Were you there? How did it stack up against other events so far??
Did you win lose or draw? Pick up any bargains at the trade stands?
Did you win lose or draw? Pick up any bargains at the trade stands?
Campaign Cup review
- Thread starter Dusty
- Start date
I was there Pitting for my team Redskins on Sat and Sunday. Our games were at 3.30pm 4.30pm and 5pm on the sat. It was dark gloomy and raining and although we played OK, the marshalling did not work to our advantage. Basically in 2 games we had 5 x 1-4-1's. Bit of an eye opener and to say it rained on our parade was just one of those things. we lost our first 2 games but managed to win the final game of the day. I think that as our games were late in the day the atmosphere in general was crap but think that the weather played a large part of that.
We then had our final 2 games at 8.00am and 8.30 am on the sunday morning, and again was dark and gloomy, The field played better than the one we were on the day before and in my opinion the marshaling was a lot better. We won a couple of points but still lost and packed up for the day.
I did stay there until 10.30am and as it was still raining and a bit gloomy did decide to come home as my wife had loads of jobs for me to do
The trade side of things was pretty good and you could buy practically anything you wanted or needed but I did not see anything that I Had to buy or was a cheap enough deal to justify the expense.
Did meet up with some old friends and did watch a load of games on the internet when I got home for my jobs but I felt this event was a little "Flat" but it may have been due to the weather in parts. The afternoon on the sunday the weather did improve but I was quite happy to be watching at home with a beer after finishing the chores !!!!
Was gutted i did not play but was good to be in the pits with the team and chat with some of the other teams that played Race 2. Nexus Kids, Couple of Samurai Teams, Whazzup Moscow and cant remember the other team we played.
See you all there in 12 months time !
We then had our final 2 games at 8.00am and 8.30 am on the sunday morning, and again was dark and gloomy, The field played better than the one we were on the day before and in my opinion the marshaling was a lot better. We won a couple of points but still lost and packed up for the day.
I did stay there until 10.30am and as it was still raining and a bit gloomy did decide to come home as my wife had loads of jobs for me to do
The trade side of things was pretty good and you could buy practically anything you wanted or needed but I did not see anything that I Had to buy or was a cheap enough deal to justify the expense.
Did meet up with some old friends and did watch a load of games on the internet when I got home for my jobs but I felt this event was a little "Flat" but it may have been due to the weather in parts. The afternoon on the sunday the weather did improve but I was quite happy to be watching at home with a beer after finishing the chores !!!!
Was gutted i did not play but was good to be in the pits with the team and chat with some of the other teams that played Race 2. Nexus Kids, Couple of Samurai Teams, Whazzup Moscow and cant remember the other team we played.
See you all there in 12 months time !
I couldn't go because of a knee injury. A lot of people I know played, and there seems to be a lot of disappointment in the British camp.
That said, some cracking games from Team GB and Disruption.
The people that I know that just went to spectate had a great time.
I'm looking forward to Ash writing up the Nexus experience, and of course hipjaw's blog, which are both essential reading.
That said, some cracking games from Team GB and Disruption.
The people that I know that just went to spectate had a great time.
I'm looking forward to Ash writing up the Nexus experience, and of course hipjaw's blog, which are both essential reading.
Had a cracking weekend - camped on site and pit crewed for Cardinals (tooo much money for me to play with a new car needed...)
I found it well organised, the reffing was efficient and fair, if VERY strict compared to normal UK events. My team, Cardinals 3, had a tough event, it was only the second time most of the lads had played together, and they were bumped up from Breakout when it didn't run. That said, they pulled at least a point in all but one match and won one 2-0, as well as taking the eventual runners up to 1-1, before losing after getting a penalty of the break (one of our guys went went the buzzer went on the next field)
Got to meet lots of people I I haven;t seen for a while, bought some lovely kit and dribbled over some other stuff I couldn't afford. Food was okay, and not too expensive, although getting a cold drink was a nightmare and not cheap. The Eclipse tent was impressive (and sold me a wonderful umbrella!). Shame the Dye tent had no product on display, and was almost always empty of people - it seemed to be only catering to the teams rather than casual punters...
