RC Aus Training

Yesterday, Troy and I met up at Skirmish SA for impromptu gun slinging training.  Troy wanted to work a few things out on his new Empire Sniper and I’ll take any chance I can to practice my gun skills.  You all aren’t meant to know this, but I’m really bad at paintball.  We had a lazy morning of hanging out with the Rough boys from Skirmish SA, tinkering with guns, getting mauled by blood thirsty ants etc.  As it was just the two of us we had some one on one games on the tire field.  Afterwards, we did some break out shooting practice that I found very helpful.  It was a pretty laid back day, but I have sore legs as a result of the break out drills and a sore forehead as a result of Troy’s ninja skills.  We are slowly building our roster, but want to keep building momentum as we have a goal of maintaining a presence in the PAVS series in Victoria.  As these tournaments require significant travel on our behalf, it’s just that much more difficult to field teams consistently.  One step at a time we will get there.  Next week is SAPPA round 3 and RC will be entering a team.  The following weekend is PAVS round 3 and we are pulling strings and calling in favours to get as many players rallied as we can.  More details to follow.  Below is a video clip from a training session RC had in preparations for PAVS round 1.  Though we had some cardio/run and gun drills, most of the video is comprised of ‘dodge ball’ and ‘the bottle game’.  Check them out if you don’t already know them, they are good fun.

PAVS Round 1, 2012

This past weekend, RC Red Star took a team over to Melbourne to compete in division 2 in the first round of the 2012 Paintball Association of Victoria Series (PAVS).  PAVS is a 5 man, 5 tournament series that is held at multiple Victorian paintball fields over the course of the season.  Round 1 was held at Snipers Den in Mirrabin.  Troy, Brett, Ed and Scout drove the 8 hours or so to Melbourne where they were gracious enough to pick me up at the Melbourne airport.  When I got in the car I had to put my gear bag across three laps in the back seat.  Apparently, Ed and I will have to enter a ‘packing light for paintball road trips’ clinic.   We stayed the night at a local hotel room alongside most of the Reffs Inc team.  We played with new pump guns, and super fancy chrono/bps guns late into the night while exchanging paintball stories over some bourbon.

The next morning, we were all at the field by 7 as Jilli, Tricky, Em, Fuzzy and Bretty were going to ref the division 1 comp which took place before division 2.  Troy, Scout, Ed and I had the morning off to get gear sorted, and watch how the field played.  I should mention that the facilities at Snipers Den are, in my opinion, ideal for playing and spectating paintball.  The tournament field is completely contained by netting allowing up close and safe spectating, and it’s within a short drive of many conveniences.  Not that I needed to go anywhere because Snipers Den was cranking out good food themselves.  We spent the morning watching the Div 1, hoping to refine our plan for our turn.  Brett had to ref this entire time, but it’s okay because I’m pretty sure I saw him napping in the shade of a bunker at one point.

Our rough plan was to send Bretty up the Dorito side with Scout supporting, Troy stays back center, with the plan of heading up the middle at the right time.  Ed stayed back center until he could bump out and support/fill in for me in the snake.  The first of our games was a disappointing loss.  We hadn’t settled into our game and were probably pushing a bit hard.  Our second game, however was an action packed win that came down to Brett and Scout vs one opposition player.  While Scout battled, Bretty bunkered.  Over the course of the day, we had wins and losses.  We were even proud of those losses because we made every team work for it. 

As Snipers Den is such a spectator friendly venue, many players and spectators watch from the sidelines.  We felt some great excitement and love from the spectators throughout the day.  The reactions of onlookers when RC would pull out a win definitely got us fired up.  All the players that day were great sports and were very complimentary of our game. 

We went into our 9^th game of the day with 4 wins and 4 losses.  I don’t really remember the events that unfolded, but we were thrilled to pull out a win.  Thinking our day was over, we ripped our pads of celebrating that we’d won more games than we’d lost.  Until Aaron, who was running the chrono, called us up for the last game of the day.  We were in a slight state of shock but we managed to get padded up and ready just in time.  Well, ‘just in time’ is probably not what Reffs Inc would call it as they were all lounging in the middle of the field after being stood up for the last game of the day.  They were understanding and only stirred us up about it for a minute or so.  Again, I’m not sure how the game unfolded but I remember seeing only Scout on the D side while I was in the snake.  For what seemed like an eternity, an unbroken stream of paint rained into the gap of the snake, preventing me from bumping.  At some point I made the bump into the 50, but the steady stream of paint continued and I copped a hit in the shoulder.  Scout worked like a monster from his D side bunker and kept the wolves at bay for a short while longer but in the end we finished the day with 5 wins and 5 losses.  Despite the loss, I found myself fist pumping as I ran off the field.  As I was remarking about how hard we made the winning team work for their victory one of the opposing players came up to chat.  He explained that in that final game he and his boys were so determined to win that he personally used 8 pods of paint to lock me down in the snake.  As dramatic as that is, it’s even more so since RC shot 2 cases of paint over the course of the entire day.  At the end of the day, as is customary, the field owners and event organizers took to the stand to extend their gratitude and congratulations to players and support staff alike.  The placement of the 10 teams was announced from position 10 up.  When we were announced as 5^th all in attendance gave us a very gracious applause. 

