Sunday, September 20, 2009

Make 'em wear it.

Make 'em wear it, shooting faces, "I don't wanna see nothin' but hate comin' outta those barrels." (Compliments of Shadel) Call it whatever you want but it comes down to kills, g's, shock counts and eleminations. The point of paintball is to shoot the other guy before he shoots you.

CPA played in the San Jose/Hollister event this weekend and we played 5 man-single A. The top division in the RPL West Coast tournament series. A move up not only in format, but up a divison, a choice we decided to make after sitting down with the guys. Everyone wants to be the best player they can be, obviously because many of us have put in countless hundreds of hours (not to mention dollars) over-in some cases- tens of years of tournament paintball experiance. We want, as all regional level teams should, to move out of the RPL one day and make it to a level such as the USPL or the PSP. Sandbagging doesn't make anyone better.

This event proved to be interesting, as do all of CPA's events. The format breaks down like this: All the teams in each division play eachother for win points in a best two out of three (a one on one determining any tied series') the top eight move on to semi-finals and play the same format, from there the best four teams make it to the finals on sunday afternoon. That is, of course, if there are enough teams for semi finals, or even for prelims. The 5-A division was lacking enough teams to eleminate anyone from prelims so Saturday was essentially an expensive-glorified practice. CPA stepped on the field saturday morning fired up and ready to play, but was quickly knocked back on their heel's by Wanted, a team that stood by themselves in the A-Open divison, so was placed in the A-5 man divison in order to get their money's work, another high five to Sean Walker and the RPL. CPA was fired up, but not running on all cylinders, missing moves and losing gun-fights, personally, just in this first set with Wanted I missed two 'easy' kills when players ran through my lane. This first set would foreshadow the outcome of the rest of the event...kinda'. Ill explain.

CPA's next opponant was Rockstar Rebels and the situation was similar to the last set against Wanted, poorly timed moves, missed kills, unnessissairy trade-outs were some of the things that plagued the team and made CPA's record a disheartening 0-4.

Next on the schedual was Poso Creek Possy, a team that took second in the divison at the last RPL event in Oceanside. Theyre a good team, and they quickly rolled CPA up adding another two losses to the already loss heavy record. Needless to say things werent going well. The game was a pretty contreversial one, with myself whiping an obvious hit on my hopper in front of a very Poso heavy crowd. On a personal level though the game and the controversy that followed was a very enightening experiance for me. Im originally from the mid-west, a traditionally X-ball playing region of the country, in mid-west X-ball, cheating is part of the game. With players on opposing teams even congratulating eachother of successful 'whipes', getting away with cheating is an art. But thats the mid-west, and thats X-ball. This is neither, and after realizing how much its frowned upon here on the west coast, I personally went up to the team, and the individual whos' hit I whiped and appologized after explaining the differances between the regional styles of play. The Poso boys were welcoming and at least seemed understanding. Im just glad that things got put on the level before a DSO - New Jack City type rivalry was formed. An ugly, ugly thing.
Back on topic, the weekend was starting to look like a long one. We went back to the hotel a depressing 0-6. That night in the rooms was filled with X's and O's and a lot of debating. CPA showed up Sunday with a mixed attitude, but we were ready to play. Wanted opted out of playing on Sunday and took the automatic win in the Open divison. CPA's first set in the semi- finals was against Poso, splitting the set at 1-1 and prompting a third game later in the day. Next, Poso played Rockstar Rebels and promptly rolled them up, winning both games required to win the set in a remarkably short time, aggressive moves and great shooting by the Poso boys made short work of the Rebels' defensive style of play.
Ironicly enough, a combination of earlier altercations and being consistantly being late to their games, the Rebels were kicked out of the event after a loud exchange of words with Poso, in Poso's defense, the Rebels were the ones who instigated it.
So Rockstar is gone, prompting Sean and the RPL staff to start a new series between CPA and Poso, essentially the finals, after all, there were only two teams left.
The Poso boys showed what they had by out gun-battling us and countering the breakout that had proven effective against them earlier in the day. Poso took first and CPA took second.

Looking back, the weekend was more of a learning experiance for us than anything, the fact that we came home with an arguably un-earned second place was a bonus, but we essentially payed entry for an eye-opener instead of a paintball tournament. CPA did not play poorly, consistantly playing down to the last couple points with each team most games, but faltered when it came to end-game stratagy. With some very last minute roster changes and moving up some players from our AA-3 man team, we werent firing on all cylanders. All things considered, CPA is a young team with a lot of bugs to work out, but expect us to be playing much closer to our potential come Oceanside time.
That's all for now, I'll be sure to keep you all updated as work and play allow.

-Nick Lacher
#000

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