Millennium Series 2012 – Round 4 – “World Cup”

It all built up to the final round of the Millenniums – World Cup in Paris!!!

Since we started this year, we had various activities and plans, and one was running some charity events including a clinic with Nicky T from Planet Eclipse.

Nicky, having retired from active duty on the paintball fields after cementing himself as one of the top international players in the world on teams like London Nexus, extend his paintball career by becoming a major industry figurehead and one of the sport's top analyst. We wanted to learn from one of the best and he was delighted to hold a clinic for us prior the Paris event.

To make a long story very short – after the clinic we approached Nicky asking him what he thought about our performance and also about the issues we had all year without a coach in our pits sharing the admin, pit and playing duties amongst each other. After a few minutes and a question if he would like to jump into the role of a coach for our last round of 2012 – he agreed to the concept once he had the ok from family and employer.

We were really super excited when he got back to us not even a week later with a “Green Light” from the lady of the house (thank you Beth!!!) and from the office.

The idea was to have Nicky with us for a weekend to evaluate our situation and if we were ready for moving up a division in 2013. All these plans came to an early halt once we started discussing plans for 2013 amongst the team briefly during our last training prior the Paris event.

The reason you ask?

A very simple one:  the financial commitment - without any real support from sponsors.

At the prices we were looking at paying and moving from a “RaceTo2” to “RaceTo4” with a 6 man squad just wasn’t realistic. We barely had a year of RaceTo2 experience at this point. In addition to this we had no dedicated coach or own tactical/strategic experience in how to coach and manage ourselves in an event - nor just a dedicated person in our pits to do so.

Personally I felt it like a slap in the face since I was hoping to be playing in Division 2 next year – but we all agreed in the end that one more year will help us to gel better on the field as a team and at the same time look for the 1-2 extra ingredients that will increase the size of our roster for 2014 to then hit the ground running in the Div2.

But lets get back to the “MAIN EVENT” ... Paris.

Nicky gave us some “homework” after the CPPS since he wanted to make sure we felt in the right mind-set coming to Paris, so in the car driving to Paris Thursday morning (2 a.m.) we had some chats and planned our day, since it was going to be long one, we had booked 2 training sessions on Thursday with an opportunity to play against SPL and CPL teams through the DYE offer, plus another hour on the Division 2 field against London Impact, which would be our field for our Saturday games.

Thursday

As mentioned we started our trip at 2 a.m. UK time to make it to Paris, EuroDisney in time for our first training slot at noon. The big difference this event was that we brought our Pit Crew with us, no other than Kimi, Francesca and Vicky – all three partners of players, of which Francesca and Vicky had not been to any events this year. 

Kimi, who had been with us all year, took the lead in organising the pits as she had done so successfully the entire Millennium Series so far – Francesca (having played for over a year herself) and Vicky used the Thursday training sessions as their "training drill" for wiping down, filling pots and fetching them off the fields between points.

By the time we played London Impact at out 3 p.m. they were synced and a well-oiled and working machinery, which was a huge support for the rest of the weekend.

Nicky warned us of overdoing it on the training day, due to risk of injury, so we didn’t want to go nuts, however we enjoyed the SPL and CPL team challenge quite a bit. Of the 8 points we played we actually won 2 and gave them good games for the other 6 points. We shot them off the break, made primaries – of course they were training and trying things, so we didn’t let this get to our heads too much, but it did give us that bit of confidence … which I think everyone enjoyed.

Towards our 3 p.m. slot it started to get a bit sunny and the drizzle that was our steady companion throughout our first session ended. We started off with some 5 and 4 star GI Sportz paint to decide which paint we would be shooting during the event and then switched to training grade for the remainder of the session. Overall we had a good grasp of the fields after our day was done – and we were looking forward to watch some Friday games, DisneyLand and picking up Nicky T.

Friday

Having spent most of the Thursday travelling and training, we used the Friday morning after a breakfast and some social time together to look at some games – however within the first hour the call for “MICKEY MOUSE “ got louder and louder amongst the ranks … 

So, we took off to have some time with the attractions at Disney where finally one of our favourite hashtags was born … #creepyface. 

