PSP Chicago: Friday

Today was the first day of pro prelim matches--and it didn't rain. The fields are still in ragged shape but we're still playing paintball. I heard today the league actually contemplated calling the event. Now that would have been a real nightmare but if true it helps explain how overwhelming the circumstances were. And I think if asked no one would prefer to not be playing paintball this weekend.
In our first match we played X-Factor and things did not go as planned. Was this the match I came to Chicago worried about? I don't think so. X-Factor is a solid team that seldom gives anything away and we also had an (unacceptable) number of penalties to overcome (including two majors.) So while it wasn't pretty we did what we needed to do and eeked out a win. We also need to realize that while we used to be underdogs we're not sneaking up on anybody anymore. And nobody is immune from the so-called upset. Take a look at the rest of Friday's scores. Every event offers up a few surprises and the mark of the best teams is consistency.
We played Vicious in our second game after having an opportunity to scout them in their first match against Entourage. Vicious does a good job of executing their game plan and they commit to their effort as a team. Today it wasn't enough as we took advantage of a couple of patterns we saw and dialled up our intensity determined not to repeat our earlier effort.
In our half by the end of the day our two wins were matched by the Legion's two wins while both Shock and Vicious went 1 and 1 (with Shock holding a substantial edge in point differential.) Tomorrow we play the Legion and then Shock and the odds are nothing will be settled until the score is final in the last match of the day. Good luck or hard luck, today didn't decide anything. It just made the road to Sunday either easier or harder.
Tomorrow is the qualifier; winners go on, losers go home. The tournament begins on Sunday.