Have you ever heard the story about the little engine that could?  Let me tell you that story … toot, toot… and how Charlie rigged the trestle!

Okay, on a serious note…

Preparation

When the layout dropped, I think many had mixed thoughts about it, including myself.  At first I thought, okay – Lonestar concept from 2022 (as one Hurricane staff stated, “As if Vegas was cheating off Lonestar’s test but Lonestar said, make sure you can’t tell it was me”).  We met an important goal at that event two years ago and made our first Sunday.  I believe that success came from our due diligence of walking that field for 5 hours and putting together some good theories.  For this layout, I ended up doing a quick digital field walk live for The Coaches Show which was highly rushed. That is where I first recognized some possibilities. And then met with my guys to do the same thing on a Zoom call that same evening.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that some of us were a little apprehensive during and after the initial discussion.  We recognized early on that this layout had a lot of “holes” depending on circumstances displayed on the break. We would challenge that hypothesis during our layout practice against the ML Kings. As someone who wants to understand how to “control” a field, I was banging my head against the wall until two of my guys Justin Bailey and Britt Simpson said, “You have to let it go and trust us to make good decisions.” They were right. The prevailing wind was that, to lock anything down, you had to take ground early and fast (risk).  We decided, well heck, if we are going to do that, why lock down and not just attack.  In other words, you had to attack forward to get position to control… why not just press the attack. Pressure would be the key.  Once we decided this, it then became a question of statistical analysis on where best to attack from, the timing of it, how to create it when you couldn’t on the break, who to bully/pick on, so on and so forth.  It wasn’t that you couldn’t win from a pocket, but you were certainly at a disadvantage if your opponent was first and beat you out of it. This field could turn like a clock too.

So, we decided it was time to show the “old Canes” from before our pro debut.  Time to start throwing punches… and hard.  This approach became somewhat jeopardized due to the fact that Nic Ripple injured his ankle early on Sunday morning against the Kings along with Britt Simpson who tweaked his knee.  Couple that with not having one of our anchors, Aaron Pate, we were at a little of a detriment.  Or were we? This team has shown time and time again we can address adversity. What I love about my guys is they almost always rise to an occasion and this wouldn’t be any different. We adjusted. No fear, no complaining, just work. And that’s what I got out of them.  My guys answered the call and frankly, I didn’t have any doubt they would.

Headed into this event, we felt that the “D” side could be exploited occasionally along with a fair mixture of the “snake side” aggression. Our guns on break were still showing good statistics as well. We knew a lot of teams would put heavy guns snake way, allowing our risk vs reward approach on the D-side to work percentage wise. We worked on some center pushes, but the D-side attack made more statistical sense to us as the center was susceptible to several guns from several locations on the field.  Pretty much everyone could shoot you from somewhere and the routes were precarious.  We also wanted to try and hide our stack on top of mixing up where we would put players in an effort to be a little harder to scout. Not sure if the latter ended up working but the effort was there none the less.

VS IRONMEN

We had scrimmaged the Ironmen just 2 weeks prior to the layout dropping.  I thought this was advantageous for two reasons.  One, it would give me a good look at where my guys stood heading into the season after our disastrous World Cup and, two, give me insight into the Men’s new talent pool (we knew they were our first match at the event).  The data I got was insightful but when the layout dropped I had a new conundrum from the data set.  I wasn’t sure the data would hold given the layout… but it was better than nothing and we weren’t too far off with our assessment. Now, I don’t want to give too much away here but we were certainly paying attention to their stack on the box.  The first point both teams get all 5 out alive.  We overloaded the D-side and the Ironmen went for a heavy snake presence but pushed the weak D-side with Nicholaou.  We ended up in much better field position with the Men in the pocket save for Nicholaou.  But we made a mistake and a bad read/job was dropped here. We let Kyle take ground. Once Stuart made the corner, Bailey repositioned to counter Kyle.  But now our initial attack has stalled when we allowed Kyle to get a kill. Bailey tried to salvage the point. He made the right call but went just a little too wide on the stab. The Ironmen closed out the 3 on 2 well. 0-1 IRONMEN

