See you all in Penang

This is the last post before heading up to Penang for MPOC3. We're going to paint the town red :P

We will be flying up tomorrow evening- taking a taxi up to JB from Singapore and flying Datuk Tony Fernandez's plane up to Penang.

I'l really looking forward to meeting up with old friends and playing the new venue. There is a new team from Indonesia and a team from Sabah. I predict there will be a team from Brunei and Miri soon.

I'll be back on Monday night - hopefully with lots of news and stuff to post up.

Have a good weekend and check back next Tuesday.

In the mean time watch some UKS for old time's sake- click on the UKS icon below for links to the videos.

R.I.P. U.K.S.

Matty Marshall revealed on NPPL Live JAX 2 weeks ago that UKS is no longer. "U.K.S suffered the D3 blues". The team broke up because of money, family and work commitments. sSme of the guys have moved on and even played in Semi pro teams at Jax.


While thousands of fans will mourn the demise of the the team- you can still get great UKS memorabilia online. The UKS KM Strap is SOLD OUT and you might still find some UKS jerseys- the white tshit is sick.



Check out the custom masks from a fan in Germany! Awersome


For those of you who dont know.... (where the fuck have you been?)
U.K.S or Unknown Soldiers was a D3 team that got together to try and win a leg of the NPPL in D3. They paid Matty Marshall with a trantula to be their coach. All their exploits in the 5 legs of the NPPL season was shot on video and posted on the net on you tube.

Most of the music on the videos are by a band called Breaking Benjamin and the opening theme song is called "Unknown Soldier". I have been listening to BB non stop since I heard that UKS have broken up.



R.I.P U.K.S

Maximus for M.O.D.

Facefull #57 April reported that Maximus has joined his brother on Jersey Authority but at NPPL JAX he played with M.O.D which is a junior team for J.A

M.O.D Stands for Method of Destruction and they started off as a D2 team in the NPPL and have since worked their way up to Semi-Pro and managed to get the likes of Maximus to come and play for them. Another famous name in their roster is former XSV pro and the PS2 game hero - Greg Hastings!


MOD's team jersey was designed by the folks at Tanked.




In the interview Max was asked about him getting shot out very quickly in his first 3 games. His answer was that he's too sloppy and its the result of playing too much X-ball where you dont have to be too tight- where as in 7 men- once you're out- you're out and it counts big time.


Jersey Authority also features Max's brother Alex and the Blonski brothers who all used to play for the Russians. Also in the line up is former Detroit Strange Mike Carthy. (far right in the pic)

WORLD CUP ASIA 2008 - Rumours

Its rumour time again for the WCA - as in who is coming to Terrenganu as guests for the WCA this year....

Daryl....

My 08 Infamous and XSV jerseys are finally here!

My 08 Infamous and XSV jerseys are finally here – brand new! In the bag with tag still on! Stokkin! Thank you Tako san!

I don’t really like the XSV jersey so I’m trading it for this 07 XSV jersey which I think its way cooler because it was designed by BBK. It was their second 07 jersey which is much nicer and super rare. I have never seen a real pic of this until now.


Wouldnt mind Greg's jersey- he's playing with Ironmen at the moment and on loan to Aftermath which he won with at Jacksonville.

Blue gear for Junior

I was showing Junior this last night- my pal Todd Martinez from Dynasty selling his gear.



I really love this- this is a one-of-a kind digi camo Dynasty blue JT pant.


This is Todd's personalised Hybrid/Aftermath etched Shocker. If you're wondering what's going on here - Todd played for Aftermath for PSP last year and for Dynasty for the rest of the other tournaments.

Anyway I'd buy the whole kit - give itto Junior as a birthday present BUT I'll keep the google frame :P

This is a funny pic - if you've met him... he'd be like bugging you to get it.

