World Cup 2010 - D4 Xball Champs, D5 5man 3rd place

So I know I’ve been totally lax in my duties to update this blog, but sooooooo much stuff has been going on. To give a short recap (I promise I’ll go back to the old ways of a weekly update), Team Fuse played pretty well this season. After missing the cut in HB by 1 point (yes . . . 1 point), we bounced back and made Sunday in both Chicago and DC. While we didn’t make finals at either event, I was pleased with the team’s overall progress by making Sunday in 2 consecutive events.

Then there was Project X. Jon convinced me to take the younger guys down to World Cup for a little Xball action. Since I’m ranked d3 in that league, I was able to tag along and add some monster lane shooting.

The first day was a little rough — nearly dropped a game to Cincy PB. These guys had done their homework, they were up our asses from the opening horn and went 3-0 on us quickly. After my line ran the first two points and got skunked, I sent line 2 out there and was able to see how they were beating us. After a quick plan change, my line went back out and won 4 straight points to win it in overtime. Much love to the Cincy boys, they put the shock on us for sure. Great match.

Game 2 – my boys were tired after only 20 minutes off from running a ton of points in the row. We loose the game to Central Florida 2-4.

Day 2, Game 3 – Smash fest. It was so fast, I’m not even quite sure I remember who we played. 4-0. At this point, we’re in a race with Cincy for points since they 4-0′d their next games. We have to keep up the point differential.

Game 4 – Smash again. We played YJP. Classically, we’ve gone back and forth with this team, but we were feeling our oats. Funny thing is, I get a major penalty (Yes, mark your calendars for 10-21-10 — the day Warner got a major penalty) when we were up 3 bodies on 1. As such, they won the point. We win the match 4-1.

Day 3, Game 5 – We have to win this one, and we do. 4-0′d a team that literally was on our side of the field on every break. Super fast kids.

Game 6 – We win 4-1. Game is super fast, so I really don’t remember who we played.

Game 7 – Things are a little fuzzy towards the end of the day on Saturday. Sleep deprivation had taken over. That said, I think we 4-0′d the 7th game. Maybe 4-1. This game was funny because I stabbed a kid in the snake (sawed him in half I think) and came looping around the X only to be shot at by dorrito 1. Thinking that I had already cleared that side, I pull a sweet-ass retreat around the back side of the X and start to run down that D1 player while Hammons is keeping him on lock down. This is the point that I realize that it’s Tyler. Damn. I really wanted to get a coast-to-coast stabbing. Or I just wanted to stab Tyler . . . Whichever .

That win puts us into Sunday against Lift Kids to decide who will play for 1st.

Day 4, game 8 – SMAAAAAAASH! It was cold and dark, I couldn’t see over the fog my gun was producing and the mist that was all over my googles, but somehow I kept shooting their snake player. We win 4-0 in record time and are going to face Hulk in the finals.

Game 9 – Out of the gate, Hulk puts the stun on us. Bad. My line gets a major penalty in each of the first 2 points, and we go down 0-2 super fast. I turn it over to line 2 . . . who completely beast on Hulk. 1-2. I put them back out. 2-2. I’m feeling good about how that line is doing. Put them back out for a third point, but it was not to be . . . 2-3. Line 2 comes back into the pit and sends us out to finish things. They’ve carried us up to this point, so it’s time for line 1 to handle business. We break out penalty free, and completely dominate the 6th point. 3-3.

This is where things get really cool . . . we come back in the pit, I burn a time out to catch our breaths. And everyone in the pit is wiping us down, giving us drinks high-5ing. The Vipers, who were on the next game were totally helping pod and get us ready to go out there. It was the second coolest thing that happened at Cup. It was really unbelievable.

So we go out for the final point, and I don’t think there was doubt in anyone’s mind that we were going to win that point. We do. It’s fast, we smash them. Hamm and I each shoot a guy on the break so we’re up 2 bodies immediately. Dougie makes it to the snake alive and motors to snake 2. I see Zach in d3 and Tyler on his ass in D1. I’m not sure who got the k’s, but we shot out 2 more guys pretty quickly. The last guy is in snake feeder and decides he’s going to do something heroic . . . we have 5 guys up, so you can imagine what happened to him.

