My Adventure - Millennium Series, Paris - Day 2

Day 2

Woke up in the morning feeling the 'jet-lag' setting in. But, to come all the way from Malaysia, some 10,000kms away, we didn't let this minor set back affects our tournament. It only made us more determine to go out there, get some experience and to soak up on the atmosphere of one of the most glamorous venue for european tournament paintball - the Millennium Paintball in Paris.



After a quick check on the teams schedule, here's what our team's draw looked like.

Inter Continental Cup
Group B
Chilli Peppers Riga (CPL)
Budapest Bullets (CPL)
Macdev Ronin (D2)
Assala Libreville (D?)

Disney Cup
Group E
London Nexus (CPL)
2easy Warsaw (D1)
Ronins PBW Haguenau (SPL)
Macdev Ronin (D2)

Very tough looking bunch of teams for both cup, but we take it as a learning experience with everything to gain. Some of us are first timer playing this format and certainly this is a chance not to be missed.




First Blood
Our first game started at around 12.30pm midday (that's what they call afternoon around here) and we were to play D1 team, 2easy Warsaw. We were pretty much handicapped at the beginning - we had only one pit crew between us and that's it. Of course Amber is our spotter doing a great job everytime. So, we knew its going to be a struggle. But, dreams are made of these and we presevered.

At the buzzer, our first ever millennium game went on. Just under 5 minutes, we were 3 points down. We had so many penalties that really made the damage. A quick change of game plan, we adapted to their game and started to impose our powerplay. That worked well and we came back 3 straight points to tie at 3-3!. But, on the deciding point, experience proved to be leverage as 2easy wrapped it up to win 3-4.

After the game, we gathered some inputs from the head ref (Fred) and from our friends of Stockholm Ignition and Consilium Dei Zurich on how to deal with penalties and the overall game play. We had like 6 more hours before our next game - ICC.



ICC
After checking with the officials, we were shocked to find out that we had to play 3 teams in 1 hour and on different fields! The teams we had to play were Assala, Bullets and Chilli Peppers. All in 1 hour, and we're the last game of the day on SPL (Activision) and D1 (Dye) fields!

So, we headed on the the Dye field to meet up with Assala Libreville from Gabon. We steam-rolled over them 4-0 and quickly pack our stuffs and moved to the other side of the field to meet up with Bullets. When we got there, we asked the head ref for an extra 5 mins break to prepare ourselves - mind you, we had no time to reload our pods, wipes or even drink from our previous game with Assala!

We saw Ollie, Pete U and the rest of Bullets waited for us and looked bored. LOL! Blame the officials for messing up our schedules. This match was even tougher, especially Bullets is one of the most consistent team in Europe and with Ollie and Pete U in their roster, we can only expect total annihilation.




Again, we started by going down 0-3. We made some changes and got two points back. But, you can never beat a team like Bullets without years of experience in European Paintball. The final score was 4-2 win to Bullets. Buy hey, we stole two points from them. And I think I saw Bart Blonski on the sideline, being injured and all. Apparently, the 2 points we got against Bullets became widely known among our international friends. That was awesome.

Next, we moved our stuff again to the Dye field after a quick greet-and-hug with Bullets. Chilli Peppers riga were waiting looking as bored as Bullets previously. By now, we were tired and thirsty. After asking for another extra 5 minutes to rest and prepare, we were all set for our last game of the day. Our body language said it all. We were slouching and staring into space - basically tired.

On the buzzer we changed into our 'battle mode' and played our hearts out. We traded bodies back and forth, getting Gs on the break - we did everything we could, but we still lost 0-4 to the eventual ICC champions. By this time, the clock was at 9.30pm and we played 14 points in 1 hour - more or less. (More in-depth game coverage here)

Dead beat tired but happy.