Alright, I haven't been actively updating. Lots of activities occupying me.

But, I happened to have went overseas for an international paintball event. Being a first for me. I figured that I should blog the entire experience down. I think this is also going to be another long entry cause I'm squeezing the events of 5 days into one blog entry.

Let me introduce the event that I went to, it's the Paintball Asia League Series World Cup Asia. It's an international paintball tournament held in Langkawi, Malaysia. Being the World Cup, international teams from all over the world are invited to come over to this part of the world to partake in this tournament. What really drew everyone over to this tournament was the fact that it's an indoor tournament, a first for a major international event. It was held at the Mahsuri Hall. An exhibition hall, equivalent to Singapore Expo but a tad smaller.

The event was held from 10-13 of November 2011.

The location of the tournament venue was really appropriately placed. Heck, the whole tournament venue was appropriately set-up. Mahsuri Hall is facing the airport, and it is also right next to the official hotel - One Hotel Helang.

Most, if not all, of the local teams that were going to Langkawi via straight flight from Singapore. But my team was taking a bus-ried to Kuala Lumpur, then taking a flight to Langkawi from there. We were to depart for Kuala Lumpur by Grassland Express on the morning of the 9th.

However, on the 6th, which was also Hari Raya Haji, I fell terribly sick. The 2nd time I've missed a Hari Raya Haji. And I haven't recovered fully yet. So I went to WCA all sick and having a really nasty cough.

9th November 2011 Wednesday:

It was a real long ride to KL, but the bus was really nice. A bus service that I will consider for future travel. If I travel to Malaysia in the future (knowing how much i really hate to travel there). Reached some place in KL where we took the monorail, which was equivalent to Singapore's old mrt, where we had the use of farecards, to KL Sentral to take a bus to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) which took another hour.

Our check-in didn't take long. Right after we checked in, we were into our flight. My first time travelling on Air-Asia. There was a moment at the LCCT when we were lining to board the plane when I saw several caucasian dudes lining up as well. They looked somewhat familiar and I told Jordan that they were the Ironmen (an american professional paintball team). And Jordan, didn't believe me, he said that I was just tricking him just because I saw a couple of caucasian guys. But I really knew that they were the Ironmen. It was not until we were on the steps up the plane when Jordan looked up and went like "ehh!! ehh! hafiz! Ironmen! " -.-" .. We managed to take a photo with them once we reached Langkawi. We reached at around 5pm.

Heartbreakers with LA Ironmen

Me and Justin Schwarz

The official hotel was really close to the airport. It's right next to it. Just a short 3 minute walk. And of course, it being the official hotel. Most of the international teams stayed here. I took a room with Jordan, Scott and Cheeyong. Yazid and Atika was in one, and Kenny and Brinda in another. Since we reached in the early evening, it got dark pretty fast. We went to Marry Brown's for our dinner. After that, we hanged out at the swimming pool. And I also went to search for info about the Justin Rabackoff Clinic. Justin Rabackoff is a pro player from the United States.

Jordan wanted to join me for the clinic too. So we went to Ben's room to borrow markers. Ben and Jane lent us their Dye NT11 markers. Awesome stuff. The Dye NT11 is an impressive marker. Really, really light. And the milling is really very sleek and nice. But to my dismay, the clinic was cancelled!!! T.T .. An opportunity to learn from one of the world's best. To learn new tricks and drills. All gone cause the clinic was cancelled.

So we ended up chilling by the pool. Music was loud. Ahmad from Ballistics but playing for Rage City, was playing beer pong with some other dudes. Team Zoo was in the pool. And!! Directly behind the beach chairs that we were sitting on -- MODELS..!! Super hot models!! in their bikinis and such. Okay on first glance they were hot. But after a look or two. Not all of them are nice. only about 2 of the whole group of about 11 are worth ogling at. xD. The night ended early, coz i wasn't feeling too well.

10th November 2011 Thursday:

Can vaguely rmb what happened on the 10th. Morning breakfast. Then we went into Mahsuri Hall to check out the field. Walked the field. The turf wasn't really the turf i was expecting. Set up a gameplan that was rather similar to SPS. We walked through the expo. Of course we went to the pbfashion booth where they were selling all the HK Army stuff. Met Brandon Fort. Owner of pbfashion. Talked to him for awhile before we left.

The Paintball Expo was really really nice. Besides the heavily maked-up models. I liked it alot. I'm a sucker for all things technical and the equipment of paintball. A really mega big drooling time to see all the top-range markers and equipment in one place. All the gears, the loaders, the tanks, the t-shirts, the loaders, and of course the markers. We roughly just breezed through coz we were rushing for time.

