The Bigger Picture

Two days after the event and things have started to quiet down a bit. A few photographers have posted pictures, most players have washed their gear and are already thinking about their next event, but I wanted to pause for a second and just look back at what The Mason Thomas Championship Cup has done.

The event all started because we were looking to make a contribution to the community in a way that captured the spirit of RC, something that we could really make our own. We had a great time supporting the MS Society and the local Habitat for Humanity but we thought we could do something bigger. A paintball tournament seemed like a good idea and when one of our players (Kendra) told us about Mason Thomas, a 9 year old boy suffering from a form of cancer that I hadn't even heard of, we knew we had our cause.

Going into the event we really had three goals. 1) Run a top-notch paintball tournament. 2) Generate funds to help out Mason and his family and 3) Bring awareness to a disease that not many people know about.

Did you know...

• Neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of all pediatric cancer deaths.
• Cancer remains the number one disease killer of America's children.

I didn't.

In learning more about Mason and his struggle we also learned about a local organization committed to support children's cancer research, The Ishan Gala Foundation. Ishan was 18 months old when he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. He died just 6 months later.

Ishan's story is both upsetting and inspiring but it is one that I think needs to be heard.

The Ishan Gala Foundation is working very hard right here in Virginia. Please take a moment to visit the Foundation's website and see what they are doing to combat neuroblastoma. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and on their blog to keep up with their work.

Mason Thomas Summary

We were poised to have a great day from the beginning of the week. A few members of The Rockin' Cocks went out to KPS the week before the tournament to get a little play time in and a significant portion of the big field was covered in 4 inches of ice. It made the breakout from that side pretty interesting. However, the weather man was calling for 50+ degree weather starting Monday. When we went out to setup the day before the tourney most of the ice was gone and we managed to get a lot of the remaining water off of the field.

We couldn't have asked for better weather on the day of the event. 50~60 degrees and sunny...just about perfect for a day of paintball.

We had one minor schedule snafu early in the day but we got the first round of games rolling and by the time the second round started, we had everything under control. There were two top-notch reffing crews on both fields and we ran ahead of schedule for most of the day.

Play on the Guerrilla Field was fast and fierce. There were a lot of big moves and aggressive plays. The layout on the Redz Field called for more conservative play with most teams holding at their primary bunkers, locking things down until one team dropped a body.

The 8 preliminary rounds gave the 18 open teams and 7 beginner teams 7-8 games each...plenty of opportunities to overcome the bad beats and let the cream rise to the top. The last game of the second open division was a nail biter with the two of the highest ranked teams going head-to-head. The outcome of the Richmond Rage Black vs KPS Lifestyle was going to decide who took the second place spot to make it into the semi-finals. Rage Black went for the aggressive move running for 50 snake off break but that player got clipped going in. Rage returned that elimination with one of their own, making it 2 v 2. KPS Lifestyle got a second elimination bringing it to a 2 on 1 in their favor and the final Rage player fought tenaciously but was overtaken by the two remaining Lifestyle players.

The beginner division saw it's own bit of drama in the semi-finals. With 3 teams making it to the semi-finals, the top two teams in a round robin competition would move on to the finals on the Guerrilla field. The first match up placed RC Revolution (the only pump team) against Jesus Freaks Green, two teams that had been playing well all day. After some time with both teams gun battling and playing solid, conservative ball, the two teams traded eliminations within a few seconds. In the span of a few seconds the 3 v 3 was reduced to a 1 on 1. As the 2nd RC player was walking to the deadbox he said just a little too much and the head ref was forced to pull a 1 for 1 and remove the last RC player from the field. RC was able to bounce back from their loss to the Jesus Freaks and take a narrow victory against Young N Gunnin' in the very next game. The last semi-final matchup places Jesus Freaks Green against Young N Gunnin', where Young N Gunnin' took the victory. With each team getting one win and one loss it came down to points and Jesus Freaks Green placed 3rd with the other two teams going on to the final round.

The final results for the Open Division were:

1st LDG

2nd KPS Lifestyle

3rd Smith Vegas

4th Richmond Rage White

and the Beginner results:

1st RC Revolution

2nd Young N' Gunnin'

3rd Jesus Freaks Green

Overall the event was hugely successful raising almost $4,000 for Mason. All of the teams were excited to be at the event and even when things got intense on the field everyone remembered why we were there, to support Mason and his family. When we were trying to decide a name for the event...it wasn't too difficult. If you've read Mason's story and talked to his mom about Mason's fight against Neuroblastoma, you realize that this kid is a Champion, and he is the whole reason we were out there.

I would like to thank everyone that helped make this possible. Chrispy, my pump brother on the field was my right hand man for the weeks leading up to the tournament. All of my boys on the field reffing made it easy for me to keep things smooth off of the field. Johanna was a titan when we realized we had to rework the entire schedule. Brandi, Hunter and Kayla helped keep the scores up to date all day. Of course Mayank and The Ishan Gala Foundation were instrumental in providing advertising assistance and the fundraising infrastructure. Paul and Suzanne at KPS Paintball were really great to work with and provided some awesome fields.

