CPPS Round 1 Bittersweet

CPPS Round 1 Bittersweet.

It’s finally here….CPPS round 1. After months of waiting and weeks of preparation, it was finally upon us and pumped isn’t even the word to describe it. Following a successful 3rd place finish in 2013 Topcats felt it was time to step it up a level and play Div 2 Race to 2 as well as Millennium Open Div 2. 1 week before the first even we received our awesome new markers from Planet Eclipse allowing us to get used to them and break them in a bit before the first round. We trained hard for weeks leading up to the event and the Saturday training was the final opportunity to get out on the field and iron out any creases we had left in our game. Unfortunately we didn’t get to train on the Div 2 field but after a long days training with possibly the strangest whether we had have ever seen we walked the field and ran through our final thoughts of the day. After a short trip back to the hotel we got cleaned up and went out for dinner further discussing our plans for the following day. It was finally here CPPS and we were ready to come out swinging.

Sunday was finally here and the long-awaited start of the season had finally arrived!! Everything we had been training for had to be put into practice and we were quietly confident coming into the Sunday. We came out swinging, winning our first two games 2-0 giving us a strong position before lunch. Lunch couldn’t have come at a better time as in typical northern whether it began to hail this gave us a good opportunity to assess our strong points and talk about what we could do better for example checking snake off before calling G4 as in our first game one of our players ran through the M thinking snake was clear and got a nice back massage from the snake player. First game after lunch was always going to be a hard one against Sandbaggers, but making the mistake of giving them the aggression proved catastrophic leading to a 2-0 defeat, which did knock our confidence a bit, however we were determined to come out and smash the next 2 games.

The 4th game of the day against Wolverhampton Warped was looking to be a good match up. With us re-assessing our game plan and knowing we had to win this game to progress to the semifinals we went onto the field ready to smash it up. After 2 hard-fought points the score was 1-1 and you could cut the tension with a knife. However unfortunately due to some confusion on the start game leading to an early start and the elimination of all 5 Topcats players we lost the point……this was a hard pill to swallow for all the boys and personally one of the most disappointing moments of my young paintball career. For the final point we moved to the Elite field and after such a disappointing loss in the game before we came out with a point to prove and after two 30 second points, we defiantly proved that point, that we are not to be taken lightly.

The dive home was a long one for us. Knowing we came only 1 point away from getting into the semi-finals, it was a bittersweet ending to the weekend on one hand being back on the fields and winning 3 out of 5 games 2-0 was good but being so close to that minimum 4th place finish was hard to take in…….however it was a great experience and we took a lot away from the weekend which will help us going into the Millennium Mediterranean Cup in two weeks time. Wish us luck guys hoping to make you all proud.

BRING ON MILLS!!!!

We would like to once again thank our sponsors, supporters and all the teams we played alongside:
Planet Eclipse – For the amazing markers that never fail on us, for the on and off field gear and the amazing tech support that you offer.
Empire Paintball – You truly know how to produce the most EVIL paint on the market, we all love seeing your paint streaming from the end of our barrels.
HK Army – For the awesome Hardline Jerseys. HHH!!!!
Drom Paintball – for the awesome cleats.
Virtue Painball – The unstoppable spire.
LiPS – thank you for always having the spares and other goods we need to keep us in the game.
Bricket Wood Training Centre – thank you for ensuring that the bunkers are always set up according to the layouts we’re going to play, so we feel prepared and confident going into the fight

And finally to Ainsly and the boys over at CPPS for yet again amazing all of use with a truly fantastic event and taking UK paintball to the next level.

#PlanetEclipse #EmpirePaintball #HKArmy #DromPaintball #VirtuePb