For me, this tournament was easily one of the greatest weekends of paintball/paintball related stuff I've had in years. I've been living in Aus for a few years now, but am only just getting to the point where I can recognize players, reffs, and staff from other tournaments. So, I thoroughly enjoyed getting a chance to connect/reconnect with you all. I'm not sure who I want to thank first because the event was run so well, the venue was tight, Reffs Inc did a solid job as usual, and the general atmosphere was truly enjoyable... so I'd like to give that first shout out to my team mates Ed, Troy, Brett and Scout. Thanks for agreeing that making an 8 hour road trip to enter a semi tournament with pump guns was a good idea. I've read some generous comments about my day in the snake (I got lucky), but I was only trying to match the level of play that I knew the rest of my team were putting out. Thanks to all you who supported us from the sidelines. I'm not going to lie, that was a hard days work for us. Hearing the cheering and kind words helped us dig deep as the day went on. Again, the entire weekend was a positive experience for me so I couldn't really begin to explain my appreciation to everyone who deserves it. That said, I'd like to thank Tricky, Fuzzy, Em and Jilli for looking out for me on Sunday. It was nice sharing a meal with you all and getting to know you all a bit better. Jilli, and Troy if it weren't for you two I'd either be still stuck at the airport trying to get to the field, or stuck at the field trying to get to the airport. Thanks for looking out for me, I owe you guys. RC is going to make it's best effort to enter in as much of the series as we can... at least we can't complain about paint expenditure!

much love
(bumps heart with fist)

I’m trying to get raw footage of the other players online but have been having technical trouble.  I’ll get it up guys.  Meantime, here’s a split screen of our 2^nd game of the day:

 

RC Roster for PAVS Round 1

Ed

Troy

RC Red Star will be fielding a team in round 1 of the upcoming Paintball Association of Victoria Series (PAVS) .  Once again, round 1 will be held at Snipers Den in Mirrabin.  Last year they provided a fully netted, beautiful stretch of green grass, providing great play and opportunity to spectate.  Those of us used to playing in South Australia can't get enough of sliding around on that green turf. Ed and I have been hoping to be able to field a 5 man team for a while now.  Thankfully fellow pump enthusiasts Mark, Troy and Brett have joined the roster to field what will surely be the most formidable pump team in Australia.  Seriously, how many could there be? 

Mark aka Scout

Brett... that's some good reffing

Will

 

 

Last year, I attended round 1 when playing with team Fusion out of South Australia.  It's not pump paintball, but this video highlights the facilities as well as some of the local talent.

  

SAPPA 3 Man: November 6, 2011

Will, Rob, Ed

November 6, 2011 RC entered a team in the SAPPA 3 Man tournament at Skirmish SA.  Low team attendance had put a damper on the previous paintball season. We were looking forward to this event as the first step towards getting paintball competitions going again in South Australia.  A nice variety of players came out, ranging from experienced bushballers to first time players to experienced tournament players.  This was the first time RC Australia had competed against semi's in a tournament setting. No podium for RC this time, but we put up some good fight.

Highlight reel from the tournament:

Malice win vs RC:

RC win vs Malice:

Previous SA Tournaments

To date, RC Aus has only played in local SAPPA events here in South Australia. We are hoping to field a pump team in one of the upcoming PAVS tournaments in Victoria. The pictures below are from SAPPA 3 man Pump tournaments over the last season or two.

Simon aka Funky, Will aka Wimpy and Ed Munchen aka JSC Liason Neo

These are the first 3 jerseys for the Australian RC Red Star team. We changed from black to white tee's because of the extreme heat here in South Australia. Even in Virginia, during a long day of sun, we questioned the black tee's... but then we remembered how hard the look. Everything's in a bit of a USSR font. On the right sleeve is the Chinese character for 'rooster'. I miss the 'agg rooster' from the other jerseys, but I wasn't about to make that into a stencil again. Also don't miss the 'bomb' symbol on the bottom left. I think they came out pretty well considering I was using stencils and spraypaint. Unfortunately these are 2xl and aren't quite the size I'd like... but it's a start. Unfortunately, the paint stains looked quite undignified.

Ed, Will and Wagon aka Wags.

 

Wags, Ed, Will

Rockin' Cocks Australia

RC Red Star Aus is a pump paintball team based in Adelaide, South Australia.  We are a brother team of the Rockin'Cocks and RC Revolution out of the United States, as well as RC Sweden.  Though we have some dedicated members here in South Australia, we are still working towards steady participation in events both local and interstate.  Stay tuned for updates as we try to build a name for ourselves.  Check out the links to learn more about the other RC teams as well as their generous sponsors.