Scooter/Cootie
04-07-2003, 11:32 PM
Ok, here's the official after action report for this years Ultimate Madness as seen through the eyes of one of the members of AGD Pride, me.
A good question to ask right off is, "Where do I start?". Well, how about from the beginning and we'll work our way through the weekend.
We ended up leaving Friday at about 12:30pm and arrived in Huntington, WV by 10:30ish. Getting slammed by traffic going through Chicago caused us to lose a lot of time. Unfortunately, because of that, we missed the AO meet & greet and the planned dinner at Shoneys. Next time guys! After getting all our gear setup, we managed to get to bed around 1:00 or so in the morning.
We woke up early Saturday at 7:00ish and drove to the Civic Center located in the heart of downtown Huntington. Michelle (my wife), Carrie (Chester's girlfriend), and Clare started playing in the womens division at 8:00 as Team Syncronicity (sp?). The event was setup to play the first 6 games of the prelims on Sat and the next 2 plus the finals on Sunday. Syncronicity won 2 and dropped 4 games before their division was done for the day.
The Kids, Lions, and Pride started playing the first of their 6 scheduled games by 12:30. Out of the 6 games played, the Lions won 4 and dropped 2, Pride matched them point for point by also winning 4 and dropping 2 (Losing to Nasty and The Union), and the Kids, because of a delay in the games, only managed to play 5 games, winning 4 and dropping 1. All in all, it was a excellent day and all 3 teams were playing extremely well. Our coaching on the sidelines definatly helped each other to win as many games as possible.
Sat night was the players party and it was great to see all the AOer's there. Dinner was catered and there was free beer for those who were over 21 and free soda for those who were underaged. Once dinner was announced, all thoughts of order and control were tossed right out the window. It became a mad rush to get as much food as possible before everything ran out. It was funny to see 200+ people get up and start running all at the same time.
Afterwards, there was a little shindig at Jon's hotel room in which everyone did a pretty good job in putting a rather large dent in the local alcohol supply.
Sunday started early again as Syncronicity finished their last 2 games of the prelins with perfect maxes, allowing them to advance to the finals ranked 7th overall. In the finals, they won 1 and dropped 2 to put them in 5th place. Congrats and great finish girls!
We started playing our games at roughly 12:00. The Kids won 2 and dropped 1 to finish the prelims, the Lions and Pride maxed their remaining 2 to finish as a part of a three way tie for 3rd place. What a great feeling it was to have all three factory teams in the semi's! We all definately deserved to be there, thats for sure.
The organizers were nice enough to place all three teams in different divisions so we all had a shot of going to the finals. In our division, we had the All Americans 1, The Saints, and Farside 2.
This is where it gets hard to type and I start to get a little emotional. Our first game was against the All A's. Talk about a matchup! The All A's only lost one game in the prelims and were on a roll. But we definately wanted the win and we played the best game of our lives, beating the All A's soundly; 60 points to 10. Buuuuut, after the game, the All A's complained that a cameraman was in their way and was talking to them while the ref started the game, causing them to break late. In what turned out to be a MASSIVE miscommunication and a tragic series of blunders by the refs, head ref, and ourselves, we were forced to replay the game. We lost the game and in turn the 60 points that we had played so hard to win.
After the second game there was an approx one hour debate at the scorestable which involved Rosie (The Ultimate ref) Tom, Jon, and Troy from National Paintball Supply and a gaggle of people who were there watching the games.
When that debate was over, Rosie pulled the three of us plus Tom aside and said, "I was wrong. You won and I never should have allowed that game to be replayed. However, I'm not going to reverse my decision." I can honestly tell you that we were all devastated. I was on the brink of tears because Rosie just told me that we should have walked away with the 60 points but instead we got a big fat 0. In the end, it turned out that this was what caused us to miss the finals and to be a part of the top 4 teams. What a crappy way to get knocked out of the semis.
We managed to pull ourselves together to play our last two games of the semi's, winning 1 and dropping 1. But despite our best efforts, Farside 2 was on a roll and took the division, advancing to the final 4 and eventually to first place. Congrats to them for a very well played tournament.
Whew, sorry that was so long but obviously there was a lot that needed to be told.
On a side note, the new AGD Pride jerseys made their debute. You can see them in the pics below. I think they turned out great and they sure do look slick. I hope everyone likes 'em.
Thats about it everyone. I wanted to give a special thanks to Tom, Jon, and Troy for their support and for sticking up for us when the huge debacal was going on over the All American game. It's a great feeling to have these three in your corner fighting for you.