Only minor things to worry about were that it was tricky to work out who was playing when on the CPL field - a giant schedule by the stands might have helped, especially if they ticked off the games as they finished. I'd also like to have been able to get the webcast commentary somehow beyond costing a fortune streaming it on the phone.
I found it well organised, the reffing was efficient and fair, if VERY strict compared to normal UK events. My team, Cardinals 3, had a tough event, it was only the second time most of the lads had played together, and they were bumped up from Breakout when it didn't run. That said, they pulled at least a point in all but one match and won one 2-0, as well as taking the eventual runners up to 1-1, before losing after getting a penalty of the break (one of our guys went went the buzzer went on the next field)
Got to meet lots of people I I haven;t seen for a while, bought some lovely kit and dribbled over some other stuff I couldn't afford. Food was okay, and not too expensive, although getting a cold drink was a nightmare and not cheap. The Eclipse tent was impressive (and sold me a wonderful umbrella!). Shame the Dye tent had no product on display, and was almost always empty of people - it seemed to be only catering to the teams rather than casual punters...
Only minor things to worry about were that it was tricky to work out who was playing when on the CPL field - a giant schedule by the stands might have helped, especially if they ticked off the games as they finished. I'd also like to have been able to get the webcast commentary somehow beyond costing a fortune streaming it on the phone.
Extremely late to the party with this thread but since it was my first mills, I'd like to weigh in.
In short, it was an amazing experience. People always talk about how strict the MS refs are but from what I experienced on the OD2 field, they were no stricter than at CPPS. Being able to play, explore a reasonably large trade area and also watch multiple divisions of paintball being played out over multiple days was a really worthwhile experience. Credit where credit is due, the MS wasn't THAT much better than CPPS in terms of field organisation and scoring, but that is more due to how good CPPS is nowadays. One major difference I did note was that it takes a hell of a lot longer to fill out the team sheets at Mills (you need to complete a sheet for each game you play with all your players' names and their ID numbers) as opposed to what we're used to at CPPS and they don't give you much leeway in terms of time but as long as you're organised, it's not a problem.
Yes it's significantly more expensive that domestic leagues but in my opinion, simply having the chance to play foreign teams makes it worthwhile.
In terms of personal stories, we left Edinburgh at 4am on Friday. After missing the M11 turn off and getting severely lost in deepest-darkest England, we eventually rocked up at Basildon around midday. Obligatory Mcdonald's consumed, we headed to the site to get registered and watch as much paintball as possible. We had 5 prelim games, 3 lined up for Saturday morning and 2 around lunchtime on Sunday.
Dragging ourselves out of bed around 6am on Saturday, we headed to the field super early to make sure we were ready for our 8.15am game. It seemed to pass in the blink of an eye but by about 10am, we'd finished our first 3 games winning 2-1 against Mayhem Knights, losing 1-2 against Evilmen Toulouse then winning 2-0 against Ugly Ducklings 3 (Barnett's team for the event...). This put us mid-pack which we were pretty happy about for our first mills! Sunday came round and we had the long wait to prepare for our games. I'd been warned that they don't usher you at all Mills so was quite worried about the field running ahead of schedule. Several back and forth trips later, I was reasonably confident we were on time so managed to watch a few pro games. We had some of the last OD2 prelim games so there were plenty of people watching. We ended up beating Assala Libreville and Operation Sandbaggers 2-0 which spectacularly stuck us in 1st place in our group!
We had about 20minutes before we then had to play our final 16s game. We came up against a tough team called Rotterdam Supreme (who told us we were going to lose before the game [totally quaking in my boots...]). It went to a third point and then overtime but we managed to squeeze them out (I even bunkered the last guy!). Came off the field, went to shake their hands but got grabbed by a table official who told us they were waiting for us on the SPL2 field for our quarter finals game and that we had 3 minutes! Literally grabbed everything and ran to the next field. Table officials said they'd give us 5 extra minutes but since we'd manage to sort ourselves out quickly, they dropped this to 2!
