Zen and the Art of Paintball

Damn…

The above statement was going to be the extent of this month’s blog regarding the 2023 NXL’s Mid Atlantic Major. I think it sums it up quite succinctly. But, like my team, I will “endeavor to persevere”. Team Captain Stuart Ridgel came up with this event’s theme. He made an excellent statement earlier in the week. We are “limitless”. The only people putting limits on us are ourselves. It was time for us to step out of our own way and get what was ours. Awe-inspiring and one of 5 million reasons I am blessed to be a part of this team.

We have set rather specific goals for this season, just as we did the last. But we don’t just state the goal and will it into existence. No, when we reach a new plateau, we develop a plan/infrastructure to lead us to the next. We all fill out “audits” after every event and we use these to pave a path forward. No filter, pure honesty, and 100% accountability. Everyone sees what everyone wrote.

We met 2 of our main goals for this event: Beat Houston Heat and make Sunday. But we were very close to a 3rd goal we had set for the season. That goal is a top 4 finish. And had you asked me Sunday morning to bet on us reaching it at this past event, I wouldn’t have just called the bet, I would have raised you.

Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said, “It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

In preparation for Philly, we had the distinct privilege to scrimmage AC Diesel. Mike Hinman is, quite literally, a legend when it comes to coaching. And you instantly see why. He commands the room. There is no “fluff”, it is to the point, efficient, and practical. My guys got to put themselves up against some legends of the game while I got to see the inner workings of a mind. We are all students and in order to be successful, we must watch and listen to learn. Every opportunity we get, we want to learn. So, we watched and listened a lot that weekend. And then applied Bruce Lee’s method: Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.

It became obvious to me you had two options on how to approach this layout. Where most matches have what we like to call the “scramble” mid game, with this particular layout, it was almost as if the scramble was taking place off the break.You either had good guns on the break with a pocket to start play off up bodies (risk getting stuck) or you took real estate fast to create pressure early (risk getting whittled). The Canes would learn both. If we could, we would hide our offensive approach until necessary. We would also shift personnel around, as well as add several audibles for the box. This would play out well as we played a total of 34 points this event. We would win 22 of those 34 for a 65% win ratio. An improvement over Sunshine State Major (57%) and Lonestar (56%). Continuous improvement is the goal and I am glad to see the needle moving in the right direction.

*Zen Note – had more than a few conversations at the event about our “style”. Supposedly we have earned a reputation of playing a lock-down style. I’ve never looked at it that way. I’ve always looked at it as, we play the field the way we think it needs to be played. There are several variables that go into that, one of which is almost always dependent on our opponent.

The Canes would head to Philly minus two valuable assets. Jacob Searight, who I felt would have been an absolute monster on this layout, and Justin Bailey who not only has tremendous survivability and excellent communication skills but showed everyone at Lonestar why he wears a Cane jersey.

VS Ironmen

We had scouted the Ironmen the day before at their practice on Thursday. You should always take a team’s practice with a grain of salt. What you will see does not necessarily translate to what you will get once the event begins. But it can be telling. You can extrapolate certain aspects of information from the breakout, the personnel, their positioning, demeanor, and of course, their game play. I got the distinct impression we were watching the Ironmen’s total game. And I would be, for the most part, right. They had solid lanes on the break for the snake, they knew the importance of the snake, but there appeared to be a large chink in the armor. And we would try to exploit it.

Headed into this game, we wanted to go short, have them waste a gun and get ours up. We shoot two. But the Ironmen take the Center Brick and the snake 50 which can make our bunkers feel small. But we had faced this scenario at practice several times so we knew how to address it. The guys maintain composure and shoot the bounce to kill the center. This leaves the Men with only two bodies left, both on the snake side. Mike Brown has steadily been taking ground on the D side looking for the slow squeeze as there is no reason to get in a hurry and run into a gun. But we give them a body in an attempt to challenge that 50 snake wrapping. The Ironmen’s snake player makes a valiant effort to make something happen (something us coaches appreciate) but it doesn’t work out and it doesn’t work out for the last push from the last Ironmen player either. 1-0 Canes

