Failure is a harsh mistress. One that, if you aren’t careful, will continue to show up at inopportune times. Especially in the world of professional paintball. You’re only as good as your last performance and after our 2nd place Las Vegas event, where the team gave the PB world a glimpse of what we can do when we execute, the New Orleans Hurricanes have consistently fallen short of our capabilities. Especially on the goals front set by the team at the beginning of the season. We didn’t meet a single set for this season after the first event. But sometimes, we can get so focused on winning, that we fail to recognize the lessons learned from the losses. It is said that failure can improve resilience, incite innovation, and even generate creativity that may not have occurred otherwise. And I thought that’s what we accomplished in preparation for this event. That being said, you better have resilience if you continue to under perform and play like we have. The lessons may start to get old and finding that tenacity, tapping into that “dog” in you, can start to become difficult. Well, not really… not if you are a true “dog” … a real warrior. And my guys are the real deal. But something is wrong. And we have to fix it.
Disappointed doesn’t seem to have the full connotation or essence of what I am trying to convey regarding my guy’s performance (and mine) at this year’s World Cup. This is now the third year in a row that we have gone 1-3 at the final event of the year, losing matches we should have won. We knew how to play this field. We knew the keys to the kingdom so to speak. We knew the set ups, we knew best where to close from and how, we knew where to push, where to create pressure, had good adjustments planned and prepped. We had good understandings of read offense and our opponent’s stack. We just simply failed to execute after the buzzer. We weren’t ourselves and frankly we haven’t been since Atlantic City.
And that has to rest on my shoulders. That’s where I failed. With most of your top teams in professional paintball, paintball is the priority. This is not the case with my Canes. Paintball is a passion. The priority is our families and jobs. Since going pro 3 years ago, we knew it would be tough and that we were in for tremendous difficulty if we wanted to be competitive and relevant in this league. So, my job was to figure out how to be competitive and relevant with limited time and assets. My job was not just to help them prepare, but to draw that great performance out of them… Each member of this team had a point at World Cup this year. Unfortunately, it isn’t individual performance that makes the dream work in this sport. It has to be a team effort, which I have always felt was our strength. And we were just discombobulated. As the leader, I take accountability for not having the words and/or wisdom to draw better performance out of my guys. This season is going to haunt us, I’m sure.
VS Brooklyn Bears
Point 1 – We knew the bears would play a similar match to us. I felt between the two squads there would be aggression on all three fronts of the field but that we would win the day with guns on the break and better comms. And it looked like I was right in point one. Even though Drew Bell was team killed off the rip by getting shot in the foot by a teammate, we shot the Bears’ snake runner on the break with our pocket shooters. Britt Simpson took ground d-side and Nic Ripple was in the snake 50 by himself all within 15 seconds. Daniel held the Bears out of the snake, Stuart spread behind Britt. We are in excellent field position. I am smiling in the pit because this is the set up we want (granted I wanted that 5th body as force multiplier but…still). I knew we were going to win the point. But then things start to deteriorate. Nic picks another body off but we lost Britt. We are now 33 and this field has turned into an island drill. Nic got dinked making it a 2 on 3 but Stuart Ridgel steps up dorito side and peels another off. 2 on 2 now after we had blown the advantage. Daniel Camp zones up and sure enough catches the Bear’s dorito side making it a 2 on 1 with the snake corner the only body left.
It was the first point so I wasn’t concerned. First point jitters kind of stuff maybe. Nothing prepared me for the continuous drop off in performance the rest of the match. 1-0 Hurricanes
Points 2- Should have been a 4 on 2 favor to us mid-point. We bounced three of them this point. However, the Bear’s paint did not bounce when they had their shots. 1-1 Tied
Point 3 – We won the break shooting the Bears snake runner but we let them fill out. We were once again in position to close out the point and win. We had the snake side stacked, and I’m ready for Nic to go do the guy in front of him. Instead, he retreated and got dinked out. Stu and Sakaguchi trade in the snake, so now both teams had 2 bodies dorito way, and one body each in the snake. Aaron Pate won the snake war decisively! Again, I’m thinking to myself, great job, we’re gucci. But then he got picked up by either one of the greatest or luckiest shots from the dorito 2 retreating back to home… it ends up in a one on one with Drew Bell. I felt good about the odds but… no. 1-2 Bears
Point 4 – Bears win the breakout, we are down bodies and time is low. I concede. 1-3 Bears
Point 5-7 Bears play paintball and we forget how. The end. 1-6 Bears
*Point 8 – We got a major in the point before. Bears are on the power play 5 on 3 off the break. We hold.
