Ask any competitive paintball team what they want at the end
of the season and they will answer “Being season champions of the division”.
Now we got the title handed on a silver platter by just registering because our
nearest competitor and good friends Votolocos did not register for some odd
reason. Well of course that is good but being Grammaton Clerics, we felt
disappointed a wee bit. We want the title and the challenge that normally comes
with it.So as a consolation we played even harder to get gold for the event
that again was held at Xtion Paintball Park in Bukit Jalil.
For D2 there were 5 teams in total with us included. With 5
prelims games, the team at the bottom of the table end of Saturday will not
make Sunday Semis (no quarters as there are not enough teams). We won 4 games
and shared a point with Pandamonium whom we met twice in this round. We were
slow and a bit sketchy at first but midway through the prelims we got our
groove for our remaining points.
Pandamonium somehow up-ed their game against us and made us
dig really deep for the points. In the semi-finals we met the Pandas again and
the game was excruciatingly technical and difficult (not to mention the
penalties we suffered too). For each point they led, we battled hard to draw it
in the next. It came to 2 – 2 and we ran out of regulation time that forced us
to play a sixth set in overtime.We did not let go... off the break we held on to the lanes
and forced our forwards up as far as they could. Then we just waited for that
split second of carelessness by the Pandas and picked their forwards, we waited
a bit more for the fills and got them out too. Pinched out their back line with
heavy guns and made sure they have no option but to expose out weakest side and
their holding game came undone. At 3 – 2, 6 sets and 8 cases later THAT was one
semi-final match we will never forget.
Tune Talk Lost Boys had their semis against the seasoned
Simpsons. That game was no less thrilling and Simpsons gave them everything
they could muster. But Lost Boys just managed to get that extra inch and pull
out a win to meet us in the finals. Now at this point we thought why hold back?
The semis were very tough no doubt but a silver medal would not look too well
next to the MPOC 2012 D2 Champions cup. So yeah, we really want our medals to
match on the trophy shelf (we don’t have mantelpieces here in Malaysia) and
make it a point that Clerics will give 100% all the time every time.
The finals were long points. Both playing cautiously and
maintaining lanes and controlling zones. We get them off the break on a few
occasions but the mid game lock-down they deployed proved frustrating for our
forwards. Our back had to place accurate shots to tuck their forwards while our
snake and dorito inched to get the angles they need. We got the kills and led 2
– 1 with a bit more than a minute left of regulation time. We were exhausted so
we made one final push as the seconds passed we were getting careless moving up
and crossing shots. With about 40 seconds left we either lost our forwards or
were stuck. Lost Boys tried to push snake side as we were empty there and
reached the 50s, our backs held the lanes and crossed up to put their pace to a
stop. As our friends and crew counted down the seconds Lost Boys could not
break our defence and at the horn the game was over. We got the championship
trophy and also the gold medal to match.
It has been a long and hard season. We came in as rookies to
the division and trained very hard every weekend to improve every aspect of our
game. There were no shortcuts or discounts for our success and without the help
of family, friends and sponsors (Dye, Alphabunker, Napshot) we would not have made it this far this quick.
Coming to the end of the third year as a team we thank everyone who parted
advice, words of wisdom and contributed directly or indirectly to the team. Our
success is as much as yours as well and we really appreciate it from the bottom
of our hearts.
What’s next? There is WCA and that D2 PALS title we have
been eyeing on. Let’s work for that double now shall we? See you in Langkawi
World Cup Asia. Do drop by and say hello. We won’t bite. Promise.
Images are
courtesy of Dez of ResidentEvilChef.com