The next point was a cluster and certainly not one you want to witness as a coach. We trade bodies off the break making it a 4 on 4 but the Ironmen would have position with a snake presence. That presence peels off Mike Brown from the dorito corner making it 4 on 3 advantage Men. Aaron Pate makes the right read and re-positions to contest the snake. Those two trade. It is now a 3 on 2 in favor of the Ironmen. But this is a great example of how your opponent’s one mistake can save your rear end. The Men were in dorito 2, inset dorito, and snake side can. The snake side can Ironmen player (Pretty sure it was Keith Devitt) releases to the can near the center brick on the snake side. My guess is he wanted to keep one of my last two guys from spreading snake way. But he plays it so tight that, either he fails at this job, or he thought there was still a Canes player in the snake corner. This allows Drew Bell not only to get out to snake side can, but to shoot him. In order to do it though, Drew exposed himself to the Ironmen’s slow D side push. This leaves Stuart Ridgel in a 2 on 1. Nick Slowiak attempts to spread the field to make Stu fight two fronts. However, Stu had sneakily taken ground to the D side wedge which has a Mac Truck lane snake way, and catches Nick. It’s now a 1 on 1. Last Ironmen player doesn’t know the situation and Stu get’s the drop. 2-0 Canes.

We move back to our base play (this can change the next day dependent on opponent and what we learned first day) and pocket up a bit to get guys in primaries and guns up. And it pays off big. We shoot two and then they get a minor all within about 3-4 seconds of the break. Shane/Nicki/Pax saw enough and quickly concede. 3-0 Canes

Plenty of time on the clock. No need to risk bodies since our base seems to be working. We also know they will try to take ground early snake way and probably position one other asset far dorito. When Keith Devitt lined up in the stack snake side in the one spot, we knew he would try to round snake corner and feed the snake. We audible and put another gun there. We shoot Keith but they take one of ours as well. Interestingly enough they choose to go center brick. Smart read by the two on snake side for the Men as he quickly rounds the snake corner to feed the snake and maintain that pressure. But they give us another body from the D side. This leaves us with 4 and the Men with 3 and we know they have the center brick. With a 3 point lead we don’t have to go anywhere. We are zoned up appropriately and the clock is rolling. We kill the center leaving the two Ironmen in the snake. We had just seen this scenario before in an earlier point so, again, no need to get spectacular. But my guys body language and comms are telling me they still think there is a d side presence. So we are off on the count. Mike Brown gets out of the corner, probably because he knows the snake is hot and doesn’t want to get pinched if there is an unknown D side asset for the Men. Aaron Pate uncharacteristically dies but we start to turn the field shooting the bounce to take the first snake player. Another valiant effort by the last snake player to make something happen but just two many guns. 4-0 Canes.

We test the gun, Nic makes the snake and shoots the Ironmen’s snake player. However, Ironmen use that center brick again and catch Nic’s pack as he gets to 50 snake. At the same time, we lose Mike Brown out of that insert dorito near back center. We press the issue snake side not checking the center off and pay for it. Drew Bell and Stuart Ridgel try to stem the bleeding but the Men finally slow it down, check in, and squeeze the point. Ironmen get on the board. 4-1 Canes

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Back to base with our guns up and sure enough, kill three on the break (we shot one snake way, we shot one in the center, and we shot one dside). The coaching staff for the Men let’s it play out though and I understand the call. Perhaps one of your two remaining guys picks a guy off or the Canes get a penalty… we shoot the last two and the Men concede the point with 4:55 remaining on the clock. 5-1 Canes.

Obviously the Men have to press so we move a chess piece to the first wedge dorito side to slow options down snake way and shoot for any secondary fills. And we position our juice box to maintain honesty D side. Other than that, the song remains the same. We shoot two on the break again, win another gunfight almost immediately after that, followed by another… five on one and the Ironmen concede the point. 6-1 Canes.

At this junction, I would be very happy to get out of the match with a mercy rule win since my initial paint estimate is looking to be perfect (the number of cases I told the pit crew we would need for the match). And we have not had to show much at all before our second match. I figure we go base play, turn two guns in, two guns out, with safety valve and let the men kill themselves. But, the Ironmen had other plans. We get a kill out of the center but we let them take big real estate on the snake as well as the D side. My two center players get stuck and eliminated and well… next thing you know, they put another one up on us. 6-2 Canes.