Invented and perfected by one of our rookies this year, Mark lead the way – and many started to follow …

  

   

Towards the end of the day two of us left the group to collect Nicky T at the airport, where he arrived on time from Manchester as expected. A quick debrief in the car on how the team was doing gave him a good idea of the situation and we agreed to have some dinner to discuss the next 2 days.

Dinner with Nicky was a godsend, he really put everything in perspective, and this wasn’t even paintball related – but about enjoying what you do, when you do it – and when adding effort, dedication and committing to what you do (on as off the field) that there is almost nothing if not very little that cannot be achieved. With this another last round of beers were ordered and it was time to head to the hotel shortly after (our games were not until after the lunch break so there was no rush to get to bed).

Saturday

Looking at the weather forecast in the morning and hoping it won’t be true is something that we stopped doing after this years CPPS series … 4 rounds, we were drenched and freezing in every one of them … so we just accepted the fact that once again we would be in for a wet and fun, slip and slide – however this all happened with a high motivation, big plans and dreams – we wanted to finish Top 10 by the end of the season, and this was only going to be possible if we made Sunday Club and ideally wanting to finish on a podium spot. 

Nicky had called the weekend “Operation: Win Paris” and the smirk on everyone’s face was a thing of beauty when getting to the field. Of course it was mixed with a bit of nervous laughter, however we had confidence that this round will not turn into another arriving at the field late because the schedule was running an hour early or any other disaster we encountered in the rounds before.

We were at our field 30 minutes prior to start, they let us in the pits 25 minutes prior and we set up our gear, since it was cold and raining, we wanted to avoid getting the paint too early … but then it happened, us and Speed Tiger Lille (first game of the group) were the only of 6 teams in the pits and the referees switch on a 5 min. timer with a call for “Gun Checks” – we just all looked at each other and panicked. 2 ran to the pain truck getting paint, 2 were setting up markers and the girls tried sorting out their pit tables with pots and cloths … once we arrived with the 6 boxes of paint we were down to 2 min. warning, Nicky took control of the situation by telling everyone to calm down and take whatever pots are ready, distribute them amongst each other and get on the field.

Our last man arrived running at the gate at the 3 second mark and the game was over as fast as it had started – people coming off the fields had frustration all over their faces, however the next point was going to start in 2 min., so no time for that – Nicky again reminded everyone to keep calm and get back out, unluckily this didn’t help since the heads were down and it felt like a messed up first game already – 2:0 was the result.

Well – we thought  - then we will have played our game and have all other teams be on “BYE/DRAW” since there was nobody there besides us and they were in such a rush to get started … the timer was ticking down to 20 sec., stopped and the clocks went off. At this point RAGE does not describe the mood of the team – we as the first group game – get hustled on the field without being ready and are PUNISHED for being there early.

Nicky again calmed us down – told us to now get the head in the game and not worry about what happened. I think at this point Nicky must have been at an “OhOh” point of the weekend – but he kept talking to us and told us to keep our heads high, it was one of 5 games, we still have enough games to make this right … and to shorten this down, so we did …

The anger and frustration, plus the 30 min. break to our next point gave us 3 consecutive wins of which all were very clear. So with a 3 wins and point score we were through to Sunday, with one more game Sunday morning in the prelims to ensure top spot of our group and a potential “weaker” team in the first round of the knock-out stage.

	Speed Tiger Lille	2:0	London Samurai MV
	London Samurai MV	2:0	UK Masters London Allstars 2
	London Samurai MV	2:1	Hornet Treilleres
	London Samurai MV	2:0	Bad Influence Heidelberg

Nicky looked very pleased with the outcome and we discussed some things on our way back. The excitement of the games and the steamrolling teams had us totally ignore the insane downfalls of rain and muddy playing surface – a laundry run was needed and this is where it all went crazy.

We had a volunteer to do our entire laundry as well – no other than NICKY T personally – he enjoyed a 2 hour "downtime" with his kids on Skype and sitting in front of washing machines and dryers before he returned to us in the hotel room with 2 baskets of clear, dry and warm playing gear ... it felt like Mom was with us. In return we had organized dinner and all had a quite dinner in the hotel room in fantastic company. Now how many of you can claim a Pro-Paintball players has done you laundry ... huh??? J

Sunday

When the alarm went off, it was still dark outside. First game of the day, knowing you have to wait until after lunch to continue playing is something we really have to get use to more – since at Race To 4 breaks between games are much longer than in our current division, where games literally are played in a very short time frame during the day.