We also had some outstanding support from many sponsors both inside and outside of the paintball community.

KM Straps, Geurrilla Air, Redz, JT, Exalt, Custom Products and Pinokio all contributed to the prize table. Kohn Sports and Guerrilla Air donated some great big ticket items for our raffle. Charlottesville Press generously donated printing services for the flyers and Little Caesar's provided lunch for the hungry refs and volunteers. Finally, Lifestyle Clothing not only donated shirts to both first place teams but also donated 25% of their sales on the day of the event! Please support our generous sponsors and if you get a chance to speak to any of them, thank them for helping make the Mason Thomas Championship Cup an awesome event.

There were also a few fotographers at the event. Here are some of the pics.

Ali's Pics

Kris's Pics

Mason Thomas Championship Cup Update

First, we got some great news coverage for the event on the local news last night. The story is

Link to video

By the time you read this, online registration will be closed. We have filled the open division and we are expecting a number of on-site registrations on Sunday for the beginner division.

For those that are interested, the following teams are registered...

Beginner

• Zee Crew
• Jesus Freaks Green
• Young N Gunnin
• RC Revolution
• Ishan's Dad's Team

Open

• Deuces Wild
• Dirty Dreamz
• East Koast Kaos
• Total Eclipse
• Jesus Freaks
• Jesus Freaks Gold
• Jesus Freak Red
• 187 Squad
• Richmond Rage 1
• Richmond Rage 2
• KPS Lifestyle
• VCU Rams 1
• VCU Rams 2
• Menace
• Spirit Squad

Mason Thomas FAQ

We've been getting a lot of really good questions about the tournament so I thought I would compile those questions for everyone.

Divisions

There are two divisions, Beginner and Open. Beginner is for players with no tournament paintball experience. Everyone else will play open.

Paint

You can only use paint purchased from KPS paintball on the day of the event. Call KPS directly to reserve and purchase paint. 804-562-2630.

Sign Up

There are two ways to register for the event. If you would like to start a fundraising page and help raise additional funds for Mason you can use this link. The simple fast and easy paypal link is in this post. Either will get you registered for the event

Can I Sign Up at the Event?

Yes, but it is much better to preregister. Why?

1. It's easier for us to setup teams and plan games
2. You have less to do on the tournament day
3. We will have two raffles on the day of the tournament, each preregistered player will get a free raffle ticket.
4. We are capping each division at 16 teams so you don't want to miss out.

Event day registration must be completed by 9:00 AM.

Prizes

We have trophies and medals for the top three teams in both divisions. We also have over $1400 in prizes from a lot of very generous companies.

JT, KM Straps, Guerrilla Air, APX Gear, The Lifestyle Clothing, Exalt, Redz, Kohn Sports & Pinokio.

What if I am not a Paintball Player and still want to contribute?

That is perfect. You can either play in our beginner category or contribute to our Donation Page. If you would like to play and need to rent equipment just leave a comment with your contact info and I will get back to you.

Layout

We will not be releasing the layout before the event.

Getting Stir Crazy

The weather has been terrible for paintball. We've basically been snowed off the field since the beginning of the year. Lefty and Spoon did get out for an hour of snap shooting but that's about it.

There's a ton of great events coming up but honestly RC doesn't do any event planning unless it's after a practice day when we are sipping on RC Cola or enjoying a fine Five Guys burger. On the horizon for those interested...

• Feb 6 - TAS Winter Blast Pump Tournament
• Feb 13 - CFOA 3-Man at Skyline Paintball
• Feb 21 - Mason Thomas Championship Cup (of course)
• Mar 7 - NYC Indoor Pump Tourney
• Mar 14 - NJ Pump Tourney
• Mar 27 - MD Pump It Up Scenario

It definitely looks like pump is picking up on the East Coast which is something we're really excited about.

As far as the Mason Thomas Tournament...Things are coming along quite nicely. We aren't releasing the layout before the event but look for some quick action in the games.

So far we've got a few teams preregistered and several more planning. Here's the list of teams that I've heard from so far.

Ishan's Dad's Team*
Total Eclipse*
Jesus Freaks Red
Jesus Freaks Green
Jesus Freaks Gold
Dirty Dreamz*
East Koast Kaos*

KPS Lifestyle

Young N' Gunnin'*

VCU Squad #1

VCU Squad #2

Richmond Rage 1*

Richmond Rage 2*

Zee Crew*

Twisted

*paid

Keep in mind Beginner division is for players with no tournament experience and Open is for anyone else. It should be a fun time for those new to tournament paintball as well as a challenge for players with some speedball experience. Bring your A game because KPS has a half-dozen teams and they'll be representing on their home turf.