We went with a snake attack with the intention to spread when the guns shifted.  We won the break out and Searight made the Ironmen’s side of the field pretty quickly. He began peeling bodies which allowed quick follow up guns with our 2’s.  Apologies to Omara- glad you found that wedding ring brother! 1-1 TIED

Similar break outs save for one asset with the Ironmen pulling up just short of snake where we tried to take it and got eliminated.  With our center tower holding snake way, and Daniel getting into the corner, we stalemated for a moment.  However, the Ironmen made the correct secondaries to the wides as well as the center.  Daniel countered with a snake move but we left him on an island. Which, I didn’t feel was the correct read.  Britt Simpson went to dig out Sentz who sold the ref on a penalty. 1-2 IRONMEN

We had to play a body down on the next point but that didn’t phase us.  We had a goal in mind and I had a time limit in my head for my 4 guys to get it done.  The play worked out but we lost Daniel on the break.  That didn’t change my time frame, especially since we got the set up we wanted… just meant one job had to change.  Even when we lost Drew, I saw Stuart see the line so I didn’t walk towards the concede button.  He almost pulled it off. So, now I had to concede since we lost Nic behind Stu too.  But there was still over 5 minutes on the clock.  PLENTY of time. 1-3 IRONMEN

We send Searight wide and deep to draw the gun out and up on the next play. Daniel then filtered underneath from home.  We also knew that the Men had shown a penchant to go weak D-side save for Nicholaou.  Daniel made it in, and we peeled a body for good measure blowing that side.  We knew that you could counter opposite side so jobs shifted to keep that from happening.  It was a well-executed play that took about 1 minute. 2-3 IRONMEN

I just knew that the Men would try to get to that snake corner. We keyed up, got the kill and were blessed that it wound up being a penalty for the Ironmen as well.  After 5 looks, we send a rabbit but with a twist.  We got to the D-side corner and fed from the home again.  It paid off. The Men were only using one gun to protect that way and with the penalty…well, there you go.  We won the point in about 45 seconds or so.  Tie game with 3 minutes left.  We had the momentum, but we weren’t going to come off the gas. 3-3 TIED

We wanted to get 5 out alive.  I gave Searight the freedom to make the read.  This was actually kind of funny… we shot one off the break and it drew another penalty for the Men which blew the side.  Searight entered the pit upset saying “I screwed that one up coach”.  I said, “You’re fine, we shot two on the break.”  He looks shocked and says, “Man, I REALLY screwed that one up then!”   Love that guy. He holds himself to a standard and, as a coach, you love to see it.  With the Ironmen’s D-side blown, Daniel shifted out to the corner for the wrap and trap. Drew Bell went aggressive on our D-side.  There was plenty of time on the clock. My guys pieced together the correct effective push.  Stuart backed Drew for a two man operation while Bailey and Daniel worked together to change the fronts.  When the Ironmen’s snake allowed it, Bailey took our snake and that was the nail in the coffin for the Ironmen.  They conceded with 21 seconds left on the clock.  But, as we had seen at practice, that is all the time you needed to punch a hole and get a body through.  So now I’m thinking, gotta risk some kill zones to protect…4-3 HURRICANES

We spread the field because we knew they wouldn’t get accurate guns up with 21 seconds. We made it out alive and zoned up. Game.  Close one.  We would have to play much tighter against the next team.  Hats off to the Ironmen. They will have a good season.

VS DAMAGE

I was happy we were able to catch Damage early in the prelims.  I was not happy we caught them after a loss.  Joey and I are both scouters who like to understand nuances about our upcoming opponents.  The question became, how to surmise their adjustments after the loss.  We concluded it was going to be leveraging Raney through the center.  We had shown how we ultimately wanted to play the field in the 7 points against Ironmen. I was hoping we could just make them play our game, react to us, chase us.  We also knew they would be staring into the sun the first point. I want to make sure we won everyone of those points, so we had to make it count.

