Melancholic Rhetoric

Heartbreakers:

Singapore Paintball Series 2011 Leg 2 Champions.

Singapore Paintball Series 2011 Overall Champion.

My last entry was dated October 1st Saturday. One week after that, is the Singapore Paintball Series 2011 Leg 2. And you can pretty much guess that this entry will be about it. And it'll be long nonetheless.

Singapore Paintball Series (SPS) 2011 Leg 2 was held at East Coast Park on the 8th and 9th of October. Since the first leg of the tournament was held in Jurong. It would only see fit, if this leg was brought over to the east side.

This Leg was really special. Due to the local paintball community gaining increased renown, it would only deem fit when the event would be graced by Acting Minister for Community Development Youth and Sports, MG (NS) Chan Chun Sing.

Not only that, Division 1 teams from Malaysia -- Team Xtioneers and Demonz Red would also be coming down for this event. They would be playing in the Open Division. And, they also would be playing in an All-Stars game against the All-Stars of Singapore paintball which would be watched by the Minister.

It would be great to go up against these Division 1 teams, these guys are technically semi-professional. Paid to play. I would be honoured if I could get on the All-star team to play against them. But then, I'm only a Novice Division player. The All-Stars are only open to Open division players. Maybe next year.

Following the series of unfortunate and depressing events leading up to SPS. I was determined to change things for the better and play at my best, if not, my very best for this tournament. Having clinched 2nd place for the previous tournament was not good enough for me. And I was psyched up to win this tournament. I was confident with my teammates, and also with the gameplan that we had.

So Saturday, we only played 4 qualifying games. Our first game was against the experienced Ragdolls. We won that. Not before we almost lost it. Their snake guy was already in snake 3. Our entire snake side was down and i had to trick that snake guy that i was in the dorito when i already moved up to the god, and shot him out from there.

2nd game was against Iscreamwar and the 3rd was against vengeance. Won both of those games as well.

The last qualifying game was against our closest rivals and defending champions, Rampage Onslaught. Very controversial game. Being a rivalry game, I sought out to shoot my marker non-stop, at a price. halfyway thru the game, i realised that I had run out of air. We already had an early G at the start of the game. But as soon as i ran out of air, all hell broke lose. Everyone was running all around the field, having run out of air, i figured that i had to bunker someone. So i ran up and got shot out. Then as i returned to the deadbox via the side, i could already hear zai saying "yes! yes!" from outside the field. When i reached the deadbox, Kenny was raging and hitting the starting frame. I didn't know what was going on. I only knew at that point of time that we had lost. And when were leaving the field, the head ref called all the refs over together with the captains of the teams, Kenny and Wayne. Some sort of discussion was going on. All in all. Despite our loss, we won..!! Kinda confusing right? After the dust settled, it came to my understanding that one of the rampage players played on despite being obviously hit, and the head ref clearly saw that. And said player went on to play and shot out both Kenny and CheeYong out. That's playing on and shooting not one, but 2 players out, changing the course of the game. A 2 for 1 penalty, so the result was overturned in our favour. So we won all 4 games on Saturday. A real good start to the weekend.

Sunday started off late even though we came early. We were to play our remaining 3 qualifying games and see if we would make it thru to the quaterfinal bracket. Our 4 wins on saturday gave us a good point advantage.

I was determined and focused to unleash it all on sunday. It's go hard, or go home. And i don't want to go home empty handed. Despite the sorrow and frustration of the past few weeks, I made it a point that i was going to channel all of that negativity to improve my performance on the field. The fuel to my fire.

So the first game on sunday was against Explicit. I remember myself running up from the home bunker, and going up to bunker snake 3 and i proceeded onto tonton down the snake and go up and shoot the last back left guy. So we won that.

I made such an impact with my moves that even Benguin and Greg had to congratulate me. I also remember Benny from Ballistics Aftermath asking who Fizzy was and shaking hands with me too. Looks like i'm out to make an impact *smirk*.

