Proper Villains

So, we welcome into the team 2 players from UNDRPRVLGD…Reese Stock and Chris Rangel.  We came out of the box ON FIRE!!!  First 3 games only dropping a body each time.  95, 95, 95 the scoreboard says.  Game 4 is approaching and…..the team never showed! Forfeits all around.  The problem now is that we have a lull…a long, energy draining lull.  We pick up at game 5…and CHOKE!  No other way to put it.  We gave points away, made mistakes in our movement and pretty much killed ourselves.  Another long freaking break, this time for lunch.  Game 6…was meh. We should have won it, but we just didn’t finish and ended up running the clock out with 1 player alive.  Or so we thought.  “Live players check in,” the ref bellowed…so our guy walks over…just to be sent to the deadbox for rub on his hopper.  A brief “discussion” with the ref yeilded…nothing, but I knew that before I started it.

  Insert weather break here…thunder, lightning, downpours. 

  So, back to the forfeit.  They average all of your scores for the day, and you either get 80 pts or your average, whichever is greater…we get 85 pts which puts us into semi-finals with 410 pts.  We end up the 8th seed out of 12 teams.  That puts us in the bracket with fo2three army (12th) and Gravity Aftermath (1st).  Tough draw, but we’re ready to prove we deserve to be here.

  The first game of semi’s is against fo2three…on field 2 (which we haven’t played all day). And it sucks…we get 2 eliminations and that’s it!  20 friggin’ points!  The game before that, Gravity had slapped fo2three with a 95 point victory, only dropping a body.

  Second and final game of semi’s.  We don’t just have to win, we have to max the number 1 seed to move on.  They haven’t dropped a game all day, and haven’t lost many all season. They have yet to be maxed at all in 2008.  We came out with all that we had, planned on moving on, or making them know they had to fight for it….and we did it!  We pulled out the max!  120 points in semi’s and it moved us into finals!

  All of finals are to be played on field 2.  We’ve only had one game on it, and we got b-slapped on it.  A quick walk of the fields and a gut check later, and into battle we go!  With a lot of heart, we fought ACP killers to the very end…We had two back corners locked down with our last two players as the 3 guys left came to get us.  Patience is a virtue, but it takes a lot of paint.  Our 2 back players are down to a hopper each when we’re able to take the upper hand with 2 eliminations back to back. That set up the 1 on 2.  Everyone’s position is known, and the Villains make the move to bunker for the win.  2 alive, pull and hang.

  Yet another lightning break.  Thunderstorm (again), thunderstorm (still), thunderstorm….

  Okay, game 2 of 3 against Konvicted.  A hard fought game that came down to the very end.  I was in the deadbox at the end of this one…listening to my timer tick down to 1 min (we’re still fighting), 40 seconds (we have one at the X, one in back left, one in back right), 30 seconds (back left runs snake tape, clears the field and calls for the flag), 10 seconds….GAME OVER! 3 alive, pull and hang!  That’s two out of 3 games and we won both!

  Final game of the day…playing for first place. Damage Inc. is coming off of 2 wins as well, so this is IT.  We break out, lock some lanes and both teams are keeping it pretty tight.  We send a player to the X and all hell breaks loose.  4 guns go to the center of the field trying to get the advancing player into the deadbox…it eventually happens, but at the cost of several players of their own that were overcome with tunnel vision.  3 on 3 we are…then we get another elimination…2 on 3 and we have a sick gun…the player with the jam in the hopper makes a move to center X…grabs the flag and passes the fifty to put one of the enemy to bed; but he’s eliminated after the pull.  2 on 2.  The Villains get another elimination and are again just about paintless. The timer reminds us that there is only a minute. Then 30 seconds…then 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, game over.  2 alive and the pull for PV. 1 alive for Damage Inc.  We WON!  3 games out of 3 in finals!  PROPER VILLAINS ARE THE D5 TARHEEL OPEN CHAMPIONS!!!!

The CFOA. The largest five man tournament series of paintball in the world. Where people come to prove to other teams and to themselves that they haven’t wasted countless hours of their time and endless amounts of their money, on a sport they have no business playing.  As I sit here and write this, I can’t help but smile. 

 I’m smiling because if you would have asked me a couple of years ago, If I ever thought I’d be playing with a team that could come together and win a CFOA tournament, I would have honestly answered no.  But then again three years we were in a different place.  We were still trying to piece together sponsors.  Still trying to find enough people with the same drive and determination that we shared.  Still learning about ourselves, our abilities and deciding where we really wanted to go with all this paintball hype.  We were a rag tag few with mismatched gear, shooting whatever markers and paint we could afford, driving endless miles and paying huge field fees, just to shoot the like, across fields of spools. 

 But we learned, we grew, we got better and we pushed on.  And now, well now we have a team of people who are willing to help each other grow and learn.  We’ve a coach that knows the sport, our abilities and how to push us.  We’ve sponsors that help us stay on top of the latest gear.  But where is all of this leading? 

