PSP World Cup 2008

Hey everyone here's another brief event review of the latest and last PSP event of the year, World Cup. The biggest and (supposed) best event of the year was held once again at Disney's Wide World of Sports. Every year hundreds of teams from around the world show up to this event to play and most of them go home with pretty much for the most part some great memories with their friends. This is my third World Cup and in my honest opinion this World Cup falls right in place with the other two minus the obscene treatment by the players a la 2006 and the ridiculous work load a la 2007. Anyways, let's get this thing over with.

Tuesday - Fly in early Tuesday morning and get picked up by O-town with JT. We drive out to the event, check out some of the vendors who were there, see some other people and then over to the Days Inn, which is the same shitty hotel I've stayed at the past two Cups. We get there, meet up with some other people, grab something to eat and sit around shooting the shit. Eventually, everyone arrives and we start getting ready for tomorrow.

Wednesday - Probably the easiest day of the tournament with a 9:18AM start, nice. We only had 12 games and all D2. The refs were Jake, Jeb, Adam, Jimbo, Andrea, Pig Pen, Logan, myself, Porno Paulie as Ultimate and Will as the "new guy." Several of the teams were foreigners which always makes things a little tricky/aggravating. A majority of the time they don't understand you nor do they understand the rules. The surprise and bewilderment of "what did I do wrong" loses it's humor fairly quickly. As always Naughty Leps decided to stake their claim as Kings of the Major Penalty quite early on leaving me to wonder why they still come to these tournaments. It was a fairly sunny day but nothing terrible. I decided to try out wearing shorts while I reffed and it wasn't too bad. The coaches from Fierce recognized my old ass Redz knee/shin pads and from that point on referred to me as the "OG Ref," to which I just rolled my eyes at. Speaking of Fierce in their match against Pintura Fresca or whatever, a PF player was hit at the X and when I went to pull him the jackass spun on me, pointed the barrel at my face and nearly blew my head off, thanks asshole.

Thursday - Pretty much the same as Wednesday, same teams but now teams that played in the morning play in the afternoon and vice versa. I was pretty impressed by the play of some of the foreign teams like Supremacy as they had a real good showing. They also had a match against Pintura Fresca (I'm not going to look up these guys names, screw'em) where the only english speaking individuals were the refs, hurrah. Raiden and Fierce played really well and Naughty Leps had no intention of giving up their Kingship.

Friday - This day we moved onto D1 and had an earlier start that Wednesday and Thursday. At this event we had 15 D1 teams which is good for one reason alone; no 5-man. RNT for some odd reason decided not to show up for this event while Vipers made a concerted effort to play the best event of their lives. Other teams like Cross Eyed Paintball, Red NRG, Nexus and a couple of others also had a good tournament. All-Stars International made a return showing as once again the whipping boy of D1. I really don't think more things could have gone wrong for them at this event. Their first point played, I catch them with a gun shooting 15.1 bps and from there they became the newest residents of Major City. These guys just couldn't catch a break and at times I feel bad for them because it literally does look like we're picking on them when in reality it's their own fault. A majority of the individuals on the team do not speak a common language nor have they even practiced together. These guys walk on the field together, point to the bunkers they're going to off the break and the proceed to get blasted off the field and pick up playing on penalties along the way. Sorry guys, really, nothing personal just business...

Saturday - Just like Friday but more intense as now a lot of teams tournaments are on the line. Also the day started out raining but the sun was out and shining by noon and it got fairly warm. Missed a wiping call as I was pulling a player and assessing a penalty in the middle of the field, kind of bummed out by that one but not totally my fault. The games went on and the day finally ended. I stuck around and cleaned part of the field with the hose, that was some fun stuff [/sarcasm]. Don't really remember much else from this day, sorry.

Sunday - The last day of the tournament (obviously) and the most intense. We started out the morning with 4 D1 games trying to determine seeding for finals. RNT held on to survive against Red NRG but got blown out against Vicious and Vipers beat out Damage and CEP to move onto the finals. In Vipers' game against CEP the game came down to the wire as both teams were sitting on the points. The last CEP player is assessed a major penalty for playing on in the last 1.4 seconds left in the match. Because of the time limit it is an automatic point swing to Vipers thus Vipers wins 3-2. As Paulie was sorting out the call, I grab my water bottle to take a drink. Vipers who were in my pits asked me what was going on and I explain to them what I saw which was CEP receiving the penalty and giving the point and win to Vipers. Now, I was only 85% sure that that was what actually happened but managed to leave that part out in my explanation. The buzzer sounds, I walk off the field and Vipers start celebrating. As they're walking on to shake hands with a very upset CEP, I walk up to the netting and say, "Oh hey guys, the penalty was against y'all, you didn't win." Everyone on Vipers stops dead in their tracks, mouths drop open and looks of horror and disbelief cross their faces. Before anyone could say a word I said, "Nah, I'm just joking, you won," and then bust up laughing. Of course no one on Vipers thought this was funny at all but I got a good laugh.

The days goes on and we move to the NXL field to ref D3, D2, D1 finals and consolation. Pretty much everything goes smooth till the last game between Vipers and Vicious. This match started out all Vipers going up 3-0 but it didn't take long for Vicious to wake back up and start taking the game away. There was some controversy at the end with overshooting calls against Vipers and then a fight breaking out between Thomas Taylor and Mouse after the game was over but whatever because at this point the tournament was over and that was that. I sat around for a bit, drank some water, said congrats and good-byes to the players I get along with and that was the end of it. Went to the bar that night and got somewhat drunk, that felt good.

Monday - Woke up early and got all my stuff together and got a ride to the airport from good ol' O-Town. I checked my bags, got some breakfast and waited around till it was time for my plane to leave. Didn't have to deal with same bullshit like I did at NEO so that was a relief. Got home in the afternoon, took a shower and went to bed early.

So that's it, another tournament and another season done and gone. I'd like to thank all my friends and colleagues for yet another great season. Thanks to Amos, Travis, Pig Pen, Andrea, Jimbo, Jeb, Smalls, Logan, Adam, Jake, Paulie, Diaz, Tim, Marlene, Marcus and everyone else. Have a great off season, I wish you all the best...