Kenny had to go for the captain's meeting so the rest of us, courtesy of Josh who was playing for Blitzkrieg, travelled to the townside to get groceries like water and instant noodles and such.

Kenny returned from the meeting and told us that we have a total of 11 qualifying games. Which is really alot. And that tmr we have 6 qualifying games.

Was a short day as we spent the majority of the time walking the field.

The team walking the field

Heartbreakers at our Sponsor's Booth : Paintballer's World

Heartbreakers at the Hotel Lobby, going for the tournament!!

11th November 2011 Friday:

We woke up early to get the markers from the organisers. We quickly brought the markers back to the hotel room and started to tech it, to ensure that it was working properly. Our first games were in the afternoon.

Geared up and went over to Mahsuri Hall. The whole place was up in a really nice electric atmosphere. Some of the games were already being played in the morning. The air was cool with the air conditioning. The air smelt with the faint hint of sweat and perspiration amidst the thick crayon smell of broken paintballs. The hall was rampant with shouts of communication and buzzer's sounding as well as announcements being made over the PA system. It was pretty much clear that everyone came here to give it their all. On one of the worlds biggest stage - -The world cup.T he exciting atmosphere kinda made me jumpy and excited as well.

It was really cool to see everyone with their markers and all their brightly coloured jerseys. Especially the markers, it's such a privilege to see so many markers of the different brands. Markers are basically the guns used in paintball. As this was an international event, teams from all over the world was there and they brought along with them the markers that they were using.

All the Geos, the Egos, the DMs, the NTs, the Clones, the Cyborgs, the Minis, really really all sorts of markers..!! A feast for my eyes. What would be better is if I could try them ALL out..

We bought paint. Settled down in a corner and got ready for our games. We bought Dye and Evil paint. It was also great to get to try paints that are used by the pros out there. GI Sportz 4 stars, 3 stars. RPS Evil paint is popular with the pro teams due to it's consistent ball sphere and thickness of paint as well as the famous, anti-wipe paint formula. Evil paint has a green shell and yellow paint fill.

We played a total of 8 games today coz they brought forward 2 games form saturday. We lost 2 games out of the 8 games we played. The lighting for the Division 4 field was really bad. I could barely see anything clearly. And given the fact that I was sick. I didn't play at my best. Even though i made some good moves. I knew i wasn't playing at my best, like how i did during the past SPS. I got shot out practically for most of the games. Rather dissapointing performance I must admit. But with the condition I'm in. that was the best i could give.

Went back to the hotel. Bathed. Cleaned the equipment and quickly slept.

Me and my girlfriend!!!

Nahh. Just a model (Sophia Goh)

12th November 2011 Saturday:

Played the remaining 3 qualifying games.

There was a particular incident against Jogja United that I would like to highlight. We were already 4 up and then Chee Yong gave me the call to go. So i went up and got shot up by the dorito guy. the same thing happened to kenny and from a game that we were supposed to win, we ended up losing.

I was so pissed off after we went out the field. I just left the marker at our area and went off to the toilet to cool off. After coming out of the toilet, I was still fuming mad. So i thought to cool off by just hanging out in the nearby Division 2 field.

So i just stood there and watch how the Div 2 teams played the field. It was really great. I had my fair share of having paint splattered on me from the netting. But it was really nice to watch the Div 2 teams play. Their gameplay. I was particularly watching how they play the Home Can, so that I could bring it over to help with my team's performance.

It was a real eye-opener to see the different teams' approach to the game. The way their crew handled stuff. The way they communicated. And Especially the way they played the different bunkers.

Later on, I realised that Big Ben was standing beside me. He must have stood there for some time, but i was too engrossed in watching the Div 2 teams play. He asked about our team. I know we went on to the Top 16.

Spending the time there at the Div 2 field, allowed me the time to calm myself down. I know eventually jordan and yazid joined me. and we went back to our area.

And we're through into the top 16. The top 16 teams are divided into 4 groups. the top 2 teams of each group go into the quarterfinals.

We were grouped with fellow Singapore team, The Outlaws. Pfft. and our first game in the top 16 somemore. We were also grouped with Ghost Cobra, and a team from India.

The game against outlaws was rather a grudge match i should say. I never liked the outlaws, they're labelled to be one of the most professionally run team. I can agree to the fact that they have the biggest number of people in their team BUT, they also have the highest turnover rate. Meaning that they have the most people quitting them too. Ouhwell.

We won them in fashion. It was easy. We know how their team works. Their captain Ollie would go into the snake and control the team from there. Giving instructions from there. Like Pfftttt. Laned him out and the whole team crumbled.