Sure enough, we got in the snake and they used Raney up the center in what I assume was a plan to ambush my guy on his first engagement (whack a mole).  However, we shot their backline early.  This was probably because of the massive glare/sun they were looking into.  But Raney couldn’t see Searight who got a quick wrap and two kills before Raney cleared through the center to shoot Searight in the back.  Too little too late. 1-0 HURRICANES

The next point we were now facing the sun. We figured let’s get guns up, spread D-side to draw a gun and filter underneath into the snake.  Keith Brown made that snake side dorito (what we were calling the god) but seemed content to stay on containment, that or he wasn’t risking it weighing their guns against ours.  Again, we only had one gun to beat on that same top side. With it drawn deep, we determined we could go underneath with the late launch.  It worked.  Raney released to the center to maintain snake side dominance but I don’t think he knew or received the call that we were in the dorito side snake.  Daniel got a free kill on him.  Damage responded by Keith taking additional ground and getting support out behind him in that can.  We knew they were in there with us now though and we had the body advantage.  Damage was set up to push that way but Daniel readied for the trade and, having over watch, it essentially would come down to a gunfight… and we didn’t have to engage/fight Damage… we knew better.  Unfortunately, that led to them taking ground on the other side as well.  I’m in the pit WAITING for Keith to trade… and he does. We still had the 4-3 body advantage. 

Unfortunately, we gave them a body back (glare got Bailey, like a Douglas Dauntless out of the sun).  3 on 3 but Searight reacted well by getting that ground back D-side.  With Drew in the corner, Stu saw the opportunity and moved up the center with a smart probe and got the drop!  A 6-minute chess match of a point. 2-0 HURRICANES

We were back on the shadow side.  We had gone to the snake a lot so I asked Searight to take the corner.  Unfortunately, I got him shot.   Gratefully, our guns were hot and we traded him for Keith Brown AND Chris Horn.  They tried to take advantage of the chaos, but our zone control took another body. Nic got in on this one and clocked in.  We lost Stu but we were in a 3 on 2 situation and with a 2-point lead.  I looked at the clock and started trying to get it to go faster hoping Joey wouldn’t concede it.  He did. 3-0 HURRICANES

Joey pulled one out of our book by having Rainey shoot from home and feed weak D-side to that important wedge.  The rest was the same with Keith pulling up short in that large dorito snake way.  We lost one on the break but Rainey was picked off, leaving Britt Simpson in the snake alone on that side. He crawled into their side to apply pressure.  Damage looked to plug the hole by getting out into the baby dorito in front of Britt.  Keith finally fed the snake too.  We let a second body get out in front of Britt… and then they filled the corner behind Keith…frustrating.  Tandem line between Britt and our corner was too long.  If Britt had stayed still and relaxed, we would have probably burned more time off the clock.  When he was eliminated, it allowed Damage back into the match as we were now on our heels on the back line.  Drew was caught by Keith which allowed Keith the kill on Stu. This left Mike Brown in the corner.  Mike eliminated two but the Edwards brothers closed it out. 3-1 HURRICANES

About 4 minutes are left on the clock.  Again, we couldn’t sit on our laurels and try to “cross” it up here.  If we wanted to kill the clock, we had to attack and take the fight to Damage. That is what made this layout so derivative.  Our guns were hot on the break the next point, shooting two in conjunction with a minor penalty against Damage. Joey didn’t hesitate and conceded, only knocking 10 seconds off the clock. 4-1 HURRICANES

