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Red Sevens Wins Silver Medal in Malaysian Paintball Official
Circuit 2009 Leg 4
The fourth leg of Malaysian Paintball Circuit 2009 was held at
Xtion Paintball Park on 13-14 June 2009. It was the league which
my team Red Sevens has been participating in for the past 2 over
years. Since the formation of the team, there have been many
obstacles that the team has to overcome. This includes the
arduous journey to self-improvement in individual (in hope of
contributing to the arsenal of the team) and boosting the
teamwork among us as new players. The results over the past
couple of years of MPOC have seen us climbing the ranking
ladder. Occasionally, it was like the game Snake and Ladder;
have a few unlucky dice throws and down the ladder we move, and,
with some sharp dice throws, up the ladder we go again. But
never reaching the podium. Just so near yet so far, especially
this year. In this fourth leg of MPOC and still bull-dozing
ahead with a never-give-up spirit, our battle cries at MPOC were
finally heard. Red Sevens came in 2nd after a stretch of 18
games in 2 days. Sweet victory.
Red Sevens, led by Ben Seow aka “King”, had a good day on Day 1
of the competition though we did identify some areas to improve
at the end of the day. There were 10 games to compete on Day 1
within a span of 6 hours. The even distribution of games helped
every team to have maximum rest in between games and it was
tough to play the teams. We met the likes of Johor Syndicate,
Bellicose, PPS Syndrome, Eastsiderz and Oscar Legio X which were
tough opponents and always gave our team a tough game. In most
of the games, it was a joy playing them because the teams
respected each other and respected the sport and the referees.
Red Sevens’ team line-up for this leg included Big Ben, Arthur,
Jane, Gerald, Ivan and Paul who was playing with the team for
the very first time. The back and mid lines were held mainly by
Arthur, Big Ben and Jane who had been playing together for
almost 3 years. The understanding among them, 3 out of any 5
players on the field, made the execution of the team plans
smoother and greatly strengthen the back and mid lines. Gerald
and Ivan were mainly the forwards in the team in this round with
Big Ben as the insert player occasionally. Their wits, athletism
and thirst to win their opponents in the games were strong.
Gerald set a new record in the team by taking out 5 players in a
game and giving the team a solid MP +3 and ED +4. Ivan had an
impressively determined day although Ivan was struck a serious
streak of bad luck. Besides having an unfortunate early exit in
a game, an uneventful next game, a marker problem in the next
one, and, the highlight of his bad streak of luck, he had an
unlucky dive into the snake during which he broke a PMR frame,
snapped the macroline, snubbed 4 inches of mud into the barrel,
hit a huge tuft of grass which all in all, snapped his inner
nail out of his wedding ring finger. The impressively determined
part was that, while his fingernail was hanging from the blood
dripping flesh, the game was still going on and he contributed
by dragging the broken marker with him into snake 1 and moved to
snake 2 and 3, and, kept bobbing his head up and down the snake
which caught the full attention of the opposing back player, who
got taken care of by Big Ben. Paul who joined us for the first
time had a respectfully field day at the competition with his
first experience with e-markers and stepping up to the pace of
the game. Paul’s positive attitude in learning the game
spiralled his game play upwards as he got personal guidance from
Big Ben and Arthur, and, as he eased into the emarkers usage.
By the end of Day 1, Red Sevens was ranked 2nd in the qualifying
round having lost 2 games to Oscar Legio X and Eastsiders.
Knowing that the games were starting at 11am on Day 2, the team
managed to get some decent rest and breakfast before heading off
from the hotel to the field for the quarterfinals. Ivan was
playing the second day with a Mentos-like 4th finger after
visiting the clinic on Day 1 with such focus as though the
painful “Mentos” was not there. The quarterfinals were
competitive and tough to play, from which Red Sevens secured 2
wins to make it into the semi-finals. The opponent in the
semi-finals was Bellicose which had a good winning record behind
them. It was a tough first game which could have gone anybody’s
way with Bellicose eventually taking the flag but not being able
to hang it before 5 minutes were up. In the 2nd game, Red Sevens
was one up in number as the back players laned out their forward
and took the flag in about 3 minutes. Finally, Red Sevens had to
take one more game against Bellicose, failing which, the team
would have to enter a 1v1 situation with them. The final win in
the 3rd game meant an entry into the Grand Finals ie. 1st/2nd
Placing match where the team met Oscar Legio X. The teamwork and
individual skills of the players in Oscar Legio X were
impressive as they took the team out in both game 1 and game 2.
The 2 consecutive losses automatically meant that Oscar Legio X
would take the Champions place and Red Sevens the 1st Runner-up
in MPOC 2009 Leg 4. With this position, Red Sevens recorded its
first podium finish and achieved the mark of being the first
Singapore paintball team to take the Silver Medal in Division 3
in a major Asia paintball league in Malaysia.
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