We had to play Oslo Embers to try and reach the semis. Unfortunately this turned into another long game going to overtime where we sadly lost however nobody was down. Everybody was smiling, in a sense relieved that it was over and that we'd done okay! Later on at dinner we realised we'd actually done the best out of all the teams that got knocked out in the quarters, putting us in 5th overall for the event! 5th out of the 36 teams that entered OD2.
Oslo Embers went on to come 2nd, losing to Stoke Quest (who incidentally were the only British team to finish in front of us!) who were playing incredible. We entered Campaign as the only Scottish team in attendance, in a packed OD2 division which had loads of British teams playing. I feel pretty proud to say that we ended up 5th and it definitely was an experience that I won't forget in a hurry! I think I'm looking forward to Paris now even more than I was before...
TL;DR (for those of you that can't be bothered reading all the above rubbish)
We did alright, it was fun.
In short, it was an amazing experience. People always talk about how strict the MS refs are but from what I experienced on the OD2 field, they were no stricter than at CPPS. Being able to play, explore a reasonably large trade area and also watch multiple divisions of paintball being played out over multiple days was a really worthwhile experience. Credit where credit is due, the MS wasn't THAT much better than CPPS in terms of field organisation and scoring, but that is more due to how good CPPS is nowadays. One major difference I did note was that it takes a hell of a lot longer to fill out the team sheets at Mills (you need to complete a sheet for each game you play with all your players' names and their ID numbers) as opposed to what we're used to at CPPS and they don't give you much leeway in terms of time but as long as you're organised, it's not a problem.
Yes it's significantly more expensive that domestic leagues but in my opinion, simply having the chance to play foreign teams makes it worthwhile.
In terms of personal stories, we left Edinburgh at 4am on Friday. After missing the M11 turn off and getting severely lost in deepest-darkest England, we eventually rocked up at Basildon around midday. Obligatory Mcdonald's consumed, we headed to the site to get registered and watch as much paintball as possible. We had 5 prelim games, 3 lined up for Saturday morning and 2 around lunchtime on Sunday.
Dragging ourselves out of bed around 6am on Saturday, we headed to the field super early to make sure we were ready for our 8.15am game. It seemed to pass in the blink of an eye but by about 10am, we'd finished our first 3 games winning 2-1 against Mayhem Knights, losing 1-2 against Evilmen Toulouse then winning 2-0 against Ugly Ducklings 3 (Barnett's team for the event...). This put us mid-pack which we were pretty happy about for our first mills! Sunday came round and we had the long wait to prepare for our games. I'd been warned that they don't usher you at all Mills so was quite worried about the field running ahead of schedule. Several back and forth trips later, I was reasonably confident we were on time so managed to watch a few pro games. We had some of the last OD2 prelim games so there were plenty of people watching. We ended up beating Assala Libreville and Operation Sandbaggers 2-0 which spectacularly stuck us in 1st place in our group!
We had about 20minutes before we then had to play our final 16s game. We came up against a tough team called Rotterdam Supreme (who told us we were going to lose before the game [totally quaking in my boots...]). It went to a third point and then overtime but we managed to squeeze them out (I even bunkered the last guy!). Came off the field, went to shake their hands but got grabbed by a table official who told us they were waiting for us on the SPL2 field for our quarter finals game and that we had 3 minutes! Literally grabbed everything and ran to the next field. Table officials said they'd give us 5 extra minutes but since we'd manage to sort ourselves out quickly, they dropped this to 2!
We had to play Oslo Embers to try and reach the semis. Unfortunately this turned into another long game going to overtime where we sadly lost however nobody was down. Everybody was smiling, in a sense relieved that it was over and that we'd done okay! Later on at dinner we realised we'd actually done the best out of all the teams that got knocked out in the quarters, putting us in 5th overall for the event! 5th out of the 36 teams that entered OD2.
