Nun dumandari chiddu chi nun po’ pigghiari…

That’s an old Sicilian proverb. It means, “Don’t ask for what you can’t take.” And that was the theme we adopted heading into this event. As a rookie team competing in their second pro event, the draw the Cats had was nothing short of a meat grinder. And let me tell you, we are here for it. (at the time of this writing, it appears we will have another in Cincinnati).

To prepare for this event, we decided not to practice another pro team. Rather, we wanted to focus completely on ourselves and spend as much time on the field dialing up our understanding of the layout and the best ways to play it with our attributes. On top of that, I took a different approach regarding how we would structure the practice, focusing on key elements and creating essentially a “fight camp”. Whereas, it meant longer days with more classroom work, the guys recognize we have to work harder to see more successes. They were down for it (mostly) and I think it showed at this last event. Some may look at the 1 and 3 record and 14th place finish as “bad” or par or similar to the first event and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong per say… But then, they would be missing the forest through the trees.

This event recap, I will take you through some keep moments in each of our preliminary matches.

VS San Diego Dynasty

No one can argue that Dynasty’s roster isn’t powerful. When they get Ryan back, everyone will be on notice. You have the “titans” of Blake Yarber and Yosh Rau which, that combo alone gives them an advantage over half the league. The way Joe Barret has been playing, that man is well on his way to elite status, especially when he can play close to Harrison. Harry’s a wild card but when that man is on, it’s pretty sick. I said it last year, but I feel Arturo is close to elite status as well. Now with ABJ on the roster and Urena back on the squad, that will just push him harder. He’s driven for sure. Omara, Weaver… it’s a who’s who of talent.

We spent some time talking through who we anticipated would play where and how that data could create opportunity for us. Dynasty ended up playing the field similar to us which makes sense as we felt we had a good grasp on the best approach (not everyone can be the Red Legion and have 3 guys in key bunkers within 20 seconds every point). Here are the key points during the match:

Point 3 (currently tied 1-1) – We take a similar breakout save for three small differences between us. A) Dynasty delays Omara in the pocket before taking snake insert (we go straight in), B) They send Arturo straight to the snake (we take the snake corner deep route) and C) They take dorito 2 on the break (we take dorito “corner”).

We shoot Arturo on the break but give them one back with Davis dying out of snake insert. Situationally, we have the advantage as not long after these two things happen, we match their dorito side with Evan into Dorito 2 and get Ronny in the snake. Joey is shooting a zone protect shot to slow advancement dorito way. From his Home position, he can keep paint in the gap between Dorito 2 and Dorito 3. Bailey is in the Dorito side Can shooting to keep Omara from matching Ronny in the snake. Ronny posts up at snake 2 instead of going further (looking for that fill in the middle that didn’t come) and Omara gets out on Bailey into the snake. Tactically, things are back to even again.

Ronny wins the snake war on Omara. Now, we not only have the body advantage (4 on 3) but we have the snake to ourselves. In my mind, we should win this scenario 9 out of 10 times even against Dynasty. Barret makes a necessary fill out to the snake corner. This is smart, not just because its a terrific “Alamo” bunker, but now we have to respect his presence there since we don’t have anyone who can see if he decides to take the snake. Control via paranoia. But Ronny makes the right call and progresses anyway.

And this is where our mistake happens. We already knew they had a center presence and we had cautioned the Center brick. If I am a center player and I know a snake is coming down, the first place I’m going to look for him is at that “V” at the 50 snake. Ronny does a slow sloth like check thinking Weaver will be at the Center brick, doesn’t see him and slowly rotates on the Center tower… Weaver makes him pay for it. If he does a fast or swift head check, confirms, now Weaver has to play whack-a-mole and the advantage falls to Ronny. Instead, we lose the advantage with Ronny getting cyclops’ed.

Joey got out to the snake corner (good) but probably should have taken some snake ground earlier. Bailey can’t do too much to help either side. I would have liked to have seen him go forward into the center at some point (prior to Barret’s fill).

Joey makes a good move into the snake and catches Harrison. If he takes a knee right then after the kill, and posts up for Barrett as opposed to continuing like he did, maybe a different outcome. Woulda coulda shoulda. Evan does the right thing and tries to capitalize, misses his shot on Weaver to make it a 1 v 1. Point to Dynasty making it 2-1 with 8:04 on the clock.

Point 4 – This one is easy. Dynasty obtains a great set up here. They shoot our snake on the break, but get both Arturo and Urena into the snake quickly. The push Yosh to the center to lock down the snake side feed that has to come. Davis gets clipped doing what he is supposed to try and do (get to the corner or get into the snake). Once they clip Davis, it was a matter of time.