We were in X-ball now (what’s new, we always end up with at least 1-2 matches at events going into X-ball). I had a strange thought in my head at that moment. I’m always looking for the psychological edge and I remember thinking to myself, what is going on in their pit right now? I know Shane and Pax well as they are two of my first mentors not to mention close friends. I finally met Nicki and spoke to her this event. I enjoyed speaking with her but I didn’t grab much insight. And I figured Slowiak has to be part of the conversation as I had finally had the opportunity to speak to him and see him in his element. He has a big personality and would most certainly give his 2 cents. There I am thinking they were obviously over there discussing what to do down 6-2 with 3:46 left. Would there be concordance? Would their be differing opinions? Would there be doubt? What could I do to ensure we put this one away… I think that is one of the things I love most about my guys during a match. Our efficiency. We don’t have any doubt in our game plan. We make the call and my guys produce the center kill.

But… two of my guys catch mystery balls and the point quickly devolves into a 3 on 3 and then a 3 on 2! My guys are stacked in snake side can and the god bunker with Ironmen who have two in the snake and a D side asset that is quickly taking ground. But the two I have left? Daniel “Clutch” Camp and Aaron “Hold My Beer” Pate. Numbers 2 and 3 on the Canes gun fighting list…

Not that any of that came into play though…

No, instead, an Ironmen player runs to the side of the bunker that Pate is holding a lane for the D side. He and Pate trade but he continues his run to shoot Danimal. Red bird of death flies and the swing point is awarded to us. 7-2 Canes

2:14 on the clock, the score is 7-2. I’m thinking we are getting out of this match with a win so, why show anything else. We have seen great success with our pocket guns on the break. I believe I had said earlier in the match that our base play beat their haymaker 9 out of 10 times. The guys agree and we get ready to go to work. I needlessly point out that if we see opportunities to gain ground and put ourselves into position to get that buzzer… full send. We shoot both their wide players in exchange for one of ours. 4 on 3 advantage to us. But I think it was Hughes who tries to flip the script by coming on our side of the snake. However, we have a call for this scenario as we saw it often in practice. The code is given and we hammer the bounce shot eliminating Mr. Hughes who also draws a minor. We had peeled off another one prior to the flag leaving my guys alone on the field to walk down and seal the deal.

VS Notorious

I will admit that this one had me a little nervous though I would never admit it during the event. We are close with the Notorious program and Ryan Gray has become a good friend. We made a gentleman’s wager on the match and I was broke. I hope this isn’t taken in a derogatory manner by any of the Notorious crew but it felt like a little brother/big brother match up. And that’s how we approached it. We had scouted their match against the MLKings and felt we had a good read. Knowing how each other thinks and plays though can be both advantageous as well as disadvantageous. And that would play out during this match.

First point we decide we want a snake presence early. Notorious goes short but takes the center 50 brick on the break. But he doesn’t seem to know which side he wants to shoot and we make it in. He posts up snake side, perhaps waiting for a secondary. We shoot Archie out of the center on the break (they were going to get his gun up and then send speed demon underneath no doubt) and I believe we get a ball on Ty Batemen in the dorito corner. Notorious’ newest pick up, Harris Husein, quickly back-fills Ty’s old spot. Markie then tries to fill out to snake corner but gets picked up. We had discovered the center earlier and Stu decides to go trade as Nic Ripple, German snake player extraordinaire, closes out the point. This all happened in the span of less than a minute. 1-0 Canes

The rest of the match would not go as smoothly as that first point. Notorious comes out swinging next point sending Archie to the snake and shooting two of us on the break. We catch Arch in the gap but Markie makes a good read and gets into the snake almost immediately. Notorious has body advantage and position now. Markie shoots Stu out of back center leaving us with the snake side can and the dorito corner. Hussien is now in the snake with Markie and that combo crops Drew Bell. Mike Brown learned his lesson from Texas and makes the decision for me by moving forward and attacking. Tied now 1-1.

The next point would prove to be a grinder. We trade two of our bodies for one of theirs giving Notorious a 4 on 3 advantage. The battle for the snake had begun and Nic was in S2 for us and Archie was in S2 for Nototious. But then my guys just start dying out of spots. As a coach, I usually meet my guys at the net as they come off if I see something that was uncharacteristic or I don’t know what happened. This was one of those times. We had spoke about this after the Ironmen match. We have to be tighter and leverage our gun discipline. Pate gets to the snake corner to contain allowing Britt in the dorito wedge to dump paint into the pinball machine that is the snake 50 hoping to catch Archie if he got sloppy. Nic re-positions to 2nd snake mini brick to get his eyes up in front of him. Notorious gets Jared Sherman in there with Archie so they definitely have the advantage. But we even it up when Archie takes the walk. With the 3 on 3 spread, unless someone wins a gun fight, this was going to be a long point and it was. Nic moves again to S1 but I don’t think we knew about the next body in the snake. When Pate joins Nic in the snake, I thought to myself, okay here we go, now we have it. Unfortunately, Britt gets picked up on a bounce shot. Ty starts to figure out he can go and begins taking ground D side. Harris joins Jared in the snake and Ty beats Pate’s cross field gun. THERE WAS A FIRE FIGHT! Nic actually did bounce Ty as he runs in to get the buzzer. Notorious takes the point. 1-2 Notorious.

