TPOC/Vietnam/PALS Singapore 2016

It's been a quiet year for STK so far. The only tournament we'd played together before Singapore was the first round of PALS in Kuala Lumpur. Typically we would have played a handful of local tournaments already, but the PPL has been transitioning into "NXL Australia" and their events have been scheduled to start much later in the year. And due to work commitments we haven't been able to field a full roster for the new Perth league, the MPS.

Some of our players are guesting for teams in Australia's Super 7's. Rambo and I were keen to have some extra-curricular activity of our own so we set our sights on the TPOC. We had heard many excellent reports of this event with several top teams from Asia in attendance. We were fortunate enough to be put in contact with Asia-Pacific champion, Infernal. After a few Facebook messages, we were scheduled in to join them for the second round of the TPOC in Bangkok. Coincidentally, the second leg of the PALS in Singapore was the following weekend. So Andrew and I booked the week off and planned some R&R in between the tournaments.

To guest with Infernal was an exciting. We have admired their team for many years. They beat us in the championship game at World Cup Asia in 2012 and were the overall series champions of PALS last year. Some of the best players in the Asia Pacific play on Infernal.

The tournament kicked off on Saturday. The field layout was challenging, there were a lot of big gaps and the wide bunkers were not ideal... small doritos and mini A's and pins. In typical Bangkok fashion, it was also hot. I wanted to play good for our new team-mates on Infernal, but it definitely wasn't an explode down the tapes kind of field. With the huge gaps it took a lot of patience and a lot of diving to survive the field. Rambo and I found it a bit easier to talk being on the same side of the field as the tournament progressed so I stuck it out with him on the snake side eventually. It was the kind of field where you really had to check off everything before moving.

It was a highlight to see the Infernal guys in action from the same side of the field, for once. We managed to play well and make it through the prelims in 2nd seed. This left us to play off against Raskal in the semifinals.

We came out strong, going up 2 points quickly. Then I got a penalty on the break -- I got hit on my outer-most pod, didn't know and gunned up. That cost us a point. Then we lost the next point. And the final point, it was a long one to start with. Then, we had some friendly fire on our side of the field, with Rambo accidentally getting shot. He was holding up the dorito side, once he was gone I looked over to catch a glimpse of Raskal flying down the dorito side. And then that was it. We lost and went into the playoffs for 3rd and 4th. We managed to win that against Virgin Aisawan.

It was a great experience to play with Infernal. I enjoyed getting insights into how Infernal works. From my observations, I would say Infernal is more structured and disciplined than STK.

Infernal took us out for a meal after the tournament and we spoke for hours about our teams. It was great to hear about certain things from their perspective, how they practice and some of their history. Infernal really looked after us while we were there. Thank you Ole, Ae, Shagga, Bank and "the manager" for letting us be a part of Infernal for the weekend.

The TPOC event was excellent -- it really has it all. Great competition and friendly atmosphere. The organiser, Tom, really looks after everyone. I hope the rest of STK can make it to these events in the future.

With TPOC out the way, Rambo and I had a week to kill before PALS Singapore. We decided to go to Vietnam to pass the time. We looked at Ho Chi Minh and then realised it was 40 degrees every day there. We were still recovering from wanting to kill ourselves every waking moment in the Bangkok heat as usual, so we settled for the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi, where it was a much more pleasant 27 degrees.

We stayed in the Old Quarter, a hectic sprawl of narrow streets packed with motorbikes, cars, people, roadside vendors and buildings. There were so many motorbikes on the road. Waiting for an opening to cross the street is impossible. The method is to just go. Don't speed up or stop, just walk at a steady pace across the road and let the traffic dodge you.

The first day we explored the Old Quarter and tried the food. We made sure to eat all the classic Vietnamese dishes we had heard of, Bun Cha, Banh Mi, Pho, and let our AirBNB host show us some other foods.

The following bay, after a 4 hour bus ride, we took a junk boat out to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; some thousands of isles emerging from the tropical water. We disembarked the junk boat to kayak around the isles. If we capsized, there was no way Rambo could free his giant legs from the kayak in time and he would definitely die. We precariously threw cameras between our kayak and other tourist's kayaks for photos all with Rambo's life hanging delicately in the balance.

The bus ride to and from Ha Long Bay went quick chatting with Rambo. Many things have changed over the last decade and we don't hang out as much as we did when we were kids but we are great friends.

We spent some more time exploring Hanoi, and then prepared to continue our journey to Singapore for the second round of the PALS.