I snatch up the flag and get within 2 steps of the start box when it dawns on me that this is the match point. I spin around and scream “COME WIN WORLD CUP WITH ME!” I think Tyler ended up hanging it, but when the double buzzer sounded, the field got mobbed with bA guys jumping on each other and going nuts. This was the coolest thing ever . . . a feeling i’ll not soon forget.

Long story short: We sent out our last invitation to THE POWER HOUSE to team Hulk and sent them back to the Ukraine. So really, this is a story about a group of 12 rag-tag guys who went to cup, learned how to beast together, and totally won world cup.  I am still impressed at the poise and heart shown by the guys on the second line.  It was really amazing to see.

In other news . . . the d5 guys took 3rd. bA vs. the world: bA 2- world 0.

I have made the cut only one time in my 8 years of tournament play at a national event.  I have had very little success with any team I have been on at national events.  I just can’t understand why my teams and I are having such little success.   Our current team is the best I have ever played for.  We crush good teams at practice and even hang with the Pro teams that we do practice against throughout the month.  We can have a month’s worth of good practices and come time for the event, something switches off in our teams heads.  We just returned from Huntington Beach, CA for the first event of the year, the Surf City Open.  We missed the cut by 1 point, which means that is like missing a free throw in basketball 8 times in a row to win the game.  Even though we were close to making the cut, it really shouldn’t have been close at all.  We gave games away and really only played to our talent level in two of our games.

Now, we have all had our time to think about this and that and what should and can we do.  But, I’m going to change my own personal ways of thinking and concentrate on the future and not the past.  Our team has talked and we all know where we stand, so that is that.  We have a bigger focus and a new hunger to tame and that’s our next event in Chicago at the end of May.  See, our team has evolved in such a short time.  Previous years, we would still be crying on why we didn’t make the cut and why we played so bad.  This is truely a thing of the past, for we now concentrate on surpassing our negative thoughts and actions with positive self-motivation which gives our team the fuel to march onward together, side by side, as ONE.

Even though we failed to make, the team showed a lot of improvement in some areas that have been big issues in the past.  Everyone sees these improvements and is in good spirits coming out of HB.  We have 5 weeks worth of practice before the next event in Chicago.  We will not be practicing this weekend but we’ll pick right up where we left off next weekend.  We’re all real hungry to get back on the field and put on a strong showing in Chicago.  Hope to see a lot of you at practice or the event, its going to be a grind!

Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to post as many pictures that I would have liked so far.  Hopefully within the next couple days Ill have some more photos from HB posted up for you viewing pleasure.

Heading to the hotel in HB 2010

Walkin' the fields in HB

Peep the new hotness

It’s gonna be a good trip

Frag

Well, here we are FINALLY!  It seems like it’s been eternity since we last played an event on the national level.   We leave for HB in less than two days to test what we have been working on for the last month plus.  Going into any event, players are nervous about many things.  Weather it’s how they are going to do or will everything go as planned, and will we be successful?  I just ask the question, what do we consider successful?  Winning the event?  Playing good?  Not getting screwed by the ref’s, paint and equipment?  A lot of factors go into being successful in my opinion.

Of course we want to win and be proud of all the hard work that we put into preparation for the event.  But I, as always, disagree with that being the only way of considering success.  I think as a whole, we have grown as a team and as a family away from our family.  I would do anything for anybody on our team and I know the same would come in return.  Was that accomplished by winning events?  I would say no, because we haven’t won any and yet, and were as close as you can get.

Weather or not we win this event or even do well, we have made strides in our game that has far exceeded what I expected this early in the year.  We’re as prepared as we have ever been and I think that should translate come time to play in HB.  I know that if it doesn’t translate into us winning games, it’s not a big deal, because this first event is a foundation for the remaining portion of the season.  I do know that if we attack the rest of our paintball season like we have in preparation for HB, we will not only be successful, we will be successful in every aspect that a team can have.