LVL and Damage finally give us a little time to game plan and we take advantage of it. Call it statistics, gut feeling, or simply knowing what we would probably do, we key up on the snake corner and it pays off as we shoot what I think was Anthony Bowles. Daniel Camp fills out to snake corner for us while Stuart Ridgel keeps a lock on the head of the snake. Mike Brown applies pressure by taking D3 while Drew and Pate just keep dumping paint. Daniel knows the deal and feeds snake. He gets to snake 50 and gets two kills almost instantly. This leaves Notorious with dorito corner and snake can. This allows Stu, Drew, and Pate to come off jobs and join the fray. Harris gets a running start and leaps on his own sword taking Mr. Camp with him. My other three dispatch the last remaining Notorious player. Tie ball game 2-2.

We run a little “switcharoonie” on the next point. We get Daniel into the snake and release Stu a little earlier than normal. This works out well as Notorious does not go snake and we dig a kill out of the center. Daniel does a patient creep to the snake 50 and peels off Archie in the god bunker. Once he does this he immediately posts up on the snake side can (they were on the cross) who would have seen Archie die and have to come off his job to contest the obvious snake threat. The tactic works and Daniel gets another kill. This allows Daniel to stand tall, apply pressure to dorito corner, whom he shoots. Regrettably, the center juice box player (was it Alex Hubert?) gets caught in the crossfire and draws a minor. This means Notorious will be playing a body down the next point. Score 3-2 Canes

With 2 minutes left in the match, down by one, and us on the power play, we know they are going snake. We decide to get guns up with the plan to match on a delay. They make it in and somehow get three in there! And we end up losing our delay. All in the first 20 seconds! Me and two others in the pit swear we see a hit come off Harris and so does the ref. A minor goes up and that makes the three in the snake now 1. Archie gets on his stomach and posts up to shoot any fill into the snake with him. What he doesn’t know is his two players behind him have been eliminated. Stu gets the memo, goes to counter Archie, can’t see him and simply decides to just hit the buzzer. Score 4-2 Canes.

Stu didn’t let the time go under so I think there were still 13 seconds on the clock. We settle in for the oncoming onslaught. Notorious does the right thing, acts like it is 1854 at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War and they are the English Light Brigade Calvary. That would make us the Russians. Game.

*Zen Note – hats off to Ryan and the Notorious camp for making Sunday their 3rd pro event in and a 10th place finish.

VS ML Kings

We had done our homework on Kings. They had beat Houston Heat the day before after losing to Notorious so we wanted to understand the adjustment. One thing that was immediately noticeable when studying their tape were their guns off the break. We would plan to adjust for that. We noticed one other minor adjustment they had made and from their we planned on how to counter with our own small adjustment.

First point we wanted to give a slightly different look to throw them off from their scouting us. We knew that Carter liked to go to the snake corner, round it and crawl up to the snake. We take the snake and the center for three reasons: one, we use the center to shoot Carter and two, have the safety valve of having a snake asset in place to counter him if we miss. The third was to screw with their scouting sheets. I can be petty like that sometimes. It works as planned as we shoot Carter and begin peeling bodies. Kings concede the point 37 seconds in. 1-0 Canes

We get to see those solid guns of the Kings on the break next point as they shoot one and then we get a minor. So a fast 5 on 2 for the kings who answer and close the point out. Tied 1-1.

We pull back to base but with a D side rabbit. It appears the Kings had the same breakout but not the same goal. We lose one on the break but Pate gets into the snake. Pate’s presence seems to draw a lot of guns (all of them?). Pate misses two opportunities which we talked about after and he laughed…well, he didn’t laugh but if you know Pate… Kings filter to first D side wedge and it appears they are looking to try and lock the field up. Daniel Camp gets the memo and joins Pate in the snake since the Kings are so focused on Pate. We pinch out the D side attacker making it a 4 on 4. The inset wedge player for Kings decides there are plenty of guns to contain snake so he fills out into the dorito 2 in an effort to plug that hole. Pate wins the gunfight against Woodley who was in the snake can and proceeds to wrap and trap the god. Pate sneaks another one in on Kings’ home player. Barry tries to get crafty but Daniel had anticipated the maneuver. Danimal had moved to the inside of Pate and posted up for the cross shot and lands it. Kings concede to save time on clock. 2-1 Canes.