 The Tar Heel Open.  Sitting this tournament gave me the ability to do something I don’t normally get to do, watch.  To observe the team from the outside.  To watch the drive of our team grow through out the course of the day.  We wanted to win, we needed it.  I watched other teams fold under the pressure of games, watched them prey on one another as they lost matches, failing to rally behind their teammates and realizing a common goal.  I realized that we have something that other teams don’t.  I don’t really know what word to use to describe it; loyalty, devotion, allegiance, camaraderie, take your pick, they’d all be correct. We have a team that’s come together to form a family.  We share our victories, we share our losses.  We don’t take credit as an individual for wins, we don’t place blame on one another for failure. We’re a team in the purest, truest since of the word. 

 This is what won us the Tar Heel open.  This is what brought us from behind to dominate the event.  This is what got us noticed by other teams. This is what will bring us future trophies and continue to feed our need to better ourselves in our sport and in our everyday lives.  It was hot; we drank water, it rained; we played in the mud, it thundered and lightening; we sat and waited for it to blow over, we were hurt, tired and sore, yet we played on and not once complained.  We knew that whatever our fate, it would be shared.  Everyone had a part to play and everyone went on to do it, for the common goal. We were there to take first place and we took first place.  I’ve never been prouder to be a part of something.  This was the first time we’d taken first place in a CFOA event, but it will not be the last.       

Atleast thats how I feel about it.

Snyder, Jeremy A.

So, we had our second event. It was a lesson in frustration, it was an opportunity for us to grow, both personally and as a team. We played better than the first event, though we didn’t place as high. We played better than most of the teams we played, but technical difficulties kept the other team out of the dead box…and that just doesn’t work for us.

We really missed having Jeremy with us, him being on the injured reserve list was a reality that we knew we were facing. His lane shooting and his sense of humor were both missed. Hopefully we will be fully rostered at the next event in China Grove, the field where we played our first event as a team.

While we did miss Jeremy, we were lucky to have the addition of another person. We were able to obtain the assistances and expertise of a coach. Clay has been around the game longer than most of us, and longer than the majority of people that we find ourselves facing off with. His ability to see the entire game, read the field and the players as well as scout the teams we’re facing is a wonderful asset. Not to mention that he’s just as freakin’ crazy as the rest of us! Welcome aboard, Coach Clay!

We have a lot of work to do, we have a lot of time to put in…but I think that by the next event, and certainly by the end of the season, there will be phenomenal progress made by the team as a team, and as individuals.

Okay.  It’s about 2 weeks and 3 days or so until we leave for our first event.  We’ve been working hard, we’ve been getting stuff done.  There is a lot of work left to do, there are a lot of preparations to still work out.  That being said, I feel like we’re ready.  We have a lot of things going for us, and the strongest is our team…we will live and die as a team.  There is no hero, no one player that makes this team, this brotherhood.  I am proud of all of you.  Everything that has been asked of you, you have done.  I, for one, can’t friggin’ wait to get to Georgia and make an impression!  Looking forward to practice this weekend!  Be ready to get there early and stay late…we have a lot to do! -Robert

February 23 is fast approaching. It will be out first big tournament as Proper Villains and time is running out quickly. We have one last big Sunday practice before we take the long haul to McDonough, Ga. to participate in the Dirty South Open. We are taking this time to fine tune our markers and prepare ourselves for what comes next. No one can predict the future, but we all could have told you when the FedEx guy was coming to town. At long last we have our jerseys. Now everyone will see what some of the best dressed players in the CFOA wear. Big thanks to Animal Paintball for the awesome jerseys.

It was a long trip. We got to the hotel at about 1 in the morning. After getting all of our gear out of the truck we hit the sack for a solid 4 hours of sleep before waking up and doing what we can in the championships.

Early on Saturday we got to the field in Rock Hill SC. Let me just say that this is a beautiful field and if you ever have a chance to play there you need to. We did the norm, setting up the easy ups, getting all our gear together and making sure we are ready to put our best effort out on the field. Its a miracle that we are here in the first place seeing as how we didnt finish the tournament in August, and due to other obligations we werent even able to play in September. I am glad that we were invited though.

Our first game was a cake walk. Mow faces, Flag pull and hang. Game over. We did have a hiccup but it didnt effect the way the game played out. What a way to start the day. We actually may make semi finals.

Game two was just a carry over from game one. Another quick game and even though we had another mistake on the field we were able to finish it out and get the pull and hang.

Holding a solid third place in points, going into the third game things got a little carried away. Our final four games were against teams that were top seeds at the other fields. Unfortunately we werent able to pull out another win through the rest of the day. Basically we were out gunned and after a loss in the third game we couldnt get our heads back in the game. It showed on the field. We ended up placing ninth overall, and just 40 points out of making the semi finals. Which isnt too bad if you look at it in a broad spectrum. Ninth place overall for a season that held about 80 teams spanning three different paintball complexes. I still think we could have done better.

My goggles off to all of the teams that were invited to the PBC Championship event. You guys worked hard throughout the season and it was apparent at the championships. Those teams are the cream of the crop and thats why you were invited. I hope to see all of you on the field next year, and I look forward to exchanging paint with you in 2008.

Now taking a sight in on the future. We have a strong roster. I think with some practicing and refinements throughout the off season we will be able to come back in February and play the CFOA five man series with some confidence. I have a good feeling that we will make our presence known in the rankings.