2nd game was against Ballistics Origins. It was a rather friendly game and we took them too lightly, we ended up losing that game. I remember getting shot out by a random ball.

3rd game was against a new team, Natural Born Killers, Being new, we didn't know how they played so they were a team to look out for. I wanted to somehow 'get revenge' on losing the previous game. Off the break, scott got laned out and their magic side front player managed to reach our 50s and was shooting at me. I was pinched in like mad. I had to do something. That guy went up to our 40s and so i made a move to go up and bunker him, i move up to the 50s where i shot another guy who was moving up. I wanted to shoot the home guy out too but he saw me coming up to him and shot me out first. But we won that game too.

After the qualifying games. We won 6 out of 7 games. And after everything, we were ranked 3rd, with ragdolls and ACES above us. We were put into a quarterfinal bracket together with Ragdolls, Blitzkrieg and Raving. All teams too watch out for.

First game against raving was rather easy though i got shot out early as i moved up to the brick. Won that game. Yazid had to leave us coz he had to go submit and present a project. So cheeyong was playing his position.

2nd game against Blitzkrieg was one to watch out for coz we lost to them at the previous tournament. They would clearly go for Kenny. I remember I had a ball break in my loader and i spent nearly all the time trying to clean it. Even the ref came up to me and asked whether the marker was good to shoot. I basically spent all the time in my bunker cleaning my marker up. We won 4 up

3rd game against Ragdolls wasn't easy. They shot out our front guys. We were already down to only me and kenny left. and I even had to fill in the snake where i was rather impressive. I was caught up with a snapshooting contest with Joshua of ragdolls

I ran up to bunker him out. but once i shot him out, he spun around and shot me. I turned over to the ref and was like "eyyy ref come on..!!".

The head ref called josh out and wiped me clean before i ran up to shoot out the remaining 2 guys out.. But then. i was unfortunate that i didn't have enough time to grab the flag and the game was held to a draw but with the ED in our favour.

Fortunately, we ranked top in our group and blitzkrieg took 2nd.

So in the semi-finals, we were up against Rampage Onslaught. We weren't supposed to meet them..!!! We were supposed to meet them in the finals!!! But ouhwell.. We were super confident coz we already had beaten them the previous day. And since the semi-finals was a best of 2 game. we had to win twice against them. We were all over them in the first game. I remember laning their snake guy out, a new player to rampage. and we won the first game. Another game to win and we were thru to the finals.

Off the break i was laning out alot of people. Managed to shoot out the snake guy off the break again. I knew i shot alot coz i ran out of paint and was only left with a loader full. I even looked around to see how much pods I used. When i looked around. I saw the 4 pods that I brought it on the ground behind me. And cheeyong was also shouting that he had only 1 pod left. So i went up to the M and managed to shoot the last guy out of the dorito

I remember taking the flag and running it back. The first time i've ever hung a flag.

And Heartbreakers knocked out the defending champions and are now through to the finals.

Cheeyong was already celebrating like we won the tournament. He should be happy, this is the first time i'm playing with him. He missed out on the last leg. He should be happy. I remember coming out of the field and having Shark of Contract Killers put his arm around me and congratulating me. He noticed that I ran out of paint. I still rmb the words he said to me "When you run out of pods, that's a good thing, coz that's when you're laying down the firepower". Awesome encouragement.

We were up against Blitzkrieg in the finals.

The finals were later in the day. They still had to play Open division semi-finals, Corporate division bronze medal match as well as the final. They also had to play novice division bronze medal match which Rampage Onslaught took beating ACES. Open division also played their bronze medal match which Contract Killers won, beating Team Enraged. Awesome job Killers..!!