MPOC 3 Penang - Governor's Cup Preview

Well its 3 more days to go to Penang. We had a great time in Penang last year- I went up to KL first and drove up with Azlan and William. We did pretty well and got into the second round and lucked out. Penang is a great place to play a PB tournament and with the looks of the City Stadium this year- I'm really looking forward to playing in a stadium environment for the first time.

Penang is also special for us because we have many good friends up there and it's always great to see them.

Lets have a look at the field plans for MPOC 3 Penang.

The Draxxus field typically has the towering red cones which I won't play at all. There is a decent snake and dorito side and the doritos arc to the inside of the center field. This field will be a traditional snake vs dorito game. The back corners are all doritos which makes it a little more technical for the corner backs.
The key bunkers to me are the 40 doritos and the 50 cans.


For a moment there I thought this was a copy of the field in last weekend's Campaign cup. I was going to write to Cyril Job of Icon to ask him how they played this field.
Turns out there is a slight difference- but the similarities lie in the "clock" formation where the bunkers surround the "M" in the middle.

The bunkers on both tapes are symetrical- which makes it a little bit harder to call the bunkers. I have come up with my way of tagging the bunkers which will be used to call them out during the games.

The tomb stones at the center back are pretty much useless - I call them the grave yard- get into them and you'd be d-e-a-d. It'll be the center's job to lane on the move and move up to the center cone on the breaks. The corner back have to haul ass to make it to their corner maya's which will offer substantial protection. This field will be a long-bow game between the corners. I like this a little more because I can go either way left or right and the field is the same on both tape sides.

Key bunkers are the 30 and 50 cans- and if you're fast enough the M because if you run up the middle the M offers some decent protection.

Lets see how accurate my calls are when we walk and play the actual fields.

RED SEVENS GET THIRD AT PDPBC

It was a typical Sunday night after a tournament- just getting home after the long journey back form Malaysia. MY things would be unpacked and all over the floor- just that this time there is a bronze medal among the pile of gear on the floor. I haven't gotten a medal for anything since I was swimming as a kid and I was pretty used to getting 10 gold medals plus a trophy at swim meets. This bronze medal is something else. What is more important than winning third place is that we have gone and tasted the challenge and pressure of playing in the semis.

We drove up to Port Dickson at 330am and got there just after 7am. Team registration was just a matter of showing up at the captain's meeting and putting your team name on the board. There were 16 teams in the mechanical division- mostly scenario teams.

We started off with a silly loss to a scenario team- I guess the R7s always have to start with a loss. We then drew the next game because time ran out and the other team didn't realise that they needed to re hang the flag within the time limit. After that we buckled down and won 8 straight games to make it third place overall out of 16 teams. The top 4 QF for the semis which we met our old friends Gang.

For the first time ever we out played and beat Gang in the first semis. I am glad we made it to the semis- and I am glad we played and beat Gang for the first time to get the monkey off our backs. Its a psychological thing- when they announced that we were going to play Gang- I went "fuck".

We lost our second game- partly because they played better and we let pressure get ahold of us. But again I'm glad the team got to this stage- the final game was winner take all to get into the finals. This is the main thing for me for the team for the whole tournament- the pressure and how it feels to get to the front door and trying to get in. We have never gotten this far before and to experience it - I think its the biggest lesson for everyone in the team for the first time. Playing that third game was more important than winning thrid place based on points.

Our game has come along way- while we cannot underestimate scenario players - they managed to beat us and Gang along the way. Each of us have brought our game to another plane- big ben pulled some dives and some good kills. Azlan's game is more aggressive than ever. Small Ben handled the pressure to perform and played a superb game going up and bunkering the tombstone and cleaning out the left corner and center. In that game alone his confidence and team work went really well.

I must say that everyone played and worked professionally as a team. And I went to Eagle Ranch wanting to play a fast and agressive running game - only to find that my team mates were running up faster than me- which is great.

