Proper Villains

We made great time from Wilmington to Rock Hill SC. The vehicles were filled with a mixture of excitement and worry. We were excited about playing, hanging out and seeing our friends again. We were worried because we were not anywhere close to full strength. Two players down for the roster, Duane with a sprained ankle, Tanner getting over being sick and I had a horrible chest cold and my foot still tender form being broken. We knew the next day was going to be tough. We were ready to do our best and give it our all. We walked the fields, talked with the venders, got our gear ready to go for the next day. Leaving the fields with our game plan ready, we headed to the hotel to relax a little before the next days event.

Konvicted and Gravity Gangstas forfeit. That’s two of our games down.

Our first two games didn’t go well. Sure we killed some people off the break and got our lanes locked down, but with penalties, poor communication, marker malfunctions and just mistakes, we walked away with 20 points per game. Not good enough.

My chest feeling like it was on fire and the pain carrying through to my back, I needed to sit. We tweaked our game plan slightly and Duane with his sprained ankle said he was feeling good enough to jump on. He did and with his foot hurting managed a run through to finish the third game. Cussing the whole way back to the tent about how he shouldn’t have done that, he was still grinning ear to ear. The forth game went a lot better and with the two forfeits, I watched after the games as the score sheets roled in and the final scores were tallied and posted. We were going into semi finals ranked 10^th .

We didn’t drop either of these games. We knew people were looking for us to fail and that wasn’t an option. We mowed faces. Good communication, good movement, good lane control, good support for the players between games, took us on to finals as the #1 seed.

Finals rolled around. Everyone is hot, hurt, and feeling sick. But everyone did a great job at holding our lead. We came to win. Game one in the finals 85 points. Game two, 90. Game three, 95. We took first because we wanted it more than everyone else. We had more heart and more determination. The other teams cheered us, congratulated us on our hard work and our hard fought games. All the talk about the Tar-heel open being a fluke went out the window. All the talk about we only win because we throw so much paint was gone. We came and showed the other teams we deserved the podium. They saw what we were really capable of and what we are capable of is greatness.

I’d like to thanks Justin and Angel for their help in filling pods and making sure everyone had what they needed in between games and stayed hydrated. No one asked them to help but they did, and they did a great job. I’d also like to thank Robert, because even though he couldn’t be there with us, he still phoned in his words of encouragement and I know he was there in spirit.

Everyone did a great job and I love being part of something so great.

As always, thanks for reading.

Snyder, Jeremy A.