Paintballing at last

I had been kicking myself for not getting my lazy ass to the paintball field, and I finally got fed up enough to go.

It was a pretty mediocre day at OC Asylum. There were about 8 rental walkons, a large group claiming to be some form of team (after I watched them play, I didn't believe them), and one other pumper of moderate skill (which was perfect for me, because I hadn't played in such a long time!)

Before I started, I wandered onto the field to get a feel for the bunkers which were usually in different positions from week to week. I stood off to the side as a (quite skilled) semi player gave a young kid (brother?) a pep talk, and then they separated to play against each other. It was obvious that this was the kid's first time, and that this was simply a training exercise. I watched because I wanted to see how he was going to teach him. I soon discovered that his teaching style was not to have one... He sent 1 to 3 balls at the kid and encouraged him to shoot back. He tucked in, and handled his marker properly, and generally held just short of wailing on him. The kid returned fire a few times, but half way through, stayed behind his bunker. The player approached the kid's bunker, and told him to fire back. The kid called for him to stop, and asked a question, "Is there a surrender option?"

Aww geez. "Alright! Alright, that's game!" I said, and walked toward the two. "Why don't I play against the kid and take it easy, and you give him pointers as we play?" The player replied, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I'm not very good at teaching..." Yeah. So I played against the kid, and got him to actually return fire, and to keep most of his body in, and to shoot straight, and not be afraid to get shot. The player gave him pointers as he played, and I called out tips as we played. I would send some balls wide so he could see that they weren't going to hit him, and stay out to return fire, and plenty of other confidence building exercises. I love this stuff. I get so sick of the idiot "Agg kidz" with their wiping, ramping, overshooting, cursing, screaming, angry ways giving paintball a bad name, and turning newbies off to the sport. It warms my heart to see kids enjoying the game. By the end of this training session, I got the feeling that I had accomplished what I set out to do, build confidence, make some memories, and give the kid something to remember when he's at school on Monday. I was sure he'd be back, and that's what it's all about.

Unfortunately, the "team" monopolized the field for large periods of time to do drills. The drills were valid (unlike many I see), and I saw the value in what they were trying to impress upon the players. Unfortunately, there were only two players that I saw who played the drill correctly, and one that I saw who actually improved from his first failure. Oh well. I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him focus on the flag instead of trying to shoot out people who outnumber you and are behind good cover. (horses aren't very good ballers)

My play time was mostly spent playing 1 on 1 with the other pumper. I immediately discovered that he was a few skill levels below me, in movement, and strategy. On shooting we were about par because I was still trying to regain my muscle memory with my Chipley S5. I figured I was at about 85% of my previous shooting skill. My snapshooting was off by about 7 inches at medium distances. So I spent most of my time giving the other pumper pointers as we played. When he failed to follow some bit of advice, I'd shoot him out. This went on for a few games, and I started to get lazy with my movements. He got me once when I started playing loose after the game lagged. (but, in my defense, I wasn't 100% in the game at the time :) I was still kind of instructing when he made a good move. By the end of the day his strategy had definitely improved, though his movements were still a little sloppy. I commented that he was playing better, and he said, "Well, you gotta adapt when you keep getting schooled!" This elicited a smile from me.

A little bored with my sub-par performance with my S5, I grabbed my Phantom to see how it was shooting. I admit that I'd been neglecting my phantom for quite some time, since I'd been playing my pro friends, I found that I needed the constant feed my S5 had against their semis. Additionally, I loved the way my S5 shot, and could shoot it better than my phantom. Back when I was playing with my S5 almost exclusively, I picked up my phantom and was surprised to find that I was at about 70% of my previous shooting skill. Rather than practice with it, I just put it back down, and played with my S5. Folly, thou name art me. Anyways, I grabbed my phantom, and returned to play more 1 on 1 with the pumper. I gave it some quick tweaking and was surprised at how well it shot (I guess I always am). I knew that playing was the only way I'd find out how effective I was with it, so I got back out on the field. After three surprising rounds, I determined that I was at about 95% of my previous shooting skill level with my phantom! Beautiful! And not having to carry around a big cocker and 68/45 tank, gave me better movement. SO good.

An odd thing happened near the time I left, while playing the pumper, our shots managed to collide in mid-air. We both spotted it instantly and reacted with surprise and disbelief. In pro games where you're firing ~20 balls a second pretty much non-stop, it's not uncommon to have your paintballs hit your opponent's paintballs (frankly, it's uncommon for that NOT to happen once every few games), but this was pump ball. Where you really have to pour yourself into each ball that leaves your barrel, and be connected with every other player on the field to play well. At this particular juncture, I was testing his resolve. I had just enough of my mask showing to see him, and was letting him shoot at me without returning fire. I was staying out for the balls that were going to miss me, and dodging the ones that were headed for my goggles. It's kind of an intimidation move and is supposed to force your opponent to rethink the strategy of shooting at you from that distance or angle. He had three my way, and only one was going to hit, I quickly drew my phantom up to fire, and he didn't duck in as he had done previously when I did this exercise. He stopped firing and stared at me, and I stared back at him, waiting to see if he intended to try to dodge my shot. I planned on him attempting to dodge, because I can send two in rapid succession and break the pattern. This meant that after he ducked in to dodge the first shot successfully, and drew back out, the other ball would be timed to hit him as soon as his head popped back out. This was a good lesson for pumpers to learn, and I was looking forward to teaching it. As we stared, something caused our neurons to fire at the same time, and we both shot. I didn't see his muzzle report because mine masked it, I remember thinking that he was waiting awfully long to dodge my shot, when our shots hit each other and broke in the air. We immediately knew what had happened, but it took a few hours for me to dissect the exact exchange that occurred.

Man, I love playing pump.