My last game which was the last semi game with Gang- was bad for me because I failed to check my tank and I had to air. So I spotted and called the play. Jane on the left and Shaf in the center and me in the right corner were the last 3 with 2 guns firing. I made the call to switch bunkers with Shaf so he would be on the right corner and cross up with Jane on the left side. Its thru experience that I came up with the play and yelled at Shaf to get it done even though at the time it looked silly. But I know it was the right play to call and we would have gotten away with it if I'd stayed alive to tell Jane that she was going to be bunkered.

It was great to see everyone together- these are moments I treasure- to have the 6 of us working and playing together. 4 guys in 2 guys sitting out and crewing. Talking before and after the games to work things out. We have played so many games and tournaments together- we're all in synch now. All we need is that bit of extra luck and fortune.

I congratulate everyone in the team and a big thank you for BBen for staying up for 22 hours and driving to and from Port Dickson.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNIOR!

Yo man- HAPPY BIRTHDAY - thanks for supporting the blog.

Can't wait to meet up with you in Penang next week!

I'm off to the field now and then we're driving up to Port Dickson tonight for the "cowboy" challenge on Sun. We're going to take it as a warm up for next weekend.

Have a good one.

p.s. got a present for you next weekend.

PREVIEW - MILLENIUM SERIES ROUND 2 LONDON - THE CAMPAIGN CUP FIELD LAYOUT

I love it how they give you 3 versions of the field layout. A top view with nice grass rendering - one plain with no grass background and one in 3-D.

The Field looks really wide open in the middle with everything surrounding the "M" - the layout kinda looks like a clock. The bunkers look really small in scale on the map.

The snake looks almost boring with 4 stops compared to NPPL's snakes but whats a real bitch is that snake 1 is not at the end but inside the snake. So you got to really haul ass right into it if you want to play snake.

The doritos arc to the outside - if you make it to D2 you have a decent angle on D4 all their back temples. D2 is protected from the left corner by D3. So D2 is a crucial bunker to take on the dorito side.

Looking at the back line- there are mainly temples employed here with a few cans on the snake side. The corners are pretty far- you's have to run into it like you're running to the mid bunkers on the break.

The bricks near the end of the snakes would be the places to defend the snake and the centre lanes. And the bricks in the middle are to guard the M.

PREVIEW - MILLENIUM SERIES ROUND 2 LONDON - THE CAMPAIGN CUP

These are the CPL ranking 2008 After Round 1 in Malaga going into Round 2 The Campaign Cup at London this weekend. As you can tell from the green theme in my blog – I'm rooting for my boys in green from Maseille.

Poll will be up as soon as Blogspot allows me to post one up.
EDIT> The Poll is Up!

In the meantime- post your predictions in the comments.

ALEZ E'QUIPE ICON!

1 Joy Stockholm
2 Copenhagen Ducks
3 Budapest Bullets
4 Frankfurt Syndicate
5 Vision PPC Grenoble
6 Moscow Phoenix
7 London Shock
8 Marseille Icon
9 Chilli Peppers Riga
10 London Nexus
11 Philly Dogs
12 Stockholm Ignition
13 Consilium Dei Zurich
14 Oslo Menace
15 Moscow Caste
16 Influence Montpellier

Chris Corcino is (still) da bomb

With the dawn of vinyl wrapping in Europe - Chris Corcino has upped the stakes and shown how sick laser engraving can go. Chirs Corcino - (if you don't know) is Mr. Hybrid Technologies aka Contract Killer. I met him in KL at the Hybrid Clinic in 07.



This is Glenn Takemoto's personalised Ego. The design is as refined as Japanese tattoo


I presume this was for Todd Martinez





And the rebirth of Hybrid as Modefy'd


If I were to buy a Shocker - I'd pass on Octanes, NXTs and Naughty Dogs Shockers and get this one. The Traitor is the all time bomb Shocker to get.

New Jerseys from JAX

Understandably- everyone is after Aftermath's new NPPL jersey which was worn for the first time at JAX. There is only one place that you can get it from and its not cheap at USD$140

Below is the one they wore are Huntington beach but it's got "San Diego" Aftermath on it. The NPPL version accurately says "Escondido".

