What would you do?

[afrankart]

I was playing at my local indoor field today, much like every Sunday. On one of the games of speedball, it came down to me vs some other guy who isn't a regular. He was called out for playing with an inobvious hit on his hopper. I knew he was the last one left, so I ran up to get the flag while he was arguing with a ref, and as I go to hang it, I start getting shot in the back. I am not afraid of getting bonus balled, but it just kept coming. The guy just kept on shooting me at about 6 bps. I tried to ignore the first few out of habit, but he wouldn't stop. The refs just stood there like they had suddenly been rendered incompetent. After the first few, I could hear him still shooting, so I tried to find a bunker for cover. I didn't make it to one in time. I don't know if it was a combination of adrenalin, getting into the game too much, or just defending myself from the seemingly never-ending barrage of bonus balls. Due to all of the emotions I was feeling, I reacted in the worst possible way, I turned and started shooting him. It took about 5 seconds of paint to get him to stop shooting me and concede. I ended up with 26 welts along my back, side, arm, and chest. He ended up getting banned, and hopefully enough welts that he learned a lesson. I probably shot 60-80 shots at him.

Now, in retrospect, I feel like I was given a test of sorts, and I think I failed it in the worst possible way. Ideally, I would have liked to handled the situation much differently, but I wasn't able to do that.

I am asking everyone what they would do if they were in the situation that someone was shooting them and there was seemingly no hope of stopping them. What do you see as the proper procedure for handling this situation yourself and being a good sportsman at the same time? I am sadly dissapointed in myself for flying off the handle like that, but the other side of my brain is telling me it was self defence, making it alright.

[Lohman446]

I whined really loud once at a tournament about being overshot, even here... frankly I don't think I was overshot anymore, just very unlucky. It was the same sitation, occassionally you do things that make you look like less than what you want to be. You apologize to thsoe around you, remember it so you dont do it again, and then move foreward, use it as an example to others. The refs should have handled it better though, and you can only take part of the blame.

[bokraham]

I probably would have done the same exact thing that you did, which in my view is the right thing. If the law dosn't do anything, then you should do something about it.

[DementedRabbit]

At some point it stopped being unsportsmanlike and turned into an attack. You defended yourself, and he stopped.

Nothing to feel bad about.

[afrankart]

It did feel kind of good to watch a nice loooooong fast string find its way to his torso.

[MicroMiniMe]

I would chew out the ref more for not taking care of the nub. Part of the field having refs is for insurance and if a refs inactivity leads to injury that could have been avoided by him doing his job, then DAMN.

You shouldn't have had to endure that much to make the snap decision later anyways. Ref does his job and grabs the guys marker, you wouldn't have to decide and make a slightly bad call. 60 shots back is too much. Maybe under 10 would be forgivable...

[afrankart]

I thought it was too much, too, but I did quit shooting right after he did.

[Brophog]

I got a question.

Was he called out by the ref, or was he still live.

If he was still live, did you make an attempt to call yourself out?

[afrankart]

He was called out for a hopper hit. I hadn't been hit and was the last remaining player.

After the first two or so hit, I put my gun and left hand up, my head down, signaling to the shooter that I was obviously through with being shot.

[Brophog]

Thanks.

Even if he was still live, it was in my book a reason to ban the guy. As we have seen in some of the discussions though, we don't all agree on such matters all of the time. Some of us stop shooting a player sooner than others.

If you couldn't get cover, I don't see what other option you had. You couldn't protect yourself and the refs refused to protect you.

I agree that maybe you should have stopped shooting earlier, but the fact remains it seems your last option was to shoot back in order to get the guy to halt his activity, and you accomplished that.

I wouldn't feel too bad if I was you.

[shartley]

[Emily]

High site is 20/20. Most people, in any event will think " i should of done this, i should of dont that". I think you did what you had to do. It sounds to me that he was not going to stop for nothing so you had to shoot him up in order to get his to stop. He aparently thought he could bully you into a win for him. The ref is also at fault. If he had done his job then this would have not gone this far. It turned into an attack after about 10 hits. Everyone can say what they think they would do, but no one know until they are involved in something simular. Sorry you have so many welps on you but be glad it didn't turn into worse.

[Digits]

I woulda did what you did.. But I wouldn't of stopped..

But how could you not find cover? Was this woodsball or something, because in speedball there are always bunkers not to far away

[afrankart]

I found a bunker to get to pretty quickly, but by the time I got next to it, for some reason, I decided to take actions into my own hands. I kind of wish I had just went behing that bunker. Oh well.

[penguinpunk555]

I would have done the same thing just as a natural reaction. Don't feel bad about it.