Wow, what a ride! That has to be one of most exciting weeks of my life, with ups and downs all over the place. Heaven's Gate 3 was, yet again, an improvement on previous years and a resounding success. I've had time to look through the posts on the Web and would like to thank everyone for their feedback. So many people enjoyed this event so much and went away smiling. The cheers and applause at the presentation made the whole thing worthwhile - thank you all.
Here are the official scores from the event...
Saturday
DIVISION A
========
1st - Alpha 1 HRF - 600 (686 League Points)
2nd - Exeter APEs - 514 (587 League Points)
3rd - Basic - 456 (521 League Points)
4th - Bristol XS - 429 (490 League Points)
5th - MH2 Llanfair PG - 381 (435 League Points)
6th - Basingstoke Tsunami A - 233 (266 League Points)
7th - Bridport Synapse - 208 (238 League Points)
8th - Portsmouth Velocity - 174 (199 League Points)
DIVISION B
========
1st - Impact UK London - 551 (630 League Points)
2nd - Dagenham Swarm - 482 (551 League Points)
3rd - Iron Lions London - 432 (494 League Points)
4th - London Tigers Young Guns - 421 (481 League Points)
5th - Bournemouth Riptide - 352 (402 League Points)
6th - Bath Jabberwocky - 259 (296 League Points)
7th - Taunton Snatch B - 160 (183 League Points)
8th - Upminster Halloween - 144 (165 League Points)
DIVISION C
========
1st - Fire & Ice - 475 (543 League Points)
2nd - Taunton Snatch - 412 (471 League Points)
3rd - Maidenhead Trauma - 407 (465 League Points)
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami Young Gunz - 398 (455 League Points)
5th - Perranporth Apex Assassins - 371 (424 League Points)
6th - Southampton FX - 367 (419 League Points)
7th - Romford UKM2 - 321 (367 League Points)
8th - The Bracknell 7 - 293 (335 League Points)
DIVISION D
========
1st - California Redz - 655 (749 League Points)
2nd - Newbury Anxiety - 552 (631 League Points)
3rd - Bristol Loco - 441 (504 League Points)
4th - Team Halo - 440 (503 League Points)
5th - NA Angels - 282 (322 League Points)
6th - Showtime Marshals - 132 (151 League Points)
7th - Redruth Ignite - 47 (54 League Points)
Top two from each division went through to Sunday Div A. Next two from each division went through to Sunday Div B and so on...
Sunday
DIVISION A
========
1st - California Redz - 467
2nd - Alpha1 HRF - 349
3rd - Impact UK London - 279
4th - Fire & Ice - 278
5th - Newbury Anxiety - 274
6th - Taunton Snatch - 161
7th - Dagenham Swarm - 151
8th - Exeter APES - 130
DIVISION B
========
1st - Basic - 410
2nd - Bristol XS - 377
3rd - Team Halo - 319
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami Young Gunz - 310
5th - London Tigers Young Guns - 309
6th - Iron Lions London - 167
7th - Maidenhead Trauma - 0
7th - Bristol Loco - 0
DIVISION C
========
1st - MH2 Llanfair PG - 447
2nd - Bath Jabberwocky - 420
3rd - Perranporth Apex Assassins - 353
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami A - 312
5th - Showtime Marshals - 226
6th - Bournemouth Riptide - 188
7th - Southampton FX - 144
8th - NA Angels - 0
DIVISION D
========
1st - The Bracknel 7 - 461
2nd - Upminster Halloween - 379
3rd - Portsmouth Velocity - 315
4th - Taunton Snatch B - 242
5th - Bridport Synapse - 224
6th - Romford UKM2 - 205
7th - Redruth Ignite - 0
Quarter Finals
==========
Redz Vs MH2 - Redz Win
Alpha1 Vs Jabberwocky - Alpha1 win
Basic Vs Bracknel 7 - Basic win
Bristol XS Vs Halloween - XS Win
Semi Finals
========
Redz Vs Basic - Redz win
Alpha1 Vs XS - Alpah1 win
Final Best of Three
=============
Redz Vs Alpha1 - Redz win first two games to win the tourney
Congratulations to all the teams winning trophies and particularly to California Redz for an awesome display of paintball talent throughout the entire weekend. You guys were simply in a class of your own!
I have a million people to thank - I wont go through them all here, but if you contributed to the event in anyway, you have my sincere gratitude. HG3 couldn't be done without the tremendous support I receive from familly, friends, the industry, other organisers, and the players. Thanks again all of you.