Next up, Challenge Cup! Enjoy the pics!
A good question to ask right off is, "Where do I start?". Well, how about from the beginning and we'll work our way through the weekend.
We ended up leaving Friday at about 12:30pm and arrived in Huntington, WV by 10:30ish. Getting slammed by traffic going through Chicago caused us to lose a lot of time. Unfortunately, because of that, we missed the AO meet & greet and the planned dinner at Shoneys. Next time guys! After getting all our gear setup, we managed to get to bed around 1:00 or so in the morning.
We woke up early Saturday at 7:00ish and drove to the Civic Center located in the heart of downtown Huntington. Michelle (my wife), Carrie (Chester's girlfriend), and Clare started playing in the womens division at 8:00 as Team Syncronicity (sp?). The event was setup to play the first 6 games of the prelims on Sat and the next 2 plus the finals on Sunday. Syncronicity won 2 and dropped 4 games before their division was done for the day.
The Kids, Lions, and Pride started playing the first of their 6 scheduled games by 12:30. Out of the 6 games played, the Lions won 4 and dropped 2, Pride matched them point for point by also winning 4 and dropping 2 (Losing to Nasty and The Union), and the Kids, because of a delay in the games, only managed to play 5 games, winning 4 and dropping 1. All in all, it was a excellent day and all 3 teams were playing extremely well. Our coaching on the sidelines definatly helped each other to win as many games as possible.
Sat night was the players party and it was great to see all the AOer's there. Dinner was catered and there was free beer for those who were over 21 and free soda for those who were underaged. Once dinner was announced, all thoughts of order and control were tossed right out the window. It became a mad rush to get as much food as possible before everything ran out. It was funny to see 200+ people get up and start running all at the same time.
Afterwards, there was a little shindig at Jon's hotel room in which everyone did a pretty good job in putting a rather large dent in the local alcohol supply.
Sunday started early again as Syncronicity finished their last 2 games of the prelins with perfect maxes, allowing them to advance to the finals ranked 7th overall. In the finals, they won 1 and dropped 2 to put them in 5th place. Congrats and great finish girls!
We started playing our games at roughly 12:00. The Kids won 2 and dropped 1 to finish the prelims, the Lions and Pride maxed their remaining 2 to finish as a part of a three way tie for 3rd place. What a great feeling it was to have all three factory teams in the semi's! We all definately deserved to be there, thats for sure.
The organizers were nice enough to place all three teams in different divisions so we all had a shot of going to the finals. In our division, we had the All Americans 1, The Saints, and Farside 2.
This is where it gets hard to type and I start to get a little emotional. Our first game was against the All A's. Talk about a matchup! The All A's only lost one game in the prelims and were on a roll. But we definately wanted the win and we played the best game of our lives, beating the All A's soundly; 60 points to 10. Buuuuut, after the game, the All A's complained that a cameraman was in their way and was talking to them while the ref started the game, causing them to break late. In what turned out to be a MASSIVE miscommunication and a tragic series of blunders by the refs, head ref, and ourselves, we were forced to replay the game. We lost the game and in turn the 60 points that we had played so hard to win.
After the second game there was an approx one hour debate at the scorestable which involved Rosie (The Ultimate ref) Tom, Jon, and Troy from National Paintball Supply and a gaggle of people who were there watching the games.
When that debate was over, Rosie pulled the three of us plus Tom aside and said, "I was wrong. You won and I never should have allowed that game to be replayed. However, I'm not going to reverse my decision." I can honestly tell you that we were all devastated. I was on the brink of tears because Rosie just told me that we should have walked away with the 60 points but instead we got a big fat 0. In the end, it turned out that this was what caused us to miss the finals and to be a part of the top 4 teams. What a crappy way to get knocked out of the semis.
We managed to pull ourselves together to play our last two games of the semi's, winning 1 and dropping 1. But despite our best efforts, Farside 2 was on a roll and took the division, advancing to the final 4 and eventually to first place. Congrats to them for a very well played tournament.
Whew, sorry that was so long but obviously there was a lot that needed to be told.
On a side note, the new AGD Pride jerseys made their debute. You can see them in the pics below. I think they turned out great and they sure do look slick. I hope everyone likes 'em.
Thats about it everyone. I wanted to give a special thanks to Tom, Jon, and Troy for their support and for sticking up for us when the huge debacal was going on over the All American game. It's a great feeling to have these three in your corner fighting for you.
Next up, Challenge Cup! Enjoy the pics!