Saturday, June 18, 2005

I'm back baby!

Ok, I'm over it. I suppose the choice to deliver an incomplete thingy is just another one of those command decisions that has to be made in some situations. Aaaaaaaaaanyways.

I promised to post more, so here I am, back to post on what? why, paintball of course! :>

I've played once in the past two months. And that time was five weeks ago. Heh... I had a pretty negative experience (which has never been enough to deter me from playing) But, for some reason, I just didn't have the drive to go out and play. So I got rusty... Ahem...

So I went out today because I REALLY wanted to go. My girlfriend was at a family thing, so it was just me. It was the Friendly Fire event I mentioned a few posts ago, so I was ready to have a good time. Before we get started, I take a swig of mountain dew livewire (the BEST dew EVER!) and head out to the field.

Once I get out there I test fire a few times, and see that I'm not getting any air. great, the screwy valve on my 4oz is acting up again. figures. So I unscrew the tank, and change to 12 grams (they always work =)) It was still firing weird, so I gave up and walked back to the car. On the way, I realized that I must have put it together wrong, because phantoms don't just *stop working* I mean... They're not Shockers! (burn!) So I start opening it up in the trunk when it hits me, I haven't oiled my baby in months! I quickly drop some oil in the ASA, charge it, and dry fire a few times. *whew* I head to the range and fire off a few, and discover that I'm shooting real low. I check out the TCP and it looks like it's all the way down... With my new light springs, the velocity needs to be set as high as it can be to make it to 280. Now I start to wonder if my springs are acting funny from the heat. (very remote...) I head back to the car and start searching for the spring set. Only to find that I left them at home. Could this be the end for our hero?! In desperation I decide that I should try to get a few more turns out of my velocity adjuster, so I start turning it, and it turns about 7 times... Ok, I must have turned it out while cleaning it ^_^;; I take a few shots, and my phantom is back in action!

Now that I've de-rustified my phantom... I've just got to de-rust myself.

We play a few uneventful games and I start feeling queasy. normal. you just haven't played in so long that the stress and strain of playing is making your stomach upset. this happened the first time you played. no big. I continue to feel worse, and decide it might we wise to sit down. I then proceeded to throw up the entirety of the small swig of mountain dew I took before playing. Wow, ok, THAT was making my stomach upset?! Whatever. I start to feel better but not yet play better! and resume one of the games in progress.

We play about three more games inwhich I play a very small part. it sure it taking some time for me to get back into the swing of things! We have lunch, and I head to the 3 man speedball field to wait for the start of the "1 on 1"s. There's a small group of what one could only describe as agg hk kids with an apparent JT sponsorship... riiiiight... I count them and see that they're even, so I don't ask if I can play on like I usually do. (I'm always eager at the opportunity to take a willing pupil to pump school) They turn to me, and ask if I want to play. I [insert evil grin here] accept. I take out 3 or 4 of them, and pretty much end the game. Afterwards they're all standing around and I tell them that a private group is coming and if they want to play again, they'll need to play quickly. The resounding reply is "err, we need more paint... yeah... more paint..." One of the players is upset that they're not playing again. I offer to play him, to which he replies, "... can you DO that?" "err, what?" "play me with a pump?" 0_0 "yes. I can." "You know that I've got a semi right?" "yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I fire one shot at him, and after seeing him play, decide to take it easy on him. I toy with him for a bit, and then when he tries to flank me I hit him in the leg. Two shots fired After the round, the group insists that they still need to leave to get paint, then hang out to watch the 1 on 1s for 15 minutes. Despite my preparedness I step onto my first round of 1 on 1s with a near-empty 12 gram... Intelligent! So it takes me all of ONE shot to realize that I need to change 12 grams. So, I very carefully divide attention between changing the 12 gram, and not looking like I'm trying to change a 12 gram. =) I get it changed and it takes me all of two shots (the first bounced) to get him. On my next 1 on 1 round I get gogged for playing sloppy. a little pissed at myself, but I didn't really care. I'd rather have someone else win and come back again I like the time after the 1 on 1s because everyone is just standing around, and it usually turns into a few pretty good games on the 3 man speedball field. We play a 5 on 5 game where I do alright, but by the time the next game starts I'm at 100% of my game. I run a pattern to the center 50 off the break, and take out the back right who was playing his bunker so loose that I could see more than half his body when I looked out. After he went out, I saw a 6"x3" area between the spool and the standup that was dark. I shot at it and heard the tell-tail sound of pants being hit I called the player out and he reluctantly left the field. I then moved my attention to the back center player, and after a bit of a fight he went out. There were two in the back left spool/standup I was in the center 50 and keeping an eye on them. After a bit of battle, I started to hear some shots where they shouldn't have been. I suspected one of the players moved to the left 40 spool. So I posted just to the left of it to make sure I caught him in case he decided to make a bunker move to the 50. I was just about to check on the guy in the back left, when I saw a blue vforce profiler pop into my sites, which was soon obscured by a splat of white paint over the mouth. I checked on the back left player quickly to find him moving to bunker up the left tape, I took a shot at him, and ran back to the right side of the 50 bunker as he hit the left side running and firing. He kept running past the 50, and curved around another bunker still firing, it took me two shots to get him. When he started walking off the field, I heard from the side-lines: "The pump wins!" Oh yeah. I'm back.