We were up by 3 with still just under 4 minutes on the clock (last point took less than 10 secs).  Meaning Damage had to win three points in a minute each to tie… certainly within the realm of possibility. But I knew my guys were in the flow state now and should be good.  I knew if we could stuff that next point we would be golden.  But Damage had other plans.  They took the snake and center on the break which we calculated they would do.  We shot the snake and bounced the center… but then WHAMO!  My guys started walking off in droves.  It wasn’t guns on the break, it was looking into first balls… not good.  As a coach I was now thinking I needed to make sure my guys didn’t let that one get in their head…They were way ahead of me of course and were ready to get that one back. 4-2 HURRICANES

We went high probability safety with two short secondaries for zone control (the Dynasty equation is what I am calling it right now).  However, we lost one early.  Not a disaster but not optimum.  People say we were going defensive… my comment to that is that if you felt we went defensive here, you don’t understand how the field plays. One of my guys dropped his job because (I think) he was called off of it allowing Keith into the snake. I don’t think we saw it because when he does get back on the job, he is shooting the zone to protect the snake entry Keith already went through (I later confirmed this was the case).  This causes the entire team to fall. 4-3 HURRICANES

Damage had less than a minute.  Knowing this, they probably aren’t getting more than 2-3 guns up on the break.  We wanted to get guns up and make a play for the weak D-side with a runner.  We shot one on the break and made the position necessary to counter center.  Sure enough, we shot center and now had control of 50% of the field.  I was a little concerned when we lost our snake side but when the clock hit 30 and Damage hadn’t come out of pocket yet, I knew we would win it.  The last second push by the two Damage players was valiant but not enough. My guys had the wherewithal to go get that last point. 5-3 HURRICANES

VS INFAMOUS

Jamroz was a player that could get into the snake at will on day 1. We wanted to get guns on him early.  We used Daniel Camp up the gut to add that on the break force multiplier since we hadn’t been using it.  Infamous put a ball on him anyway.  But we did get the kill… so it’s a 4 on 4 off the break.  I felt we got the better of the exchange though as we got a body wide (Britt Simpson) and we eliminated theirs.  With Britt wide, that allowed Drew Bell to make his way-out D-side and go to work increasing pressure.  Infamous reacted well though and gave themselves breathing room with two quick bumps to expand their pocket a little.  We were set to where they must risk going through guns to counter now and we had one piece (Drew) that could play offense.  Drew got his inside kill which would have been Infamous’ best chance to counter.  He ended up getting clipped by the god counter because we had let off that zone control in order to go offensive with a two-sided attack (timing).  We still had the advantage with positioning but then Infamous did a great expansion move while Mike Brown’s gun was out of the fight on his crawl in the snake.  Both Mike Brown and Infamous retreated out of their respective snake locations.  (Mike Brown and I will be working in the snake some upcoming practices- he said he has a newfound respect for his snake brethren).  He backed up only to have Stuart tell him he was moving the wrong way (you have to laugh at these things)!  Good thing too because Mike worked his way back and blew the side open.  Once that happened, Stu made the right read/move and helped close the game. Infamous conceded an essentially 6-minute point. 1-0 HURRICANES

Infamous wasn’t going to change anything. It would be two at home, the Aztec D-side, the mini wall snake way on a cross, and snake.  We had a similar break but went just short in the god.  We got a minor for a hopper hit which removed both of my home players.  However, Daniel Camp was out a little wider and now we were in a position to at least kill a little clock (as well as shoot a low probability bounce shot…).  But that low probability shot landed!  4 on 3 advantage Infamous but I don’t think Sam Silberg knew where the bodies were or maybe got some bad intel.  He gave us his body.  Now we had evened the count and we knew it.  The comms from my guys on this point (Searight, Bailey, and Daniel) were stellar.  Infamous made a good counter up the center and had the drop on Daniel but missed!  Daniel said screw it and went offensive once he tracked that Nate Schroeder had retreated.  Nate tried to get it back but a heads up play by Searight took him out of the equation.  This put us in a 3 on 2 scenario with Infamous on one side of the field.  As the clock dwindled under 5 minutes, I thought to myself, relax gentlemen, make them come.  Mr. Lemanski knew the score and smartly conceded with about 4:45 on clock. 2-0 HURRICANES