Our first game of the day was set-up in flood lights on the Division 1 field – Astro Turf and no rain, which was exactly the same environment we played in on Thursday on our Pro field training session, so we felt very confident in playing – which resulted in a clear 2:0 win in a very structured and clear game for us.

With the moral and spirits high, we hunted down some warm beverages and breakfast to eat at the event, which was also accompanied by rain within the next hour. We knew it would be a wet afternoon with increasing rain – however we had to try keep dry. At some point we went back to our cars to warm up and dry a little before the “Sunday Club” games started.

By noon the knock-out stage had started and our first opponent of the day was London Defiance 2. Their second team has just joined in the Millennium Series recently – however have immediate left an impression by making it to the 2^nd round of the tournament. Although we lost 2 players off the break, our Snake player, Mark, had the game of the day in our opinion winning an impressive 2 on 1. Him in snake 50, well aware of the positions of the 2 opposing players thanks to Scott’s coaching – he shot out the Dorito-side player and bunkered the Snake-side player which spun on him and even received a penalty, which resulted in a automatic point for us and them starting their second point with 4 players. The rest is history, but we are looking forward to see them compete again next year since during these events it is all about supporting “home teams” in all divisions.

Our next game would be against a very strong team named Furious Sneek. They had a flawless prelim record in this event with 5 out of 5 wins and were going to win their entire knock out games 2:0 until they reached the finals – where they would be defeated by London Tigers 3.

I was sideline coaching this game and after an unlucky first point, within 10 seconds we lost our entire Dorito side and they loaded the Snake which resulted in us leaving the competition.

The heads were hanging when I arrived in the pits and one or the other had to stomp off to catch some fresh air before we spoke about what happened and where things could have been improved. It was a good learning – since we knew we had a serious chance in making it into the finals.

Nicky kept the moral up and complimented our performance – the pit crew was extraordinary, how the team pull themselves together after a rough start and come all this way in the first year? 9^th in Division 3 in your first year? That is NOTHING to be ashamed of at all. We agreed.

	London Samurai MV	2:0	Mofa Kidz Hamburg
	London Samurai MV	2:0	London Defiance 2
	Furious Sneek	2:0	London Samurai MV

It was time to head to the hotel and get changed – Nicky had a plane to catch and we had some dinner plans before returning to London on Monday.

On the way to the airport Nicky said something that I believe will stay with me for a long time – which was in the sense of:

“You can try to coach or work with a team as hard as you want to – but if they are not interested in learning or taking things on board it won’t work, unluckily many teams don’t think that they have any faults or problems in areas you highlight to them. It was an absolute pleasure working with you, because you all take what you are told on board and put suggestions into action. This is what will make you successful in the long run – Your willingness to learn and admitting that there is better ways of doing things rather than justifying your actions and not giving up to work hard for every point”

At this stage we would all like to thank you, Nicky T, for you work and efforts with the London Samurai MV team. We hope to have a chance to work much more with you in the future on our way to higher Divisions.

See you all at home soon!!! 

#CREEPYFACE

CPPS 2012 - Round 4 - Premiership B Series Champions

So how do you close a series on the last round, when you lead the division with 2 spots ahead of the next team in the table …? You make sure nobody doubts that you earned that  spot – period!

In a good old fashion – it was raining, it was cold, it was muddy, BUT there was a new factor in the mix this time – … just kidding, it was the same old like every CPPS … =D

We started the event after lunch on the last round of the 2012 season, much rumors were going around about Rich handing over the series to a new management and huge changes were ahead for the 2013 season – however we were more interested in the here and now, there was enough time for 2013 once this season has been finished and “won”.

So we started in our group games again very strong with 3 wins and a 1:0 loss against the Carebears, which won the first point and then with 2 players very cleverly shutting down the field making it very hard for us to move. Luckily the 3 wins should be enough for us to see it through to the final and with that secure us the title for the CPPS Premiership, since by points we already had the title at this stage.

Domination, the team that was breathing down our neck had a tough day and missed the finals very closely, which lead us facing The Clan in the last game of the season. We had the upper hand and since we had played the Clan a few times this year, and they were always on their triggers holding their lanes very well, so we knew we had to be cautious about our movements on the field.