The Kings are sticking with the game plan they used to beat Heat. So we put a gun for snake runner and plan on matching him. We get the shot on the King’s snake player and have it to our own with two players. Nic can stay dorito way, Daniel is in there with him and can control wire, Britt is in wedge to control center and any late fill attempts… now we let the Kings run into guns. Charlie recognizes what we are up to and smartly concedes the point. 3-1 Canes

We are up two points with just under 5 minutes on the clock. Plenty of time and not necessary for anything too desperate from the Kings yet. But this layout on the break is like playing rock, paper, scissors. We decide to spread the field, dig in like an Alabama tick, and hope to catch the King’s push. The Kings take the snake and the center. Kyle Barry loses a gun fight dorito side and takes an early walk. I was not upset about that. We pick up on the center and start shooting the bounce. Sure enough, one of them finds a home on Woodley’s pack. Minor penalty goes up and we are now up bodies 5 on 2. Unfortunately, Ridgel gets team killed going to assassinate the last two and Pate finally allows that mini cake to get too small. One of the last two Kings takes a walk. As the last King tries to push through the guns of Bell and Camp, Mike Brown shows good situational awareness and just goes and gets the buzzer. 4-1 Canes.

Both of us get 5 out alive. The Kings cleverly filter Woodley from home under the gun to the snake after taking the snake corner and putting the wedge in play. Woodley is joined by another King (Calleja maybe?) but as soon as that happens we shoot their Wedge over watch. We give them one back as Stu takes the walk shortly after. Then Woodley and Calleja put together a smart push and just start stacking my guys. 4-2 with approximately 50 seconds left.

We know the push is coming snake way so we get guns up on it and it pays off. We get the one and the secondary snake fill as well. We had discussed prior to this point that, if we had the body advantage at 20 seconds, lets go and try to get that point to better our spread. Stuart and Pate finish off the last and Ryan Williamson flies in to get the point. A well executed match. We didn’t have to show too much, we got away with a fun play on the first point, and now we are feeling it.

VS Heat

This is the match we were looking forward to. Heat has got the best of us 3 out of the last 4 meetings and we wanted them to know we are getting better and better with each lesson. We knew we had made Sunday so it was time to reach into our bag of tricks and show the paintball world why we are here. We had a completely different strategic approach for this game based off being able to scout them for 3 matches. We saw some things we wanted to exploit and we would get the opportunity. But as always, whenever you are playing Heat, you are playing some of the best to ever play the game. So we would have to execute at a higher level than we had been. But the Canes are dangerous when we are having fun and we were in a really good mood. That, and if you had scouted us for three matches, you didn’t see too much.

The first point Heat does what we thought they would do. We make a stack audible and shoot Federov off the break. They went short snake way but we didn’t. We go straight to the 50 and wrap but keep pressure on the interior. That generates another kill from Heat’s back center. We pick up Tyler on the fill out to snake can and Connor Kelley gets the minor to finish the point. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to set the pace, bloody the nose a little bit, impose our will. 1-0 Canes

The next point both teams mirror each other up and we both shoot a player out of the back center. We know we have to keep the pressure and keep paint in the air early. We end up shooting Conner Kelley giving us the 4 on 3 advantage. We were in complete control now. Heat’s center juice box has to contain D side. Chad George is now dominated by two snake side guns, and Federov is dominated by two D side guns. Then we make a blunder. Daniel sees the opportunity to feed the snake and really put Heat on their heels. But this doesn’t get communicated to Pate who starts a rope on Chad as Daniel launches. That rope finds the side of Daniel’s head. Yes… I met both Daniel and Pate at the net for that one 😉 But Britt makes up for it by shooting Chad George as he tries to sneak his way in the snake. Federov then tries to go coast to coast on his own back line and eats one. We are now in a 3 on 1 scenario and I’m expecting Todd to blow the horn any second. And he does. 2-0 Canes

