The UWL (Ultimate Woodsball League) has gotten a ton of hype over the past few years and for some good reasons that I learned at the most recent UWL event in Southern California. I started playing paintball back in 1999 when woods ball was really the only thing at our local field. There were many woods fields and one speedball field, which at the time, was like woods ball with a few added hyperball tubes and spools to make the “bunkers” more playable. This was all we had and after this past weekend I realized how important that era of paintball was in shaping teamwork and communication, this is why I titled this article “Back to our Roots.” We (Dynasty) had practice on saturday at Camp Pendelton against the Ironmen and Houston Heat. It was our first weekend back together and using our new Field One guns but the only thing was we were going to skip practice against those teams to play the UWL on Sunday . This is where the team was a little conflicted. The older guys wanted to play the UWL and the younger guys wanted to practice at CP. Our biggest argument was that while playing in the woods might be fun we wouldn’t learn much or take anything of value away from the day even if we won. Boy were us youngins wrong!!!
Sunday morning we rolled up to SC village and I had some serious flashbacks of my childhood. We geared up like it was our first day of paintball. Everyone was telling jokes, especially Alex, and just in an overall good mood ready to have fun. We had our first game against the CP Raiders who have a bunch of full time woods ball players that had already walked the field for days and knew every angle out in the bushes. We were going to have to play really smart and cram some serious field walking in before our match.
The way we walked and had to analyze this style of field was so detailed that it made walking an NXL style field look like a piece of cake. Everything on a speedball style field is so straight forward in comparison to what we had to dissect out in the trenches. Then the game started…
The matches were 20 minutes long. I remember finding myself along the 40 yard line having a grueling battle with some enemies that were well over 100 feet away tucked behind branches and piles of sticks. The communication we had to have with each other was so incredibly detailed that it truly makes communicating on the Xball field also seem like a piece of cake. You had to truly explain every little detail and have full conversations with your teammates to understand what they saw. I think this plays a HUGE role in how players communicate today. I’ve noticed the newer players have such trouble communicating and the older players have it down to a science. I always chalked that up to experience, which I am sure plays a big part in it but now I realize that playing in the woods was certainly also a factor. Every young team should play some competitive paintball in the woods now. We were having so much fun organizing these big elaborate moves that encompassed all the necessary things to make moves on an Xball field, and more!
After winning the first game we went on to win our next two. The guns were shooting amazing and I was actually carrying 11 pods out there so I could make it rain for the entire 20 minutes. No joke my G6R was like magic. I would get a 4,000 PSI fill, shoot 11 pods and a hopper and still have like 2,000 PSI left. I might be exaggerating a TINY bit but it was just ridiculous the efficiency and accuracy of that thing!
Dynasty made it all the way to the finals and by now we had the rhythm of the field down. By this time, we understood what trenches were important and which spots we needed to hold down the fort. We had such a solid gameplan by now we were confident we were going to win. The team had a rematch against the CP raiders in the finals and it was one of the closest games I have ever played! Comparable to World Cup 2015 winning my fractions of a second!!! Each team had pulled the same amount of flags for virtually the same amount of time during the match and each team had 1 player left when the time expired. You get points based on how many flags you pull and how long you keep them pulled for so there is strategy in not only getting the flag but also protecting it. Both of our teams had the flags secured for virtually the SAME amount of time! Once the dust had settled and the refs were tallying up the points, we weren’t sure who won but we knew we just had an epic battle and it would come down to crunching the numbers. Fortunately, we won by having one of the flags for like 1 minute longer than them. It doesn’t get much closer than that! They played us excellent and it truly could have gone either way but I will take the victory and chalk it up as my first professional win in the WOODS!
We had a blast showcasing the new gear and having a fun competitive day in the woods together. I undoubtedly think we also took a lot of valuable things away from the day. We even had Kyle communicating in full sentences on the field and that never happens! Hopefully we can carry the beautiful teamwork and communication into the NXL Winter Classic this weekend! Safe to say I am sure we will enter another UWL if we get the chance and Dynasty is excited to continue the season in winning form! I advise all you kids to get out there and play a little woodsball, it might teach you a thing or two about teamwork, which is so important to the game of paintball! We had an absolutely BLAST and will be working hard to get back to the top of the podium this year. Don’t forget your roots !
Special CONGRATULATIONS goes out to my man Tyler Harmon for being the Scout MVP this event!!!
Words by:
Marcello Margott
Team Dynasty
MM33 | Paintball IQ
http://www.marcellomargott.com
Photos courtesy of 1904 Photography
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