Infamous recognized the situation and had plenty of time to bring the match back.  We knew we had to fight fire with fire though on this field.  And we did.  Regrettably, we ended up in a 2 on 1 (Searight being the one) and they closed it out with about a minute twenty on the clock.  Funny, because that was the average time I had calculated to win a point.  That would play into the next point. 2-1 HURRICANES

Based off what I had seen from Infamous in this match and their two previous matches, I felt we had a pretty good understanding of what they could do or rather what they wanted to do.  If we could get 5 out alive, it would be our game.  They wanted ground so we would take ground too.  Snake on break and dorito corner (this was important) with three guns up was the play.  We made it out alive.  Not only were we in position to have eyes on access points, but we were in position to counter and steal a 3^rd point when possible.  Once we got under 30 seconds, I turned away and walked deeper into the pit knowing we had sealed the deal.  Especially when I saw both 1’s for Infamous being overly cautious with their probes.  When the bodies start trading at 15, again, I wasn’t watching.  I was telling the pit crew great job not realizing that Searight would get a 3 pack on Infamous to truly close the door on the match (dorito corner). 2-1 HURRICANES

VS NOTORIOUS

We had 3 wins and were guaranteed a Sunday appearance.  No matter what happened in this match, we would win the bracket.  We discussed and decided we wanted to try a few things.  What I didn’t want to happen was for the match to get out of our hands… never thought that would happen, but it did.  I didn’t want to lose but thought this is exactly what the team needed headed into Sunday.  Hey, we had dodged some bullets earlier and this one landed.  We did get to try some center plays, some rope a dope plays, some pocket guns, and our fast point play. 

Besides their guns being very well dialed, Notorious used the center well (that and we were getting sloppy in our bunkers dying out of spots).  We gave them some help with penalties which was frustrating for me.  When we lost and realized we would be playing infamous the next morning, we looked at this match figuring Infamous would pay close attention to it.  And it appeared that they did.  Notorious (and our own sloppiness) had shown some teams how to beat us.  The good news was we could control the sloppiness and we could do something regarding the “game plan”.

Highlights of this match were point 2, point 6, point 9, and point 10. Yep, those are the points we won. LOL 6-4 NOTORIOUS

QUARTER FINALS VS INFAMOUS

When you are facing a team like Infamous, you’re going to have your hands full.  Like me, Travis was getting production out of everyone, but especially guys like Barret, Jamroz, Messer, and Hall. To prepare for this match, like I said earlier, we watched our loss to Notorious and cross referenced it with the data we had on Infamous already.  We felt Infamous would watch Notorious match and incorporate some of it into their game.  So, we looked at our game plans and made a micro adjustment or two.

The first point, we both came out with an identical breakout. Both teams hit the snake, us with Searight, them with Jamroz. The caveat being Britt Simpson has full reign to counter.  And he does, acting as a stop gap to Jamroz.  As anticipated, Infamous filtered to center to ambush Searight (Messer? Anyway, just like Notorious) and uses the mini wall D-side to contain him on the outside.  We had discussed it, Searight knows it, Bailey confirms it, and now Infamous was wasting two guns on one player.  This allowed our play to develop.  (Searight almost ambushed the Infamous player first but missed his first shot).  Searight settled in and waited while Stu moved behind him in the corner.  Bailey could come off assignment and get on the straights while Drew was able to force multiply top side with Britt.  Perfect execution of the game plan so far by my guys. 