In the end we were able to decide the game for us, which gave us a 3^rd victory within the 4 rounds and it also was a great last game to close the CPPS season.

We are now looking forward to the Millennium Series World Cup 2012 in Paris and the “GI Sportz-7Man Event” in November as a fun event, which will followed by the ceremony for the winners of the CPPS 2012.

We will give an appropriate thank you to all our sponsors and supporters once we collect that trophy in November, but for now once again a huge thank you to LiPS Paintball, Planet Eclipse for the best markes in the world, GI Sportz for the top notch paint all year long, Tanked for the awesome jerseys, Ray Ko from PaintballPictures for all the coverage this year and last but not least the Bricketwood Training Center which we have been using for the last 3 years and Yorkie has been brilliant with his team to give us all that field time.

P.S. As you can see we unluckily didn’t have much luck with taking pictures this event, since the weather was bad and we didn’t have any “pro photographers” with the right cameras around to document the day, but the few VERY BLURY pictures we are sharing are just to show you the moment when we actually won the last game of the day - so apologies for quality.

Paris … about a week away … London Samurai MV on a “last stop of the 2012 Millennium Tour” to make something happen!


 

Millennium Series 2012 – Round 3 – “London Masters”

... And our take on how things need to be improved ...

It took me over a month to write this – because A LOT has been going on - and A LOT had to be digested, discussed and thought about regarding our home event, the London Masters from the 29th June - 1^st July.

In short – it was not what we expected to be ... 

• Was it us?
• Was it the strange groups they created in Division 3, where three groups of 6 teams and one group of 10 teams, where each group had the top 2 go through???  
• Was it a terrible and inconsistent reffing?

… everyone will have their little story to this event -  but in short, we felt it was like a slap in the face.

However, since we can’t change the actions of others,  we might as well focus on US and see what WE CAN DO in the future to improve things. At a later stage we can hope that, with constructive feedback, which we will be providing to the Millennium Series end of this season, maybe there will be some thoughts on other peoples minds on how things on "their end" can be improved and done as well. So let’s get started with the event and what we are talking about …

Saturday & Sunday:

Division 3 prelims Saturday, as usual, we are the first team on the field. Other than in previous events, we did not stay together for the weekend, but some arrived in the morning coming straight from home, others spent a night in a hotel on their own in the area …

It was a bit of a strange disconnect compared to all other events we had played domestically and internationally. So this is something that we will NEVER do again …

First game on, was against the top seeded team in our group Argonauts Hellas Athens 2. Following a vicious battle with 2 “no point” games, we decided the first game of the day for us 2:1, which meant we played 4 points to decide that one match for us. Later that day Argonauts Hellas Athens 2 were disqualified due to a higher division player having played for their Div.3 team, but that all didn’t really matter anymore then, since it all went downhill from here.

Within 4 matches that day, of which we lost all following matches after playing the Greek team, we received NINE 1-4-1’s, of which, if you want to be very critical, you could have given 3 - the other 6 penatlies were just shocking bad decisions and worst of all ABSOLUTELY INCONSISTENT.

I base the inconsistency on the fact that players with hits off the break STOP firing their guns and end their run in the bunker, stop to check themselves and get called out with a 1-4-1, while the same referee will be watching a player in the next game with an obvious hit running and gunning to their bunker and then when in the bunker checking themselves,  leaving the game and no penalty is called. Shocking – but unluckily true.

This inconsistency and non-existing procedure of constructive feedback (besides talking to the event staff hours later about what happened) is something major that this sport needs and causes much frustration both on player and officials’ side.

Since the unthankful job of being a referee for 12 hours on 3 days and receiving verbal abuse from players (which had to be controlled by harsher approaches and decisions on the field), now have swung the oposite way and players are confronted with “gods in black and white” with some power complex that decided the outcome of games, rather than enforcing rules as they “stand in the rulebook” (which is an entire other topic I don’t even want to start).

If you are one of the few people that actually continued reading to this point (congratulations by the way – for giving me a chance here), it might start sounding like this is a “they are whining because they have lost” post. This is not our intention at all – rather the opposite actually!

I believe we (the players) need to work together with the Millennium Series to create an environment where feedback can be given, referees don’t have to fear abuse after potenitally having made a bad call – however if done consistently after receiving feedback, have to be “removed” from their spot on the field, since they need to “know the rules and apply them consistently to all players”.












