SG39 – OKC’s Official Statement

By Murdoc:

Like rough sex with a stranger, there was no morning kiss, no breakfast in bed and certainly no meeting the parents. We weren’t looking for love, not at all, instead we were there to drink booze, break some yellow army vixen hearts and in the morning drive home with another victory to etched on our bedpost. For 365 days, Red Army soldiers have pre-planned the preplanning, had check every list twice and made damn sure we were bringing the goods to get the job done at Supergame 39.

Instead of an elongated orgasm of paintball awesomeness, Red Army reverted back to its pubescent days. Like the kid who drank too much before the party started, Red Army couldn’t rise to the occasion and left with nothing but a sore crotch (or ass, mattering on the tent you slept in) and a hang over.

In the lack of Supergame afterglow, I’ll present my personal thoughts on the event; yes, that means the good, the bad and the strange.

This years’ event was both blessed and cursed. Blessed in the fact we received three days of sunshine paintball bliss. Cursed because we lost a dear fellow paintballer to health complications. Bryce Hotchkiss (31), fell in the opening minutes of Saturdays game to a seizure, which he ultimately never recovered from. Bryce was not a close friend of ours, but from what we have gathered, he was one heck of a guy. Him and others had made the trek from Idaho to join some friends in town for the game. An unfortunate situation, yes, but as his friends have said, he died doing something he absolutely loved. So here’s to you, brother!

Friday was dedicated to seeing the old faces we’ve missed for so long. In something similar to a drunken stooper, we managed to get camp set up and stagger the orchard looking for our friends from afar. It was a special day, not only was it the first day of Supergame, but rather our good friend and long time OKC member was coming in from California, Frank “MightyMo” Beaker. For OKC, getting to see Frank was a big deal and that alone was worth paying for the event.

After a mushy kiss and borderline gay hug, I took to the field to see the new construction.

The Field:

It was quick to tell someone had put some work into the field. There were new bunkers, new tank roads, new travel paths, new bridges, new spawn areas and extended netting. Big thank you to everyone who leant a hand in the construction and clearing.

I was honestly a little worried with the Red spawn since it had been pushed backwards from previous SG’s, but I knew it wouldn’t single handedly kill our buzz.

Friday Night Game:

The game objectives were kept to the DMZ and Darkwood Fort. I must say I liked the hell out of the format. The night game flowed well, stayed compact and offered some intense fights. This year players were provided glow sticks that were mandatory to have on our markers in order to distinguish teams…. Which was a great idea by the way.

At games start I was certain Red Army was going to do well. The game duration was only two hours and our General “Smeed” had provided us a fantastic plan to ensure a victory. OK Company was tasked with hitting the first objective, Darkwood Fort. Our group consisted of 20 players, 4 large spotlights and one set of night vision. Team AFL was going to flank our right side and come up the Swamp side of DWF and meet us in the middle.

OKC new the Renegade force of 30+ players would be held up around Darkwood, we also knew Yellow Army was going to push the objective as well. So once in a strategic part of the forest, we held back, let Yellow and the Renegades eat each other up and then we moved in. In fine OKC style we got right up in their faces and finally over powered the objective. It wasn’t an easy fight by any means. Those Ganggreen renegades deserve some credit for putting up one heck of a fight, especially for being surrounded.

I remember lying on my stomach next to ScPhantom about 10ft from the fort walls when he looked over at me and said, “cover my ass. I’m going to crawl and get that fucking flag!” That was one brave move. Renegades were shooting directly over our heads, plus he had to cross through spot lights, risk getting shot at the entrance while pulling the flag and the son of bitch did it! Right after SC pulled the flag, who other than Frog came running up next to me as we stormed the Fort walls. I’m sure we shot people inside that place up close, so if it was you, we apologize.

Once we over took DWF, we pushed out our parameter, linked up with AFL (who had Thermal) and liquidated the incoming yellow players. At the end of the hourly objective, we secured the points and moved on to the DMZ where our friends from Central Oregon, the Moongobbies and the Walkons had already put in some work. The second hour was dedicated to some CQB in the town. My most memorable moment was having Shrek cover my ass as Wilson; Trinket and myself rushed across the street the next set of enemy occupied buildings.

The second hour finally came, which provided another 100 points to the Red Army, making the day a total of 200 – 0 in Reds favor….. Too bad it didn’t last.

Saturday Supergame:

Saturday started a little off kilter. I was a little worried about Reds access to the DMZ in comparison to Yellow. I had an underlying feeling that we needed to put more attention there instead of other areas, but it was simply a hunch.