Big wake up call. We had now put ourselves in a precarious situation and it was just the first match. No worries. Stay positive, understand the mistakes, get it together. Absolutely no reason we shouldn’t and couldn’t win out.
VS Ronholt Dynamite
Ronholt are a Norwegian team and I really like those guys. But we needed to hang it on them, so we set out to do that. They were predictable, not the best laners, and I knew we were better gun fighters . They normally have 4 weeks on a layout so I felt confident they weren’t as prepared as they would be for an event in Europe. We knew what they were doing, we didn’t need to adjust anything to beat them.
Point 1 – we went aggressive and win in 45 seconds. 1-0 Hurricanes
Point 2 – same thing but it slowed down a bit. Pate shot the first body, someone shot Dynamite’s snake, then Pate shot the rest. Pate gets a 4 pack and should be in the running for Prelim move of the event. 2-0 Hurricanes
Point 3 – Dynamite found there guns on the break but we still should have won the point. 2-1 Hurricanes
Point 4 – we won the breakout, made our closing spots, clean close. We are on our way to do what we needed to do to erase the first match. Or so I thought. 3-1 Hurricanes
Point 5 – I got a little concerned on this point. It took us way too long to close this point out, especially since we knew the situation and where they were. I feel our dorito side should have been in the fight sooner. Searight should have felt comfortable coming to Dynamite’s side as none of the three were in position to slow his progress. Dynamites mini wall can’t go anywhere. Drew Bell has to be a little more careful than Searight as he had to push the S2 in before he can go but once through, it should have been over. I feel like we should have won that point with at least 7 minutes or just under still on the clock. 4-1 Hurricanes
Point 6 – One player had to rush to the box and is pulled for leaving early… he wasn’t shot. That’s on me. I had no idea there was a gun issue and frankly, there shouldn’t have been. Next body looks into a ball… d side was blown. Its 5 on 3, Dynamite’s advantage but Nic got to the 50 snake, and peels not one, not two, but three bodies off before he dies. He did everything he could to save the point. This left us in a 2 on 2. Unfortunately, my two last bodies didn’t know where the two bodies were and it costs us. Blind shot on Drew Bell costs him his body. Trade at the end with Daniel Camp in the snake and Dynamite is on the board again. 4-2 Hurricanes.
Point 7 – We win the break and they got a penalty I think. They concede with 2 and a half minutes left. We needed to win by 5 just to get back to 0. So we need to get on the board in about 1 minute 15 seconds or so average to make me happy. That would not be the case. 5-2 Hurricanes
Point 8 – We just couldn’t stay alive. I don’t know what was going on… 5-3 Hurricanes
Point 9 – We stay alive but Searight drew a minor. The “hit” on his pack was obviously rub from one of the bunkers but it is what it is…. We burn the clock. Game. We did not accomplish our goal to win by at least 5. This would haunt us. Match should have been 6-1.
VS AC Diesel
We scouted Diesel and were ready for them (or so we thought). We knew they liked to use the pocket, and press the snake action.
Point 1 – They break as we anticipated but they still win it. 4 on 5 advantage them but we beat them to the snake. We bait Godlman into a gun in the snake making it a 4-4. However, we lost Dorito containment and got sloppy in our bunkers. Cortez makes Britt pay for it. While that was happening, Nic kills the god and was on their side of the snake. Cortex shoots Pate, Nic has no idea what was going on, they hit the buzzer. We shouldn’t have lost that point. 1-0 Diesel.
Point 2 – I wanedt to use the center on them because I had a sense they would go snake corner and weak d side. They did. Unfortunately, they made their first shot on Pate count. While that was happening, Britt had made it to Diesel’s side of the field. But he decided to over gunfight. We were just giving them bodies. We had fed the snake so I decide to give it some time to see if we can eek one out. Sure enough Drew Bell makes a moving cross field shot from the D side on Mouse in the snake! He then shoots the D side one! We have now evened the body count up 3 on 3. Daniel Camp shoots the D side 2 cross field! There we go!… But Clint Johnson sneaks one in on Drew. It’s a 2 on 2 and my guys later reported they didn’t know where Clint was… we dropped the ball again. 2-0 Diesel.
Pt 3 – The next point was a cluster. Get this, they shoot Camp on the break but the ref next to the one calling Daniel out, thinks the other ref is talking about Nic! That’s right, Nic was clean but the ref kept yelling at him to get out so he did. So Diesel gets a free one thanks to a ref not just taking a beat to understand. We got one back and Britt is on their side of the field in their Doritos. He missed his first shot and now they know he’s there. But Pate picks up Clint Johnson. It’s now a 3 on 3 again. A minute goes by, Pate feeds the snake but then… both Drew Bell and Britt Simpson come walking off. I don’t know how. It’s a 3 on 1 so I concede the point. 3-0 Diesel
Pt 4- We were pretty confident they would spread and they do save for the 1 dorito side who went a little further than we thought. Drew Bell asks for a paint check on his back. The ref called him clean. As he progressed up the field another ref found the hit the first one missed. Penalty… I had to concede. 4-0 Diesel
Pt 5 – we finally play hurricane paintball 4-1 Diesel. Too little too late. Game.
