Las Vegas NPPL

Ah yes, finally the last event of the season had arrived. Not only were we all shitting our pants to go to Vegas as a team and enjoy the city together, but we were also ready to take a top 4 in the Pro Division. At this point we had been grinding over the course of multiple practices after DC. You could feel the intensity in practice as we tuned up for Vegas.

The event was held in the parking lot behind the Rivierra Hotel. All of the teams were staying in the Rivierra, and this created quite the dynamic within the casino as the tournament played throughout the weekend.

The last event of the season for us marked a significant milestone for the team. First and foremost, we had made it through the season financially without collapsing due to lack of sponsorship money. Secondarily, we had made the cut and played on Sunday twice now leading up to this final event. Lastly, we all know the importance of performing here. Not only did we need to rank as high as possible for the series race, but we also needed to come out and kill it for sponsorship purposes in 2010. It’s kind of hard to ask companies to help you out coming off of an average season and a garbage performance at the last event of the year.

So we did exactly what we had to do – come out stunting.

I’m updating this site several months after the event (shame on me) so it is difficult for me to recall the exact details of which prelim games we won and which ones we lost. I do however know that we made the cut for the third event in a row. This was huge for us. It gave us all a solid taste of consistency and accomplishment. That then transformed into confidence.

One huge component of our success in Las Vegas was how well we laned the opposing teams we played. We were consistently laning 1 to 2 bodies a game. Getting those kills off of the break gives our style of play a lot of momentum. Boys start tasting blood early on and the feast begins right out of the gate.

Another piece of the puzzle that finally fell into place for us was our communication. We actually talked and played as a team, and it showed. We laned bodies off of the break, communicated the count and player placements to each other and then systematically broke teams down from there.

Saturday evening came around and we were all ecstatic knowing that another shot at the podium had finally arrived. We ended up eating that night at the buffet at the Rio. Between plate after plate of every style of ethnic cuisine you can imagine, we schemed on what it was going to take for us to leave Vegas victorious.

The conclusion: roll your guns, communicate and think team not me. This is nothing new to any of us, and in all reality it is the foundation of any great paintball team. However, it never ceases to amaze me how many teams out there forget about the basics. For as simple of a concept as it is, you’ll hear me repeat this in the huddle time and time again like a broken record.

You can’t ever forget the basics. Especially on the Sunday of the last event of the season in Las Vegas your virgin year as a home built pro team of best friends. Ya that’s probably a run on sentence, but it’s also reality. That situation right there is just the type of adrenaline pumping pressure cooker that makes players brains turn to shit and run out their ears as soon as the horn blows and the game starts. That’s why it’s so important to keep that basics remix playing in everybody’s ear huddle after huddle all tournament long.

Lucky for us, everybody stayed focused and kept their heads together as the oven steadily heated up on Sunday. Before we knew it, we were sitting in a position to go on to the top 4.

Unfortunately for us, we were tied for 4th with LA Infamous. The standard protocol for determining who moves on in a tie situation on Sunday goes back to the heads up game between the two teams during the round robin. Infamous beat us in the round robin, so they moved on and we ended up in 5th.

That was probably the most disappointing news I’ve ever received in my life. We were so close you could taste it. It literally came down to one point. That’s one body, one slip up, one rock head move, one stupid penalty, one kill, one bounce, one over slide and one too many possibilities that will make your brain fry if you dwell on it for too long. One point.

The Las Vegas event taught me an important lesson in life and in paintball. Attention to detail is paramount. One minor mental error can be the difference between a story book ending to a season and another gut wrenching drive home across the country.

I left the venue ill but satisfied. I was satisfied with the fact that our season opened as a mega cluster fuck, but then we were able to steady the ship and sail on through the storm. Three back to back Sunday appearances our first year as a team was more than I think anyone would have ever predicted including some of the guys on the team. The only goal I had for the team we didn’t hit was a top 4 finish. We tied for it, but never got it. I knew in my mind that we were capable of what we accomplished in 2009 , or I would have never started the team.

We didn’t start this team to call ourselves Pro’s. We started this team to win Pro Tournaments.