The next match was against the team from India. Boy that was a long game. We played it out to a stalemate. Coz right when they were about to grab the flag. Time was up so we draw.

The last game we were up against Ghost cobra. We changed our line-up and put scott in, in place of chee yong. So now we have an aggressive advantage. A much better style of play that I like. I never liked sitting down and holding it down. It gave the opportunity for opposing teams to pick us out one-by-one and the game would drag on, losing us time.

Anyways. Off the break. We were already on G2 and i moved up all the way to the brick and held the snake down. I know scott went up and shot 2 guys who were going to the M. And next thing i went up toe the M and we won the game very very fast. It was a landslide win. 5 -up.

It turned out that we were the top scoring team. out of all the top 16 teams. we were the only team that scored 7 points (2 wins and a draw). A good way to end the day.

While we were walking back out of the field, we sort of realised that the Inter-Continental Cup (ICC) was being played in the Div 1 field.

The ICC is a competition where they had teams representing their continent nations. Teams like LA Ironmen and Toulouse TonTons that represented North America and Europe respectively. The Ironmen and the TonTons are famous pro teams.

After being knocked out the tournament
(Scott's crying in this pic)

I managed to take pictures with Brandon Short (LA Ironmen) and Axel Gaudin (TonTons). We stood by to watch the first ICC game. LA Ironmen against Team Xtioneers (Malaysia). We stood by the Ironmen pit area. It was really interesting to see how they did things in their pit area as well. One guy would be always filling the pods up and others had their separate tasks to attend to etc etc.

We watched as they played their game. Quite intense. With Malaysia being the Home team. Soon we found ourselves helping the Ironmen out. Coaching from the pits. Ahahahah. It was really fun.

But we had to get back to the hotel. Our quarterfinal games were in the morning.

Unfortunately, amidst all of this. Something slipped my mind. The most important day for someone. I really forgot. I was tired. I was sick. I had a big day of paintball. ouhwell. I forgot about it. And i have no excuses for it.

Me and Yaz with Axel Gaudin (TonTons)

Me and Yaz with Brandon Short (Ironmen)

13th November 2011 Sunday:

We had to play the next 4 quarterfinal group stage games in the morning. Every morning was a drag for me. I was very very sick. Only the top team would advance through to the semi-finals.

We didn't do very well. It was all very very vague to me. We were grouped with CMX Badai, Ghost Cobra and Jogja United. We lost against CMX Badai, they're a division 3 team in MY-NPL. We lost to Jogja United which had a very big controversy. Coz they had a player who played on despite being shot and shot out kenny and chee yong and before a ref could go up to him to pull him out, he called himself out. Somewhat playing with the rules.

Knowing that we lost the first 2 games. Our chances of getting to the next round were pretty much gone. So I let it all out in the last game. I only realised now that the better position to lock down the snake was from the brick.

So final game. Off the break. Lane out the can. Then i quickly went up to the brick to lock down the snake. I was constantly watching the snake side that I didn't realise that scott was till alive. I thought he was already shot out coz there was no one in temple 2. So i dived into temple 2 and found myself in the 50 dorito. Little did I know that there was another guy in the same bunker as me on the opposite side. I made a move in-field and i was quite surprised he was there so he shot me out.

Everything was in a mess later and we lost that final game. So we're out of the tournament. It was a sad moment, but one that I saw coming.

Scott was already sobbing non-stop. He had been playing with only vision in one eye. Guess he felt like he couldn't give his best. Chee Yong cried too. I came to know that Kenny cried too. He wore his mask out to the toilet. And jordan said that he saw kenny sniffing. Ouhwell. It was kinda sad to have come this far and lost it in such a way.

We went back to the hotel to wash up and get our clothes washed by the laundry service. And i was asked the date to be written on the laundry bag. And only then did i realised that I missed the day, yesterday. I was frantically fumbling for my phone. To call her. I couldn't explain myself. There were no excuses for forgetting.

Bathed. Got dressed. and we went out to have lunch.

I know the guys went to play go-karts. But i was sick so i passed the opportunity. It was a funny sight. Cheeyong, kenny and jordan had to wear shower caps, for hygiene purposes. What was even much more funny was me and scott trying to tempt brinda to try the cherry cigars!! ahahahahaha!!

We went back to the expo to get last minute deals. Not much of deals though. I know i bought quite a couple of HKArmy shirts. And also i bought a DC Arsenal Jersey made by Style Supply with Rabackoff's name on the back.

Jordan and Kenny bought the last 2 remaining Dynasty Jerseys from Brandon Fort. They were the Millennium edition made by Maxsimum Customs. The nicer version, in my opinion.

