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Reported by:
Andrew Saunders
We left Woodstock around 6pm on Friday which got us to the Confederation Bridge at midnight. Waiting for us on the other side was a roadblock with two of the most inbred cops we've met in a long time. We had the car packed to the top with gear and whatnot, I had two impulses and a matrix sitting on my lap in the front. Officer Redneck starts the third degree on Todd about where we are going. Out of the blue Officer Hillbilly flies open the passenger side door and immediately starts grabbing the guns off my lap and throwing them on the grass in the ditch. Then they tell us to pull over and get us out of the car to begin digging through everything threatening to give us a fine for this and that. Then Officer Hillbilly tells me how "I was lucky not be looking down the barrel of his gun" when he saw the markers on my lap and how he knew they were paintball markers since he had played before. Which implies if he knew what they were then why did he behave in such a manner? Anyways we eventually escape without a fine after moving everything around and jamming our guns in the trunk (which we went out of the way not to do). Later Mark and CO2 Kool drive over and Officer Redneck foams at the mouth again "What the hell is it with you paintball players?" Nothing like a warm welcome to the island.
The next day looked like rain but it never happened. There were two fields set up, one for the novices and one for the amateurs. The layout looked reminiscent of XBall, with stand-ups at the back, small, tight square bunkers in the middle with a fair amount of spacing in between. It was a paint spraying field yet played remarkably well!
That evening Renegade started a bonfire and everyone sat around drinking and talking paintball. That night a bunch of us went out to the bars. Spikes crew, Renegade, everyone got wrecked, bigtime. Brad and I got to talk to Jeff McDonald for a bit about what it's like to play pro. I won't repeat what was said because he must take pleasure in people's expressions when he tells them. Needless to say we were envious.
On day two the weather was excellent, sunny with a slight breeze. Mystic Warriors and Renegade decided to have a game of hopperball since both teams were already in the finals. Its good to have fun at these tournaments and not take yourself and the game too seriously.
Sorry about the blanks, but this is all that was written on the scorecards.
The novice finals and the amateur finals were played at separate times, which meant more refs for the playoffs (which is always a good idea). In novice three of the six games went the distance, the more aggressive teams would always pull out on top. In the amateur division Mystic Warriors would pull way ahead.
After the finals were played it was time to decide the Top Gun. In the qualifying round Mark Cleghorn had the fastest time of 19.97sec. The top ten players would shoot it out. At least half wouldn't finish or gave up knowing they lost. The second to last time was 20sec on the nose. Mark shot last receiving a time of 19sec winning the new Shocker.
At the awards ceremony something filthy happened. Buggers decided to dump the winning team with thousands of squashed rounds of chronic. Earlier Nick and I were sitting in the shade tent and overheard people stomping something into a cooler. They showed us the slop they were making for the winning team (got pictures for those that didn't believe the little story). When we won we told Brad and Todd what was coming, Brad didn't fully understand and Todd didn't believe us. Sure enough Todd got the brunt of it… Lotec received the sportsmanship award and Brad Colford of Mystic Warriors Old School won the MVP.
This event really raised the bar, everyone was social and sportsmanlike, the reffing was excellent and the paint was sticky. Real sticky.
Photos - Awards ceremony,
Best pictures,
Other pictures.
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