My biggest thanks have to go out to Andy Scutt and Campaign Promotions for his continued support whilst planning the event and running it. At times it was a bumpy ride. The problems came from teams pulling out of the Pro Tour Open at the last minute due to League Points concerns (i.e. having to give up one of their home league events in order to play the Open would jeopordise their chances of qualifying for next season's Pro Tour). But we put our heads together, came up with a solution and most of the Div 1 teams that played the format absolutely loved it and thanked us for the opportunity to play it.
When Andy had to face the results of Sunday Morning's weather, I truly felt for him; his staging area was all but destroyed and his field not much better. But to his credit, with a lot of help from the teams, Andy rebuilt the whole thing in a few hours and the show went on. This is testament to the man's dedication and professionalism. It's been a pleasure Andy - see you at Campaign.
As for Heaven's Gate 3, it went really well as said above. There are some areas that we can still improve on, but anyone who has attended all three events will tell you that it has already come a long way and the level of service you the players received for a very low price of £400 this year cannot be found elsewhere. I break my back to bring you an awesome event with the smallest dent to your pocket; I hope you appreciate that above all.
The netting was a major improvement from last year and the previous year. Nobody seems to have mentioned that. However, the tunnel needs some work and I will make sure that is sorted next time around. As for balls coming through the netting. I'm sorry, but I was watching the netting closely all weekend and this wasn't happening. The netting is secured to mesh fencing, so when balls hit this they will split and spray some shell and paint. Again however, I will look in to ways of avoiding this without cutting down on spectator's visibility.
The sand bags have been used at other tournaments before HG3 and did work. They worked a hell of a lot better than the water ballast we used the first time around. The ideal solution is to nail the bunkers down to the astro turf and I am trying to persuade the venue that this will work without damaging their £300,000 pitch. As you can imagine, it is taking some persuading.
As for the fields not being set up on Friday afternoon. For that, I apologies. I underestimated the man power requried to get all those sand bags filled and attached to the bunkers. So we fell behind. My staff were instructed to fix the fields before moving on to any netting - they just decided to ignore my instructions whilst I was busy registering teams and answering your queries. So sorry about that one; I'll do better next time.
So, I think that is all the feedback delt with. Thank you for that and we'll make those improvements for next year. The venue have asked us to come back again, so HG4 here we come...
Here are the official scores from the event...
Saturday
DIVISION A
========
1st - Alpha 1 HRF - 600 (686 League Points)
2nd - Exeter APEs - 514 (587 League Points)
3rd - Basic - 456 (521 League Points)
4th - Bristol XS - 429 (490 League Points)
5th - MH2 Llanfair PG - 381 (435 League Points)
6th - Basingstoke Tsunami A - 233 (266 League Points)
7th - Bridport Synapse - 208 (238 League Points)
8th - Portsmouth Velocity - 174 (199 League Points)
DIVISION B
========
1st - Impact UK London - 551 (630 League Points)
2nd - Dagenham Swarm - 482 (551 League Points)
3rd - Iron Lions London - 432 (494 League Points)
4th - London Tigers Young Guns - 421 (481 League Points)
5th - Bournemouth Riptide - 352 (402 League Points)
6th - Bath Jabberwocky - 259 (296 League Points)
7th - Taunton Snatch B - 160 (183 League Points)
8th - Upminster Halloween - 144 (165 League Points)
DIVISION C
========
1st - Fire & Ice - 475 (543 League Points)
2nd - Taunton Snatch - 412 (471 League Points)
3rd - Maidenhead Trauma - 407 (465 League Points)
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami Young Gunz - 398 (455 League Points)
5th - Perranporth Apex Assassins - 371 (424 League Points)
6th - Southampton FX - 367 (419 League Points)
7th - Romford UKM2 - 321 (367 League Points)
8th - The Bracknell 7 - 293 (335 League Points)
DIVISION D
========
1st - California Redz - 655 (749 League Points)
2nd - Newbury Anxiety - 552 (631 League Points)
3rd - Bristol Loco - 441 (504 League Points)
4th - Team Halo - 440 (503 League Points)
5th - NA Angels - 282 (322 League Points)
6th - Showtime Marshals - 132 (151 League Points)
7th - Redruth Ignite - 47 (54 League Points)
Top two from each division went through to Sunday Div A. Next two from each division went through to Sunday Div B and so on...