We decide now is the time to give Heat a special look. I wish I could take credit for it but Stu is the one that suggested hitting the gas. And I will always listen to my guys when they are feeling it. And man did the initial execution of the play look pretty. We kill two on the break but lose one. Heat owns the first baby dorito, the snake can and the god bunker. But we have two in the snake with support and the juice box with eyes on D side for containment (or so we thought). Obviously, it would have been stronger had we not lost the body but still, we are set up. We set the trap, and Harmon takes the cheese and gets shot by Nic. However, while this is happening, Captain America, Ryan Moorehead is moving down the D side. Stuart makes a tactical retreat and over slides the bunker. Ryan gets a shot in on him. But Chad George saw the cheese that killed his teammate and says to himself, I want some of that cheese too and gets clipped as well. Now it’s a 3 on 1 with Moorehead on our side of the field. Nic starts moving for the buzzer. Todd Martinez knows the deal and concedes the point with just under 5 minutes left. 3-0 Canes.

Now we are really feeling it. But we know from practice, you can score points in less than 30 seconds (Diesel had done this to us – fastest we did was 38 seconds). And Heat was about to give it one hell of try. As Matty Marshall likes to say, they are known for stealing matches. We match up and trade center players. The only issue is, our snake containment was who we lost on the break…and we didn’t change jobs fast enough. Heat has this really good balanced attack and they show it on this point. Heat gets into the snake and Federov presses the issue D side. Daniel takes the walk allowing Federov to press further. He continues to press and closes out the point shooting out snake can and Home after we lost D side corner. 3-1 Canes

With 2:19 left on the clock, and down by 2, Heat will more than likely risk two assets. Being ahead, we decide to risk one asset and get guns up. Both teams kill one on the break but Heat makes the snake. But then we lose our D side attacker. 4 on 3. We get another back. 3 on 3. Heat starts the push and the guys are holding. Pew pew pew! Bodies are dropping everywhere! Its a 2 on 2! Daniel shoots Chad George but Tyler Harmon shoots Drew.

Now before I say anything further, I want you the reader to know I was standing dead even with Daniel Camp in the pit. There is a ref on the base line looking towards me and Daniel. So the ref and I both had good views. There was a second ref who was in position as well just off corner.

Daniel transitions to the inside of his bunker as Tyler tries to bunker him. The exchange is BANG BANG! We are talking micro seconds. The two refs ON THE FIELD call it a mutual. No point. 3-1 Canes.

Or so we thought…

The Head Ref listens to a dead player (Tyler) as he walks off the field complaining. We are already in the pit drawing up the next play. Damage and Dynasty are coming back on the field for their next point. The Damage/Dynasty point starts. We are a minute into the Damage/Dynasty match and we have just completed drawing up our next play when Ultimate Ref Jason Trosen taps me on the shoulder and says, “Mike, the head ref has overturned the call on the field. You guys get a major and will be playing with three.” I plead the case that the refs were in position to see that it was bang bang. How can the Head ref, who is in a camera stand just off center of the field, see through the bunker (can) on how the exchange went down? Jason says he will review the tape but that it has to be “indisputable” to overturn the Head Refs call. So we prepare a play with 3 guys and a play with 5 guys. Jason reviews it and says my players gun was down and we will be starting with 3… it is what it is.

If they can play reindeer games, so can we. My guys come up with a clever ploy as a little “poke in the eye” of the establishment. At 25 seconds, two of my guys start to run on the field with their gear saying, “They over turned it!” with absolutely no intention of stepping in bounds or breaking the 50. This panics Heat, and they call a time out. We were giggling a bit. Talk about icing the kicker… Ultimately, we get a good laugh out of it and that’s about it. Heat launches the power play. We make our spots and start to wheel and deal. We get 1 and then …another. It’s looking good but then a hopper hit gets us the minor letting Heat close out with 35 seconds left.

We know you can win a point on this layout quickly. As I stated earlier, our fastest clocked at practice was 38 seconds. So we keep those plays ready. And were was the litmus test opportunity. The full send works but it turns out you need about 37 seconds (there was only 35 left). So 2 seconds short on winning that point.