VS Aftershock
We scouted shock and had a great understanding of their game plan. They literally had one play they ran 80% of the time with two guns up and 3 heads down running. We would try and take advantage of that.
Point 1 – Well, those two guns up were good. 1-0 Afteshock.
Point 2- Same. Except this time, we shot two of theirs shortly after. 2 on 3 but my two are Drew Bell and Searight, so I let this go a bit. Drew gets in the snake, shoots Hosky, Searight shoots Cory Hall! Drew put a ball on Thomas Kim’s neck, we all saw it from the pit. The ref calls him clean. Searight should have shot him as the ref was checking him. Anyway, one on one, Thomas Kim wins it. 2-0 Aftershock’
Point 3 – 4 on 4 break which quickly became a 4 on 2, Aftershock advantage… I concede. 3-0 Aftershock
Point 4 – I have officially left stoic demeanor and am now in putting my foot up everyone’s butt demeanor. We know what they will do and want to do. If we can live past the break, quit giving our bodies away, we will beat them! We shoot two on the break (finally), Arod threw his body away, 3 on 1 advantage us. We were on the board finally playing the way we knew how to. 3-1 Aftershock.
Pt 5 – We lost the break but get the advantage snake side when Danimal took Hosky off the board. Searight pressed the issue dorito way as well and he eventually worked his way to their side. He shot their god, they send a body to get him, that dude got diced, we close out. Another point where we are looking like ourselves! 3-2 Aftershock
Pt 6 – We know they will go back line and we decide to go short snake way (snake way shooter was hot). The read was right and we shot their 1 dorito way and their 2 snake way who drew a minor. Corey shot Britt but Nic caught Corey, 4 on 1 advantage us. I don’t think we knew about the minor and were looking for a second body. At the very least, this issue was better than the issues we had been having. Good close considering. And a third point in a row where we played to our potential. 3-3 Tied
Pt 7 – We know they will do their standard break out. Two at home, one body short dorito way, god and snake corner. They did. We missed our shots though. Both teams for the first time this match are 5 on 5. Arod missed his shot on Daniel who is on their side of the snake but we didn’t. Arod takes the walk. We shoot Parrish D side, and I remember thinking, it is 5 on 3 with just over two minutes. We got this. I’m thinking Daniel will launch and stab out Hosky. Instead Hosky went highway. Then a strange thing happened… a ref throws a minor on my player who asked “whats on his head?” Hosky had a BUNCH of paint on his head and there did seem an instance where it looked like he took a lick in the snake. We were going to win this point and potentially the game… but a ref had inserted himself into the match, on a talking penalty no less. Oh well. Control what you can control. I have to concede the point with a minute forty left. 4-3 Aftershock
Pt 8 – Arod gets away with one this point. We watched him get shot from the pit. He was hit, he realized it, and launched before a ref could get there. Stu points at Arod asking for the penalty and they throw a penalty on us for pointing… pointing everyone. Nic trades in the snake making it a 2 on 2. But Drew Bell and Danimal pinch the home. Drew trades with Parrish. Daniel waits to hit the buzzer until about 6 seconds. 4-4 Tie.
Overtime – Aftershock takes the win after we lose the break and team kill one of our guys.
So what did we learn here? We have learned that you have to be at your best every moment of every point of every match. You better hit your off the break shots like you were at practice. And you better close cleaner by checking in and realizing your down count because there was probably a guy doing a job… and if he isn’t there anymore doing said job, that is bad… more so when you don’t know it. The Canes are known for two things – guns on the break, and disciplined team work. We had neither at this event.
The New Orleans Hurricanes started this season off well with a 2nd place finish in Vegas. We had two goals this season, neither of which we met after Vegas. Make every Sunday and win an event. I have a lot more to say on this and maybe I will write another blog later this month to cover all of it.
But first…
Seneca taught that “Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.” And he is absolutely right. But I’m not a perfect stoic yet.
…But I am always trying. With that in mind, I will avoid commenting on a “distraction” that reared its ugly head the day prior to the event. Now to work on that Christian value of mine regarding forgiveness, too. That one will be tough. To the “source” that fed the lie? Pray I don’t find you.
The rumor of our demise is greatly exaggerated. We have work to do.
Be water my friends.
Zen and the Art of Paintball 