World Cup Thursday

Yeah, yeah, you want to know where World Cup Wednesday is, right? I know. It's not enough that there's a World Cup Thursday, no, you needed a WC Wednesday too. Well, you're obviously out of luck but if it makes you feel better about it there was a World Cup Wednesday but my ethernet access went out last night before I could post it--and I was little busy today--until now.

Let's get the other big issue out of the way up front. I know absolutely nothing about any divisional scores. There's gotta be scores posted somewhere so suck it up and look around. APPA will post them eventually and Pro Paintball should have some of the day's scores posted. It's not that I don't care--Okay, it is that I don't care but the whole truth is that my poor melon can only hold so much information at one time and all those numbers just end up all jumbled anyway.

The venue is pretty sweet but there's planes flying around all the time. It's weird, you'd think there was an airport around or something. Given the number of pro games scheduled the semi-pro kids have their own field next door. From what I hear the action was pretty furious with the Eurokids giving a good account of themselves with the final four undecided until the last match of the day.

VFTD Weather Update: It's hot. Hotter than Satan's armpit to hear the whining from some of the pasty white northern types. But you know what they say, it's not the heat it's the humidity. And they--whoever they are--happen to be correct. And the humidity is brutal. If it's any consolation it was balmy and beautiful last week here in sunny Florida. Right here, right now it's seriously hot and sticky. Fire Rescue has shown up three or four times each day and I'm guessing they aren't dropping by just to catch all the paintball action. So if you aren't here--and if you're reading this you probably aren't--there is some consolation in that the conditions are rough. And even better--for you--the webcast begins tomorrow morning. I'll wave. (No, actually I won't.)

The pro field is one of the nicest ever. Level and flat with excellent grass. The only downside is an east/west orientation that late in the day is blinding to one end of the field. (Probably the same in the morning but I don't know--yet. Depends on when the sun comes up I would imagine.) There were some very tight games today with a lot of back and forth as only four spots were available with 9 teams fighting for them. Joy Division got their first taste of PSP pro paintball and performed better than their scores might suggest. It's a steep learning curve and they showed improvement over the course of the event. (Btw, I know a few pro teams that are gonna have yellow jerseys next year if the league is gonna allow yellow when we's all shooting yellow-breaking paint. Just saying.) Chris "Pony" Lasoya played with Joy and looked like the old Pony until he tweaked his knee. (When I said old I meant he looked like the young Pony out there. Confused? He was looking good and It was good to see him on the field again.) Though their scores don't show it the 'Canes played better than they have all season and have a foundation to build on for next year. Last two matches of the day determined how the seeding would go for tomorrow and who would go through. Shock beat Aftermath in OT after 'Math fought back from a significant deficit to tie it up with a few seconds remaining and Damage knocked off Infamous in the last match of the day. As a result the seed order for Friday is Damage, Aftermath, X-Factor & Aftershock. And despite finishing 2-2 (like Shock) both Infamous and Impact didn't go through. (Shock got it on point differential.)

There's plenty of parking and a winding maze-like vendor's village everyone must walk through to get to the fields. Despite the annoyance it's good to see a lot more tents and vendors than we've seen all season. And if you are desperate for some relief from the elements you can always hike over to registration--and I do mean hike--which is in a Fantasy of Flight building a mile or two from the fields (a slight exaggeration) that happens to be air conditioned. A shuttle to registration would be nice. Otherwise, the venue is solid and I'm told the layout is basically the same as was used in Chitown last year. If you rented a plane at FoF you could probably see it from the air.

More tomorrow, slacker.