Sunday
DIVISION A
========
1st - California Redz - 467
2nd - Alpha1 HRF - 349
3rd - Impact UK London - 279
4th - Fire & Ice - 278
5th - Newbury Anxiety - 274
6th - Taunton Snatch - 161
7th - Dagenham Swarm - 151
8th - Exeter APES - 130
DIVISION B
========
1st - Basic - 410
2nd - Bristol XS - 377
3rd - Team Halo - 319
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami Young Gunz - 310
5th - London Tigers Young Guns - 309
6th - Iron Lions London - 167
7th - Maidenhead Trauma - 0
7th - Bristol Loco - 0
DIVISION C
========
1st - MH2 Llanfair PG - 447
2nd - Bath Jabberwocky - 420
3rd - Perranporth Apex Assassins - 353
4th - Basingstoke Tsunami A - 312
5th - Showtime Marshals - 226
6th - Bournemouth Riptide - 188
7th - Southampton FX - 144
8th - NA Angels - 0
DIVISION D
========
1st - The Bracknel 7 - 461
2nd - Upminster Halloween - 379
3rd - Portsmouth Velocity - 315
4th - Taunton Snatch B - 242
5th - Bridport Synapse - 224
6th - Romford UKM2 - 205
7th - Redruth Ignite - 0
Quarter Finals
==========
Redz Vs MH2 - Redz Win
Alpha1 Vs Jabberwocky - Alpha1 win
Basic Vs Bracknel 7 - Basic win
Bristol XS Vs Halloween - XS Win
Semi Finals
========
Redz Vs Basic - Redz win
Alpha1 Vs XS - Alpah1 win
Final Best of Three
=============
Redz Vs Alpha1 - Redz win first two games to win the tourney
Congratulations to all the teams winning trophies and particularly to California Redz for an awesome display of paintball talent throughout the entire weekend. You guys were simply in a class of your own!
I have a million people to thank - I wont go through them all here, but if you contributed to the event in anyway, you have my sincere gratitude. HG3 couldn't be done without the tremendous support I receive from familly, friends, the industry, other organisers, and the players. Thanks again all of you.
My biggest thanks have to go out to Andy Scutt and Campaign Promotions for his continued support whilst planning the event and running it. At times it was a bumpy ride. The problems came from teams pulling out of the Pro Tour Open at the last minute due to League Points concerns (i.e. having to give up one of their home league events in order to play the Open would jeopordise their chances of qualifying for next season's Pro Tour). But we put our heads together, came up with a solution and most of the Div 1 teams that played the format absolutely loved it and thanked us for the opportunity to play it.
When Andy had to face the results of Sunday Morning's weather, I truly felt for him; his staging area was all but destroyed and his field not much better. But to his credit, with a lot of help from the teams, Andy rebuilt the whole thing in a few hours and the show went on. This is testament to the man's dedication and professionalism. It's been a pleasure Andy - see you at Campaign.
As for Heaven's Gate 3, it went really well as said above. There are some areas that we can still improve on, but anyone who has attended all three events will tell you that it has already come a long way and the level of service you the players received for a very low price of £400 this year cannot be found elsewhere. I break my back to bring you an awesome event with the smallest dent to your pocket; I hope you appreciate that above all.
The netting was a major improvement from last year and the previous year. Nobody seems to have mentioned that. However, the tunnel needs some work and I will make sure that is sorted next time around. As for balls coming through the netting. I'm sorry, but I was watching the netting closely all weekend and this wasn't happening. The netting is secured to mesh fencing, so when balls hit this they will split and spray some shell and paint. Again however, I will look in to ways of avoiding this without cutting down on spectator's visibility.
The sand bags have been used at other tournaments before HG3 and did work. They worked a hell of a lot better than the water ballast we used the first time around. The ideal solution is to nail the bunkers down to the astro turf and I am trying to persuade the venue that this will work without damaging their £300,000 pitch. As you can imagine, it is taking some persuading.
As for the fields not being set up on Friday afternoon. For that, I apologies. I underestimated the man power requried to get all those sand bags filled and attached to the bunkers. So we fell behind. My staff were instructed to fix the fields before moving on to any netting - they just decided to ignore my instructions whilst I was busy registering teams and answering your queries. So sorry about that one; I'll do better next time.
So, I think that is all the feedback delt with. Thank you for that and we'll make those improvements for next year. The venue have asked us to come back again, so HG4 here we come...
