Your First Tournament, Part
I
Reading the fields
So you've sent in that entry fee deposit and you're getting ready for your
first event. Before you fire your first paintball, you better figure out
the fields. Hopefully this article will help you learn to "read" a tournament
field.
Paintball games are won and lost very often due to team and individual
preparation. A big part of preparing your team for a tournament is "walking"
the fields. In Pittsburgh a few years ago we (Bad Company) walked the fields
the Saturday before the tournament, the following Thursday, and each night
of the event after the games ended. We actually stayed at the fields until
dark each afternoon. When we played in the morning bracket, we watched the
afternoon bracket, and visa versa. We assigned players to watch each of the
four fields. We watched for two reasons. First, to see if there were any
moves that were working that we hadn't already thought of. And secondly,
we wanted to watch teams that we might play later in the semi-finals or final
rounds.
Finding the key spots on the field: Okay, it's Thursday morning, the
day before an event. You've got your schedule and you need to walk all four
of the fields. Where to begin? The first thing you should do is find the
key bunkers on each side of the field. Sometimes this is easy. Some fields
will have two or three huge bunkers on each side of the field. You know guys
will be going to those spots. Sometimes it's not so easy though. What is
a key spot? A key spot on the field is one that can either do major damage
to the opposing team, or one that can really hold up the opposition, preventing
them from making moves. Sometimes a key spot will be dead center between
your team and their's. Neither team can make it in on the run out, but the
team that gets there first later in the game will have a big positional
advantage. Teams will set up plays to get guys into those spots, even if
it costs them a player or two.
If you're playing ten-man, you probably want to run five-on-five from the
middle to the left side of the field, and then from the middle to the right
side of the field. If there are some bunkers that you're not sure if your
team (or their's) can get into, run your fast guys head to head and see where
they meet. This will give you a pretty good indication if you'll get in or
not. If one of the key spots seems to be difficult, or even impossible to
get into, don't give up. Try to work on setting up burners to help get your
guys in. Sometimes you can get your back or middle guys to put your opponent's
heads down so you can get your up-front guys into tough spots.
The middle and back spots from the run-out are usually easy to pick out.
You want to be in position to help your up-font players and you want to do
it from fairly safe cover. Most tournament fields only offer a few good back
spots that are really playable.
Okay, now that you've got run-out spots picked for all of your players, you
still have some work to do. At this point you should be looking at your
opponent's spots. Can you get good shots at them from your position? Take
a careful look at each bunker or tree on your opponent's side of the field.
Look for holes in the bunkers that you might be able to squeeze a ball or
two through. Look for angles that might expose them to you, or your position
to them. You should also be working with your teammates to figure out ways
to "push" your opponents either to your side of the bunker or theirs. There
are probably many bunkers on the field where a player can't survive if you
shoot at him/her from both sides of their bunker or tree.
Second moves: Once you comfortable with your initial position and
what you're going to do once you get there, you should look at your second
and third moves. Figure out where your next move will be to, and what it
will take to get your there. It may be as simple as eliminating the player
directly in front of you. It also may require eliminating the deep player,
and bunkering the player in front of you. Again, coordinate secondary moves
with your teammates.
The next thing you should focus on is looking at your path into your opponent's
flag station. The goal of the game is to hang the flag, but you need to get
it first. Look at all of the bunkers, trees, etc, between you and the flag.
Look at all of the options you'll have if the last two or three "bad guys"
dig in at the flag station and just play defense. Take a look at your path
back to your own station once you've pulled the flag. Also, figure out how
much time it takes to run the flag back from your opponent's flag station
to your's. If it's late in the game you'll need to know this.
Finally, although nobody likes to admit they do this, you should know where
you're going to fall back to if you start losing players, or you get in an
odd-man disadvantage late in the game. |