This could be achieved by having referees with jersey numbers, to identify them better and then give feedback to the ultimate or event staff on concerns of reoccuring mistakes or bad calls. If there is a consistent feedback (not just a “one off whining”) then actions to improve the referees understanding and performance can be put in place and athletes don’t feel that they are “victims of bad calls” anymore, but rather a part of improving the reffing situation with educatino through the EuroRef staff. Alright, enough of that then … back to the results:

In a nutshell our Saturday looked sad and dreadful, not to mention that we had lots of things on our minds – in front of a home crowed that wasn’t able to travel with us the first half of the year and now that they were there and able to watch us live on the field, we delivered this performance. I personally saw it as an absolute low for this season:

Preliminaries	Argonauts Hellas Athens 2	0:2	London Samurai MV
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	0:2	Ashby Onslaught
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	1:2	Stavanger Mayhem 2
Preliminaries	Basingstoke Ratz	2:1	London Samurai MV
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	0:2	Ipswich Unwanted

On top of the beating we received from whomever was beating us (other teams, referees or even ourselves), we also were informed that we were going to be the first team on the field AGAIN on a Sunday – which allprevious events were more along the lines of “If you play early Saturday, you play late Sunday and vice versa - so you have one day early and the other day late.” … nope, First Game on both days, we almost thought we might have just pissed someone off and they were trying to get back at us ...

We left the field Sunday morning, right after our game. I needed to step back from it all quick and cancelled 2 appointements I had with a vendor and an official from the Millennium Series – because I was just in a “naturally” bad mood. The team sat down in the car park and discussed that we will not let this demoralize us as a team and that we will analyze the situation and take learning’s  away from this - which we now have and they are:

• You don’t separate the team during an event – you eat, sleep, play together from departure to event until return.
• Keep your head low – since confronting a referee with a question (after a game) will only put you on their “shit list”, at least until a feedback procedure that is constructive and effective is in place
• Don’t blame people for information they give you – you accepted the information which means you took the source as trustworthy, next time get the information from the source –not a 3^rd or even 4^th party
• Always remember – it’s a game and we are doing this for the ride, with the outlook of potentially getting some results in the future. The only people that are putting pressure on us is US – enjoy the event.

On a positive note and bottom line:

THIS IS OUR FIRST YEAR in the RACE TO format … and for that being ranked 12^th in the Div3 – I don’t care what people say, that is a small achievement of its own. We have one more event in Paris coming, which gives us the potential chance to even improve this ranking before the season is over. So let’s go visit Mickey Mouse and give this another go.

See you all in France!  

 

Jay Ford – R.I.P.

Where to start – to say we knew Jay Ford well, would be an exaggeration, we played with him twice as a team on a Nexus clinic we had in 2011 and seen him at Bricketwood with the other teams like London Tigers and London Nexus in the last years, but that is really all we knew about Jay. -

The saddening news was posted on his facebook page by family on the 30th July 2012, stating that he passed during the night in his sleep and found his peace after a long battle with cancer. We didn’t know anything of that, but due to the loss we had 5 years ago, could relate to it immediately.

Jay Ford in our eyes was a great player, that was fun to watch play and hear about the funny stories he was involved in during his paintball travels. He was a regular powerhouse, when he went up that snake – you knew he meant business just by the way he pushed up there. He was an inspiration for quite a few players I know.

I don’t want to continue talking about a man I never knew that well, it is not my place – but for those that have knew him and are talking about in more depth and with personal relationships with him, know – our thoughts are with you. We know the feeling of a sudden loss and it is a gap that was suddenly torn into your life, which will heal over time, but never feel the same again.

R.I.P. Jay

EDIT: DYE and LONDON NEXUS have asked to share this on the 2nd October,  to support the UK Cancer Research, so we are. Please support them if you can.

CPPS 2012 - Round 3

Let’s play a game … I say an event and you tell me the weather conditions … ready?

CPPS … Surprise surprise – it was round 3 and yes, it was raining, and cold … oh and did I mention “muddy” before? J

This event was a chance for us to secure a podium finish for the series, which was our objective for this year – so we let the proceedings take place. We had not trained the field more than once before the event – and the snake being an old school diamond, was a great change, but again like most of the season turned the field into a very aggressive and T-Bag side heavy layout in our opinion …

So walking the fields that morning was something we really focused on and then came to a very quick conclusion: “One of us players will only coach all day.”