Oslo Embers went on to come 2nd, losing to Stoke Quest (who incidentally were the only British team to finish in front of us!) who were playing incredible. We entered Campaign as the only Scottish team in attendance, in a packed OD2 division which had loads of British teams playing. I feel pretty proud to say that we ended up 5th and it definitely was an experience that I won't forget in a hurry! I think I'm looking forward to Paris now even more than I was before...
TL;DR (for those of you that can't be bothered reading all the above rubbish)
We did alright, it was fun.
compared to the other milleniums, the campaign cup was a bit "flat" not the same buzz as at the other milleniums. I think this is down to the fact that there were less teams than normal.
As far as reffing, it seems to go very smoothly on most of the fields, but there seems to be one particular Judge in the OD fields has no understanding of how modern markers work, and soo many teams had there vanquishes or luxes taken off them before going on the field, this happened at bittburg and the judge was told that what he was doing was wrong, by the event organisers as well as numerous tech peeps, but he still persisted in doing it and that pissed a lot of people off. but one guy with a grudge didn't spoil the event for most, it was just a headache for people like me who had to constantly get the organisers to speak to this particular person.
without the Americans I don't think there would have been much of a party atmosphere, the Gezellig feel is definitely more abundant in mainland europe.
As far as reffing, it seems to go very smoothly on most of the fields, but there seems to be one particular Judge in the OD fields has no understanding of how modern markers work, and soo many teams had there vanquishes or luxes taken off them before going on the field, this happened at bittburg and the judge was told that what he was doing was wrong, by the event organisers as well as numerous tech peeps, but he still persisted in doing it and that pissed a lot of people off. but one guy with a grudge didn't spoil the event for most, it was just a headache for people like me who had to constantly get the organisers to speak to this particular person.
without the Americans I don't think there would have been much of a party atmosphere, the Gezellig feel is definitely more abundant in mainland europe.
'cos I've travelled around the world plus I lived and worked in Amsterdam for about 10 years
Drugs and Alcohol hone the feelings of it, it's like the craic but more chilled
The quality of the event I thought was fantastic, I've been playing the CPS this year but squeezed in the mills event (only just!). From a player perspective, the reffing was very consistent (to be expected), the schedule ran to time, and the facilities in the pits were spot on. electronic towel/timeout, consistent air fills, very spacious pits and amazingly clear pit scoreboards. There is nothing else as a player that i could have wanted more from this event. Oh and the grass was absolutely perfect as well!
I was part of the team with frobinson as posted above, and it was a real shame that they forced us in to playing another finals game in such quick succession, there was barely time to catch your breath let alone gather your thoughts for the next game, whereas our oponnents had a reasonable break since their last game.
Other than that one hickup, the event ran well. Really enjoyed the extent of the tradestands, catering and the event was laid out very well. the grandstands provided some very entertaining games as mentioned. Location is decent with plenty of restaurants available with MS discounts, and nearby hotels were available.
As i'm sure many people were, i'm very concerned about a few incidents occuring elsewhere during the event however from my perspective i cannot fault the event other than the rush for our final game.
definitely gets a 9/10.
I was part of the team with frobinson as posted above, and it was a real shame that they forced us in to playing another finals game in such quick succession, there was barely time to catch your breath let alone gather your thoughts for the next game, whereas our oponnents had a reasonable break since their last game.
Other than that one hickup, the event ran well. Really enjoyed the extent of the tradestands, catering and the event was laid out very well. the grandstands provided some very entertaining games as mentioned. Location is decent with plenty of restaurants available with MS discounts, and nearby hotels were available.
As i'm sure many people were, i'm very concerned about a few incidents occuring elsewhere during the event however from my perspective i cannot fault the event other than the rush for our final game.
definitely gets a 9/10.
Well, if you find yourself on this end of the North Sea again, gimme a shout. I'll throw some beer (and other things*) your way.'cos I've travelled around the world plus I lived and worked in Amsterdam for about 10 years
Drugs and Alcohol hone the feelings of it, it's like the craic but more chilled
* .....Tulips. Yeah, tulips....