R - E - S - P - E - C -T

Another exhuasting day under this unforgiving sun.

It was definetly better today than the last few weeks we've practiced. That or we're just getting better and mitigating the effects of this South Florida Sun.

Today I was looking forward to killing Hotshots since I see them as a direct obstacle to the team. They're better laners, they're good at holding zones, overall a defensive team but good at what they do. They don't make big mistakes.

On Friday something snapped in me and all I could think about was bonusballing them. I know it's bad, but that's all I could think about it. I have nothing against the guys on the team personally, but I just had it in my head that I wanted to kill them. I couldn't keep that mental momentum all weekend like I did on Friday. I think if I played on Friday then I would've been the MVP for that week since my mind was really into it. But it didn't happen. I did well today. I decided to take bigger aggressive risks. I payed for a lot of them, but I had fun and I tried new things. I was playing a front role more today. I was pushing up the doritos pretty well. Elier and I got too greedy today. Easy fix though.

Rob was having trouble with his gunfights today. He couldn't get small enough sometimes and was pinched out. In all fairness though he was usually the last guy getting overrun.

Elier wasn't putting his mirror in before making moves and he'd run into a line of paint.

I was just too damn greedy and wanted to shoot everything on the field. I have some nice welts that show that I've been humbled a bit. Just a bit.

Our lanes and Run and Gunning still needs a lot of work. But we've started to open up how we look at the field now.

We made a lot of friends today. More importantly we earned some respect. We've played against Defiance players for awhile now. Well actually since day one as a team we've played against them. So they know our level and one of thier players "Chino" actually said that we've really come far in a short period, we've gone from "being beginners to being serious D4 ballers." Even Hotshots was impressed with us and told us we're really on the right path and doing really well for a team that has no tournament experience, and only a few months of having any team experience.

I'm happy with today. I never knew how much respect meant until you actually earned it.

Lame Prank

So Johnny IM's me today and I decide to mess with him and tell him that I've quit the team. I go a step further and tell him that I'm suprised Rob and Elier didn't tell him. He flips out and calls me, but I'm in the middle of a cutscene in Call of Jurez: Bound in Blood. So I ignored it.

I call him back two minutes later and he's freaking out, "Chris! What happened?! Why are you quitting?" I tell him I was messing with him, and he tells me that in that two minute span he called the rest of the team to tell them. So now everyone is freaking out.

A really lame prank to start off the week.

Vacation!

We took this week off. A whole month of scrimmages culminating with the Paxson clinic: We were exhausted.

It was nice to get some time off for a week. Save some cash. Well Rob didn't, he's sucumb to the Matrix lust. Traded in his Ego 08 for a DM9. Ever since Paxson let him shoot his personal gun he's been obsessed. It's funny to me he went from declaring that he'll buy the Ego 10 to desiring the DM9. I told him he should've just waited till after World Cup for the price drop, but he wasn't having it. Oh well. Now for the most part we all have different guns.

I have an Ego, Elier has a Luxe, Johnny has a Geo, Steve has a Shocker, and Rob has the DM9.

I guess the new requirement for new team members will be a different marker.

Markers missing:

Droid or Cyborg

Bob Long Guns

Impulse (Steve might buy this one)

Angel

Paxson Clinic

Yesterday, was a really REALLY good day.

So I had been in contact with Bea Young over e-mail about taking Mike Paxson's clinic for awhile now, and the team finally decided they all wanted to do it. If they didn't then I was going by myself because I wanted to step up my game. Thankfully, everyone was in high spirits.

So I drove up with Elier, Max, Johnny, and William (Elier's little friend). We were all excited, especially Johnny who said if he saw Bea he was going to flirt with her (I didn't want to tell him she was pregnant and ruin his fantasy). We arrived at the field at 8-ish AM. Did I mention that I woke up at 4:30AM to make sure that I'd be there when Mike got there?

Regardless, we all got there and the field looked horrible. The bunkers were all deflated. The netting was down. We looked at each other and I know I was wondering if a hurricane came through or if I was being Punked. Johnny was very vocal about his displeasement. Very vocal! I mean he exploded.

15 minutes later Mike arrives. Johnny shuts up and you can start to see the stars in his eyes. I was starstruck too. I saw this guy bounce paint off a bunker in the World Cup final to gogg a Philly player in a 1on1.

There was some mix-up in the early money, which caused me to lose $60 out of the blue, so my cost for the trip was over $100 that day.

We geared up and got ready for an exciting day of paintball. When we were all ready and the field was set up it was around 9:00AM. We went out on the field with Mike and within the first 5 minutes he opened our game up 100%. He introduced us to new lanes to shoot off break to kill corner players and the back center. This is where we've really sucked, and we all knew it. We would shoot off break but it would never land where we wanted. Our lanes blew like every other divisional team. I haven't met any good breakout divisional teams in Miami. I think that's the major problem. We all mimick the same style and it's the wrong style so the whole of Miami suffers.

Well it's not like we became instant successes. We worked at it throughout the day. Even though it didn't feel comfortable, we kept up with it. It payed off because by the end of the day we started actually shooting people off the break. Mike said he was impressed by it, I know I was. I may not have hit anyone off the break that day, but my team was picking it up quickly.

We still suck though. I know I shouldn't bad mouth my own team, but I'm not naming anyone. We suck as an aggregate. The team has plenty of stuff to work on to get better, which I have no problem with. I know though that after we get these techniques down then we'll have an edge over established Divisional teams.

By the way, Mike's personal DM9 is awesome. Nicely tuned.