On a side note: Yorkie from Bricketwood Paintball – our
training grounds – was so nice to capture a small number of games when he had
some time so I am linking this below – pictures you can see in this post are
from 44Pix, since Ray from Paintballpictures.co.uk wasn’t able to make it out
for this event.
Thursday & Friday
Since playing Division 3 runs over Saturday and Sunday we
took an afternoon flight on Thursday to Nice, to then drive to the site which
also was a holiday village we rented a place to stay in. Meeting point was the London
Heathrow Airport – a quick “late lunch” at 3:30 p.m. before making our way to
the gate where we had a smooth flight over to Nice and by 9 p.m. local time we
were out of customs and on our way to the “Parc Saint-James Oasis”
which would be our “HQ” for the next 4 nights.
Once arrived at our bungalow, we sorted out the sleeping
arrangements and went to bed – the competition of “falling asleep” and “waking
back up” was on. Due to freezing temperatures in the house (due to not turning
on the heating … something we sorted out the next morning …), many of us were
up EARLY and we decided to go shopping for the next days since the houses with kitchens
were for self-catering. So off we went to the shops and bakery, which opened
about 20 minutes after we got there since we so early … however the advantage
no cues and freshly baked bread was the reward.
Back at the house a big breakfast was prepared and we made our
way over the CPL/SPL fields to see what was going on, and sorting out our
registration. The boys were all over the place and although the Millennium
Series has “only” playing fields (4) and trade/refreshment stands – within
minutes we started losing people in the crowed since everything had to be
checked out – so we agreed to meet at the Division 1&2 fields by noon to
have a look at the fields and everyone took off and did what they had to do ...
A task we had looked at and which two of us jumped into at this
point was our Cystic Fibrosis Trust – Collection. We asked our sponsors to put
up some of the collection pots on their stands so people can throw some money
in … we specially made Flyers in English and French for the attending people
and were hoping that we can get some attention – which I think we did, even if
only a little – but every person helping, even if just a small number, is more
than if we would have never asked and would have collected nothing.
By noon we were back together, watched quite a few games and
bumped into Yorkie who was travelling with the London Relentless guys (Div 2),
London Tigers (SPL) which we all asked for some pointers and also if they
needed some help. All of the teams of course being more experienced and
participating on the international scene on regular bases – every friendly word
and advice from them was welcomed by us more than they would have known.
After lunch we caught up with our sponsors and the other
people we knew at the event (incl. ex-Nexus players, Jason Wheeler , Clint
Moore, etc.) but as comforting all these familiar faces were and us trying to
make small-talk – a very simple fact was creeping up more and more – everyone
started feeling the buzz since we knew in a few more hours WE will be on the
field for the very first time in an international event abroad … so an early
night was needed, especially knowing we were on first game in the morning
(which seems to be a “Samurai MV” curse or blessing – however you want to see
it).
Lights out was 11 p.m. – but we still had many of the boys
lying in bed and blabbering all night because the excitement was just growing
and growing …
Saturday and Sunday
The sky was blue and most of us were sitting outside in gear
way before the alarms went off – the day had arrived. The question in
everyone’s head, without anyone having said a word was “Are we going to be able
to hold our own – or would we be shot down and realize that we don’t belong
here yet?”.We walked to the pit area and went by the GI Sportz stand, are our paint sponsors this year, after doing our “drop test” with the 3 and 4 star grade paint we were planning on shooting. We collected our paint and sorted out our pits with our pit crew (the miraculous Mr B! who did a 1 man show impressively). The clock was set on 5 minutes and our team name was called – we had 5 more minutes to the first point in our first match.
At the start gate we looked at each other and could see the nervous but excited smiles behind the masks just by looking at each other’s eyes – A huge “SAMURAAAIIII … M - V” broke the silence early in the morning and the “30 seconds” warning sounded … “10 seconds” … “GAME ON!”
We played 3 of our 5 group games Saturday and won 2:0, 2:1
and lost the last 0:2, which was against last year’s champions GFY Paris.
Walking out of the pits we suddenly realized what just happened … we actually
just went out there and won. Enthusiasm and excitement was on a peak and
although we knew we had some areas we needed to improve, the fear factor of
embarrassing ourselves on an international event was lifted off of us.
Since we had the first game Saturday – we had the last group
games of Sunday, which has the advantage of “if you make it to the finals” you
at least already are in the pits and “playing mode” – instead of playing points
early in the morning and then just sit and wait for the other group stage games
to come to an end. Coming on the field Sunday – against the 2 teams that lost
all three games on Saturday, we were maybe too confident – maybe the removed “fear
factor” relaxed us too much – but we lost both games 1:2 which gave us a 3rd
position in our group and we did not proceed to “Sunday Club” (for all non-paintballers,
that is the name of the knock-out stage in a paintball tournament – which
normally is played on the Sunday – Fri.&Sat.=Prelims/Groups, Sunday=Knockout
& Finals … Division 3 doesn’t work like that … but we still call it “Sunday
Club”, even for Division 3).
Since we had the first game Saturday – we had the last group
games of Sunday, which has the advantage of “if you make it to the finals” you
at least already are in the pits and “playing mode” – instead of playing points
early in the morning and then just sit and wait for the other group stage games
to come to an end. Coming on the field Sunday – against the 2 teams that lost
all three games on Saturday, we were maybe too confident – maybe the removed “fear
factor” relaxed us too much – but we lost both games 1:2 which gave us a 3rd
position in our group and we did not proceed to “Sunday Club” (for all non-paintballers,
that is the name of the knock-out stage in a paintball tournament – which
normally is played on the Sunday – Fri.&Sat.=Prelims/Groups, Sunday=Knockout
& Finals … Division 3 doesn’t work like that … but we still call it “Sunday
Club”, even for Division 3).
Although we were disappointed for not making it through to
the knockout stage – I think for a first event we battled our way through our
own fear of not performing and embarrassing ourselves to believing we have a
chance to knowing we can make it if we work harder. We received some comforting
words from the veterans (including the Relentless guy – who had won a deserved
2nd place in Division 2) – and our sponsors also complimented the 16th
place for a first event out of 30 teams wasn’t a bad result at all – question
was – “What did you expect?” and looking at it that way, I also believe we did
alright.
The aftermath … Sunday
night and journey home
Did we celebrate? … Oh yes we did, but it was more a getting
together than a victory celebration.
We had some very open discussions about what we think we need to work on
and where we could have done better. Ulrich Stähr, one of
the Millennium Series officials, also approached us and asked if we would be
interested in changing our name to “London Samurai MV” – since they would like
to invite teams to add a city name into their team name so there is an
affiliation to what city/country you are representing, which we happily
accepted.
Next morning, Monday, we took the car to Monaco and drove along the coast for some sightseeing – which ended in Nice where we caught the plane back to London.
Family and friends were expecting us at the airport – it was a really funny feeling – almost like a “welcome home & well done” reception. The team said their good-bye’s and one thing is for sure … we all can’t wait for the European Masters in Bitburg. See you all in Germany!
P.S.: Once we got home and counted the money – we actually collected £35.17, which was a little more than what we collected at the Round 1 of the CPPS … let’s see if Round 2 of the CPPS will be even more successful … feel like donating now … just go to: www.justgiving.com/samuraimv2012