Point 6 – This is the one we want back. With just over 3 minutes on the clock, 5 on 5 breakout. But we shoot Arturo in the pack and he gets a minor. This clears the snake side for us. Joe Barret sees the flag, knows what is at stake, and throws everything he has into making the corner. And he makes it. We make the call on the three bunkers. And we are correct on the call. With Joe getting out to snake side, it causes that small “paralysis”… where in the snake is he… Shouldn’t have mattered. The moment that flag goes up on Dynasty, someone should be on containment and we should be hauling down the snake. Then it happens… we lose one body on the D side as we are developing the snake side… and then another. We went from a 5 on 3 advantage to a 3 on 3 because we were too slow to develop snake way and couldn’t stay alive in the Doritos.

Ronny eventually gets clipped at about a minute left. We have lost all opportunity and the point has completely shifted to Dynasty since the clock and the bodies were now on their side. Can’t blame the two remaining for sending it but I can blame them all for not closing as a team.

VS PAINTBALL FIT

This match gave me hope. We reduced mistakes but still made them. Our guns were getting hot. I know FIT was missing Mason but all those guys are dangerous. We took them deep for the most part.

A few things this match we could have done better. But I will focus on just this one as it was a good lesson regarding the gun fight theory/percentage Ryan Gray and I often discuss on the Coach’s Show and in our clinics.

Point 6 – We lose one on the break out of back center and FIT does an excellent job of creating pressure. Here’s the thing, even with the 4 on 5 advantage to FIT, we are still in good spots to either counter, or kill clock. We have options. But we make a critical error here. Rios decides to engage in a gunfight with Stewart at about the :50 second mark. He didn’t need to. Once Stewart pushes him, he should have rolled off and called the position. Instead, he snaps out in the exact same spot and loses the gun fight. Not only did this mistake give FIT another body advantage, it hamstrung the remaining Cats by dying with information. If he stays alive there, FIT’s push is a little more difficult with dwindling time.

VS NEW YORK XTREME

After scouting NYX, it felt like they were still trying to figure the field out. They were mercied by Collision but put 2 on the board against Dynasty… interestingly enough, there didn’t appear to be any real adaptation between their first and second loss. We studied them a little more and came up with some box and line calls to address them. At first, we thought they might be chaotic and hard to understand the method behind the madness each point. But we ultimately determined they were telling each other to just “play better”. So we stuck with what we thought would win the day. Get that two man operation working faster for us in the snake which we were lacking the first day..

Point 3 – This was simply a sloppy close. Wanted to get that off my chest.

Point 5 – Ronny’s retreat sets up the two pack trade (not necessarily his fault, just bad timing). What really bothered me was we lose a 3 on 2… another up body scenario we fail to close.

VS LOS ANGELES COLLISION

The Cats have a history with Collision. We respect them tremendously and, of course, Mike Hinman and I are friends. Our two teams were back and forth last year in Semi pro. The two teams met four times last year… Tampa Bay Open (Cats win 5-0), Midwest Open (Cats win 4-3), Lonestar Open FINALS (Collision wins 3-2), World Cup prelim seeding (Collision wins 3-2). Plus we shared a pit with them at Cup on Sunday. They have showed a tremendous trajectory since our first meeting that season.

Headed into this match, it was obvious both teams had done their homework. Both needed the win to have a chance to move on. We both had mercy rule wins and a win here could put one of us in the wild card running. Now, Collision plays a LOT of paintball and has a solid roster with a significant amount of experience. Antetomaso, Boyum, Challenger, Park, and Trujillo… all experienced pro’s from different rosters. Throw in young talent like Castro and Middleton with leadership from Mike, Dan Le, and Ramirez… you can’t look past this “rookie” team. They have great sparring partners and a rolodex of experience to draw from. So we were going to have to be disciplined on our execution.

We had a really good understanding of how they wanted to play the field but I felt we had one small advantage over them… And for the most past, that small advantage played out a bit.

Point 2 – (1-0 in Collision’s favor) Good execution and knowing the situation by my guys. Both Ronny and Evan strike well and the rest of the line clean it up flawlessly. However, I was on the sideline pressing an imaginary buzzer. We let almost 20 seconds go before the concession…This was a mistake. I understand making sure we are clean, etc. But get the point. We are down and with the new rules, more paintball equals better. Those 20 secs would come back and bite us.

Point 4 – (we are up 2-1) I want this one back too. They shoot our 1 snake way (Ronny) and we shoot their 2 snake way. Its a 4 on 4. Ben Challenger gets to the snake 50 which we knew he wanted to do. We end up getting another kill Dorito way. We now have the body advantage in a 4 on 3. Evan is in the Dorito 3 just shy of the 50, Davis is in our clover leaf trying to slow Ben and Boyum with his presence. Davis is told where Ben is and goes to get him and succeeds with a trade. We still have the body advantage but now Boyum has the snake completely to himself. Bailey dies and this really hurts us but Evan sees it and capitalizes by dunking the last remaining body on the dorito side for Collision. Heck yes! It is now a 2 on 1 and we have an almost 90 degree angle on Boyum. It’s as good as over and we will go up by 2.

