Bandits in Paris World Cup 2012

When the leafs start falling from the trees and the night frost start to set in, paintball players in Norway order some hard practice paint to handle the temperature drop and start preparing for the last tournament of the year; the last leg of the Millennium-series- in Paris.

Little did we know that playing this year’s Paris event would be just like playing back home in Norway at this time of year, but more on that later.

We decided we would enter two teams this year; we have done this before but not in the same division. This time we entered two teams in Div. 2, Slagen Bandits Gold and Slagen Bandits Silver.

 For all the players on Gold this was familiar territory, everybody had several Paris events under their belts. For most of the Silver team this was uncharted territory and a new experience.

Due to the locked divisions in the Millennium-series, div 2 is always unpredictable in terms of the quality of the opposition, especially in the last event of the year and this year a record breaking 56 teams in div 2.

We flew down on Wednesday and did the usual field walking on Thursday. We watched the other teams practice to see if we could pick up some last minute tips and tricks. The field seemed to play as we had predicted with many teams crossing up the two back bunkers. Through trial and error we decided that we would not do that as much since we traditionally play better when we attack both sides of the field.

We thought us in Gold had a slightly tougher draw than Silver with Celtic Druids, Manchester Firm 2 and Bullitproof Monkeys.

Before the games on Friday we talked about how important it was to get off to a good start, as opposed to what we did last year, when we had to pull of several comebacks from being down 0-3.

The weather was okay when we played on Friday but was miserable the rest of the event with temperatures more befitting Norway than France and constant rain. It was a challenging test for our Geos and Egos but they weathered the storm with no problems. We had several people from other teams borrow our guns for their own matches, I guess that says it all. :)

 I think we dropped the first point against Celtic Druids but then we put 4 solid points on the board and won 4-1.

The game against Bullitproof Monkeys was a hard fought with no easy points, but in the end we grinded out a 4-2 victory in one of our best matches of the year.

Slagen Bandits Silver won 4-1 against Blue Diamond Freudenburg and lost 2-4 against Toulouse Dagnir Dae.

So after Friday both teams still had a good chance to make it out of the prelims. We checked out the vendor booths and talked to the great people at Planet Eclipse, Hybrid Foto, Antrax and G.I Sportz

On Saturday both our teams played simultaneously, we played against Manchester Firm 2 which knocked us out of the tournament last year. This time we managed to pretty much deny them the snake and coupled with some good break shooting we won 4-1.

We didn’t have time to savior our victory but had to run across the site to help and coach SB Silver. Things looked grim when we arrived with Newport Laysick VIP being up 0-3. But SB Silver calmed down and after some tense points later had pulled of a great comeback and won 4-3.

That meant both teams were through and would end up facing... each other!

That obviously sucked, but at the very least we would have one team playing on Sunday.

As the last 32 teams prepared for their evening games on Saturday plans were being made in great secrecy in the Slagen Bandits camp. We have met each other in local tournaments twice this year with one win to each team.

When two teams who know each other well its always interesting to see the breakout tactics change.

SB Silver decided to throw all caution to the wind and did a run through at the break in the first point and ended up shooting all five players with a little bit of luck. We were a little bit rattled in the pits and Silver continued to make unexpected run throughs which paid off well and they were soon up by two points.

SB Gold managed to slow the next points down a little and brought the score back to 3-2 advantage SB Silver. A couple of quick1-4-1 later Silver had won the match and bragging rights until next year.

SB Silver decided to keep their tactics for their Sunday game against Elite Ile d Oleron. Unfortunately they matched up badly against this team and lost 4-0.  Elite Ile d Oleron would go on to defeat Bullitproof Monkeys in the final.

So the last tournament this season is over and it’s time to pack away the paintball gear and start hoping for an early spring in Norway.

Kristine Andersen

A big thanks to our sponsors – we deeply appreciate the support:

Planet Eclipse, G.I. Sportz, Game-On, Hybrid Foto, Anthrax, Gloube Souldiers, Slagen Paintball and Snøservice.no