My thoughts on the STB event at Elsham...
What an event! Now I truly believe it is events like this that will help get England to the top of the paintball ladder. The Elsham STB event was like a mini Millennium series event. If you missed it or were one of the two teams that cried out at the last minute then you made a huge mistake.
I had the real pleasure of playing in a guest team with Doug Setters and Sid Spittal of Predators fame, and one thing they kept mentioning was the fantastic attitude that the event was being played with. There was something about the excellent atmosphere coupled with the glorious weather and facilities at this event that made it outstanding. There was also some very high level teams playing some top level paintball. Although Elsham is quite far north in England it was well worth travelling to. The Mayhem Tigers, Shockwave, and Ecstasy all travelled up to play the tough competition and there were also teams here from abroad including Escarmouche from Ireland and Guernsey, and the Grasshoppers (from Holland) The best paintball in the UK is currently coming out of the North and it’s due to events like this. To get the competition the UK teams are now Travelling north. It’s quite different to the early years of paintball in the UK when the best events where in the South!
The Saturday held a light hearted but hard fought 2 on 2 man competition. There were 3 rounds of games, with 20 teams in each round, and with the winners of each round taking the ‘pot’ At only £10 to enter a team it was an absolute bargain and gave players a chance to warm up on Supair and get in some sneaky practice for those paint lines come the Sunday 5 man event. To keep it simple teams played all their games on just one field and were required to help marshal the games they weren’t playing. The winners of each bracket went on for a set of finals before taking home the cash! After each round of 2 on 2 was played guys were getting together and playing pick up games and just having fun. It was relaxed with ballers enjoying barbeques, a few beers and paintball. Perfect!
The only complaint I heard about the 2 on 2 was that not enough people knew it was going on! A lot of guys that came on the Sunday would have turned up earlier for the 2 on 2 had they known. I think even Steve Bull was a little surprised at how popular the 2 on 2 turned out to be. After such a success I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen more often.
There were 6 very varied supair fields being played, from small tight and fast (a la last years Campaign Cup) where some games lasted only 30 seconds to a minute, to larger more barricade abundant fields. Certainly it was a great warm up event before the Campaign Cup and many teams were using it as such. What was also so nice to see was 4500psi fills on site, apart from a small queue on Sunday morning when new arrivals got their bottles filled for the first time, it ran flawlessly and quickly. It was also nice that the air and co2 was included in the entry fee! That’s the way it should be and also adds that professional touch which sometimes made you forget that you weren’t actually at a Millennium event!
Saturday night even had an impromptu players party with decks appearing and crates of beer coming out of the woodwork, and a lone glowstick raver in the field (I was waiting for Doug Setter’s helicopter to come down and land on him…), it was great to just hang out and talk ball with people, special thanks to Sid fromthe Cameronians for drinking my cold beers for me, what would I have done without him?
Sunday had great weather and some top paintball. K2 were ripping it up, only losing one game in the top division, but coming third! Behind Shockwave who were pipped into second in their final game against the Tigers who took first after an excellent game with Shockwave. The final game for outright winners came down to the tigers and Nitro, and everyone expected it to be the Tigers came after their great success earlier and out in Sweden… but no, Steve got tagged early and the tigers found it hard going as Nitro locked up and worked them down, Tom played some great ball down the tape but was un able to capitalise on being in Nitro’s side of the field, and eventually got eliminated. Nitro went on to win!
At the end of the day there were a large number of people hanging out for the presentation. The 6 e chicks who had been wearing School uniforms all day (including Jeraldine Ward Barber… more often seen in shorts than a skirt, and who really got into the spirit of the situation
) had been doing so to raise money for the NSPCC, and held an auction to add even more money to their collections. Many teams who had won prizes of paint (and there was a lot of paint being given out!) donated the boxes back to the auction and the bidding commenced… including Harry ‘the fish’ from Severe paintball bidding £500 for an X-board Rev and two boxes of Diablo paint… there’s irony in there somewhere but it was his generosity to charity that counted.
There was a significant number of trade shows present including Zap, Diablo, Undercover, Smart Parts, and Severe Paintball. With new products and cheap prices on offer.
As a precursor to the Campaign Cup, it was excellent, as a development of UK paintball it was outstanding and with more events like this the UK paintball scene is going to grow and become more competitive! The series 2002 is a fantastic set of tournaments and has to be a stepping stone/practice for any teams looking to move forward.
