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The Free Flow Open is a standalone event that has been running for a few years now at All Out Paintball in New York. All the games are played on Saturday, so you better bring your A game and be ready to ball all day long if you want to win! The field and event are one of the best run tournaments of the year. The event is 5-man only and gives away guns to the top 5 teams. Last year Danny Manning guested on a team and said he was coming back this year with a Smoke squad.

The gang showed up on Friday for field walking and was not let down by all the hype. The fields were immaculate! The hyperball and mounds field looked like they were professionally manicured by the Yankees field crew. All the guys just walked around barefoot to soak it all in. Danny brought some good ol West Virginia cookin, and the team grubbed out and had a very productive team meeting.

Smoke’s schedule had the first four games on Hyperball and the last four on Mounds. Smoke started off with a sloppy win against East Coast Ruckus but dropped the next one against Overshot 2. The next two games were wins against Image and Hooligans. Heading over to the Mounds field, Smoke played an aggressive style and was able to pick up some quick wins against Toxic Teddy’s and NY Ghosts. In the next game against 3rd Alarm, Cody Szmik made a huge play down the snake side of the field and assassinated them all. They were in good position to win the game, but Cody saw the opportunity and took it all the way home!! The last game Smoke ended up dropping against the Diamond Dogs and bringing their prelims to an end with a record of 6-2. 

In the semi-finals, Smoke lined up against Fraction and FTA. The first was against Fraction, and Smoke pulled out a win, getting 98 points. The next game Smoke got some kills and then held up and played the points game to secure a ticket to the finals. It was a four-team final with Image, All Americans, Upstate Avalanche, and Smoke. The first game was against Image, and Smoke was able to pull out the win with a few bodies left. Next was against All Americans, which came down to a stalemate and Smoke having one more body alive. The last game was against Upstate Avalanche. Smoke dropped a body early, and Avalanche took good position in the snake. The gang tried to fight them off, but Avalanche ended up with the win in the game. 3 teams had similar records, and unfortunately Smoke fell short by 2 points, going home with a 2nd place. 

Team Smoke always has their sights on first place going into an event. Second place wasn’t ideal, but the guys were happy to go home with new guns. The Free Flow Open is the best 5-man tournament of the year. All Out Paintball has a premiere facility, and the Free Flow guys bring in a great crew to run the event. They have great prizes, provide free lunch for everyone, and create an all-around great environment for tournament paintball. Team Smoke recommends everyone check this event out next year. We are looking forward to it already!! 

After some schedule changes, the ICPL decided to switch the major event to Cousins Paintball Park in Texas. Paintball events in Texas have a bad track record when it comes to weather, and this one was another for the books. Cousin’s offered an airball, hyperball and hybrid field for teams to compete on. The airball was long but kinda standard with snake and dorito sides. The hyperball had some key postions across the entire 50 and proved to be an action packed field. The hybrid field was already small and ended up shrinking more….

Team Smoke finished the event in 5th place, which was a big win for the season rankings. This was an ICPL major, which gave them double points and put them in 4th place in the Pro Division season standings. There is a long break until the championships, but a few minors in between. Smoke is rolling into the finals in a position to win the event and be season champs!

Friday for field walking it was a little sloppy from storms earlier in the week. The gang got together and had a solid day hanging out, field walking, and then the team meeting at night. Friday night it rained and literally the flood gates were opened! Due to heavy rainfall in the Dallas area the waterways were overflowing and the field happens to be in the overflow flood plains.

Saturday the hybrid field was about 1/3 under water. The airball dorito side was flooded almost the full length of the field. The hyperball had water on it also. The pro games were pushed back, but the amateur teams had to get down and dirty to start it off! It was a very entertaining morning of watching people dive into puddles and come up ripping their mech guns!

The water receded on a few fields, but it was still a muddy mess out there. Team Smoke finally started off Saturday afternoon with a convincing win, only dropping one body against Enemy. Followed up by another win against Fight Club. Then next game on the airball field, there was major miscommunication with the refs. Smoke never heard the 10 second call and was left scrambling when the start horn went off.  Dropping that one against Louisville Asylum and then also the next one against AC Empire. What started out as a great day quickly turned around and left Smoke at 2-2 for the first day.

The hybrid field was changed around due to the water and became a very small field with quick kills and some fast games. Smoke started the day off against Misfits and had the upper hand due to some great kills by Todd Brown. Unfortunately, Misfits snuck a guy around the far tape side, and Smoke wasn’t able to close. The next game was also on the hybrid field against MVPS Darkops. Both teams got some quick kills, but Smoke learned from their last one and handled business.

With just two more prelim games left, Smoke was 3-3 and sitting on the bubble to move on. They went on to play Farside and dropped that one but brought it back in the next one against the Maple Leaf Chiefs. There was some controversy because of Will Messer shooting a player a few times extra. The player was still on the field, and Will was unsure if he was live still. The Chiefs received multiple penalties and shot a ref! There is a great picture of Paul DeZarn and one of their players face-to-face heated with another team smiling in the background for their team photo.

The semi-finals were played on the hyperball field, and Smoke was placed in a bracket with Aftershock and Farside. Smoke started the bracket off by beating Aftershock in a great game that came down to the final minute. The next game was a rematch against Farside. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in Smoke’s favor, and all 3 teams in the bracket finished 1-1. Aftershock moved on with 11 more points than Smoke. 

The 2024 ICPL season schedule was announced with multiple minors across the country, 1 major, and then the championship. The point standings will use your top minor, the major, and then the championship to crown a season champ. The minor events are usually combined brackets of pro and amateur teams. At the major events, you play only teams in your division. 

Another night of grub and a team meeting to get everyone prepped for Sunday. The day started off on the hyperball with wins against the Tribe Savages and Louisville Asylum. After the prelims, Smoke was 7-1 and only behind the undefeated Misfits. The semi-finals were played on the hyperball, and Smoke was put in a bracket with Detroit Fusion and Gridlock. Smoke and Fusion had already played once this event on the mounds, and Smoke handed them another loss, but on hyper this time. The next game was against Gridlock, and both teams lost a few bodies early. Smoke had the advantage and made a few mistakes in the closing minutes of the game, and Gridlock ended up with the win. After going 8-2, Smoke was sent home with a 4th place and a solid first event of the season to build from.

Team Smoke kicked off their season playing the Pro DNA Open (Minor) at The Farm in Tennessee. Smoke played in this event last year, so they knew what to expect going into it this year. The farm has a woods, mounds, and hyperball field that overall are decent for 10 man. The mounds are the best of the three, with large mounds and a few pipes to run through to get into key positions. The woods field is long and narrow, and like most woods fields, there is always one side that proves to be a little more dominant than the other. The hyperball field had a big new addition to the 50 on the side opposite of the snake. 

Field walking was on Friday, and then everyone regrouped for dinner and the always entertaining team meeting to talk about game plans. Smoke started out the event with two dominant wins on the mounds fields against Enemy Agency and Detroit Fusion. Into the woods, Smoke took a loss against MVPS Dark Ops but pulled it back in the next one against Image in a dogfight till the last seconds. Scotty Branham dug deep, gave it his all, and hung the flag with less than 10 seconds to go! Back to the mounds for the last 2 games of the day, and Smoke kept up their aggressive dominant style on the mounds field. Losing just a few bodies in each, they easily handled Thunder and one of The Farm teams. A solid first day of the event left Smoke sitting with 5 wins and 1 loss.