Throughout the waiting time. I was just sitting down by my lonesome. Taking a chair to watch the games. I was just lost in my own thoughts. There was the occasional shoulder rub from derek and yazid who told me to don't be so stressed up. I wasn't. I wasn't stressed up. I was just pumped up. I was just lost in my own thoughts. The realisation of where I am and where it would lead me to. Honestly, I had the feeling that my team would win it. I had no doubt about it. I knew we were going to be champions coz we deserved it. I deserved it. For all the shit that's happened in my life over the weeks leading up to this moment. It all cumulates into this one defining moment.

"Heartbreakers, Blitzkrieg to the tech area Finals Game 1"

The first game. We started off good but we lost a couple of guys and i rmb i had to fill in the snake again. I didn't know that there was only one guy left in the home dorito. It was only down to kenny and me again.

I was in the snake and kenny was on the magic side. I don't know what he did but he got shot out and i knew i was the only one left and i got shot right in the mouth!! I tasted the paint. it wasn't what we were hoping for. we were suppose to take away the first game but we lost it instead.

The 2nd game was about the same. they managed to draw our fire to the snake side. But we also managed to shoot a couple of guys out. I also had to fill in the snake corner and fill in the snake as well. But we ran out of time. so it was a draw.

We really really had to win the next game. I cannot settle for 2nd. I want first. I've had second. Time to get first. We were also running out of paint. I had to even ask from my darling syikin to give us some paint so we could use it for the final games.

Kenny was already raging. As per normal. I even had to tell him to calm the fuck down. It was no use to the team if he was raging at everyone, and most certainly no use to himself if he got shot out coz he made irrational moves. Kenny called me over and told me to run it thru the middle for the next game.

And so i did. 3rd game was win it or go home 2nd. which would really compromise us coz rampage who took 3rd place earlier was to get overall champion coz they were ahead by a few points if we took 2nd place. I rmb we did the HBK cheer and the moment we finished it, i turned around to do a stare down with Blitzkrieg. intimidating them.

So i ran it up thru the middle. Adrenaline pumping slide into the middle. I could lock down the snake side and switch it up and lock down the magic side as well.

So i kept the snake guy really busy and Blitzkrieg were trying their best to get me out. That drew fire from them which allowed my teammates to move up

They managed to get all the guys out and it was only left to one guy in the home dorito where i ran up to him and gave him 3 shots to the back of his neck. That sealed it. 1 win and 1 draw in the finals.

it was sudden death, no time limit, 4th game to win it all. Everyone was helping crew for us. Fazrul from Contract Killers was on hadn to lend us some pods as well. Faizal from ACES was on hand to wipe me and my teammates clean and also to pod us up. Even Kiko came up to us and gassed up our markers as well as lent me his mask coz the mirrored lens on mine was too dark and it was already getting late and we were losing light.

This was it. I've come this far with my teammates. As I looked at them, I knew they were gonna give their all as much as I would give them mine. This was it. One game to win it all... or lose it.

4th game. Same gameplan. Run it up thru the middle. Their snake guy was prepared for me. So he kept me locked down, but that opened up an opportunity for jordan to move up the snake. I rmb switching sides to the magic side. And i saw that there was a guy in my mirror in the brick. I had to get him out coz he was onto jordan in the snake. I just had to get him out. I rmb seeing kenny on my right side in the 40 aztec. I signalled to him that i was gonna bunker the guy infront of me and i did the slit the throat gesture indicating that if i was to do that, i was going to get shot out. I didn't know if he understood what i was saying but i did it anyway. I ran up the middle, shot that guy in the brick out and proceeded to run up to the backright to get him out too. But he saw me and managed to shoot me but i was moving at such a fast speed that i was falling when he shot me and i remember falling head first onto my marker tank. As i lay there on the ground. The ref picked me up and brought me to the side. I could hear my teammates wrapping things up, the chaos i caused was enough diversion for them to make the push forward.

As i sat there in the dead box alone. I just sat down. Leaning against the netting. This was it. I had done my best for my team. It was up to them to mop things up. I didn't even dare to take a peek out to see how things were doing. I just sat there. Then there was silence and next thing u know. I saw cheeyong hang the flag over me.