But… Britt got clipped.  This hurt but wasn’t the end of the world.  Bailey now had to shift job assignments again. He stood tall for better eyes and worked towards Drew while Stu joined Searight in the snake to punch a hole.  I got a little concerned because, I saw the line for Infamous through the middle here.  But you could tell he (Messer?) was locked in on his job and wasn’t concerned about creating an opportunity and risking it.  Great comms from Stu and Bailey by the way.  Brusselback started to come and I knew Searight would get the kill. But then he changed his mind which extended this point passed 6 minutes.  Once Brusselback dropped back, he gets clipped anyway, and I knew we had won the point.  Searight could now play freely even with Messer who was probably thinking about that meme “I’m in danger”.  Unfortunately, we lost Drew.  Then, Stuart pressed too hard.  We were in position to take a beat, think it through, but I don’t blame him.  He was trying to make something happen which is what I expect from a dynamic player like him.  Bailey did what I ask of my guys as well; when in a down body situation, try to make something happen.  Jamroz made a good heads up play and hit the buzzer while Searight had to fight too many fronts.  All good.  A well fought point.  Plenty of time to get it back. 0-1 INFAMOUS

Again, I saw no reason to change our play.  I am surprised by Infamous’ choice to go corner D-side.  We made snake and that corner can’t contest us from there…  We got Daniel into Britt’s former spot and were set up well, especially since I don’t think our opponent saw Daniel delay feed the other snake. Infamous was so focused on Searight they didn’t see the second intended threat which was Daniel.  Daniel killed two in front of Searight and then traded with his third kill.  My guys closed the gap well with appropriate repositioning based off Infamous’ last two remaining players.  Tie ball game with just over 4 minutes on the clock. 1-1 TIED

There was a high percentage that Infamous would go back to their standard play of Jamroz to snake and the rest in their safe bunkers to try a slower filter to the center, perhaps use the center tower.  Sure enough, they did.  We made one little adjustment by pulling Daniel short in the mini wall D-side since we figured they won’t fall for it again.  Searight just happened to catch that Infamous didn’t stay in the tower and went to the center wedge.  Good catch as this ultimately saves us.  I will admit Infamous beat us to the punch here and were set up well to counter.  But we had seen this before.  Guns turned out to focus on the 1’s and my guys made the appropriate adjustment to counter as well.  We went with the 3/2 linear while infamous took a 3/2 spread.  It’s a crap shoot layout and this is a great example. But what should have been a total disaster struck with Stuart getting dinked and Drew Bell forcing an unnecessary fill at the time.  I think we were around the minute fifty mark… this was one for concern as I know the longest my guys held during practice in these positions was about 2 minutes (scenario training). But we were set up a little different than the optimum spots… still…concede…?

This was gut check time.  I asked myself, do I play the numbers or concede the point knowing, on average we will need a minute twenty or greater to tie.  I rolled the dice (we are in Vegas after all) and made the decision to ride.  The personnel I had out there were solid and in relatively good position. Glad I did.  This call wasn’t math or statistics anymore.  It was faith.  And there is a difference between belief and faith.  I held my rosary, said a short prayer, and watched my guys dig out a kill at 40 seconds. Then Daniel Camp makes a SICK snap on Jamroz at 20 seconds. Daniel was eliminated but Hall got picked up by Bailey and Searight traded at 4 seconds!  They didn’t get it!

Thank you, Lord, for that blessing and thank you to my guys for their composure.  This would not be the last blessing we would receive in this match. 1-1 STILL TIED

OVERTIME

Infamous won the break shooting Drew Bell for the first time but we succeeded in getting Searight out wide to draw the gun deep and fed Daniel Camp into the D-side snake again.  Daniel knew we had to win the snake war against Jamroz and posted up.  We went short to the god but Brusselback took the center looking to shut our progress off from there.  But he was clipped by Bailey.  4 on 4.  The pit side of the field is completely blown for both teams, but we had the slight advantage with Bailey’s gun in the pit side wing.  We let Barret Spread.  I felt like we could have gotten out of the back center sooner, but I didn’t know what heat was keeping Stu put.  I felt like we squandered the opportunity for Stu or Bailey to feed the snake or at least get wider.  Stu finally got out behind Bailey into the temple (good… not a big bite… meticulous and smart).  But Barret gets to corner.  Stu gets picked up… again, had we made this decision before we let him spread, we win in regulation, I feel.  Now we were under a minute and Infamous had the 4 on 3 body advantage as well as a slight positioning advantage.  Daniel pulled back to dorito 3 to set a trap for Jamroz.  Barret takes ground but Bailey became the Great Wall of China.  Barret gets Bailey, takes a second to kill Daniel, but Searight tucked tightly in the dorito corner, commits to just protecting the buzzer at 12 seconds. Searight shoots Barret, Messer clips Searight but doesn’t follow Barret up.  Wow… dodged a bullet there too!. AND STILL TIED 1-1