We didn’t have any coach all year up to this point, sure some people on the sidelines we asked to coach, and we appreciated every help we got (big thank you here to Wingnut, Darren, Mr.B and all the others that yelled from the sidelines) – but we started feeling it and realized that there is a need for a proper coach. Reason is (and I know for many players I might be stating the obvious here) there are so many instances, times and moments when you would just like or better NEED this one person that is:

Not playing but focusing on all the games / looking from the outside and only focusing on observing /giving you feedback on what they saw that you couldn’t because you were focusing on your game/ kicking you in the back of the head if you do dumb stuff …etc.

Sounds like a crap job, especially if you want to play (besides the “kicking people in the back of the head”  (j/k)), but bottom line of the day with a person like that was: We dropped 2 points out of all games that day. Why, because the coach did his job and we could focus on doing job on the pitch.

Thinking about it and getting sidetracked a bit … I believe this will be the trickiest part for us moving up and getting better in the future by playing higher divisions. We will need an experienced and dedicated coach that WANTS TO work with us and take a team from “out of nowhere” to a Div1/SPL squad. I know this is a few years down the line (if at all) – and we know it is a tough road, but without someone bringing a bit of experience and strategy to the mix, it could become more and more difficult in the future. However, I think everyone on Samurai MV is more looking forward to the actual journey from where we are today to where we will be in 10 years, since in the end - it’s not only about lifting trophy’s and winning bragging rights – it’s all about the ride.

But back to the event …

 

Like in round 2 we came top of our group and played the final, winning it and with that securing a podium spot for the end of the season. Domination, as a team we’d like to highlight, are a great group of lads and since they are on our tail in spot 2 in the series it is a very healthy and friendly rivalry, looking forward to smash heads with them again very soon … however, all teams are great and we’ve enjoyed the entire series so far (besides the rubbish weather) … this is all not even 9 days before we finally can welcome all teams of the Millennium Series to our Home ground in the UK.

Bas-Vegas, here we come!

 

P.S. This is our favorite shot of the day from paintballpictures.co.uk.

 

Thanks for capturing the action again like nobody else does!!!

Millennium Series2012 – Round 2 – “European Masters”

“Bitte ein Bit” is the slogan of the local beer they brew in town – yes we are talking Bitburg, second round of the series, aka. the "European Masters".

Following a great journey via EuroTunnel and some Autobahn we arrived at our destination early Thursday,  got our rooms and gear sorted and enjoyed some rays of sun combined with German beer and food.


Besides playing paintball this weekend there was also a “planned scheduled” stag due, since Mark – our youngest, decided to get married (although we did suggest an alternative – even a get-away car behind the church) … his mind was set, so we wanted to make sure he had a "last good weekend" as well. :D

But down to business …

Saturday:

Division 3 prelims Saturday were again early for us – first group, first game – so a bit of a “wake up call” on every behalf. We got caught out on the first point against the Argonauts Hellas Athens 2, because we had a team huddle off the field and didn’t get to the gate until 1 second before start (a coach with an eye on the clock calling a time out, which we are missing – or the reffs raising their arms – would have been “useful”, however let’s just drop this as a “beginners mistake”).

So the day didn’t start to our favor really ... However -  the 2:1 slap in the face (which has been a Samurai MV tradition in the past years) woke us up quick and we turned the engine on which resulted in 3 consecutive victories and placing ourselves in a good chance for Sunday Club. None of the games were easy games - but we became more and more confident as the games started, that even with 2 “1-4-1”s, which we still don’t understand today – we managed to pull it off.

Preliminaries	Argonauts Hellas Athens 2	2:1	London Samurai MV
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	2:0	Glory Skulls Dorsten 2
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	2:1	Izmir Collision 2
Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	2:1	B4 Paris

 

 

 

 

Dynasty/Impact

Franfurt Syndicate

After our Paintball task of the day was done - we started turning our attention back to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – Collection. Again our sponsors put up some of the collection pots on their stands and we had Flyers in English and this time German (who would have thought) for the spectators. However the highlight was that we got pros (Team Dynasty/Impact, Team Frankfurt Syndicate and the guys from HKArmy)to sign our flyers – and Dynasty/Impact gave us 2 lenses the team had signed that we could then auction off – A big thank you again here to them all!!!

