We are back – and what a week it has been. However besides the sun, sea and fun, which we all expected to see at the first round of the European Championship, it also was a “rabbit in headlights” moment for all of us … but let me start from the beginning.
Back at the house a big breakfast was prepared and we made our way over the CPL/SPL fields to see what was going on, and sorting out our registration. The boys were all over the place and although the Millennium Series has “only” playing fields (4) and trade/refreshment stands – within minutes we started losing people in the crowed since everything had to be checked out – so we agreed to meet at the Division 1&2 fields by noon to have a look at the fields and everyone took off and did what they had to do …
A task we had looked at and which two of us jumped into at this point was our Cystic Fibrosis Trust – Collection. We asked our sponsors to put up some of the collection pots on their stands so people can throw some money in … we specially made Flyers in English and French for the attending people and were hoping that we can get some attention – which I think we did, even if only a little – but every person helping, even if just a small number, is more than if we would have never asked and would have collected nothing.
Lights out was 11 p.m. – but we still had many of the boys lying in bed and blabbering all night because the excitement was just growing and growing …
The sky was blue and most of us were sitting outside in gear way before the alarms went off – the day had arrived. The question in everyone’s head, without anyone having said a word was “Are we going to be able to hold our own – or would we be shot down and realize that we don’t belong here yet?”.
We walked to the pit area and went by the GI Sportz stand, are our paint sponsors this year, after doing our “drop test” with the 3 and 4 star grade paint we were planning on shooting. We collected our paint and sorted out our pits with our pit crew (the miraculous Mr B! who did a 1 man show impressively). The clock was set on 5 minutes and our team name was called – we had 5 more minutes to the first point in our first match.
At the start gate we looked at each other and could see the nervous but excited smiles behind the masks just by looking at each other’s eyes – A huge “SAMURAAAIIII … M – V” broke the silence early in the morning and the “30 seconds” warning sounded … “10 seconds” … “GAME ON!”
Since we had the first game Saturday – we had the last group games of Sunday, which has the advantage of “if you make it to the finals” you at least already are in the pits and “playing mode” – instead of playing points early in the morning and then just sit and wait for the other group stage games to come to an end. Coming on the field Sunday – against the 2 teams that lost all three games on Saturday, we were maybe too confident – maybe the removed “fear factor” relaxed us too much – but we lost both games 1:2 which gave us a 3rdposition in our group and we did not proceed to “Sunday Club” (for all non-paintballers, that is the name of the knock-out stage in a paintball tournament – which normally is played on the Sunday – Fri.&Sat.=Prelims/Groups, Sunday=Knockout & Finals … Division 3 doesn’t work like that … but we still call it “Sunday Club”, even for Division 3).
Although we were disappointed for not making it through to the knockout stage – I think for a first event we battled our way through our own fear of not performing and embarrassing ourselves to believing we have a chance to knowing we can make it if we work harder. We received some comforting words from the veterans (including the Relentless guy – who had won a deserved 2nd place in Division 2) – and our sponsors also complimented the 16thplace for a first event out of 30 teams wasn’t a bad result at all – question was – “What did you expect?” and looking at it that way, I also believe we did alright.Did we celebrate? … Oh yes we did, but it was more a getting together than a victory celebration.
After dinner and all these conversations we had some dinks and went to the bar in the center of the resort where we had a nice entertaining evening.
Next morning, Monday, we took the car to Monaco and drove along the coast for some sightseeing – which ended in Nice where we caught the plane back to London.
Family and friends were expecting us at the airport – it was a really funny feeling – almost like a “welcome home & well done” reception. The team said their good-bye’s and one thing is for sure … we all can’t wait for the European Masters in Bitburg. See you all in Germany!
P.S.: Once we got home and counted the money – we actually collected £35.17, which was a little more than what we collected at the Round 1 of the CPPS … let’s see if Round 2 of the CPPS will be even more successful … feel like donating now … just go to: www.justgiving.com/samuraimv2012
James Riley 
Jeremy