Bigfoot Big Weekend Update Part II
Aug. 12th, 2003 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeNo doubt you've all been waiting with baited breath for the second installment. *cough*
We last left our, erm, heroes (and I use the term loosely), being awakened at 5am by blaring alarm clocks combined with the Wargame soundtrack compiled by the SLM which was composed of Wagners Ride of the Valkyries, the theme music for the Death Star, and various bits from Good Morning, Vietnam!.
April and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rotagar had arrived around 1am, and Fernando arrived at about 3am, so we were all present and accounted for save two people who were to meet us later.
People stumbled around getting ready, and by 6am we were dressed, photos had been taken, and we were off to McDonald's for breakfast, asit is written tradition would have it. We met up with Yohan, the last member of Black Tide to make an appearance that day (we were expecting someone else who never bothered to show). As I mentioned in my post last Friday, we decided to change the group name because the francophone organisers mangled it severely last year. We chose Black Tide because it A) sounds cool, and B) translates nicely into French.
The wait for registration took forfreakingever that morning. We arrived at seven am and didn't get registered until 8:30. The organisers clearly hadn't thought to prepare for the onslaught of 600+ people who'd be participating this year, and so everything slowed to a crawl, delaying the start of the game by over an hour.
After that rocky start, things got underway most satisfactorily. At the signal we all charged out —well, we trotted out in single file, but it was still impressive, and went off to assault the helicopter (which is a metallic contruct painted black and shaped to look like a downed Blackhawk, as far as I could tell), and then things went awry again.fearsclave and rotagar followed the wrong person and ended up on a peninsula in the middle of a small pond, and April and I ended up on the wrong side of the field. I got shot in the first ten minutes of play, and had to go back.
We regrouped, and set out once more through the swampy ground. It was literally a swamp: water, marshes, lots of mud and high grass that one could tromp through most satisfactorily. In fact, that part of the field is known as "Cambodia." We all belly-crawled through the raspberry bushes, sank up to our thighs in the mud, and generally got very wet and very muddy. Lots of fun.
We assaulted a hill, took down a bunch of snipers, captured two flags and assisted in the capture of three more (sadly I was present for none of these events, but the team was involved). I spent a lot of time running up and down hills, throwing myself behind various forms of cover, belly-crawling for over 50 yards (go me!) and getting shot, and then sniping at people trying to get one of our flags, artistically camouflaged byfearsclave's CADPAT cammo net.
Two Bad Things happened to me in the morning: 1) my paintball marker was fubar and jammed every twenty balls, wouldn't fire more than fifty yards and at the end the safety catch got completely stuck. I was unamused. 2) the swamps in Cambodia were covered in places with rickety raft-like constructions, which I discovered —to the detriment of my left knee and ankle— were kind of rotten in places.
So, not fun that. The rest was cool.
Lunch was a subdued affair all in all, with long lineups for food and various comparing of bruises and what have you. I got my paintball marker changed for a "new" one, and did a bit of stretching and moving around, as the kneepads I got were a wee bit too tight and were kinda cutting off my circulation.
There was no squad uniform contest at lunch. We were miffed.
However, due to the strict enforcement of the new no-cheating rules, and because we 0wnz0r3d the field that morning, the scores of the four teams were as followed:
Germany: 5
Cuba: 10
Pakistan: 27
Japan (us): 263 (or thereabouts)
We r0xx0rz, yeth, we do (and did).
Bolstered by this prood of our studliness, we headed once more into the breach. Our team once more kicked ass in a superlative way, capturing three flags and assisting in the capture of three or four more.
Once again I was nowhere near them, but at least this time around I got some good shooting in, namely, I got to chase The Tank for half an hour. The Tank is in fact a large armoured all-terrain vehicle driven by a neutral driver which can be commandeered for a maximum of five minutes at a time by any of the four teams. Of course, this doesn't prevent the other teams from assaulting it, which was what I and a bunch of others did. We captured the tank three times in that half-hour span, and did mucho damage to the opposing teams.
Why was I never with my teammates, you ask? Good question. See, last year I discovered that my glasses don't fit under my paintball mask, so I don't wear them under there, and I have no contact lenses. Last year it wasn't a problem, but I discovered this year that my eyesight has deteriorated considerably, and I can't see for shit without my glasses. So I was following some people dressed mostly in black from far away, who roughly matched the description of my teammates.
*sigh*
It was still lots of fun.
fearsclave and firewillow both stormed a nasty evil hill aptly nicknamed Hamburger Hill, and of course they totally 0wnz0r3d it, fearsclave even pulling off the capture of a flag while they were at it. There were many very studly charges, although there was no rebel yell involved, which was too bad.