1v1’s

Drew Bell spread on Cali off the break and it was the right play at first.  Drew should have shot him as Cali left the back center.  All the same Drew caught Rudolph with his first jump shot.  Cali pulls the trigger and had paint in the air for the second jump shot but it was hard to catch.  Mutual.

Daniel Camp, after taking the initiative and then letting Joe Barret press the action, shot Joe with 10 seconds left on the clock.  Legend. Enough said. Incredible composure. Well done!

SEMI FINALS VS AFTERMATH

We watched Aftermath’s match against Bears.  I’m a little nervous that it might have been misleading since they mercied the Bears 6-0.  Couple that with the fact that they seemed to have a two-dimensional approach of thinking to the layout, I was a bit anxious.  It appeared they really only had two plays and their closing was inconsistent or rather, they appeared to try to do it alone or individually.  Would they have something deeper in their repertoire?  We were about to find out.  No matter what, our approach to the field, for all intents and purposes, should cancel out their specific approach.

Their VIP side shooter from home seemed to want to shoot wide and if he missed, he would shoot the blind up center then fill out.  They liked to feed the two mini walls and look for openings or try to win a gunfight. This would offer us an opportunity to double attack our dorito side with two bodies.  Searight drew the gun out wide, Aftermath switched his gun in, Daniel fed snake, Aftermath fed the mini wall with their snake side VIP runner short in the god.  We were now in position, but Camp got picked up somehow (he couldn’t tell me where the shot came from and I couldn’t place it in game either). Jacob Searight understood how important that position was to our goal and craftily begins to sneak in to fill Daniel’s former spot.

We got a body back (I don’t know if it was Stu or Bailey who picked off Grayson Gladstone).  Again, here is a situation where I felt Stu could have filtered out behind Bailey.  Bailey was playing that lay down on the straights and just being a rock.  Drew Bell spread to help Searight and we missed a shot on an Aftermath player (maybe a bounce?).  Searight finally got in and Stu spread behind Bailey.  Now, I’m somewhat happy in the pits… Stu got wide and fed Bailey underneath into the snake.  Yes, now we are cooking.  That was the set up that we wanted and needed.  We had penetration on both sides, but Searight was on their side of the field.  Aftermath must fight the wide fronts.  This allowed Stu to do what Stu does.  Work the center to close.  Once Bailey killed the Aztec in front of him, they scrambled into our guns.  A solid composed first point. 1-0 HURRICANES  

Aftermath went with their standard breakout with one adaptation and that was to the first big dorito.  That’s a hard gap and he got dinked.  We were essentially mirrored, and we had the one body advantage.  Once Daniel and Drew fed forward and out, Aftermath’s one in the god was pretty stuck.  That allowed Bailey to get on the straights and work with Searight.  Aftermath’s one in the god decided to gunfight into two guns and got caught.  Aftermath is quick to fill the Aztec behind that god loss but we now have a 5 on 3 body advantage along with a one-point lead and the clock was ticking.  I would be happy if we fed both snakes again at that point, wrap and trap, and make them concede.  Stu again had an untimely death, but Searight and Camp finally got on their horses and fed both snakes. I’m surprised the horn wasn’t blown sooner as Searight politely put 1-2 on the last Aftermath player. 2-0 HURRICANES

