money, putting up 2 points early and then holding on strong. Air Force One would take the match 4-2, but it was a hard fought victory.
Chernobyl definitely has a future in the women’ s league if they can keep their core together- every pun intended.
With a 5-0 record, Air Force One was granted a bye into the finals, and Belladonna would face their rivals, Karma, in a semifinal match. Up to this point, Karma had a phenomenal tournament. Their opening match against Air Force One had been a nailbiter, going down to a wire, with Air Force One inching out a 3-2 win. Karma would then go out to take away a grudge match win 2-1 win over Belladonna and dominate Chernobyl and Drakaina.
In the semifinals rematch against Belladonna, however, they lost their steam in the same moment that the Belgian ladies were finding their stride. Belladonna would step over them with a statement 4-0 win.
Fresh off of this exhilarating win, and having less than an hour turnaround time between matches, Belladonna showed up in the finals amped up. AFO, on the other hand, was a bit more stiff and it showed.
In a dramatic shift from previous matches, Air Force One changed their pace and slowed down their game. That’ s Belladonna’ s style.
In the first game of the match, Air Force One dropped two Belladonna bodies off of the break, but Belladonna answered back with a quick snake kill, and then took their positions and waited for the Americans to make a mistake. The Americans would throw literally all of their paint at them from there, and were unable to dig them out of their hold. A major penalty on AFO would cost them the point and all of the momentum.
In the second game, Air Force One attempted a more reserved break, but the disciplined guns of Belladonna forced them to a towel. The third game was the tipping point. Both teams dropped two bodies off of break. Alexis Lazer would make an aggressive bump into the snake 50 that gave away her position with the bunker bump, and ended in a rundown. But the bang-bang rundown was spotted from across the field and answered with a headshot from the Doritos. Now in a disjointed one-on-one, both remaining players went on the hunt, not knowing where their opponents were, and Belladonna got the lucky shot to take the victory. From that point, Air Force One plummeted with penalties and communication breakdowns, and Belladonna came out with, not just a win, but a dominant 4-0 victory over the American all-stars to round off their undefeated European Series season.
Achievement unlocked.
Last year at the World Cup, Belladonna struggled with the Florida heat more than anything, but still ended up with a respectable finish in the middle of a pack of 11 teams. Considering the dominance they have shown this year, and the growth they have been able to achieve despite not having a coach as a backbone, it will be interesting to see how they do when they return to Orlando in November.
Excitement for the success and development in this league carried through to the WNXL 3v3 as well. The farm teams for both Karma and Belladonna competed against two breakout teams from new regions in the Italian Survivor Wolf and the Malaysian squad, Thunderstorm, and it was the traveling teams who would take home the gold and the silver respectively. Although a bit of a disappointment for the developing European teams, it certainly gives hope for the expansion of the women’ s leagues around the globe.
062 paintball. media magazine