It was after that that we came to the conclusion that: A)fearsclave was on the point of collapsing into a heap after all that storming of hills, B) firewillow was having issues with her breathing, and C) my left leg had completely seized up after the sprain I gave them that morning coupled with half an hour's worth of sprinting after an ATV. I am also in terrible physical condition and was suffering horribly from the heat by then.
We called it quits a little before the end of the second game.
The rest of the team plowed ahead, although some of them were looking a little the worse for wear as well. I found the SLM slumped on a bench, looking tired and dejected, and he announced pitifully that he'd lost his canteen and his guppy (a container for paintballs) and he was out of paint. I took pity on the guy, gave him some water and two hundred of my paintballs and sympathised with his plight, and suddenly he was up and raring to have another go at the enemy. So at least I was useful before I went off to collapse.
We still 0wnz0r3d the field.
We got robbed yet again in the squad uniform contest. This other team of five mismatched people got the prize because they'd made themselves a flag and arm patches. *sigh* My theory is that they didn't want to give it to us because we sort of asked several times whether there was to be a contest and they got pissed off at us. I mean, we all matched perfectly, and we rocked everyone's socks, we did. Black Tide are becoming minor celebrities of the Mega Wargame now. *proud beam*
So we returned to the Shack, stopping briefly for food for that night's barbecue. We lostfirewillow and fishstalker, as well as Maggy and J-F and Fernando, who all had to be in town for various appointments. It was too bad, but hopefully next year they'll be able to stay for longer. Everyone without exception expressed great enthusiasm at the idea of coming back, and we have a few more people who want to join us. Because we rule. Yes.
Everyone collapsed at the Shack, and there was the obligatory comparison of welts and bruises and the exchanging of new war stories. Barbecue was delicious (fearsclave barbecues a mean chicken breast), and we all sat around shooting the breeze and watching rotagar establish himself as the alpha by getting down on all fours on top of Angus (the West Highland Terrier) and grabbing him by the scruff of the neck with his teeth. No one really felt compelled to tell rotagar that this was probably a little excessive. Angus was rather traumatised and ran off to hide under a bed for a while until he was lured out once more by the smell of hamburger.
I called it a night around midnight, and I'm fairly sure no one stayed up much later than that.
Am off to bed. Details of what happened Sunday to follow in another post.
We last left our, erm, heroes (and I use the term loosely), being awakened at 5am by blaring alarm clocks combined with the Wargame soundtrack compiled by the SLM which was composed of Wagners Ride of the Valkyries, the theme music for the Death Star, and various bits from Good Morning, Vietnam!.
April and
rotagar had arrived around 1am, and Fernando arrived at about 3am, so we were all present and accounted for save two people who were to meet us later. People stumbled around getting ready, and by 6am we were dressed, photos had been taken, and we were off to McDonald's for breakfast, as
The wait for registration took forfreakingever that morning. We arrived at seven am and didn't get registered until 8:30. The organisers clearly hadn't thought to prepare for the onslaught of 600+ people who'd be participating this year, and so everything slowed to a crawl, delaying the start of the game by over an hour.
After that rocky start, things got underway most satisfactorily. At the signal we all charged out —well, we trotted out in single file, but it was still impressive, and went off to assault the helicopter (which is a metallic contruct painted black and shaped to look like a downed Blackhawk, as far as I could tell), and then things went awry again.
fearsclave and rotagar followed the wrong person and ended up on a peninsula in the middle of a small pond, and April and I ended up on the wrong side of the field. I got shot in the first ten minutes of play, and had to go back.We regrouped, and set out once more through the swampy ground. It was literally a swamp: water, marshes, lots of mud and high grass that one could tromp through most satisfactorily. In fact, that part of the field is known as "Cambodia." We all belly-crawled through the raspberry bushes, sank up to our thighs in the mud, and generally got very wet and very muddy. Lots of fun.
We assaulted a hill, took down a bunch of snipers, captured two flags and assisted in the capture of three more (sadly I was present for none of these events, but the team was involved). I spent a lot of time running up and down hills, throwing myself behind various forms of cover, belly-crawling for over 50 yards (go me!) and getting shot, and then sniping at people trying to get one of our flags, artistically camouflaged by
fearsclave's CADPAT cammo net.Two Bad Things happened to me in the morning: 1) my paintball marker was fubar and jammed every twenty balls, wouldn't fire more than fifty yards and at the end the safety catch got completely stuck. I was unamused. 2) the swamps in Cambodia were covered in places with rickety raft-like constructions, which I discovered —to the detriment of my left knee and ankle— were kind of rotten in places.
