PALS Singapore 2015

I'm pretty mad about PALS Singapore because we started playing great on Saturday, but played like amateurs on the Friday. With only the top 4 going through straight to the semi-finals, screwing up Friday sent us home. Other than that, this event was really spectacular. The field is one of the best I've ever been too. A perfectly flat AstroTurf playing surface and an expertly organised event. Well done to the PALS Singapore team!

Friday, we played Aisawan, Xtioneers and Demonic. We started off OK against Aisawan, lost a 7 and a half minute point and couldn't get it back in the remaining time. We had some things against us, like people borrowing our guns before we left Perth and breaking them on the eve of the event. That's a nice way to go into an event. And we shot the bounciest paint known to man. It was a fair loss to Aisawan though, some things didn't go our way, they played well and I could deal with it and was ready to move on with the rest of the games. Next we played Xtioneers. It was a close game but I didn't feel like we weren't in control. Then we started getting penalties. We essentially won the point to put us at 3-2, but got a penalty right at the end and voided the point. We finished with a tie. And then we played Demonic -- they had the Asian version of Dave Baines shooting me on the break every point. And it wasn't just a couple of balls landing, I was arriving to my bunker covered in his paint. It was some really good breakshooting. From the pits for most of the game, I'd watch the game get to 4vs4, feel hopeful and then watch us die out of our spots, leaving us with another loss.

We weren't playing as a team, people weren't being smart on the field and we weren't adjusting to the other teams. We weren't talking to each other off the field about it. It was pretty hopeless. There was some shouting and then we went back to the hotel.

On Friday night I texted Stevie and Devon from bed and said what the game plan was going to be. I normally hate doing this, I want everyone's input. But it just wasn't working and I thought we still had a slim chance to make it through if we could win all three of our games on Saturday. I woke up pretty jacked at 4:30am, ready to do whatever it would take to keep us in the tournament.

First in the morning we had to verse Infernal. I briefed the team on the changes to the game plan. We quickly went down 0-3, with getting a penalty on the third point. I wasn't too happy about that and may have lost my mind for a minute in the pit. I wanted to preserve whatever slim chance we had of making it into the top 4. I remember feeling a huge sense of "going for it" as we played the next 3 points as hard as we could, being as aggressive as possible and sprinting the buzzer in to preserve the clock. We managed to get the score back to 3-3, but were unable to win the final point, leaving us with a draw. It was a nice feeling for us to finally be playing good -- it took some shouting and a lot of frustration, but we arrived. Too bad it was much too late.

We won our next 2 games. This left us with 3 points total from the prelims, we needed at least 4 to be in with a shot at the top 4. So we didn't make Sunday.

We did the same thing in Thailand but squeaked through and won. But it's not sustainable, we need to look at how we prepare for the events.

Now the long wait till World Cup Asia.

PALS Thailand 2015

After a while you do start to think "are we ever going to win?" Not to say we hadn't come close recently -- we came 2nd months before at WCA in overtime. But it takes so much at and between each event, that to just fall short again and again starts to make you wonder.

Our PALS Thailand experience started this year like it has pretty much every time we set foot in Thailand... we struggled. On Friday, we lost all of our games. Nothing was working, we couldn't make it to our spots alive, we couldn't live even when we did make it out and we were getting penalties. Sometimes the team drives me mad... I know we can play better but we just can't hit our peak. I've tried being enthusiastic and positive when it gets like that to bring us back... and I've tried screaming and shouting. It can be frustrating and it’s compounded by the fact that neither approach seems to work. I guess we just run on feeling and nothing helps to get that feeling going manually.

We lost our first 3 matches, the first one against Demonic was close We went up two points and then they came back two points. The score was tied with under 20 seconds left on the clock. We got a penalty and awarded Demonic a swing point. Next we played Raskal, who dismantled us 0-4 Then we played Infernal. We lost the first two points, then won a point -- I thought we'd reached a turning point, and then, another penalty.

The prelims were winding down, we had no wins, we were pretty certain we were going to be knocked out. I was Whatsapping friends back home my sad face.

The team poured in heaps of useful feedback. With it, we swapped up who was playing where and then everything just fell into place. We managed to draw out two victories against the toughest Perth Crisis we've ever seen in a 3-1 game, and the Xtioneers, 4-0. We played these games at our peak, and I remember feeling a bit frustrated that we'd just managed to hit it when it was quite possibly too late. Highlights for me were Farran consistently getting us a kill on the break, Stevie making it out wide, Timmy weaving up the middle and Nalds holding down the snake side.

But, with our meager two wins we were just about resided to the fact we had to go home disappointed. As we were packing up, Amber informed us our point spread JUST enough to push us through the prelims and into the next round.

It was a relief, we all had minor hugs except Farran (he has a no-celebration policy).

Our first quarter final round game was against Crisis again. It was a long and tough match, but we were able to get up points and sit on our lead with the clock on our side. We won 4-1. And then we had to play Infernal. We were able to win our game against them as well, 4-0. This knocked Crisis out of the quarterfinal round and sent us and Infernal on.

Our semi-final matchup was against Demonic. By this point I think we had a strong grip on the field and our confidence had completely turned around from non-existent to feeling unstoppable. With some early break kills on both sides, there was a drawn out 3 vs 3 the first point, and after that we were able to stay on top of it and win 4-0, sending us through to the finals to verse Infernal again, who had defeated Aisawan in their semi-final.

In the pits before the game started, we shot some glances around suggesting "bring it in for a speech?" but instead just had some knowing-nods, a few high-fives and the consensus "nothing needs to be said." Confidence was high and I felt proud to be part of STK.