Aftermath figured they might as well go to the D-side snake on the break but didn’t make it.  Again, that’s a big gap for the home to shoot especially when you show it on the box and run high to the mini wall.  However, they finally committed past the god, which is what actually prolongs the point AND, should have won them the point too!  Castro has Daniel Camp and Drew Bell dead to rights and missed.  Castro finally got Daniel. Drew Bell tried to counter but threw his body away.   It was looking good for Aftermath, but they slept on Searight. He shot Castro from the opposite snake and then turned to go to work.  Aftermath’s dorito corner almost saved the point from Searight but missed as well.  Woodruff made a heads up play and tried to flip the field.  Mike Brown recognized it and countered by repositioning to back center to at least keep Woodruff honest.  What unfolded next was pretty spectacular.  Searight knew he had one body in front of him.  He backed up to where he can see both sides of the bunker in front of him and posts.  Sure enough, Grayson Gladstone launched on the highway and Searight caught him.  Gladstone missed Searight as I am sure he thought he would be elsewhere.  Aftermath made a desperation move inside, Mike Brown made the call, that Aftermath player gets eliminated by Searight. 3-0 HURRICANES

With less than 2 minutes on the clock we made one adjustment to ensure we got 5 bodies out alive without sacrificing guns on the break and it paid off.  Kill two Aftermath on the break.  5 on 3, we don’t have to do anything… made them come to us into the meat grinder.  We drew a minor but so did Aftermath.  Chaos there at the end. I didn’t envy the refs on this field. We will take it.

FINALS VS SAN DIEGO DYNASTY

Dynasty came out of a grinder bracket.  They were looking like the champions they are, and I don’t see why anyone would think any different.  We certainly didn’t have it easy during our tournament journey, not just because of our opponents but because of ourselves.  If we could fix the one or two mistakes we kept making, if we could process the scramble a little quicker, and keep our guns hot winning the breakout… we could win the event.  That’s what I was telling myself.  Yes, that is a lot of things when going up against the dragon but at no point was I doubtful that we would do these things.  We must, there is no other way to win.  That’s the difference maker in the pro division… processing speed and mistake free paintball.  Usually, the person who makes the first mistake pays for it.

I have heard the speculation that the moment might have been too much for us.  Whereas it is true this is our first trip to a finals match in the pro division, it isn’t our first trip to a finals match.  My guys did not feel any different than before any other match.  Yes, it was for all the marbles.  Didn’t change anything.  It doesn’t matter who we play or when we play them, we have to win.  Its so simple and people who make that part of the game, I get it… but it wasn’t an issue here. Again, I can understand those who thought it might have played a part.

I do want to address something that I heard over and over again this past week or so.  Why did we go defensive against Dynasty when we were up points?  I have a question in return… what match were you watching?  It wasn’t that we went defensive.  Dynasty’s guns got hot on the break and our processing slowed down.  They shot our attack on the break.  And our “attacks” were injured too.  My hat is off to my ones who were running their butts off and giving me everything I asked of them and then some.  Now, if you want to say we squandered some opportunities to have additional offense/aggression, that is where we will have common ground.  That is essentially where our “foot came off the gas” but I wouldn’t say we were defensive.  We gave every ounce of what we had left… and made some mistakes in the scramble. If you really want to dumb it down, it came down to two points. Choose any two points of regulation that we lost, give me one guy that stays alive for 5-6 seconds longer… and we would win 4-3 in regulation. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. It wasn’t our time. But we will get there.

Proud of my guys.  They played well.  They recognize what is in front of them this season.  It will not be easy. As Jocko Willink would say, “Good…”

Lao Tzu said that, “The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”  The Canes are aware now. And we are redefining our goals for the season.

Our journey is never ending. There has to be growth, there has to be improvement.  And it will most certainly come with and from some adversity.  We have to live in each of these moments and learn from them.  We must strive to do what is right and virtuous… the winning will come.

“If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second…” – Cicero

Be water my friends.