Divisional Team Showcase #1: Orlando DOOM

You might have heard of the team Doom Troopers, formed in 1986, but you might not have heard of a team called Orlando DOOM.

Orlando DOOM is the divisional, "Race to" team of the Doom Troopers. Although, they are two different teams. DOOM currently consists of 3 divisions, D3, D4 and D5. Orlando Doom plays in the CFPS Series and is based out of HyperSports Park in Orlando. They began playing as DOOM in 2006 at World Cup, playing D4. In 2007 and 2008 they played many local series events, but only once making it past the preliminaries. Link to DOOM APPA History

But this year there is a clear difference from the past. Early this year DOOM has clearly improved and expanded. Currently a D3 team is in the works for a future CFPS event, and will most likely be a strong force to be reckoned with. DOOM did not enter a D4 team in the past CFPS Event 4, but will more than likely play the next event for the series.

The most suprising of all was Orlando DOOM Black, the D5 team. The D5 team's first event was CFPS #3, they had a strong showing, but could not move past the prelims and finished 10th. Link to DOOM Black scores (CFPS 3- click here) At CFPS 4, however, it was a much stronger team, they moved past prelims in 6th seed and moved past Semi-finals in second seed. Link to DOOM Black scores (CFPS 4- click here) Moving on to finals they seemed to easily defeat South Florida Bulls Green and TU Stealth Black, but ran into trouble with Fatality Blue, losing the game. At the end of the day they did make the podium in second spot.

CFPS 4 Finals Scores (click here)

They are definitely a team to look out for, in all divisions, and teams that underestimate them usually lose. DOOM is soon becoming a team to look out for on the podium every event.

DOOM has a bright future ahead of them with coaching from team leader "NY" Joe Gamb

The D4 team is comprised of:
Joe Gamb -Captain
Trent Slater
Drake Terrell
Fred Tupper
Ron Terrell
Jason Hall

The D5 team is comprised of:
Matt Cliett
Jordan Conomos
Dalton Crews
Julio Hernandez
Luis Sanchez
Josh Rogachesky
Roman Scarlato

The National League... (of paintball). MAO part 3

Saturday morning, round 2 for all Xball teams, and the beginning of Race to 2 games. Saturday also brings more spectators and a certain group of people. There seems to be a distinct difference between Thursday and Friday, when the Xball prelims are played, and Saturday and Sunday, where all the spectators and 5-man teams arrive. On Thursday and Friday you have the serious players, the guys who have usually played for about 2 or 3 years, and have usually have played multiple National events, the Xball players. Most of the Xball players tend not be very flashy, they all wear proper paintball apparel (such as C9 or Eclipse name-brand playing pants, jerseys or long sleeves). Then you have the 5-man or Race to 2 teams, they are by far a different crowd, whether it be a younger crowd, or less experienced what seems to be the resounding explanation, they are the "agglets".

I've usually had a problem with this group of the paintball community, they focus on clothing, "rare" gear, custom anno'd guns, and bad playing habits, not progression of the sport, or even playing well. I tend to be a traditional player, I wear actual playing pants, I where a normal mask, (granted I put a flashy lens on it, it's a factory part, it's not custom or home-made), a normal jersey, and cleats. I focus on progressing the sport and playing the best I can. I don't care if people take pictures of me, (but it is nice sometimes) or whether my shoes match my gun. But these kids try to look "good", to me it's a joke. I would probably think differently if these kids were actually good and actually played well, but the fact is they don't.

Saturday morning the Semi-Pro team played, and I did as much as I did as much as I could, without being staff on the roster. I drove guys to the field, carried paint to the pits and coached on the spectator side. RNT did well and moved on to Sunday.
In the meantime I was able to check out the trade show and Pro games.

Trade show

Dye booth-
Dye had the largest display of the event, a full tractor trailer with tent. The usual Dye display with pounding music, flat screen TVs, and large product displays. On Thursday and Friday the large flat screen played promo videos and for the weekend played the PSP Webcast. Dye really didn't have a new products except for the Multi-tool, which was on my "buy it" list, but I was too distracted by the $25 Aftershock C9 Jerseys.

Luxe-
DLX had the usual "Luxe Manor" display, with Luxes lining the perimeter and at table in the back. Color kits, grips, batteries, chargers, Raza lazer engraved Dynasty Luxes, and other bits and pieces were for sale. Also a TV displaying the webcast was up, a nice touch. The tech tables were set up outside on right of the tent. I was having bolt stick issues with my Luxe from the last practice and I brought it to them on Thursday, they had it ready in 20 minutes, no charge, awesome customer service. On Saturday at noon Luxe had a Dynasty poster signing without a hitch.

