Last year, on Dec 8 2007, my friends and I joined the very first paintball tournament in Sabah. This is how I fell in love with the sport. It’s held in conjunction with the ‘Karnival Pantai NFC 2007’ at Taman Prince Philip, Tanjung Aru. There are also other events such as beach volleyball, canoeing, bodybuilding (held later that afternoon), play station 2 and beach soccer. But the one attract us most is the 3 on 3 paintball competition. The sport is quite new in Malaysia especially in Sabah.
We are considered beginners in this sport (I supposed other teams also?). Feeling that this maybe our opportunity to try out this sport competitively, and of course for having fun, we submitted two teams to compete. Prior to this competition, we did played some paintball at the KK Paintball Centre, Kg Sugud. Our team name was ‘main tembak saja bah’ and ‘ok bah kalau kau’. Yeah, the team name was a bit unconvincing, but throughout the event, it is for sure inspiring (well, at least for me! haha).
Before the competition started.From left to right: the writer, salmi, zurie, dawang, mawi, feizal, romie, lita and isma (bob was not in the picture). Wei wan should’ve joined, oh well
The competition required us to use the house marker – mechanical marker, with a limited pallet, 100 to be exact, for each playing member. Each teams comprised of five players, three playing and two reserves. However each playing members must have a minimum of one female player.
15 teams participated and divided in three groups consist of five teams. Top ten teams from the groups will move on to the next round. The first and the second round is a league format. Out of 10 teams, top four from the second round will go on to the semi final. The first played third, and second played fourth position. In the semi and final, whoever won 2 games out of 3 games played, got through. (Kind of like badminton, so if you won the first two games, no need for the third game).
We treated the event as if it is like a picnic. Ronnie on the far right (thanks for the vid man!)
Team ‘main tembak saja bah’ consists of zurie as the captain, salmi, mawi, dawang and myself. Romie, isma, bob, lita were in the ‘ok bah kalau kau’ team, with feizal as their captain.
Team ‘main tembak saja bah’ in action
Team ‘main tembak saja bah’ was in the first group so we started the first match. I started our first game alongside zurie and salmi. Imagine playing your first competitive paintball match in front of 40 people (my estimation, maybe more because of the other events held).
The adrenaline rush, heartbeat, your mind starts to think, “Where should I shoot? Where should I go? What if I didn’t make it to the bunker? What are they going to do? Kalau kena sakit ka?”. All sorts of thoughts popping up my mind.
10 second!!!!!
9
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5
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2
1
Game on!!!!
1 second
2 second – zurie got hit!
3 second – one our opponent got hit! (Salmi got him)
4 second – I got hit! (argh… raised my hand and walked slowly towards the dead mans zone)
5 second
6 second – salmi got hit!
7 second
8 second – saw our flag taken away from the back of the dead man zone
9 second
10 second – “game over!!!!!”
The game lasted for only 10 second! We lost. (Owwwhhh….)
Cut the story short, we lost our first two games, before winning the remainder. We barely made it to the second round! (nasib ooo). Apparently, our team ran out of steam, only to get uncit in the second round. (Look at the positive side guys, we’ve made it to the second round right?)
On the other hand, team ‘ok bah kalau kau’ kept the momentum on. Undefeated in the first round, steam rolled other team in the second round, met their worthy opponent in the semi final. Eventually they came up as a second best. It’s a close semi final and either team can win. They ended as the second runner up. (Never mind guys, you tried your best).
Last but not least, congratulation to the winners. Thanks for the organizers and marshal for making the event successful. It’s been a great day for us, making new friends whilst adding new experience. Beaten, bruised, weary but determined, a new chapter in paintball has begun!