We just got back from Florida last night. It's been an...interesting weekend to say the least. A lot of mixed emotions for sure as the 2016 paintball season has now concluded. Not exactly how I imagined things going but it is what it is. Let me explain.
So we left Wednesday night to make the 13 hour drive (added time due to a slight "locking the keys in the car" incident) down to Kissimmee, just out side of Epcot in Disney World, for the NXL World Cup. This is the largest paintball tournament in the world, also the most important. Over 450 teams from over 30 countries all make their way down to Florida to come compete for the world title. Our goal was to bring home that big ol trophy and the glory, however, the world had another idea. So we arrive around 9am and make our way to the field and check out the venue. Yet again, the NXL has out done itself. The fields are beautiful, the vendors are out and open, everything is perfect for the main stage of paintball. We enjoy our time and do everything that we need to do along with walk our field in order to get the best game plan for us. We have a few injuries on the team so we have to make some quick adjustments. We have the first game on Saturday so we try to get as much sleep as possible.
We get up at around 5:00am and prep for the day. We get there and we do everything we need to do in order to get ourselves ready to battle it out. I am fortunate enough to have my parents in town in order to watch us play in the largest paintball tournament ever to happen. We get all set and we hop on the field for the first point. The energy felt, right before the first point of the world cup, is unlike anyone has ever felt. Only those who have been able to play this event will understand the power and energy of those last 20 seconds before the buzzer rings. We play the first game amazingly. We absolutely blow them out of the water. However, that will be the last point that we kill. We end up going 3-5 through the prelims which was a crushing blow. We did not advance to Sunday. After all the work and time put into getting ready for the event, we will not be playing out of the prelims. We are crushed. For me, this is absolutely the worst lost I have ever suffered. I take this one especially hard due to the unrealistic feeling of failing in front of my parents. We make the long quiet walk back to the car with a cloud above us. It's not like we didn't play as a team or we made stupid mistakes, or that we just fell apart. We aren't mad at each other, we don't blame anyone, nothing. We carry this loss together. This is our team, our lost, and our recovery. We head back to the hotel and spend time in the hot tub and talk about what happened. We don't really feel much better about it though, the losing will always suck.
We traditionally do very well in the division we are playing in. But something about this event just didn't work for us. We were just missing something on the field. We will go into this off season looking at this event and analyze where we went wrong in order to fix those mistakes in preparation for the 2017 season. That's the thing about paintball. One event can be amazing and perfect like how Nashville was for us, another event can absolutely crush the soul out of you like how World Cup was for me. Overall, though we didn't do as well as we would have liked, we are certainly fortunate enough to have been apart of the event and we got to be there. I would like to take this time on behalf of Coastal Virginia Afterburn to thank our sponsors, Adventure Sports Park and GI Sportz and give a special thanks to Virtue Paintball, Raza Design, Ninja Paintball, and Trevis Meseroll for the support of the team in the 2016 season and we hope to continue such support in the 2017 season.
We take the rest of the weekend and watch points, do a little shopping, and just enjoy the event as much as possible. It really is hard to be at the event on Sunday and not be playing. Some people are okay with it because they just want to be there and watch the pros and buy some of the new gear coming out. For me, I am there to win. I am a competitor by nature and for me to not be competing leaves me with a sick feeling in my stomach. It is hard to even want to go out and enjoy the fun things around us because I feel as though i haven't earned them. Paintball is my life and what i do for a living so if I don't do well, I can't find the fun in doing fun things when I should be playing for the title. If that's wrong, I don't care, It is what I do, it is who I am. But for now, my focus is already strictly on net season. I want to be the best that I can be and will work hard to make that happen.
So this was for sure a working trip for ol Jason but now that I am going into the off season, the travels will become a little more for pleasure. I know i have a few trips coming up and I will be sure to keep everyone up to date as to where I am. For now though, I am going to need to try and catch up on some much needed sleep. I hope everyone survives this election day and stay safe!