Or was it?

All of us in the pits see Evan shoot Boyum in the hopper. Joey sees it too… but the refs didn’t. Joey walks out into Boyums gun and as Evan goes to get the buzzer, he is surprised as well by Boyum shooting him. Should have been a minor at the very least but shooting two of my guys is a major. Ref looks at it and lets it go after being contacted on the radio which is astounding… we should have been on the power play the next point with a 2 point advantage and 4:48 on the clock.

But it’s like I always say, can’t leave it up to the refs. They’re human and will miss things. Until you see that ref call that player eliminated, you have to be locked in. Confirm the kill… or at least continue to shoot and keep pressure, protect yourself, until that ref signals them eliminated.

Point 6 – (We are up 3-2) – This one is on me 100%. I told the guys I felt they would push the middle heavy since that is what I would do if I were them. But then differed to standard. Dumb. That cost us. Great play call by Collision here. Bad call on my part. I knew better.

Point 7 – (tied 3-3 with 1:23 left on the clock) – We had a goal at practice the week before to meet a certain average time, a certain pace. We didn’t always see success with meeting it but knew it was possible. Ronny makes a great read here and we get two bodies early. It is a 5 on 3, we own the snake, and just over a minute on the clock. However, my guys on the back line aren’t recognizing the advantage we have. Davis gets in behind Ronny but then we lose both of them at the same time! Its now a 3 on 3 and Collision has the snake completely to themselves! Joey dies out of the back center… if he stays alive for 5-10 more seconds… Evan shoots the last remaining body on the D side at about 25 seconds. Its a 2 on 2 with both Collision players in the snake. Bailey recognizes the situation, turns his body toward the snake side placing the can between him and the remaining two Collision players to protect the buzzer, and tells Evan he has to go for it. Bailey does defend and gets the first attacker and Evan does shoot the last body but the small delay in recognizing that makes him miss the buzzer by about 1 second exactly. I lost composure here thinking we had just stole it and jumped off the coaching stand only to realize we didn’t…. bummer.

Now you know why I want those 20 seconds back from point 2. Had we had just one of those seconds left… different outcome. It goes into overtime and we lose the 3v3.

So here is my overall summation for those who may not see the forest through the trees, right, wrong, or indifferent.

First, we showed improved focus against the top teams this event. Playing teams like San Diego Dynasty and Paintball FIT should sharpen focus. We didn’t overthink. We reacted well mostly, committed to the game plan, and were composed against two great teams. Yes, we still made mistakes but they were not as catastrophic as the first event.

Second, I felt we were matching the tempo well. Could it have been better? Absolutely! But elite teams like Dynasty and FIT control points through pacing—when to slow it down, when to explode. We aren’t there yet but it is coming.

Here’s where we are:

When closing points, we need to be more efficient at recognizing and acting when we get a small advantage. Once we move THAT needle (processing speed), we are not only a better team but we will start winning those close ones regularly. We lost several up body situations. 5 on 3’s 3 on 2’s, and 2 on 1s. This is really a big one for us. We turned a few points that should have been ours and gave them to our opponents.

Taking Paintball FIT to overtime is actually a strong indicator, at least to me, we are closing the gap. If we can keep building on that confidence while tightening late-point execution and communication, again those close games start turning into wins.

In my opinion, what separates us from being a potentially dangerous underdog team from a consistent winner are the small mistakes we made at this event. We were losing on specific mistakes rather than getting blown off the break or outplayed structurally, that’s actually a really strong indicator in my mind. It means we’re starting to operate on the right level. We just aren’t as “clean” at it yet as other teams. One mistake can swing a whole point at this level. A single over-aggressive move, a missed fill, a late bunker call, or one miscomm can cost everything. The best teams don’t just capitalize on these mistakes, they look for them and are ready the moment they happen. Like a cat pouncing… sorry. Had to get that in there.

Small gaps in our comms are hurting us too but this is easily fixable. I said that a lot in preparing for this event. Data helps us win. Against so-so or an average team, you may be able to get away with a miscomm here or there but against top teams you’re usually punished almost immediately… If we get the comms on point, that will improve our synchronization on the field which will lead to better attacks.

But here’s the good news. All these things I just mentioned above are all fixable. And they are all fixable faster than a player’s skill gaps. We don’t need new talent, we need more high pressure reps, tighter and cleaner comms, and drill closings until they are automatic. I think my guys are starting to feel more confident. And they should. They belong. They earned their spot to be among the professional teams. Once that belief and confidence is paired with cleaner execution, man… we stop “hanging” with top teams and start beating them. Heck, if we clean up half our problems, matches like the one we had with FIT and Collision don’t go to overtime, we close them out.

Be water my friends.