So, not fun that. The rest was cool.
Lunch was a subdued affair all in all, with long lineups for food and various comparing of bruises and what have you. I got my paintball marker changed for a "new" one, and did a bit of stretching and moving around, as the kneepads I got were a wee bit too tight and were kinda cutting off my circulation.
There was no squad uniform contest at lunch. We were miffed.
However, due to the strict enforcement of the new no-cheating rules, and because we 0wnz0r3d the field that morning, the scores of the four teams were as followed:
Germany: 5
Cuba: 10
Pakistan: 27
Japan (us): 263 (or thereabouts)
We r0xx0rz, yeth, we do (and did).
Bolstered by this prood of our studliness, we headed once more into the breach. Our team once more kicked ass in a superlative way, capturing three flags and assisting in the capture of three or four more.
Once again I was nowhere near them, but at least this time around I got some good shooting in, namely, I got to chase The Tank for half an hour. The Tank is in fact a large armoured all-terrain vehicle driven by a neutral driver which can be commandeered for a maximum of five minutes at a time by any of the four teams. Of course, this doesn't prevent the other teams from assaulting it, which was what I and a bunch of others did. We captured the tank three times in that half-hour span, and did mucho damage to the opposing teams.
Why was I never with my teammates, you ask? Good question. See, last year I discovered that my glasses don't fit under my paintball mask, so I don't wear them under there, and I have no contact lenses. Last year it wasn't a problem, but I discovered this year that my eyesight has deteriorated considerably, and I can't see for shit without my glasses. So I was following some people dressed mostly in black from far away, who roughly matched the description of my teammates.
*sigh*
It was still lots of fun.
fearsclave and firewillow both stormed a nasty evil hill aptly nicknamed Hamburger Hill, and of course they totally 0wnz0r3d it, fearsclave even pulling off the capture of a flag while they were at it. There were many very studly charges, although there was no rebel yell involved, which was too bad.It was after that that we came to the conclusion that: A)
fearsclave was on the point of collapsing into a heap after all that storming of hills, B) firewillow was having issues with her breathing, and C) my left leg had completely seized up after the sprain I gave them that morning coupled with half an hour's worth of sprinting after an ATV. I am also in terrible physical condition and was suffering horribly from the heat by then.We called it quits a little before the end of the second game.
The rest of the team plowed ahead, although some of them were looking a little the worse for wear as well. I found the SLM slumped on a bench, looking tired and dejected, and he announced pitifully that he'd lost his canteen and his guppy (a container for paintballs) and he was out of paint. I took pity on the guy, gave him some water and two hundred of my paintballs and sympathised with his plight, and suddenly he was up and raring to have another go at the enemy. So at least I was useful before I went off to collapse.
We still 0wnz0r3d the field.
We got robbed yet again in the squad uniform contest. This other team of five mismatched people got the prize because they'd made themselves a flag and arm patches. *sigh* My theory is that they didn't want to give it to us because we sort of asked several times whether there was to be a contest and they got pissed off at us. I mean, we all matched perfectly, and we rocked everyone's socks, we did. Black Tide are becoming minor celebrities of the Mega Wargame now. *proud beam*
So we returned to the Shack, stopping briefly for food for that night's barbecue. We lost
firewillow and fishstalker, as well as Maggy and J-F and Fernando, who all had to be in town for various appointments. It was too bad, but hopefully next year they'll be able to stay for longer. Everyone without exception expressed great enthusiasm at the idea of coming back, and we have a few more people who want to join us. Because we rule. Yes.Everyone collapsed at the Shack, and there was the obligatory comparison of welts and bruises and the exchanging of new war stories. Barbecue was delicious (
fearsclave barbecues a mean chicken breast), and we all sat around shooting the breeze and watching rotagar establish himself as the alpha by getting down on all fours on top of Angus (the West Highland Terrier) and grabbing him by the scruff of the neck with his teeth. No one really felt compelled to tell rotagar that this was probably a little excessive. Angus was rather traumatised and ran off to hide under a bed for a while until he was lured out once more by the smell of hamburger.I called it a night around midnight, and I'm fairly sure no one stayed up much later than that.
Am off to bed. Details of what happened Sunday to follow in another post.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 08:43 pm (UTC)Damn you.
(note to self: distract cousin and steal his stuff.)
Sounds like you had fun. ^_^
Come on...
Date: 2003-08-12 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 08:51 pm (UTC)Yes, I did indeed have nightcrawlers in my mouth.
Also sounds like you had a wonderful time :) Am v. jealous.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 06:01 am (UTC)