What did everyone else think?
manike
What an event! Now I truly believe it is events like this that will help get England to the top of the paintball ladder. The Elsham STB event was like a mini Millennium series event. If you missed it or were one of the two teams that cried out at the last minute then you made a huge mistake.
I had the real pleasure of playing in a guest team with Doug Setters and Sid Spittal of Predators fame, and one thing they kept mentioning was the fantastic attitude that the event was being played with. There was something about the excellent atmosphere coupled with the glorious weather and facilities at this event that made it outstanding. There was also some very high level teams playing some top level paintball. Although Elsham is quite far north in England it was well worth travelling to. The Mayhem Tigers, Shockwave, and Ecstasy all travelled up to play the tough competition and there were also teams here from abroad including Escarmouche from Ireland and Guernsey, and the Grasshoppers (from Holland) The best paintball in the UK is currently coming out of the North and it’s due to events like this. To get the competition the UK teams are now Travelling north. It’s quite different to the early years of paintball in the UK when the best events where in the South!
The Saturday held a light hearted but hard fought 2 on 2 man competition. There were 3 rounds of games, with 20 teams in each round, and with the winners of each round taking the ‘pot’ At only £10 to enter a team it was an absolute bargain and gave players a chance to warm up on Supair and get in some sneaky practice for those paint lines come the Sunday 5 man event. To keep it simple teams played all their games on just one field and were required to help marshal the games they weren’t playing. The winners of each bracket went on for a set of finals before taking home the cash! After each round of 2 on 2 was played guys were getting together and playing pick up games and just having fun. It was relaxed with ballers enjoying barbeques, a few beers and paintball. Perfect!
The only complaint I heard about the 2 on 2 was that not enough people knew it was going on! A lot of guys that came on the Sunday would have turned up earlier for the 2 on 2 had they known. I think even Steve Bull was a little surprised at how popular the 2 on 2 turned out to be. After such a success I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen more often.
There were 6 very varied supair fields being played, from small tight and fast (a la last years Campaign Cup) where some games lasted only 30 seconds to a minute, to larger more barricade abundant fields. Certainly it was a great warm up event before the Campaign Cup and many teams were using it as such. What was also so nice to see was 4500psi fills on site, apart from a small queue on Sunday morning when new arrivals got their bottles filled for the first time, it ran flawlessly and quickly. It was also nice that the air and co2 was included in the entry fee! That’s the way it should be and also adds that professional touch which sometimes made you forget that you weren’t actually at a Millennium event!
Saturday night even had an impromptu players party with decks appearing and crates of beer coming out of the woodwork, and a lone glowstick raver in the field (I was waiting for Doug Setter’s helicopter to come down and land on him…), it was great to just hang out and talk ball with people, special thanks to Sid fromthe Cameronians for drinking my cold beers for me, what would I have done without him?
Sunday had great weather and some top paintball. K2 were ripping it up, only losing one game in the top division, but coming third! Behind Shockwave who were pipped into second in their final game against the Tigers who took first after an excellent game with Shockwave. The final game for outright winners came down to the tigers and Nitro, and everyone expected it to be the Tigers came after their great success earlier and out in Sweden… but no, Steve got tagged early and the tigers found it hard going as Nitro locked up and worked them down, Tom played some great ball down the tape but was un able to capitalise on being in Nitro’s side of the field, and eventually got eliminated. Nitro went on to win!
At the end of the day there were a large number of people hanging out for the presentation. The 6 e chicks who had been wearing School uniforms all day (including Jeraldine Ward Barber… more often seen in shorts than a skirt, and who really got into the spirit of the situation
) had been doing so to raise money for the NSPCC, and held an auction to add even more money to their collections. Many teams who had won prizes of paint (and there was a lot of paint being given out!) donated the boxes back to the auction and the bidding commenced… including Harry ‘the fish’ from Severe paintball bidding £500 for an X-board Rev and two boxes of Diablo paint… there’s irony in there somewhere but it was his generosity to charity that counted.There was a significant number of trade shows present including Zap, Diablo, Undercover, Smart Parts, and Severe Paintball. With new products and cheap prices on offer.
As a precursor to the Campaign Cup, it was excellent, as a development of UK paintball it was outstanding and with more events like this the UK paintball scene is going to grow and become more competitive! The series 2002 is a fantastic set of tournaments and has to be a stepping stone/practice for any teams looking to move forward.
What did everyone else think?
manike