I prefer the new NPPL version.


The other highly anticipated new jersey was from the Bushwackers who have been using their 06 jerseys up till Huntington Beach. They wore their brand new jerseys at Jax.

Personally I prefer the old one- its one of my top 5 all time jersey designs.


SIDE BAR- the Bushwackers are the first team I know of to be fully kitted out with Torque loaders.


LA FACTION here with their bloody big Pinokios

Fightclub Frankfurt Droid

This caught my eye because its WHITE which is something you cannot get from anno. I had the same idea to wrap the body in vinyl which is the same thing they use to custom wrap handphones and ipods and laptops. You can pretty much put any design you want- wrap it and peel it off when you are sick of the design AND it protects your marker too.

I actually wanted to wrap my hopper but this one looks pretty good.

And they also have a black version wrapped in Tanked's 2008 pattern which is very cool. I think I'll get my barrel back wrapped.

AKAN DATANG

I'm going to post my summary of the NPPL final between the Ironmen and Aftermath.

Preview this coming weekend's Millenium Campaign Cup in London.

Preview teams going to MPOC 3 Penang Governor's Cup in two weeks.

And reveal something about the possibility of 4 NPPL teams coming to Malaysia in August.


Do email me k0283283@yahoo.com if you want to ask anything or tell me anything about PB.

But if it's about getting emarkers into Singapore / "which marker should I get" blah blah - then you can get fucked.

JAMES GRUDY GETS NO RESPECT in PBNation

James Grundy is the guy who designed the famous Cyborg Markers for MacDev - he's the kind of engineering genius that makes things work- work well and don't break. And on top of that he's a very nice down to earth Aussie bloke.

Now you'd think that the guys in the MacDev thread in PBNation would give him more than some respect.... but no. When you're posting shit in PBNation - you better know your shit or you're going to get caned*.

Its fucking hilarious- you have to be a baller and a MacDev shooter to get this and an Aussie too esp the last bit.

James Grundy gets Caned

James@MacDev: rage vid not sure if anyone has posted this yet?
http://files.filefront.com/rage1wmv/.../fileinfo.html
very cool, even makes jerry look good!

Adrenaline-Junkie: Kinda old there james. lol

e_friccero: jeese james wat a noob

James@MacDev: well sooooorrrrry for not being soooo ecool!

pfnpb2x: Pssh...wow that's old.
Miami Rage doesn't shoot Droids anymore, they shot Droids 3 years ago.
(HAHAHHAHHAHAA- CLASSIC!)

e_friccero: its alright james we know everything shows up late down there
i mean you guys just got ipods last week right?
(a rip snorta this one hahahhahaha)

James@MacDev: ipods are in xmas this year......
(James tires but fails to make a comeback)

eddahenry: Cool stuff james and Ha just herd Star wars return of the jedi is on at the drive through you wanna take the girls to see it ill even take the new VB Commodore

NPPL PLAY ACTION 1

One of the big plays on Sunday was the Semi Pro Semi finals between Phoenix United and Dynasty Entourage.


The Dynasty snake guy went from snake 2 and squirreled all the way up to Phoenix's Snake2. There was a Phoenix snake guy guarding the snake side - he thinks that Dynasty guy is still at his mirror at Dynasty Snake 2 so he shoots straight down all day long.

The Dynasty guy was super careful not to bump into the snake 2 bunker as he slides into place without the Phoenix guy knowing that he's there.
Lesson learnt here- don't bump into the bunkers in the snake - it'll give your position away instantly


He steadies himself reloads (you can see his empty pod next to him) and points the marker at the side and WAITS PATIENTLY for the Phoenix guy to go bunker him.


The Phonenix guy shoots tape for about a min plus - time is agonisingly slow and I'm sitting here shitting myself not to mention the Dynasty guy in there having to wait for the move. Finally after almost 2 minutes of shootnig tape - Phoenix guy decides that S2 is not coming - he makes his move to bunker only to be blasted at close range.