Afterwards, I caught up with some of my friends who are on a pump team. They are also quite good. I can only consistently eliminate one member of their team. I've hit another member once, and I've never hit the last. They ask me to join them on speedzone and by the time I get there they're about to play some poor souls. The two pump teammates against a pump and two semis, until I walk on to "even" the teams [insert another evil grin here]. We make short work of them, and one of the semis on the opposing team leaves, so I go on their team. After a long battle, I finally shoot out the guy I've never shot out before. twice... oops... He was stepping out, and I took the shot at him, and got back in, when I came back out, I saw him there still and shot him again. When I took the first shot, he was just standing there, so I wondered what was wrong, so I asked him, and before he could respond, his teammate bunkered me, and made short work of the my teammate. I'd like to think that if I knew for sure that the first player was out, I would have turned my attention to his teammate, and nailed him mid-bunker. But that's just speculation... The next round we all broke to our positions, and after some battling I moved up a couple bunkers to a better position (just to keep them from taking them), and we lose our semi teammate. After some more battling, the first guy I shot out the last time popped up out of a bunker 10 feet from me much to my surprise I then battled with him for about 10 more rounds before I needed to change 12grams... fuck. if he hears even the SLIGHTEST hiss from me changing 12 grams, I'm fucked with no lube. I stifle the sound with one glove, and twist with the other, fortunately, there was only a very small hiss as I unscrewed the empty powerlet. After I was back in action I battled a bit more with him, knowing too well how close I was to being bunkered, until it ended abruptly, I shot him out in one of our exchanges of fire. Wow. A few long balls is one thing, but to nail him in an evenly matched close range snap shooting contest? Awesome. by the way, when I play these guys, I have to get in so quickly, I rarely see whether or not my shots hit so when he got up to leave, I asked him what was wrong again. still not fully believing my skill. I was a little perplexed at how to get a better angle on the remaining player. I battled with him a bit and finally decided that my best move would be to a bunker in the middle (he was in a bunker to the center-left) The only problem was that the bunker was parallel to his, and about 10 feet ahead of his. So I would have a good angle on him, but very little cover (because I'd be sitting in the corner farthest from him), and very little chance of not getting spotting running there, or being heard either running there and sliding in. (still remembering that I could hear his approach before his bunker the last game) Just then I hear the train passing... I'm such a dick. I use the sound of the train to mask my approach to the bunker, and catch him totally by surprise, but still his reflexes save him from getting hit. He moves back and I sit at my bunker properly happy to use it for its fullest abilities. My teammate moves up and gets shot out just as I take out the last guy. My second shot on this player. Great fucking day.

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