The game started, OKC headed to Darkwood. We got there first and dug in. After a few minutes of play, a “freeze” call came over the field and unfortunately this is when Bryce Hotchkiss went down. From what I gathered, numerous players rose to the occasion and did what CPR they could to revive him, help get him off the field and ultimately to the hospital.

After about 30 minutes, the game re-started. Once again OKC headed to Darkwood, but this time it was different. For some reason Yellow beat us there and had time to dig in. It was opposite the time before and we didn’t slow down. But, whatever, we gave them hell, pushed them back and finally out of Darkwood. OKC held and held darkwood (with the help of some Moongobbies and others) until a few hours later when the objective was finally up and we earned the points.

Now this is where Red makes one decision that costs them the day… after the Darkwood fight, OKC is out of paint, air and are hungry. We head off the field to eat and re-up. Well, evidently so did the rest of the red army. Yellow stormed the field and dug in. From that point forward it was an uphill battle the rest of Saturday. Yellow was on the ball and marching.

By the time all of OKC was back in the game, the enemy had done such a great job; they had taken the Hideout objective. That was unacceptable. So, we ran up behind the objective and dropped in. Once down to the creek line heavy fire broke out. The grass was about 4-½ ft tall and surrounded a wooded area that held the objective. Like Vietnam, we forged across the crick and into the grass trails. The firefights grew and grew and grew until finally there was no other sound than paintball guns firing. It was the most paint I’ve ever seen fly at once in my entire life. Ultimately, was able to belly crawl in through the back entrance to the objective. By then other OKC had secured the flag and I was merely shooting Yellow as they poured in to the area. At one point I remember not knowing who was friend or foe due to the grass height and amount players from both teams rushing the area. I walked away from that fight with some nice welts. By hours end, Red held the objective and received the points.

The next objective was BB hill, so we used the time to re-up on paint/air and head to the final objective, the DMZ.

Now for the strange/bad portion of SG. After Red won Darkwood fort at 1 o’clock, we all left the field and Yellow took over control. So basically from that time on, Red was stuck in their spawn. Even knowing this, and knowing that Yellow was down in points, the staff made a minor objective for 50pts in the DMZ which was held by yellow at the time. That to me ruined the integrity of the game. Red pushed on though, finally gaining control of the objective, but ended up losing it in the final seconds… which is whole other story…. But continuing on. The final DMZ battle was great and ended with Yellow wanting it more than Red. By Saturdays end, Red Army led the war by 50pts.

Sunday Spoils of War:

Sunday is where Red made some fundamental mistakes. First we chose Darkwood instead in the DMZ which killed us in the long run, second, our teams weren’t coordinated (everyone got spread out) and moral was down.

OKC was tasked with holding Darkwood right of the bat. At game start we met the wave of yellow players rushing us from the DMZ. We dug in the best we could to give them hell. It was a back and forth fights until ultimately our respawns around us were limited to our initial red spawn. At that point fatigue set in and Yellow won the war of attrition. I must say though, I had some awesome pushes with the Moongobbies and OKC up the side hills during the day to retake Darkwood.

Once Darkwood fell, it was game over. We didn’t own the DMZ and rightfully couldn’t re-supply troops anywhere. Yellow would ultimately own the day and secure an overall victory for the weekend.

Even after the loss, OK Company was honored with the “Most Valuable Scenario Team” award voted on by all team captains. Though we don’t play for awards, I was glad my team’s work went noticed.

Overall, I had a blast. I accomplished what I wanted. Having fun, visiting with friends and smoking cigars were on the agenda and damn it, I succeeded. Both teams played their hearts out and my hat is off to everyone who attended. Supergame is a great event for our scene and we are lucky to have in our backyard. It provides the opportunity to get together, have some fun, trade some paint and meet new people. Dan and his crew do a great job at making everyone feel welcome and cater to people’s special needs.

What needs to be looked at for years to come? I think the red spawn should be analyzed a LITTLE. With the right plan of attack on the DMZ it may not have turned out to be so bad. With that, we need to be sure staff knows when and how to use the renegades. Sunday I came off the field and watched Renegade players in the DMZ shooting down into the Red spawn. There is something wrong with that picture.

Reds spawn can’t be blamed for the loss, but it does affect the game a little. I’d be curious to run it and see how both spawns measure out in time and paces.

Will OKC attend SG in the future? I know I’d like to, but as a team, the consensus is leaning the opposite way. People claim politics and debauchery run the game…. But I’ll save that for another article!

Cheers!

Murdoc