North.
In no particular order:
1. Ledz shooting Robbo.
2. The defending of Cape Town at the end of the day.
3. The defence of Jakarta which ended with us taking Rio with a massive swarm of Northerners
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4. The fire at cape town
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Hmmmmm, I never thought I would be replying in this section of the forum....EVER !!!!!!
Bejeeeeezus, I must be getting soft in the head or something lately and before I answer this post above that suggests Ledz shot me I am gonna qualify a few things.
When Tim Taylor and Jim Frensham originally asked me to do this event, I declined. I explained I won't have anything to do with scenario games, in fact, I had gotten piss-ass sick of tourneyball, what with the way it was going and some of the people now involved.
I have known, and been friends (and enemies) with Jim Frensham and Tim Taylor for nigh on 20 years and so when they asked me, I did feel an obligation to go along to their big game but I'm afraid I had always tagged scenario games as nerdy or for wannabee Rambos which is an absolute ‘no go’ area for me I’m afraid.
As some of the people there obviously knew, I had always maligned this area of our game believing it to be detrimental to paintball overall in giving the public a somewhat unwholesome insight into the mindset of some of paintball’s participants.
Also, a big reason why I didn’t wanna go play this type of event was because the last thing I wanted was to have some little runt whippersnapper dressed up like Captain Mannering with a Splatmaster shoot my ass only to come back on the forums on Monday morning telling everybody how easy it was to shoot me and 'what a sap that Robbo was', he may well have had a point but I weren't gonna put my ass on that particular line voluntarily.
Nah, I got pride and some vestiges of respect for what I did in paintball still linger in paintball and so I weren't gonna risk it...no way!!!
To cut a long story short (if that's possible with my posts) - when Jim and Tim, the event organisers told me Ledz was going to be my opponent i.e. in charge of the Northern slag team of 500 morons, I then had no choice, Ledz as most of you know is a close friend of mine and I thought if he could do it, then I could too and so I reluctantly agreed......through gritted teeth - but I did decide only to organise my players and provide some sort of game plan for them, I wasn't actually going to play…well that was my intention anyway.
I had made the mistake (and I duly apologized for it on the stage at the end) in believing that all recballers are nerdy wannabee Rambos and that just wasn’t true.
The vast majority were there not to reenact some childhood fantasy but to………………to have fun, yeah, just to have fun, an element that is sometimes so conspicuous by its absence from tourney ball, leastwise it is on the pro scene which is where I been living for far too many years.
I had sooo many players come up to me, and although some of them knew my stance toward recball, they still showed me respect and stated as much….I gotta say I felt a bit humbled by that.
I ain’t gonna be turning into no recballer but this weekend opened my eyes to a few things, whereas before I had zero respect for recballers, now, I have respect for them.
Because the essence of paintball is not competition, it is to have fun and these guys just lap it up by the bucket-load
As the day wore on I did hear about some idiots cheating but I personally saw none of it, not one bit, and yet if I had spent the same amount of time watching tourney ball, I woulda seen a truck load of playing on, bad mouthing and so on.
My heart has always been in tourneyball and always will because by nature, I am competitive but I am grateful to all those recballers over the weekend for allowing me to see past my previous prejudices and get a taste of what they are all about………fun !
A big thanks to Jim and Tim for asking me, a huge thanks to Ledz for making it possible and for knowing I would turn up with zip and he gave me an Ego 07 to play with - oh my what a gun, I shot a gazillion balls, and I swear, not one break in the barrel, not one !!!
And no, he didn’t pay me to say that, and ‘no’, I don’t get anything from him to promote his wares, that’s what happened, that marker was frikkin awesome, although I must qualify that by saying it was in the hands of a master
I kept getting asked to actually go and play and held out till about 12 and then relented, I hadn’t put a pack on for lord knows how long and I have to say I was cacking it for fear of getting my ass ripped by 500 crazed northern slags all baying for my blood.
The reality was somewhat different.
And just one last thing, I was asked to present who I thought were my best team of players, in fact, if I had thought about it a bit longer, I woulda changed that award to ‘best player’ and in that case, the guy called ‘Alex’ who was left with me at that frikkin London Town place when everybody else naffed off and left me and him to defend it
My ass was flapping like a humming bird wing I can tell ya as something like 50 or so players (these figures are in NO way massaged or exaggerated here) descended on me and him. Lord knows how many I shot before we got nailed but hell, that was some fun, I damn near shat myself and that kid next to me was as cool as ice and so I am gonna give my award for best player to him.
Alex (whoever you are), come forward and accept it mate coz at least you had the bottle to stay and fight
During that last stand, I was informed by one of the opposing hoardes as we talked between the netting that surrounded that base camp, that he had 50 mates with him and with just me and Alex the other guy alone at that base against his lot, he thought the odds were a little unfair - I agreed with him and duly advised he better go get some more of his northern mates to even it up….he didn’t see the funny side of my joke…. Holy sh!te !!! I thought my reputation means zip here, and me and Al are gonna soon become deceased with 50 cries of ‘I shot Robbo, it was me, I got him’ reverberating around the woods and in my ears for evermore
The end came cruelly but I got about 12 northern slag notches on my Ego before I went …… ouch !
Was it worth it?
‘Hell yeah’ it was
And As for that last maniacal assault on Cape Town, it left me for the most part, with no paint but a grin from one ear to the other.
This is paintball Jim…but not as we know it
And so, finally to my point, Ledz didn’t actually shoot me coz far as I know (even in recball, only shots that break actually count and so I’m afraid Ledz will have to wait another 100 years before he gets the chance
Thanks for the day guys, I had fun !!!