Hey, long time no see and if you're reading this then you obviously know it's that time again for another event review by yours truly. Once again I headed up to Illinois, Chicago for PSP's third event of the year held once again at the Bolingbrook Recreational Aquatic Center. The event as always had its ups and its downs but all around I felt it was another successful event by the PSP staff. Anyway, let's get started!
Tuesday - I had an early flight to Chicago, which I almost missed, and luckily ended up on the same plane as most of the guys from VCK, who are a local D3 team that play at my home field. After a pleasant flight followed by crappy landing I was able to bum a ride from O'hare to the event. When I left Houston whoever was on the radio said it was going to be the hottest day of the year thus far in Houston. When I landed in Chicago two hours later the same thing applied. It was pretty damn hot to say the least. That's the thing about PSP, just can't catch a break with the weather. It's always too hot, cold, windy, rainy, whatever, etc. Only once can I think of the weather actually cooperating and it was awesome. I run into Marlene and Tim and discuss the week's plan and find out who I'll be reffing with. Once again I was on the good old D1 field with such familiar faces as Amos, Jeb and Adam. New to the field were Seth, Benson, Kaarin (she's kinda new), Doc and three UK Refs, Russel, Gilly and Ant. I'd heard and read a lot of things about the UK Refs so I was kinda interested in seeing and working with them. I also find out that after we finish our morning bracket of D2 games we were moving to the Pro field to ref 8 Semi-Pro matches as the Pro refs weren't showing up till Thursday...how convenient. After spending a good part of the day sweating my ass off and hanging with the VCK guys I get picked up by Amos, Seth and Benson and we head to our hotel.
Wednesday - First day of the event and it can be described as such: HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! I have not reffed in heat like this since RCO two years ago and that sucked something fierce. I've been sitting here trying to remember something from this day but all I can think about was hot it was and arguing with Fagan when we moved to the the Pro field. What was the argument about? I can't even really remember other than it concerned the long ass breaks we would have between matches when all anyone wanted to do was get them the hell done. Intentions aside, all those breaks did was dry me out and bring me out of my reffing element (yeah I agree, sounds lame). One of the worst things you can do someone regardless of what it is they are doing is breaking that person's rhythm. The same thing applies to refereeing and especially on days like Wednesday. Other than that the games went well despite some minor discrepancies with the UK Refs, no biggie though. I made it through the heat alive and feeling ok. I probably drank almost three gallons of water and took several IB Profen capsules, totally worth it. After the day was over Amos, Seth, Benson and I went and ate at Wendy's, went back to the hotel and were asleep before 10:30PM.
Thursday - Lucked out and had a late start which meant we got to sleep in. Those two extra hours certainly helped after a day like Wednesday. Unfortunately, Thursday wasn't much cooler than Wednesday and after finishing our D2 bracket we went over to the Empire field and rotated crews with them but truthfully they did most of the work, which in my opinion, is only fair. Something worth noting was our lunch for Thursday, which were BBQ sandwiches. Why is this worth noting? Well because the sandwich was more grease than it was BBQ. Seriously, the bottom bun of the sandwich sopped up so much grease that it turned back to dough. I'm still not sure how I didn't throw that back up during the day. Also the games on the Empire field were much more intense than the games on our field despite the horribly uneven field. A player from Team Zone did a last second dive into the start station bashing himself good only to find out his team mate got a major thus still losing the game, sorry buddy.
Friday - On this day we start our D1 bracket...right after we ref various post-prelim games and by then that oppressive bastard the sun has effectively fried my brain. Also, Friday was my 26th birthday. Yep, for the second year in a row I spent my birthday reffing paintball, awesome. At least I got a lot of birthday wishes from the staff and fellow refs, even if it was creepy at times from Gilly. Another hot day but the games went by pretty smooth despite once again some discrepancies with the UK Refs, which were mostly just disagreements over calls. When the day was over Amos scored me a piece of cake and we then had dinner at A&W. Then went back to hotel and watched two hours of America's Funniest Videos. Yep, that's how I spent my golden birthday...sigh.
Saturday - Second day of D1 games which had some solid games of paintball or at least I think there were, I can't remember. During the course of the day Benson takes a few shots to the junk and has to come off the field. I volunteer to take his spot and ref about three points of the last match before lunch from the backline, a postion I haven't reffed since my first event almost three years ago. After we finished the last prelim game we waited around for an hour so we could run the two semi final games which were between CEP vs DBS and Palm Beach Venom vs Raiden with DBS and Palm Beach Venom moving on to play for first and second. That's right, the arguably best two teams at the event (CEP and Raiden) were not playing for 1st. When the day was over we went to CiCi's and loaded up on pizza, yum. Also a cold front moved through and dropped the temperature, nice.
Sunday - Last day of the event and with the much, much, much cooler weather, quite possibly the easiest. Started the day with D4 X-ball and yes I mean D4 X-ball. This game was ridiculous and we ended up throwing 5 majors in 5 points, the first major being thrown by yours truly. We then moved onto D3 consolation and finals, which were some pretty easy games to ref. D2 consolation and final was a little tougher but we made it through. The D1 Gentlemen's Final between CEP and Raiden was anything but. No matter how many penalties we threw on Raiden, CEP couldn't take advantage of it and the game went to overtime where CEP really dropped the ball getting a major and minor back to back right at the beginning of the overtime point, which by the way is limitless as far as time is concerned. We then sit around for two hours so we can ref the final match between DBS and PBV on the Pro field. When we finally get our chance it looked like DBS was going to blow PBV right out of the water but PBV held on pushing the game to overtime. DBS pulled out the victory winning their first tournament at the D1 level, congrats guys. Afterwards, I collected my check, said goodbye to everyone and moved my stuff over to VCK's hotel as Amos, Seth and Benson left early to go back home. I go out to dinner with the VCK guys at a pretty nice restaurant and get to sleep in a bed for the first time in almost a week.
Monday - Wake up early, pack my stuff and leave to go to the airport. I check my bags in and decide to take the Blue Line to downtown Chicago where I walked around for several hours, which was kinda fun and better than sitting around in an airport for 5 hours. Get home late worn out and tired with the memories of another event gone and done.
Well, that's it. Sorry there wasn't as much substance as some of the others but there wasn't too many exciting things that happened. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully I'll get to see everyone again.
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