I remember thinking…we are already Sunday club bound. And we have overcome a lot of adversity to get here. You’re Todd Martinez and you look around at that stable of talent in your pit… and you are probably telling yourself, you win this scenario 7, maybe 8 times out of 10? You like those odds. So you’re probably going to get your 5 out alive in a pocket, maybe risk one asset but lean on your gun-fighting to win the day. And I would agree that is probably the right call. But we are the New Orleans Hurricanes and we know that you know that we know you know this. “They will never see it coming. These guys don’t have to fight every day like we do. They fight to win paintball games. We fight to live, to eat, to put food on the table! We are not the same. Lets show them.” I didn’t really say that but I felt it inside…Kinda. And isn’t that what this world has become? All feelings based or some stuff like that? Anyway, I digress…

We throw Britt Simpson into Dorito 2 on the break and Nic Rippel into the snake, we get two guns up at home, and take the snake side can. Heat goes short snake side with god, snake can, two at home, and a rabbit out to D corner who quickly takes the 2nd dorito. Our statistics were right again. The stage is set. I knew if we survived the break we would win. And we did. They shoot Stuart out of the center but before they can call the kill, we shoot Conner out of the god and Nic wraps the 50 snake to shoot Tyler Harmon in the face. 4 on 3 advantage to us. Federov sneaks a ball onto Britt making it a 3 on 3. But with Nic on their side of the snake, Daniel Camp sneaks up into the snake as well and catches Federov napping. This frees Pate up to take ground through the dorito side center cut. Pate shoots Dizon in the snake can leaving Mishka by himself in the juice box. Pate launches drawing Mishka’s gun but Pate misses. Daniel launches forcing Mishka to contend with him allowing Nic to give Mishka a winning back message. We were all excited and I let it go this time. I even joined in.

We were now undefeated in prelims for the second time in our pro careers, had won our bracket for the third time (Chicago ’22, Lonestar, and this event), and had made our 3rd Sunday in a row this season (5 total out of 8 events). We were feeling good, had met two goals for the event, and were within striking distance of another goal for the year. But we would need to do some homework, get some rest, and be at the field early to scout the winner of the wildcard match featuring Damage/Revo.

I was confident Damage was going to beat Revo. But NRG Elite had caught the boys from Florida a little flat footed and Revo has proven they can be a spoiler in the past. But not this time. It was sheer dominance from the Damage camp. We watched Damage’s loss to Dynasty and cross referenced that against what we watched them do against Revo. With that data, we felt very good going into the match as we felt there were some opportunities in Damage’s breakouts we could exploit to take better position, and to win that “scramble” on the break.

VS Damage

First point we knew Damage would go short. We also felt confident we would make the snake. We double the gun snake way and break snake. We get our kill on the snake can, place an asset to keep Keith out of the snake, and Nic Ripple goes straight to the 50 snake looking to wrap and trap. Phase 1 complete. Phase 2 is to get Daniel in the snake with Nic. We know we can sneak Mike Brown out to the corner and get a small push that way as well. Damage has the god bunker, home, inset dorito, and a dorito corner who quickly makes dorito 1. Daniel joins Nic within the first 40 seconds of the point, Mike Brown has already snuck out and eventually gets to dorito 2, Stu has the cut between god and snake, and Drew has doritos. The guys are executing pretty flawlessly. We are now set up to pressure and squeeze Damage all within the first minute and a half. Then, at almost 4 minutes in, Nic gets clipped hopping. This is not the end of the world though. It’s a 4 on 4 and we still own position. Mike Brown is now in dorito 3 and gets a shot in on Keith. But it bounces… Jason Edwards gets out of home and into the snake can and Keith decides now’s the time to get out of Dodge and into the snake. Stuart re-positions into snake can to support Daniel. Jason counters and fills the snake corner. The next exchange to go down is between Daniel and Keith. Personally, I felt as if Daniel got the best of Keith but it is what it is. Mutual exchange in the snake. 3 on 3. Stuart reads the situation and takes the snake 50 but didn’t see Jason Edwards move to the 1st snake brick nor does he hear Mike Brown calling it. Jason gets the drop on Stu quickly followed by Mike Brown catching a ball as well. Six and a half minutes into the point, I concede it. We should have won that point. We all knew it. I think Damage knew it too. But their gun fighting skills mixed with our mistakes snatched that one away from us. Still plenty of paintball left to play. 0-1 Damage.

Damage recognizes they don’t want us in the snake early and in order to ensure that doesn’t happen, they put three guns shooting that way. Rainey in the pocket, Jason from home, and I’m pretty sure their center juice box was shooting that way too. This successfully chews up our snake side. With over 8 minutes on the clock and only being down by 1, I’m going to give my remaining 3 at least a minute to a minute and a half to pull something off. Especially since Stu starts pressing the issue D side. But they get a shot in on one of my guys leaving us in a 2 on 5. I concede the point at just under 7. Time to take a deep breath and regroup. 0-2 Damage.

