Monday, January 24, 2005

My second time out with my phantom!

I went to Tombstone yesterday and, (to the astonishment of our listeners) it was even more crowded than it was the week before. I got ready for a full day, and I definately got it!

Some Highlights...

I started in the intermediate group because the advanced group was just finishing up their second round on a field (which would be followed by a 5-10 minute break). I hopped on Jungle and got ready. Off the break I made it to an important bunker on the 40, it was necessary for us to hold down our left side. I really began to focus on posting (almost getting tunnel vision). I was sure to look around every once in a while though I knew the bunker behind the one I was posting on was furthur to the side than the latter, so I wasn't suprised to see full bodies (large targets >:] ) moving up to the bunker I was posting on. The second I saw, I shot, watched the ball arc, and contact the target. I got back in, and looked at the ref (10 ft away) who called him clean.

It was a square shot in the stomach, and it bounced.
The target looked like he had a sweater on... damn


I quickly cursed my paint purchased a little over a week ago, and returned to my position. If my paint wanted to bounce, then I'd have to put it somewhere it couldn't bounce! Goggles... :insert evil grin here: I was starting to get better at aiming. Before I'd been looking straight down the irons, (so to speak) and firing at what was in my sights. This led to a problem, I couldn't see where I was hitting. I looking at my target and not compensating for arc, and blocking my view of under where I was aiming with my marker. I started to angle the phantom up, and line up my targets about half and inch above the sight. I could still aim well, and I could see what I was firing at.

I compensated, looked at the corner my target was just at, and waited for a good shot. I would not fire a slew of balls whenever I saw the tiniest view of goggles, and I think that was what he (she?) was expecting. You could almost taste the hesitancy emitted from the back of that bunker Then, the target popped out at full ready, firing as soon as his barrel cleared (good form, he was pretty tight too). I fired one shot at the edge of the mask I could see, and got back in before the first shots hit my bunker. I heard the ref call him out. My first gog of the day... oh yeah...

There was one other player behind the bunker with me who was covering me to the right. I told him to move up to the next bunker. what? it's not like I can bunker two guys if I see them! He moved up and took a peek behind the bunker, nothing. He sat behind it on our side, and signaled me up. I moved up and took some fire from a bunker beyond the one I was moving to. ^_^;; I wasn't staying low enough... My bunkermate took some shots at him out his side of the bunker, while I bellied to the dirt peeking around my side of the bunker at where I saw him. After bit I rolled onto my side an sat up to scan the jungle area to our right. My bunkermate stood up higher to get a better angle on someone in the jungle and took two to the top of his head courtesy of our old friend ahead of us.

I figured I'd give him a little bit of time to lose interest in my bunker before posting on him. I waited a bit, and then prepaired to drop back to my prone position. I was sitting on my knees, marker angled sideways, about to drop to my elbow, when I saw a the end a silver barrel poking from the corner, a foot from me. I got up and sneaked around the other side of the bunker as quickly and quietly as I could. I put my back to the jungle, which wasn't a good idea, but I just HAD to get this guy I got right behind him and tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hey, player...". He tucked back in and turned his head around to see the business end of a phantom about four inches from his face aimed right between his eyes. I won't soon forget the look of utter confusion on his face. "You're out." Of course, shortly after this happened, I took all kinds of fire from the jungle, and got out, but it didn't matter. =)

Later I racked up 5 kills off one particularly important bunker. There is a row of laydowns on the west side of front hyperball. The row zig-zags from our (north) 30 to their (south) 40. They have cover up to the laydown and can easily crawl to our 30. To make matters worse, they also have a spool with great cover and a killer angle on anyone who thinks they can hold the left side. Unfortunately we lost a few off the break, and soon had nobody holding the left. I was left of center in a standup trained on the laydown when I saw movement at the laydown on the fifty. Damn, they can crawl up the laydowns, and flank us while being covered! I contemplated superman-ing over the waist-high bunker to a kill, and almost certain 30bps doom.

Between the 50 and the 40 laydown there was a small opening where the concrete was broken away and some of the cris-cross rebar was exposed so that you could see through it. This opening was about 8"x3" vertical and usually only served as an early warning that someone was about to obliterate your team. The size and obstruction to the opening made it almost impossible to shoot through... with a semi... For almost the whole round I stayed trained on the laydown, and that tiny opening. Each time I saw some movement I shot straight through the opening, and usually got a kill. If I hit the rebar, it just splattered, and they didn't feel it, and since they were crawling, I had time to pump again, and take another shot. They just kept trying to crawl up, and I just kept shooting them out. From their angle, if they'd have popped out the top of the laydown I would have been totally exposed and had a few paintballs flying my way before mine could make it to my opponent's goggles. But that wasn't the case.

Eventually my team took the field, but not before I fended off 5 flankers.

I remember one shot I didn't seem to break on the target's left side, so I cocked in another, called a paintcheck to be sure, and waited for him to stand up for inspection (refs don't want you to roll the paint off!). The ref was right next to him, and looked for the hit, I could see that the ref couldn't find one, but he looked at me ready to nail him as soon as the word "clean" came into my ears, looked back at the player, and told him he was out.

Actually, now that I think about it, the ref started standing there after I got a few kills there, I would even bet that the ref was telling them to watch out for the little hole, and to try to look through it before passing it (totally fine with me). This would explain a few goggle hits, and one who was actually readied and tried to fire through the hole (which just produced a spraypaint effect). Heh, gotta listen to the refs. They know the fields...

After most of the games I could find at least a few players walking around asking who had the pink paint. Pumps rock.

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