And then we won and it was cool. I felt, relieved if anything. I think it's the paintball cliche to say a win is relieving but it is! All that time between events practicing, the rollercoaster at the event itself, and then to come out on top... it's good.

We had a lot of help at the event from Perth friends. Thank you everyone. And Papi, Amber and Devon. Howie, Scott, both Adams, Bubba, Jeremy, May, Mick. Sorry if I missed anyone.

Most importantly, we are getting further and further along with our partnership with Dye and the amount of support we receive from them is truly appreciated. Rambo trialled the Rotor R2's at the event and loved it.

Thank you to our home field in Perth, WASP Paintball.

And thanks to the team for your commitment, time, money and friendship.

World Cup Asia 2014

I want to start this blog backwards by giving the biggest thanks to all of our supporters. It is truly humbling. From our closest supporters who we consider family -- the Ogdens (children included) and Michelle -- who've travelled for years at their own expense to be there for all of the highs and lows, to our great friends who seem to love us just for being a scraggly bunch of paintballers from Perth, helping us tirelessly in the pits and with shouting their lungs out from the sidelines. And those who give us praise and look up to us back home.. Thank you. It makes paintball so much more worthwhile and so much bigger than the game itself, and that is what I love about it. And our sponsor, Dye -- like I said when they took us onboard and rewarded us with more and more support over the years -- it is again truly humbling for something we started as friends when we were kids, to be taken seriously by a big company like Dye. 

This WCA was a rollercoaster, with us getting off to a slow start on friday, winning only 1 of our 3 games, ALMOST guaranteeing we would not be able to progress into the top 4. We lost to Datis and Nemesis, and won against the Xtioneers. With things looking dire, we knew our only chance was to win all of our remaining games and leave it to "the paintball gods" that another team would have a misstep worse than ours.

We went into saturday with a new approach, scrapping the idea the the field layout relied on overpowering the opponents with aggression and racing to the 50's. We based everything around the idea that we were going to be a wall of paint, sit in our bunkers, shoot 10 pods each and slow-play it out. We executed our game as a team and were able to win all 4 of our matches on Saturday against Raw, Hellbourne, Lost Boys and Beezwaxers.

I'd almost resided myself to the fact that WCA was done for another year, but in the 2nd last preliminary game between Hellbourne and Nemesis (who was playing rediculously good and pushing us into 5th seed) -- I couldn't help but get excited as Hellbourne put up point after point against a Nemesis that showed up to win world cup. The match ended with Hellbourne beating Nemesis 4-0, sending Nemesis home and scraping us through into the top 4 in last position. This moved us on to play the so far undefeated Raskal in the Sunday club.

We'd watched them play all event, we said in our team meeting the night before "better the devil you know" given we've have several scrap-outs with the powerful Raskal since they revamped their team and nearly won WCA last year. We didn't change anything going into our game against them, we just loaded up on pods and went out there and hid in our bunkers and shot our guns. They're great at doing exactly that too, so it made for an intense and close game. It almost slipped away too with all 5 of us being shot out and Raskal sprinting in for the buzzer but unable to make it before time expired. We went to overtime against them, were able to draw a penalty on them and take the win sending us into our second world cup finals appearance against Aisawan, who had just beaten Datis with guests Bear Degedio and Maximus Lunquist.

I can't speak highly enough of Aisawan and how the play the game. They're agressive and disciplined, have great gun skills and won Thailand at the start of the year. We went into the match and won the first long, long point, with all of us just sitting in our bunkers dumping paint and not wanting to be the first one to make a mistake. We were communicating and working as a team. The second point was another long one, but this time going to Aisawan. As we came out for the 3rd point with less than 3 minutes on the clock, I said to the team "this is probably going to be the last point." Sure enough, the game whittled down to about 20 seconds of game time remaining, we had all the 50's, we started launching, some of us getting taken out and some trading, leaving Rambo and Farran to sprint the buzzer in with about 3 seconds left with no Aisawan players still alive. Farran slammed into the buzzer, on the replay it looks as if he touched it in time, but I think the game timer and the web-cast timer are slightly out -- I hope so anyway... It was a null-point, meaning we'd go in for 3 minutes overtime.

Again, we went onto the field and played another long point and dinked out Aisawan players until at about 15 second mark, they had 3 left -- 1 in the snake, shooting at me in the dorito's, a back centre and one at the small A on the dorito side. Again we started launching, and after all the madness just Stevie was left sprinting the buzzer in. I thought he got it and started jumping up and down, felt some elation that oh my god, we'd won world cup, then the refs signalled null point again.

We were fired up, we felt like we knew how to beat them, we started getting ready to come out for a second over time point. We lined up on the start gate, 10 minutes went by with both teams waiting at the start gate. We finally went inside and learnt that there's only 1 overtime point, if there's still no outcome from the overtime point, then the winner is decided by who went into the finals with a higher seed from the prelims. Aisawan was that team and the win was awarded to them.

Aisawan didn't jump up and down or break into wild celebrations, instead they said "sorry" to us and shook our hands. It was great sportsmanship, and also, I feel like STK did some great sportsmanship too taking the loss so well. The ref who informed us that the winner was decided by prelim score was apologising profusely to us in tears. It was nice that he cared. We don't feel any bitterness about the outcome, we had a great time partying with Aisawan at the players party and exchanging jerseys -- they are cool guys -- and we hope this can be the start of a friendly and respectful rivalry between our two great teams. They knocked us out of the finals in Thailand at the start of the year in overtime, so I feel like we always matchup for an exciting game.

[Missing] Super 7's Round 3 2014

[Missing] Super 7's Round 2 2014

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!

[Missing] Super 7's Round 1 2014

[Missing]