Point three was another point we should have had in the bag. We’re pretty sure Damage is going to get guns up, make primaries and lock it down. And for the most part, we call it right. We get Britt into the inset wedge and Nic out to the snake corner. They peel Aaron Pate off which is an issue for the game plan but not the end of the world, especially since we shoot Keith in our first engagement. 4 on 4 but I see Chad round that dorito corner. Luckily, he posts up at the first dorito. Nic takes the snake but Rainey makes a good move to the snake corner. We catch Rainey getting a bit sloppy. 4 on 3 advantage us. I’m feeling confident we are going to win this point. Jason Edwards makes his way out to the snake corner while he still has Chad in the dorito 1 and a dorito corner. Britt gets outside to dorito 2, Drew gets behind Nic in snake can and Stu gets over dorito way with Britt. Good, we are positioning correctly to bully Jason. Britt and Stu have pressed the action dorito side and Britt gets a kill on Jason in the corner. Outstanding. 4 on 2 our favor, let’s close as a team. But then I hear it. We have the kill count wrong. It’s kill 3 but my guys are calling kill 2. This is not good, especially for us and the clock. And then Britt loses a gun fight. We still have Nic and Drew in the snake and Stu to keep the two Damage players in front of him honest. But then we force the issue snake way and Nic gets picked up. 2 on 2, Stu sees the seam and launches but his timing is just off as Damage turns just in time to pick him up and he takes no one with him. Drew tries. I concede. 0-3 Damage.

We’ve been here before. We know how to do this. We know what has to happen, we know the deal. With just over 3 minutes and 3 points needed to win, we have the play and we know we will get away with it at least once. We need to win in no more than a minute 10. We know Damage is confident with a lock down. We get two guns up on Keith and get the kill then flood the snake side with assets and use one gun D side as we are confident Chad will hole up at dorito corner on the cross (he actually went inset dorito which was even better). Nic gets to their side of the snake and goes to work. His first victim is home. Stu, whose one gun is D side containment, filters to center 50 to continue his containment but this also put himself in position for a launch if necessary. He knows that center juice box is the hold up and trades his body for it. Camp is now with Nic and launches to get the last two. Drew Bell cruises in to hit the buzzer. We took approximately 20-25 seconds more than I would have liked. But a point is a point and we can work with it. 1-3 Damage.

We go back to our first play. We get the kill on Rainey again and Nic goes straight to the 50 snake. But Chad gets to the dorito 2. I should have anticipated that and that’s on me. That cross shot shuts down any center push and has a great bounce shot into the snake. And sure enough, he catches Stu on the center push. Nic makes a great shot on Keith Brown. I’m watching the clock figuring we have to win in the next 10 seconds to give ourselves a shot to tie. Drew backs up Nic in an attempt to bully a gun and get another body. They shoot the home just as we lose Britt on the d side making it a 2 on 2. At this point it is around 20 seconds or so and its for pride. A valiant effort by Nic and Drew but Damage survives as the clock hits zero.

Congratulations to Damage. What an absolutely gritty and determined event for them. They fought tooth and nail all event and showed us what it takes to win on Sunday. Thank you for the lesson gentlemen. Well done. Hats off to that team. As I was apt to say in the booth while commentating on the semis, “Incredible”.

Jocko Willink says that, “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.” And he is absolutely, 100% correct. This is the root of the Hurricanes success. Our camaraderie isn’t by accident. It’s our culture. We have a strong sense of trust, accountability, and togetherness with each other and when it comes to the team’s goals, we make sure we are all on the same page and in sync before we take the first step. I’ve said it 100 times and I will say it 1000 more, I’m lucky to be part of this team. They deserve credit for their hard work and determination. I ask for 150%, they give me 200. And I love them for it.

To finish where we started this blog, there is a saying, “The largest room in the world is the room for improvement”. We have walked through several of those rooms and will continue to open door after door. We ARE improving. Every event is a new lesson, and we pay attention to those lessons. We are students of the game and we are learning at an exponential rate. We win as a team and we learn as a team. Again, proud of my guys composure and discipline this event. But we recognize we need a little more. So we are going to go find it, learn it, grow from it, and be better for it. See everyone in Chicago.

Be water, my friends.