NPPL SEMI FINALS SUMMARY REPORT

The Final four Teams that made it to the Semis were
IRONMEN vs BLAST
AFTERMATH vs HURRICANES


What a great sunday evening- me at home with a (ginger) beer and online with the crew and Ollie and Nicky putting on the show in the snake.

SEMI FINAL 1
Ironmen vs Blast

GAME 1
Ollie plays the snake - cooly 'walks' the highway on the inside of the snake to bunker snake one. From there he goes and cleans up 2 more in the back corners. Nicky arrives at the flag at the same time and hangs it. Ironmen rolled Blast 7-0 without dropping a player. Ironmen were dominant in this one.

Ollie walking the highway. The coolest move of the day

GAME 2
Ollie in sake again
Nicky Cuba in the dorito then bumps to the car wash
Greg Seiwers (Ironically who is on loan from the Ironmen) vs Ollie in the snake
Nicky make his big move takes 2 on run thru
Ironmen make the final on 2 zip.


How can I tell its Alex Goldman in the carwash? He's got a 'gold' loader. Lasoya in the Dorito? Check the ponytail.

SEMI FINAL 2
Aftermath vs Hurricanes
Was a great match up- both teams regular finalists but never winning. Both teams desperate to win their first pro.

GAME 1
Rob Landry (Hurricanes) break for the mega spoke 50 next move bunkers Aftermath car wash guy and then shoots out snake 2. Big game move.
Thomas Mantoni also has a big game - kill 3 kills on a run thru.
Chris Lasoya get shot in the car wash by the Hurricanes' snake
But somehow Aftermath turn it around back and wins Game 1.

GAME 2
Game starts of even. Mirrors in both the car washes and snake 1 with Lasoya in the Car Wash. Hurricanes put 2 guys in the snake one crossing and the other just looking down tape. The Canes control Lasoya in the Carwash- he can't move and Aftermath stays put.
With 3.16 left its a tight game with 6 on 6 no one taking any chances.
With less than a min to go- Canes finally shoot out Lasoya and Billy Benaccia (Hurricanes) makes the game move by going the outside of the snake and shoots snake one and bunkers the snake tower- the rest of the Canes are smart enough to follow him up to snatch the flag and run it in with 6 seconds on the clock. Awesome stuff!
Hurricanes tie it up 1-1 get go to Game 3

GAME 3
Greg Hinthorne plays on and they call a one on one and pull him and The Hurricane's best player Billy Benaccia out. Cane's are in deep.
Alex Goldman is in the snake with Lasoya in the Car Wash. Goldman goes the highway to bunker Rob Landry and they both trade out. Last two players left on the field one on one Alex Macmaster and Bobby Aviles - clock runs out.
MATCH DRAWN


At 1 game all and Game3 ending in a draw- we go to One on ones
Best of three Games.

ONE ON ONE
Game one
Steve Dabilis Hurricanes vs Bobby Aviles Aftermath
Bobby wins - Aftermath 1-0

Game 2
Billy Benacchia vs Chris Lasoya
BILLY WINS!! beats Lasoya who just won the skills challenge one on one.

All Square 1-1
It all goes down to game 3- who will go thru tot he finals to meet Ironmen

Game 3
Alex Goldman Aftermath va Thomas Mantoni- Hurricanes
Alex Goldman wins and sends Aftermath to meet his former team the Ironmen in the finals.

FINALS
IRONMEN vs AFTERMATH

AFTERMATH WINS NPPL JAX

513AM

AFTERMATH TAKE THEIR FIRST WIN AT NPPL JAX beating the Ironmen in the third game.

DYNASTY ENTOURAGE Take Semi Pro over Impact


HK and their MacDev Droids WINS DIV1 beating the Splat Kids

More news tomorrow I've been on NPPL since 10pm and its now 5am.