HK Army

 

Yorkie, the heart and soul of Bricket Wood Paintball, who again was on tour with London Relentless (Div 2) was about and was glad that we had 3 wins in day one. London Nexus (CPL) and London Tigers (SPL) both didn’t make it to Sunday club, not to mention that besides London Relentless no other team playing Div2 or higher made it to Sunday. So Div 3 with London Impact, London Fearless, Banshees, Ipswich Unwanted and us had to see what we could do to hold up the UK paintball scene on German soil.

Sunday

Advantage of playing the first game Saturday – results in a “playing the last game Sunday”, so we enjoyed the sun and day until about noon, when we got our gear ready and walked to the field and got our paint sorted. The GI Sports boys and girls delivered the 5* goods that day that we just couldn’t turn down (we were shooting 4 star all events before) and with this we turned our Back Center player Ped into a 5* addict ever since … “They are like laser” he gasped, and we know he can shoot lanes, but that was just ridiculous on Sunday … however, back to the games.

We finished losing our last Prelim game 2:1 to a German team, however that 1 point was all we needed to make to Sunday Club – and we almost flipped. 2^nd Millennium Series and Sunday Club, we couldn’t believe it, however the excitement had a bitter aftertaste once we realized that we were going to play the only other UK team that made it to the last 16 with us – London Impact. It’s never nice to have a game against a fellow UK team so early in the knock out stages, but we shook hands and wished each other luck – exactly how it should be done.

From this point on we felt that the reffs took over the “game results” with a huge amount of penalties.

London Impact lost 3 players off the break and in the first point, to then lose 4 off the break in the second and we were through to the last 8.

 

The following and also last game of the day was against Maxs Family Frankfurt 2. We started off trying to get to our primaries and teams that were through to the next round were watching our breakout closely. So with 5 alive in our bunkers and locking down the snake side we suddenly started losing bodies fast. Two 1-4-1’s for hits that were not there, which I guess threw us off so much that the 2^nd point was no surprise that we lost our entire snake side (again a penalty – very doubtful one as well) and then things just going very bad.

Following the game the Brazilian team that was watching our breakouts (since they were convinced we would be playing them in the semi-final) came into our pits and said that they watched the games and the two initial 1-4-1’s were uncalled for (one person was actually not even HIT when called out and penalized) … fair play to them, we thought we were going crazy, but later in the bar we heard of similar stories on our field. So the referee situation still has some “developemt” needs it seems … in short:

Preliminaries	London Samurai MV	1:2	Rebirth Berlin
Last 16	London Impact	0:2	London Samurai MV
Quarter-Finals	Maxs Family Frankfurt 2	2:0	London Samurai MV

You can say what you want – we were proud of ourselves. For a first year as a race-to team making Sunday Club on our second event – top UK team in our division-yeah, we can live with that. =)

Closing the European Masters chapter … Stag dues, sun burns, flipping beer mats, men in knickers & Stickers on the Autobahn ...

 

Well who didn’t yet realize we are a bit of a “crazy” bunch, we did mention a stag due – and the man normally doesn’t drink AT ALL, so us getting him to drink vodka orange and german “mini shots” known as Feigling, Apfelkorn and Ficken (yes, it means "F**K?" in German; the guy behind the bar, when asking for shots “Willst Du Ficken?” - which means “Do you want to F**K?” freaked me the "F" out – he just laughed when he saw my face and after he explained it was the drink and not the act he was offering I was VERY RELIEVED … but besides that what goes on tour/stays on tour! =D

 

 

Next morning, Monday, we had a breakfast with the remaining teams that stayed overnight (Art Chaos surprisingly still were although they didn’t pick up their trophy from the ceremony the evening before … we can only guess and wonder why), started heading back to London.

 

Due to some traffic jam’s 2 of our boys decided to STICKER the Autobahn a bit. Nobody got hurt – nothing got damaged – but there was a lot of tears of laughter and a great time with theboys came to an end … until June/July when the CPPS and London Master are up.

We can’t wait to show the home crowd what we got in Basildon. See you all in Our Kingdom!

P.S.: We are still taking donations for our charity activities: www.justgiving.com/samuraimv2012