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.