To be honest guys, I'm not going to do my usual lengthy debrief because for this game it isn't necessary.
Before the event I said that Staargate is what Staargate is. Staargate is hanging around with your mates drinking beer on the Saturday followed by a great players party and a decent game of paintball on Sunday. From where I'm standing - job done.
Drinks from the caterer were too expensive - food wasn't too bad.
The party was probably the best player party I've ever been to at a paintball event - it was excellent and the bull competition could not have been more intense.
The game on the Sunday was largely excellent. Some great scraps and as I said it would - it offered something for everyone.
Scores wise, the Reds came back into the game in the early afternoon and they did make some great sweeps all the way from their re-entry point down to the Naquadah Mine - but as soon as the Blues regrouped, they pushed them all the way back.
In terms of resetting the game - I stand by that decision. It was the right decision and anyone who has run an event will know why it had to be done. For the Blue players who started shouting at me that it was unfair - tough! It's a game lads - grow up.
The battle at the mine after the reset was unbelievable. Real Rorkes Drift stuff and I nearly found myself looking for a gun to get involved myself - it was that sort of fight.
Why did Red get dominated on the field (if not necessarily on the scoreboard)? - simple really:
From game on, the Reds fragmented into small groups of half a dozen or so. Blue's were hitting objectives with 40 or 50 players. Reds were hitting objectives with small independent groups of 6 - 8 players. One word - teamwork. Blues simply played better as a team.
Also, Reds pretty much ignored the respawn point in the field. Blues didn't. THis allowed Blues to dominate the mine area which freed up plenty of players to attach directly onto the red re-entry points.
The result was nothing to do with the field set up (the last two winners have come from opposite ends) and nothing to do with uneven teams (teams were 9% different in size). There is nothing wrong with the game set-up - it was simply one side played as a team and the other side didn't.
Interestingly, I'd say that Reds were better prepared before the game with a huge amount of time spent my Andy in coming up with the game plan. But for whatever reason Andy couldn't get that plan to execute on the ground on the day. Blues arrived much less prepared, but the plan they didn't put together rolled out perfectly on the ground. At the risk of labouring the point - I can only assume teams and teamwork were the deciding factors.
One thing I'll change for next year is I'll probably come up with a solution to stop one side rolling straight onto the re-entry point of the other. I'll also look at evening out the scenario teams over both sides as blues had most of the scenario teams and that was obvious on the day.
But overall, another good solid weekend of paintball for less than fifty quid.
The circus next rolls onto Herefordshire with Call to Duty in 3 weeks. If abseiling into buildings and kicking in doors in the biggest Urban Paintball Game the UK has ever seen flicks your switch - then get yourself a ticket. This next event is a possible game changer for UK paintball in the future.
Before the event I said that Staargate is what Staargate is. Staargate is hanging around with your mates drinking beer on the Saturday followed by a great players party and a decent game of paintball on Sunday. From where I'm standing - job done.
Drinks from the caterer were too expensive - food wasn't too bad.
The party was probably the best player party I've ever been to at a paintball event - it was excellent and the bull competition could not have been more intense.
The game on the Sunday was largely excellent. Some great scraps and as I said it would - it offered something for everyone.
Scores wise, the Reds came back into the game in the early afternoon and they did make some great sweeps all the way from their re-entry point down to the Naquadah Mine - but as soon as the Blues regrouped, they pushed them all the way back.
In terms of resetting the game - I stand by that decision. It was the right decision and anyone who has run an event will know why it had to be done. For the Blue players who started shouting at me that it was unfair - tough! It's a game lads - grow up.
The battle at the mine after the reset was unbelievable. Real Rorkes Drift stuff and I nearly found myself looking for a gun to get involved myself - it was that sort of fight.
Why did Red get dominated on the field (if not necessarily on the scoreboard)? - simple really:
From game on, the Reds fragmented into small groups of half a dozen or so. Blue's were hitting objectives with 40 or 50 players. Reds were hitting objectives with small independent groups of 6 - 8 players. One word - teamwork. Blues simply played better as a team.
Also, Reds pretty much ignored the respawn point in the field. Blues didn't. THis allowed Blues to dominate the mine area which freed up plenty of players to attach directly onto the red re-entry points.
The result was nothing to do with the field set up (the last two winners have come from opposite ends) and nothing to do with uneven teams (teams were 9% different in size). There is nothing wrong with the game set-up - it was simply one side played as a team and the other side didn't.
Interestingly, I'd say that Reds were better prepared before the game with a huge amount of time spent my Andy in coming up with the game plan. But for whatever reason Andy couldn't get that plan to execute on the ground on the day. Blues arrived much less prepared, but the plan they didn't put together rolled out perfectly on the ground. At the risk of labouring the point - I can only assume teams and teamwork were the deciding factors.
One thing I'll change for next year is I'll probably come up with a solution to stop one side rolling straight onto the re-entry point of the other. I'll also look at evening out the scenario teams over both sides as blues had most of the scenario teams and that was obvious on the day.
But overall, another good solid weekend of paintball for less than fifty quid.
The circus next rolls onto Herefordshire with Call to Duty in 3 weeks. If abseiling into buildings and kicking in doors in the biggest Urban Paintball Game the UK has ever seen flicks your switch - then get yourself a ticket. This next event is a possible game changer for UK paintball in the future.
