Teams had opportunities to practice the layouts weeks prior and they had Thursday and Friday to explore the intricacies of each field layout . All that work prior , all those team meetings , all the cases of paint that had been scavenged for practices had come down to these 8 matches . Each team was broken up into brackets of 8 or 9 teams . There were six brackets total and only the top three teams from each bracket would advance to the quarter finals . The start times for some were offset , the tournament schedulers did an amazing job at side stepping delays , as best as they could , by staggering the start times of the fields . The attraction in any tournament atmosphere is an upset , and in the “ any given Sunday ” fashion , the upsets started early seeing a legendary team like Farside dropping their first game to Mutiny . The only thing as impressive as the competition was the people manning the scoreboard . Scores seemed to fly in faster than the paint was flying , but they managed to keep pace and not miss a beat . As the day went on some teams began to stand out and some began to fall , yet there was no clear picture as to who would be moving on and who would be available for Sunday brunch .
A day in the life of a paintball player can be painful but given practice , teamwork and impeccable decision-making skills it can be quite glorious and rewarding . A day in the life of a paintball referee can be more painful with much , much less glory . The job of a ref , or umpire , is quite thankless ; however , paintball players could not do what they love legitimately without having paintball refs doing their job . If a ref is doing their job poorly then people will complain , if a ref is doing their job well then people will complain even more . As with the change in management and name , the
Pittsburgh Open Classic also saw a slight change in ref staff . We saw a mixture of refs from different tourney scenes as well as local professional refs . Each one had to be properly trained and certified , as well as briefed with rules and expectations . Each field had an ample and able ref staff that was led by a head ref , these refs were tough but fair . They certainly aren ’ t the most appreciated group in the tournament but they should be . These women and men travel to events , sometimes on their own dime but definitely during their weekend , and put their bodies in harm ’ s way to make sure we have a legitimate contest . They don ’ t do it for the riches and they don ’ t do it for the glory , most just love the game . It may be against peoples ’ better judgment , but next time you see a ref make sure to tell him / her thank you , bring them water or maybe something to eat . Show them that you appreciate what they do for us because they certainly deserve it .
Sunday , the day a champion would be crowned , had arrived way too early for most players . The classic paintball scene brings out the retro paintballers , ready to relive their glory days except with more muscle cream , braces and anti-inflammatories . It was time to get the fire started again and let the hunt begin . Only six teams had left Saturday without a loss but that did not mean they were on their way yet , drop two games on Sunday and it can easily be an early day . The competition played on as though age was but a number and agility lasted forever . The upsets began to roll in early as well with some of the undefeated teams from the previous day dropping games to opponents . As the prelims came to an end it was clear that the competition was only getting tougher from here on out .
076 paintball . media magazine