We went to watch the rest of the Div 1 games. It was really interesting to see how the play, much like the div 2 games but this one happening at a much higher skillset level. I know, me and yaz and atika watched the games from the benches set for the spectators.

We were watching the 2nd semi-final match between Reapers from South Africa and Infernal from Thailand. It was really interesting. We were sitting on the Reaper side. They didn't use those high end paint. They wear only using the cheapest paint available -- Gelkaps Ignite paint. Maybe this should be something my team have to consider. Going for the cheaper paint. And Ignite paints are not too bad. Reapers used them and got all the way to the semi-finals of Div 1.

It was really an eye-opener watching the Div 1 games. Reapers always sent someone to the snake corner, which was an interesting move coz we didn't send anyone there in any of our gameplans. It looked as if the guy was controlling the snake wire and also wrapping in to blindly lob into the Home area. And only did i realised that he actually got the magic side home dorito shooting from there. Something to think about and assess in future.

We watched as Reapers beat Infernal. We had no time to watch the finals of Reapers against Datis. There was a really funny incident. Atika seems to have a problem with me. AHAHAHAH. All the wags of the team does. Even brinda. So we had to climb down the benches. As i went down. Atika tried to push me. I was like "okay, u go down first", So i watched as she hopped down the benches. and before either me or yaz could say "No, Don't Jump "

She jumped down onto the floor and instantaneously, she slipped and fell and rolled on the floor. AHAHHHAHAHAHAH!! She screamed as she fell. making it even funnier. She literally rolled into a pile of paintballs.

The floors of Mahsuri Hall were slippery due to the paint on the floor. The areas closest to the fields are the most slippery coz of the paint there. Since we were sitting at the back of the Div 1 field, there were piles of discarded paintballs at the base of the netting. So Atika slipped and fell into that pile. And her white top that she wore intantly turned orange and yellow. AHAHAHHAAH!! So much for trying to push me down. ahahahah!!

Yazid quickly brought her back to the hotel to have a change of clothes for her. I also went back to the hotel to catch a quick nap.

Apparently, the rest of the guys were already at the hotel room and most of them were already dozing off. Tired from the tournament's toll on them.

When i woke up, it was already evening, and we went to have dinner. After that, we hung out at the lobby for the wifi, to book our bus tickets home. Most of the WCA participants were at the Player's Party located half an hour away in some other resort. We didn't want to go there since we had trouble with transportation.

After awhile. Me and jordan went to the poolside coz jordan wanted to smoke. Then we chatted. We chatted till very very late. Till everyone went back up to their rooms. We chatted about our performance for WCA, we chatted about the future of the team, we chatted about the markers. We chatted about practically anything and everything.

Until about 2amplus did we finally go up to the hotel and slept till the next morning.

14th November 2011 Monday:

Woke up rather early, woke the rest of the team and we had breakfast. Most of the participants have already gone home, taking the morning direct flight back home.

We went back to the hotel room and packed our stuff and were ready to fly back to mainland malaysia. The flight back wasn't as bad as the flight to langkawi. I was so tired, I slept throughout the entire flight and only the landing of the plane back in KL woke me up.

We took a bus to the KLIA Transit, where we were to take it all the way to Bandar Tasik Selatan where our bus service is. It was a nice ride to BTS, the train was very fast. Faster than SMRT. We reached Bandar Tasik Selatan Bus Terminal and then we had a rather heavy lunch at Kenny Roger's Chicken.

The bus ride back home was long. We were so tired, most of us slept throughout the journey. I know we were caught in a massive jam and also in a electrifying thunderstorm with lightning and thund everywhere.

It wasn't long before we reached back at Woodlands Checkpoint. How dismal it was when the moment we touched down in singapore, most of the girlfriends were waiting and my respective teammates hugged their gfs as i stood there -- And hugged my luggage. ahahahahahha!!

Most of the team went home form Woodlands checkpoint coz the bus was going to back to beach road. Only me and kenny and brinda continued the bus journey back to beach road.

My parents were waiting to fetch me from beach road. Reached beach road, said goodbye to kenny and brinda and walked to the bus stop to be picked up by my parents.

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World Cup Asia 2011 was a real eye opener for me. My first tournament played overseas. I've learnt and experienced alot from the past few days. A huge learning curve. There were many things that I have seen, many things to improve my game. The experience itself can't solely be expressed in just words alone. They're just too much. It was really and awesome event. And it could have been better if I wasn't sick.

Pictures can be found on facebook!!

Ouhwell. Looking forward to the next World Cup..!!

Heartbreakers WCA 2011