PSP Chicago: Saturday

A short post today as we have an 8am match with 'Shock in the morning. Unfortunately the way the seeding worked out the same teams that were in each division are playing each other some more in the quarters and semis tomorrow. On the other hand if we get past 'Shock again we get an opportunity to play the Russians again. Which we relish. To be the best you have to beat the best and one modest result (in Phoenix) never meant the Russians were on the downside--despite the perpetual bandwagon hooting of the internet crowd.
Field conditions continue to be poor as it rained hard again over night. Pro field matches were delayed 45 minutes while divisional play was delayed as much as a couple hours and ultimately pushing some divisional play over to Sunday. The pits are as thick and sticky as peanut butter spread inches deep. The mud in the corner of the field by the Home side entry is worse. Nobody is running the corner and it's more fatiguing to get out of the pit than it is to play a point. Where the snake was slick on Friday it's churned up & slow now. Field conditions are influencing play and turning most points into tiny wars. In a sense it's the essence of primal paintball and demands heart, will and determination.
In today's match with the Legion early on it was the slugfest I expected with a few drawn out technical points and the teams tied at 2. At that point the Legion kept the pressure on and we didn't handle it well once the score turned against us. Credit the Russians as the well-oiled, well-prepared team they are and for their immaculate execution. We wanted the bye into the semis but we didn't get it. Other than that the only match between us that will matter in the final standings is the one we get to play tomorrow if we get past Shock.
In our last match and the last match of the day we played Shock. The winner earned the higher seed and the last of the teams thru to Sunday would be determined. The match was close early but got on top, maintained our focus and tried to up our intensity, and pushed hard to close them out. It was a solid win against the crowd favorite home town team and a tough loss for the Shock kids but just like our match with the Russians the one that will matter when the record of this event is written is the one Sunday morning.
The tournament starts tomorrow.