Written by: Mitch harvey
A couple weeks ago my team (Team Rage) and I competed in a local speedball tournament in the 3-man beginner division.  We had a lot of confidence and maybe a little too much because that day didn't end like I intended it to.  Practice-wise, our team was ready to play. 

We even walked the field the day before to get an idea of where we were going to run off the break and try to refresh/review some strategy.  We had been preparing for this tournament for a couple of weeks and were ready to get into it and win.  There were sixteen teams in our division but only seven in our bracket.

The scoring process was that for every team we beat we got 100 points and the losing team would get five points for every person they shot and eliminated.  We arrived the morning of the tournament and started unpacking our paintball gear; it was a busy area, with teams everywhere… there was a lot of competition and it was pretty nerve-racking. 

In our first game, we all rushed to our bunker and started returning fire.  Our snake player got eliminated quickly and the opposite team took the snake – a definite strategic advantage; these guys knew what they were doing.  It was now a 2 vs. 3 match then we quickly found out they were much more experienced than us.  After a short while however, my teammate shot out one of their guys and now it was 2 vs 1.

At this point, I thought we had a pretty good chance of winning until I was hit.  After a bit of one on one the clock ran out and the game was tied.  Our first game was over and we only had ten points.  We didn’t do that good for our first match but were satisfied anyway because the team we were against were experienced and we didn’t lose.

Throughout the day we won four matches, lost two and tied one.  After we won our last game we had a total score of 415 points.  Of the sixteen teams entered, there were only four spots in the finals and the fourth team to enter finals had 420 points; we missed it by 5 points!  If only we could’ve gotten one more person out then we would’ve tied with the fourth team that went into finals.  This would’ve meant another match to see who would go.

After that day I have learned that playing hard every second counts.  After being that close to the finals, I’m no longer satisfied with tying with the opposite team.  From now on when I play I will try to be as aggressive as possible and take every chance I get to rush up on and try to get the other team out.  I will try not to hesitate in making moves and try to overcome the fear of getting hit by running as fast as I can trying as hard as possible at all times.  After all, every second counts!