"TIME!!"

"GAME OVERRR..!!!"

This was it..!! This was it..!! We won..!! We WON..!! Heartbreakers clinched the top spot for the novice division. I started breaking down into tears like I knew I would. This is it. Champion. Overall Champion.

I picked up my pods. and walked out of the field. But the head ref called me to sign the gamesheet, coz kenny had already left the field.

As I parted the netting to get out the field. Scott was there to greet me. So i hugged him. Then derek came up to me. he took the pods away. and we hugged. I didn't say anything at all. I just took off my harness and dumped it into the loader box then walked out. Yazid was like "lah lah lah.. leave him alone.. ".. I just walked out the players area with my mask still on. I was crying silently.

The realisation just sank in. I've won it. I've given my all for this tournament. Was fate so merciless? Did I had to lose her just to win this? It's just not fair. You Lose Some, You Gain Some. Those words keep on ringing in my head. It's just so so damn sad. I found a nice spot to lie down. And finally took off my mask and my beanie and my headband. I just held my head in my hands and wept. The impact of the realisation really hit me hard. I wasn't sad like last time. Last time, I was sad coz i was so close to winning. But this time it's different.

I was joined by derek and benguin. They asked me why i cried. And I told them. I told them abt her. Benguin felt so touched he even asked me to stop coz it's starting to make him cry too. Funny. ahahaha.

My team eventually joined me outside. But they left me alone to gather back my senses. The rest of the Contract Killers came up to me congratulating me on our win.

Then one by one. My teammates came up to me. I remember chee yong coming up to me and asking me why i cried, and I told him about her. He was quite shocked, coz he had met her on 2 occasions -- one for the time she came down for training, and the other where she came down the day before. He didn't expect that we weren't together. I remember Kenny coming up to me. I still remember his words. I knew he thanked me for joining the team. He told me about him giving up hope on the team and considering to join Red 7s ever since zai left the team. He thanked me again coz ever since I've joined the team, Heartbreakers have improved and achieved alot. 2nd place last time round. And now. Double Champions.

Ouh yah. Having won champions for this leg. We are also Overall Champions this year.

Prize presentation up next. Gosh was it so fun and exciting. But of course. We're now champions. The podium finishers of the other different divisions were up first. Then came my division. The runner's up were announced and presented their medals. Then came our turn.

Novice Division Champions -- HEARTBREAKERS..!!!!

Gosh. That rumbling feeling of going up to get the champion medal. Contract Killers were going "H-B-K!! H-B-K!! H-B-K!! AAWOOO AWWOOO AWWOOO ".Awesome cheer..

I lined up last to take the medal. My teammates before me. It was a great feeling to have the champion medal put around my neck by Ben Todo Boggy from Demonz Red.

And then we were also presented the Champion Trophy as well as the Overall Champion Trophy.

We didn't take as much photos as compared to the first leg coz brinda was too caught up in crewing for us.

Then it was our turn to cheer for Contract Killers.

After that, it got dark really fast. So we had to take our things out of the players area to somewhere with much more light.

I remember i was with Jordan and he said something that i was kinda surprised. He thanked me for joining the team. For making the team as awesome as it is now. =D

This is it. One of the longest entries I have ever written. This is the emotions and details of that weekend. A weekend of awesomeness. A weekend where champions were made.

All thanks go to our sponsors Paintballers World, Red Dynasty Paintball Park. Thanks to Ben Seow, Jane Koh, Arthur Chan, Jose Cerda and many others is helping us during our trainings leading up to this event. Many thanks to the staff of Red Dynasty Paintball park, Damian Li and Kiko.

Through thick and thin. My teammates were there for me. And I was there for them. I was quite surprised how well I did. I just let instinct took over and just unleashed it all. I have managed to turn some heads with my performance. And I have proved my worth to the team.