Stolen GEO R5s.... Not one, TEN!!!!

Hey again, I wanted to tell you a bit about my trip to the English Millennium, The Campaign Cup. I was supposed to go there anyway to meet my friends, but of course I always want to play. So I talked to some of my teammates on Slagen Bandits suggesting they got their first taste of international paintball. Nothing is more awesome than to meet old friends and play paintball the same weekendJ There were no possibility that my whole team could make it to the Millennium on such short notice, so we figured, why not just bring the ones who want and can afford it, and just go have ourselves some funJ And that’s exactly what we did. It ended with: 3 from the Bandits, a couple of our junior players (novice) and a good friend of mine, Jan.

It was only two of them who had seen a Millennium event before, and just a couple more of them who had ever been out of Scandinavia, so to bring them with me was a really great experience. We came down on Wednesday and I brought the guys to the field Thursday. Some of the best things about bringing these guys were that since they’ve never seen a Millennium, they were acting the same way I was on my first; in aweJ It was cool to recognize some of the same emotions on my team-mates that I remember I experienced 6 years ago myself. My first Millennium was also at The Campaign Cup, except it was in 2003 and at The Crystal Palace Stadium – there is definitely something special about the first.

We wandered around saying hello to all my friends there. I let them meet the great guys and girls in Draxxus and Eclipse who have always taken such good care of me. I wanted them to see that they are just really nice people even tough some of them are big players in the industry. And to let them really experience the beauty of paintball; who ever you are, what ever you do – our shared passion for the sport brings us together. And when we put our jerseys on, we’re all equal :-)

The playing started Friday and we arrived on the field in the morning with a lot of excitement. I was actually more nervous now than I use to be with my elite team.

As you probably understand from the intro, the ambitions had to reflect the players, but who goes to a Millennium with even a tiny thought of loosing anyway? Not us, that’s for sure :-)

Our first game exceeded all our expectations, we won a convincing 4 – 0 and it was the best start ever! The next game was a trickier one; it was against Dogs D Amour; Glen Takamoto and Davey Williamsons team. Of course it’s totally natural to meet them in D2, they’ve only played Pro for what; 7 -8 years now? Both me and my Bandits had a lot fun during that game, and we just see it as a challenge to take on such brilliant players, but I can see that they may scare off some of the other teams and make them feel that it’s not fair to let them play in this division. But what can they do? It’s the Millennium that has made it this way. Every other division is locked, so if you want to play without buying a spot, you have to play in D2. I understand the predictable income, but it might be the time to re-evaluate some of the aspects of that rule. My opinion is that they should at least open D1, we have to think of the sport.

(the game against the Dogs ended 4-1 to them, and we even gave away a point with starting on the buzzer on the neighbor-field. It buzzed 2 seconds before our were supposed to buzz. Unprofessional of the judges to not coordinate the fields better, but ok, Glen and Davey would have won either way :-)

The third game was against one/some of my old friends, London Tigers 2. We had scouted them in advance so we knew that they were aggressive on the dorrito side, and that they would never sit down and fight, just run and gun. We adjusted our gameplan to that, and won the game 4 – 1/0 J its soo cool when you experience that all the work you’ve laid down in advance works out that good :-)

So it was a bit of a shock, but it felt awesome – we made it to the Sunday-club with a mix-team from my home field! I was really happy, and some of the boys walked on clouds :-)

The new thing this time was that the all known Sunday club actually started on Saturday. They’ve decided to play one of the final-games on Saturday instead. Not a bad idea, I can see that as a win-win situation: if you win the game, the Sunday gets even better, and if you loose the first game in the finals, you can still party on Saturday nightJ (the smartest thing they’ve done in a while;) ) Our “Sunday club” game was against the Turkish team – Joker Ankarra, their coach is actually one of the players on Solid. In the end they were a stronger team, but we had some really good fights before we left the field. Our total placement was 10th, and in my eyes that’s more than a little achievement from a great gang of good players from different divisions who have little or non international experience. One really funny thing, which made us feel even better, is that London Tigers 2, the guys we beat 4-0, ended up winning the whole division :-)

I had a lot of fun, and my boys can’t stop talking about the trip. And one thing is for sure, I’ll be more than happy to take the same gang with me next time....

Kristine….. xxx