Planet Eclipse-
The gentlemen from across the pond brought all the new stuff, the SL94, the gem studded Argyle Ego9, Etek2 and Geo. They also had a large flat screen displaying the webcast. Egos and Geos were displayed on the wall behind the counter and product such as hoodies, shirts, playing pants, jerseys, and gear bags lined the walls of the tent. Eclipse also had their tech tables set up, working on Egos and Geos all weekend.

Virtue-
Virtue, with licencing from the PSP had all the event apparel and I had to stop by to get an event t-shirt. They had all the OLED and other boards on display, as well as casual apparel. The Ulralite OLED board was unveiled over the weekend. The Crowns were also there, and the new Crown for the Dye Rotor.

The rest of the tents were MWAG, Mac Dev, Bob Long Technologies, Der Der, Empire/ Halo tech booth, Bad News, Feed Fast, Guerrilla Air, and Seventh Element.

Sunday rolls around, RNT beat XSV and moved on to play the undefeated Aftermath II, who barely beat RNT in overtime in the prelims. But the finals game was a complete one-sided match from Aftermath. They won 7-0.

After the final game I loaded up my 4Runner and drove about 6 people to the airport and proceeded on my way back to Florida. It was an uneventful ride, and I arrived back a little bit after midnight.

Overall it was a great week, and a lot of fun to be a part of. It was also, for me, the begining of playing national events.

The National League... (of paintball). MAO part 2

After the Fierce match was the match against yet another Florida team, CFP. The match didn't start well for us, they went up 3-0 off the bat, but after a time out and some good coaching we were able to pull out 4 unanswered points, winning the match 4-3 in overtime. I was able to play the last 4 points, and I hung the overtime flag to win the match. The funny part was, I (being in my first national tournament and not having a full and complete memory of the rules) stood at the dead box waiting to hang the flag for 2 minutes until I realized that all OT games are sudden death. I had a good laugh about it later, but I looked stupid for about 2 minutes.



For the rest of Thursday I spent my time watching the pro games and watching my buddies from Total Karnage play.



Thursday night was pretty calm from all the stories you hear from the event, I was tired and just got some food and hit the hay for the night.



Friday, last day of D3 prelims. Our first match was against Adrenaline. We watched them play the day before and pretty much came into the game with high spirits. Tim decided to have me play center for the game, my job was to hold down the snake side until I found an opening to go up to the "Florida" or center medium dorito and do damage, then work my way up to the X. I played every point that game and we ended up winning 4-1. It was a fun game, and I was able to shine, stay alive and get some kills.



Moving on to the final game in prelims we were to play Misfit Toys Killerz, a team which we underestimated. They went 3-0 in games before us, and we were thirsty to give them their first loss. But we couldn't hold, after a tough battle, and 2 times being the last player alive, we became the 4th victim, losing 2-4. Again I was able to play every point and was quite pleased with my playing performance. I felt that I earned a spot on the first line and was able to prove that I wasn't only able to survive at that level, but thrive. I was able to make my bunkers, stay in my bunker and happen to shoot some people and hang a flag every once and a while.

Our bid to move on to play on Saturday was cut short, we missed it by 2 spots. But just because the competitive side of the event was done for us, didn't mean the event was over.

We still had the Semi-Pro team, RNT All-Starz in the running to win the Semi-Pro division. Now, you may ask "What does that matter? You're not playing on that team, why should you care?"

My answer is simple; because I'm part of the team, I'm a team player. Not just on the D3 Race to 4, but the larger team, the full Speed, RNT All Starz team.

Team player, not just an individual on a team.

The National League... (of paintball). MAO part 1

PSP held their national yearly tournament in the Mid-Atlantic a few weekends ago. And guess who was there? You got it, me.

I always like to tell a story the way it begins, and in this case it's the drive to the event.

My event started with a one-hour drive to West Central Florida, near Wildwood on Tuesday night. I was going that way to meet up with the coach of the team I was going to play with the weekend; Speed playing D3 Race to-4 (Xball).The coach being Tim Altman, owner of Hudson's field Gator Paintball. The drive was the usual trip down the Turnpike and I met up with Tim and Bill around midnight. After meeting up we hit the road, north on I-75 eventually hitting I-95. Bill lead all the way up. Driving through the night and taking an hour rest break after hitting the South Carolina border, we arrived in Rock Hill at roughly 9:30am on Wednesday morning.
We immediately checked into the hotel and grabbed some much needed naps. By about noon we went to check out the event and walk the fields. The full team met up at the field at roughly 3 to go over strategy and for some to actually meet for the first time. One line of the team had practiced together before, the other 5 had never seen each other. I was one of the 5 who didn't know anyone on the team. After heading back to the hotel we talked and decided the lines, who would play with who. I was to play on the second line, the "throw together" line, and I was fine with it. I was my first national, big league event and any playing time for me was a triumph.