Nicky

So, where do I begin?  Now that my tour of duty has come and (almost, not just yet) gone, its time to look back on a things and reflect.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a frame of time that has gone by so fast, yet so ridiculously slow at the same time.  There were many perks to my time spent abroad.  We don’t have to pay for much of anything over here (i.e. food, gas, groceries).  Just about the only things you have to pay for are hair cuts and any luxury items you may want.  Outside of those few things, all earnings go in your pocket.  Unless you have bills of course, like myself.

On top of money you get free health care, you can’t get fired, and who wouldn’t want one hellacious farmers tan? Now after seeing the benefits of serving overseas, it may look like great gig.  But unfortunately there are just as many downfalls as there are dollar signs in the air.  The biggest one that may come to mind is the enemy and the all the dangers that come with them.  Happy to say I was fortunate enough to not have encountered anything to brutal during my stint.  Although the enemy may be the most noticeable downfall, there are others that stand above.  Being this far away means you’re away from family, friends, teammates, hobbies, and the list goes on.  All the little things that most people take for granted are gone.  I’ve never wanted to just jump in my car and drive around with the radio on so much in my life.  The appreciation for the little things grows quite a bit. Beyond ups and downs, I did my best to stay in contact with a number of guys on the team.  See how everyone was doing personally, and how the team was doing as a whole.

It was very interesting hearing the different opinions from my teammates.  I’m glad to report that there was no real negativity in anyone’s comments.  Everyone team, no matter who you are, has rocky moments.  Times when players get aggravated and the doorway seems to narrow.  But heads were being held high and hopes were even higher.  Hearing that kind of optimism from the team as a whole brought the largest smile to my face. I didn’t do as much moving around over here as I originally thought I was going to.  We sat for about a month waiting for our trucks to be operational.  Then spent a number of months south of Baghdad working projects to improve security, and life in general, on a small base near Al Kut.  From there my squad only pulled one more major project, north of Baghdad this time.  It only lasted a few weeks and we were back to home sweet home, camp Stryker (Baghdad). The more that time went on, it actually grew easier to except that I wasn’t playing paintball.  The lack of paintball magazines and high speed internet made it hard to watch any videos if i wanted to do so.  Also with the work load, it kept us busy most of the time.  Coming home for my 2 week leave may have been the most awkward.  Although I had talked tactics, game plans, future ideas, and anything about the sport in general with my teammates a great deal.  Not actually playing had taken a large toll on my drive to pick up a marker.  I showed up to a practice to get some playing time in, see the team and kiss hands and shake babies.  But it took a bit of time to actually put my gear, the drive seemed to be some what gone.

More to come soon . . .

Frag

After 376 days of inactivity, it’s just about that time to update whats, what on Team Fuse.  With the winter and New Year coming and going, we fired up the new season in full force.  We carried over the positives that we gained as a team last year right into this season.  We had the privilege last season to hook-up with Indianapolis Mutiny and grind it out non-stop.  We learned SO much from them last year that our team and individual production skyrocketed.

With each new year, brings new things.  We lost players and we picked up players.  We got a real solid Mid-player in Ryan Wilber and we got back or corner player, Mr. Nick Hoffman who just spent a stint in Iraq.  Wilber comes from Unlimited, a solid D2 Xball team.  This is his first time playing a full 7-man season, but I would say he’s doing just fine.  Nicky is old school BA and really only left us due his call for country, which we appreciate.

We have been grinding for Huntington Beach now since the start of January.  Long travel days and long 2 day practices all for what we love.  This will be my 3rd year with this team and I must say that were stronger than ever.  Our team is playing as one and ALL of our heads are pointed towards the same goal, winning.  We had struggled in the past with the entire team concept.  I will say this is something we learned from Mutiny also.  Those guys don’t panic, don’t waiver and keep the same goal in mind no matter the situation there team is in.  We have watched, applied and now were hoping to utilize it this year.

We have high expectations for the season, not because we should, but because of our unity as a team.  We know how much playing as a team impacts how you do at events.  Our on and off the field relationship has brought us to and through the crossroads of paintball.  It’s up to us to continue down the path we chose, not as individuals, but as a team.