PALS Thailand 2014

I'm flying home from the first round of the PALS in Bangkok, Thailand. We finished third. This is has been our best showing in Thailand, with it typically bring our Achilles heel. Despite this, it feels like a very disappointing 3rd place. In previous years, I had felt grateful to make it just to the top 4. I don't think I'd felt like we were playing good enough to win before. But this time we were and it just slipped away in one hot overtime point in the semi finals.

Our prelims went pretty standard, with us winning 4 games and losing 2 to Xtioneers and Raskal. The same Raskal that was on the precipice of winning WCA showed up to play, and the 3 games we had against them throughout the tournament were definitely our most grueling.

Quarter finals consisted of two games, with us facing off against Demonic and Raskal. We were able to smarten up our game plan from a definitive loss to Raskal in the prelims and come away with 2 quarter final wins, leaving us to face off against Asiawan in the semifinal.

We got penalties early in the match and quickly went down 0-2. Back at full strength, we were able to make a comeback and tie the game up at 2-2 and take the game into and overtime point. In this critical point, Rambo took a ball that bounced of another bunker early on, quickly followed by Farran and and Devon getting shot out of their bunkers. This left Trav and I in a 2 vs. 5 against an Aisawan that smelt blood. We were able to slow them down for a few minutes but were eventually picked off, advancing Aisawan to the finals which they won. This left us to verse Raskal again in the playoffs for 3rd and 4th.

Again, it was a slow and technical match with communication and hiding being the key at the beginning of the points against their strong back gunners. We went up 2 points, and then they came back 2 points to tie the match with just under two minutes on the clock. We went into the next next point knowing it would be the decisive point. Rambo was able to dink their dorito player on the hopper and draw a penalty, blowing out their dorito side, so Farran and I advanced down that side and we won the point with 5 seconds left on the clock, awarding us the 3rd place.

The infrastructure at the field was excellent and the event organisers were very helpful and accommodating having us over for our 5th Thailand event.

I'm glad we had Dye Ultralight gear as on Friday we played in 45 degrees and high humidity. Our DM14s were on point as usual and anything we needed, Dye was there to support us.

We'd also really like to thank Michelle who coached us all weekend and did a great job, as well as Milad, Preecher, Dennis, Amber and anyone else who helped us out in the pits!