Thursday morning rolls around, wake up, load up, show up. Our first match was against Fierce, (us, a Florida team vs another Florida team). Our first line ran 2 back to back points, both ending in our victory. Then it was my line's turn. We started well, 5 bodies alive to the primary bunkers. I was playing snake. After about 3 minutes it was a one on one, me in snake and the other Fierce player running down the field on dorito side. He decided to try and run me down, but I threw a lane where I thought he would go and got him. Then I went and hung the flag, up 3 to 0. Then Fierce threw out their "A" game, beating us by winning the next 4 points. The last point was won because one of our players had a fast gun, a major penalty, leaving us to play the last point with 3 to start with.

More to come at a later post

The Short End of the Stick- USF's Story. CFPS #2

Sunday; every divisional team's dream. Surviving the prelims and moving on to play the elite in their division. But this is no PSP National event.

This is CFPS, Central Florida Paintball Series, held at CFP in Lakeland Florida. A regional event, with the theme of the series: "Race to World Cup". Winners of their respective divisions at the end of the series win entry to World Cup in October, with seeding points. Event 1 was a smaller event compared to this. Round 1 was held on Sunday January 25th, 2009. Compared to last year's SPCS events this one was small. (The SPCS is another story for another post)Event 1 was 28 paid teams, playing on 3 fields. Now compare that event to last Sunday, Event 2, and you'll see a different picture. Event 2 had 41 paid teams. Yeah, a regional 5-man event drew out 41 teams between D5, D4, D3 and Masters. The other closest 5 man series, the SPCS, which is now separate and at a new location, drew 32 teams in late February with D5, D4, D3 and three D2 teams.

The story I'm here to tell is the one you would only hear from the fans of this team, or the team members themselves. This is USF's story.

This lesson is a theme in the D-List, a theme in divisional 5-man:
You don't have to be the best team playing to win; you just have to be the best when it counts.

This rings even more true when you're using the old style of PSP 5-man scoring. (The scoring system where you get 4pts per elimination, 2pts for each of your live players, 20pts for the first flag pull and 50pts for the flag hang. The new Race2-2 plays out a little differently.

Here’s the story of USF (University of South Florida) Bulls D5 team:
These guys go to college and play paintball. This Sunday they started out going 6 wins and no losses in the prelims. They had a total score of 578, the highest scoring team in prelims. They moved on to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals the top 4 teams advance to finals, to play 3 games. The highest cumulative score will win finals. In the semis the Bulls won 2 of 3 games, combining for a score of 192. Looking at this from the outside that score would probably easily put them into the finals. But the rest of the bracket was much tighter, the highest score after Semi's being 210- Fatality Blue, then Stirr Chili and NXK Reaction tied with a score of 204, finally SPEED with a score of 198. The Bulls missed the mark by 6 points.

Here's the link to APPA for D5 Semi-Finals:
http://www.paintball-players.org/scores/L20/scores956_5_1_Scores.html

Yeah, they went 8 and 1 and didn't make the cut for finals. That's how the point system worked out. The new Race2-2 would have probably put the Bulls into finals.

Finals rolled around, and the above 4 teams moved on. Each played 3 games. Two teams went 2 and 1, Fatality Blue and Stirr Chili, both ending up with a tie score of 202. SPEED and NXK Reaction both went 1 and 2, SPEED edging out NXK by 2 points to take 3rd. Back to the tie: Fatality and Stirr Chili both played each other with Fatality winning, 4 players alive. Fatality Blue took the top spot and Stirr Chili ended the day 8 and 4 taking 2nd place.

CFPS D5-
1. Fatality Blue
2. Stirr Chili
3. SPEED
4. NXK Reaction Black

CFPS D4-
1. Fatality Red
2. ECE
3. Stealth All Stars
4. TU Stealth

CFPS D3-
1. TU Infusion
2. Merk Status White
3. Fatality Orange
4. Annihilators

MASTERS
1. CFP MASTERS
2. Men At Work
3. Wicked