning experience.

The subsequent game, we went up against Team Kejahatan, which i happen to know personally. A few of them are the people running Putra Paintball Park in Putrajaya, where i played while in UKM. What a surprise to know we would meet in the field. And what a pleasure it was, when we beat them, PLUS, me sending their team captain Adiman a head shot to the mask and forehead!!(still my friend, of course.. just no more student rate.. haha)

Now i finally understand the term, "Victory is SWEET" LOLx

6th round, with Alpha Marksman. whoohoh! EVo already had his forecast on the turnout, which is, "Goodbye to you..." Haha. But when we got into the field, as petrified scared as we were, we managed to put up a good fight -- to which we were also amazed ourselves. We took out FOUR of them while they returned the equal favor too. And then, it was down to ONE on ONE; Uncle Z and a cute lil akak Faz. But as it turned out, Uncle was guud.. but Kak Faz was slightly better. The Marksman won. :-)

The funny thing was, although we lost, we marched out of the field with our head held high feeling superb because we just had a game to remember against the Marksman. We were THIS *hand gestures*... Good game Alpha Marksman! Let's train together sometime, k? :-P

The final game against Ying Yang was pretty much figured out even before the game. These Ying Yang-ers are trained by a D1 team and has been in D4 for quite awhile. Woohoo.. no surprise there. :-D

This is the offical score sheet used during the match.

Eliminated players (opponents) = 4 points
Players alive (our team) = 2 points
Flag pull (or grab) = 20 points
Flag hang (at our starting gate) = 50 points

So you see, its good to eliminate opponents, better to grab flag, and the best is to hang it back on base. Staying alive in the game is a no-brainer. :-)

Match ends when head ref shouts, "GAME OVER!" Team captains must sign the score form to indicate they've accepted the results. When we win, my sign dam chun wan.. When we lose, it automatically becomes damn chin chai.. haha!

THE RESULTS...

Team Yakuza earned a total of 312 points from 3 wins and 3 losses and ranked at 13th place out of 28 teams. For Westerners, the number 13 is bad BAD luck. We Chinese think its a good number; 13 - sap sam (phonetically), but it also sounds like sat san (sure grow / go up). I had high hope for tmr...

We made it into the Sweet 16 round...!!

Which team does Team Yakuza battle out with?? Coming up in SWEET 16...