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.
Is that Kayla in a ref Jersey!?! Sweet!
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