Team Tohjamb Players

Tournaments Attended

Operation Paintball September 2001 Rookie Tournament

       Well, most people might start off talking about their first tournament by saying how nervous they were, but not me. I wasn't nervous, just tired since we had to get up around seven thirty in the morning to start the two hour trip to Lethbridge Alberta by eight. Anyways, I guess I'd better tell you what the tourney was, well it was the first ever Operation Paintball rookie tournament of September 2001. Getting there by roughly ten o' clock, we started to set up our equipment.

       It looked like it would be a great day, but because of our great luck our first game wasn't until almost noon. When the time came, we were to face Team Swatt. If you know much about the teams in this area, you'd know that Team Swatt is a veteran team, so I freaked out. Fortunately these weren't those guys, they just practiced with them, they were junior Team Swatt. I can't tell you how much you need to bring tools with you every time, right before the game my slide check on my remote crapped out and started leaking, but being the paranoid guy I am, I had tools and promptly fixed it. Anyways, since we'd actually never played speedball, we just went out on the field and vainly attempted to hold out against them. Needless to say it was a shut out game, against us.

       Luckily the learning curve was sharp, and we were scheduled to face the Splatter Cats later in the afternoon. At the time we found this out they were one of the top teams (actually they even finished pretty high up on the ladder), but we'd been getting a lot of advice from the friendly players (why do tourny players have such bad reps, they're pretty decent guys). To get to the point, once the game started me and Clayton rushed way up onto their side of the field while the rest of the guys advanced just enough to provide excellent cover fire. Taken by surprise (I think they thought we sucked, a fair assumption) they found their selves pinned down at the back. While taking cover behind a pile o' tires (the refs claim I was holding down three of them)I managed to pick off one of them while Clayton did the same on the other side of the field. Not knowing any better Dennis crept up beside me, and since he didn't notice who was shooting at me he stepped too far to the right and was eliminated. Shortly after that I avenged him by eliminating the guy, and with some great move (that I couldn't see), Clayton and possibly Donald and Mathew eliminated the other two. With a clear field and time to spare, Clayton grabbed their flag and ran it back to our base. This was our first ever victory, we won ninety-seven to nothing (we lost three because we lost Dennis, but they accidentally shot a ref so they lost their points for eliminating him). That game was the greatest rush I've ever had playing paintball.

       Unfortunately our next game we lost, but we weren't wiped out, they just eliminated more of us, but it was a pretty close game. Only one of us managed to make it, as Dennis redeemed his self and became the sole survivor of the round. One of the great highlights of the game goes to illustrate how important communication among your players is, the opposing team (whose name I forget) shot one of their front players in the back of the head! Then shortly after they narrowly missed their other front player. Well, with two losses and only one win, we would be eliminated from the tournament if we lost again. Despite that fact the last game was lost. Right off the beginning we became deadlocked, and unfortunately they got a couple of us, the rest of the game was a deadlocked waste of time.

       Well at about five o' clock we were eliminated and left claiming sixth out of eleven places. In my opinion that was great for a team that was playing its first game of speedball, especially since we were the only guys there that I know haven't played speedball before. Now that we have some more experience, (you learn big from stupid mistakes, and we made a lot) I expect us to do better this upcoming season. And for all of you who think that all of the good stuff is just me bragging, I must point out that I can only see so much from my position, I can't see everything (at least that's what I want you to think) and I am the only one on the team who is willing to take the time out of his life to write up something like this. So good day to you whoever you are.

-Anthony Harding