We met up with the team on the Thursday and walked the field. Stevie clocked up his first absence from our travelling roster as he was tied down with work. That leaves just me as the only STK guy who has been to every tournament we've ever done.

On Friday, our first game was against Sydney SWAT. It felt like their offense wasn't quite dialled in for that first game and we were able to win 4 - 1. Next up we had Raskal who we beat 3 - 1. And then we LA Wrecking Crew. We'd never seen this team play before. Playing American teams is exciting as I feel they have a different play style. We won 3 - 1, but the points were close. We had a weird point where Rambo and I were trapped in the back center trying to hold off their dorito side and we were taking turns taking pot shots over the top of the bunker. Our breakshooting that game in particular was pretty strong I think too.

This left us in the weird position of not having dug ourselves into a hole on the first day for once.

We went onto Saturday and versed the Hellions from Singapore first, a new team to Division 1. They came out hard and gave us a really intense, close game. We trailed for most of the game. At 2  - 3, Nalds broke the game open getting down into their snake. With the score at 3 - 3 and not much time left, we got a kill on the break and pressed down the field. We were able to come away with the win with a few seconds left.

We played Raw next. This round, Raw had Damian Ryan from Infamous guesting for them. We beat Raw 4 -1 to lull us into a false sense of security. At this point, we'd won all of our prelim games so far which is unheard of for us. We had one left against Xtioneers. They stomped our faces in 0 - 4 just to give us something to think about going into Sunday. 

Sunday was strange. Nemesis and LA Wrecking Crew had their semi final up first. We had all our stuff ready in the pits to follow as the next game. The Nemesis/Wrecking Crew game ended in a tie and went to overtime. Time expired for that too so it went to one on one's. Then things got weird, we ended up watching the two teams play 6 or 7 one on one's. It just kept on going. Then there was a huge commotion about is it meant to be infinite one on one's played or does it go back to prelim seeding. We waited and waited for a conclusion. We dumped our hoppers as the paint had all swollen in the humidity of the pits waiting. It was quite a wait. Finally, it was resolved with Nemesis winning.

Next up was our semifinal against Raw. What followed was a Raw we hadn't seen before. It would be easy to say Damian Ryan did all the work but it wouldn't be true. On the receiving end that game, I can say that every player on that Raw roster took part in stomping us out. We had no answer. Damian was clocking G's on the break and flying down the doritos. The others were wrecking us too. In the prelims, I think we had more success as we were getting G's on the break and it left us with more bodies to deal with Damian. In this game, the kills just weren't coming on the break. We got shut out 0 - 4. It was crushing. I thought we might be able to win two PALS in a row. I got back in the pits after getting shot out that last point and had a slam fest with a bunch of pods. I'm glad Hunter was there to see it and be proud of my rage. Getting shut out in the semi's is heinous.

Raw went on to shut out Nemesis too and won the tournament. I couldn't be mad for long -- Raw have helped us in the pits so many countless times. Jane, aside from being a paintball celebrity in her own right is also one of our paintball idols, and all of the guys on that team are so earnest and nice. It was great for them to win.

And that was it. Two third places in 10 days. New friends on Infernal. Getting curb stomped in a semi's game. Back to Perth. 

We're currently sitting at the top of the PALS scoreboard, and I would have to attribute some of this to our M2's. Thank you DYE for your continued support.

[Missing] PALS Kuala Lumpur 2016

[Missing] World Cup Asia 2015

World Cup Asia 2015 - Leadup

In just under two weeks we're travelling to the island of Langkawi in Malaysia for the 2015 Paintball World Cup Asia. This year will be STK's 7th World Cup Asia. The buildup to WCA is always anxious as the competition is stiff with many of the best teams from the Asia Pacific in attendance.

The leadup to this World Cup Asia, we've practiced hard as we always have, but I've really come to realise that we have literally done everything we possibly can to have success at this event, not just this year, but every year leading to now. We are not a team with a lot of resources. We borrow from and support each other to scrape our way to practice every week and attend these events. There's no real backing or management to our team, and any success we have had in our small corner of the Paintball world is just from working together and being friends.

We've had a good year so far; we won in Thailand and we've continued our winning streak at the local Perth series. We have only not won maybe 5 events of the 40 or so local events we've played since 2009. We had some problems on Day 1 in Singapore which prevented us from reaching the semi-finals, but we've talked the issues through over and over and I hope we can present to WCA 2015 a more confident STK right from game one.

Dye continues to support us with the best gear and we're looking forward to some of us having the new Dye M2 to shoot at the event.

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.