EXCLUSIVE: PAUL LAM's MEETING WITH TUN DR MAHATIR

Last week the paintball fraternity in Asia saw pictures of Paul Lam who is the head of the MPOC and PALS in a meeting with Tun Dr Mahathir former Prime Minister of Malaysia. It was indeed a historic meeting between an icon of Malaysian Paintball with an icon of Malaysia in Tun Dr Mahathir.

I am sure many of you would be curious to as what transpired in the meeting so I asked Paul Lam what they talked about. So here is an exclusive interview to what transpired at that meeting.

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Hi Paul, it was great to see pictures of your meeting with Tun Dr Mahathir. Every paintballer in Malaysia and the region is excited about the news of this historic meeting. We all want to know what the meeting was about and what transpired?

PAUL: The meeting held mainly because the [World Cup Asia and Command & Conquer] events are held on Langkawi Island which has been his pet project* since day 1.

It was also to get the acknowledgement from arguably one of the most intelligent and influential statesman from Malaysia for our sport of paintball. If Tun Di Mahathir can see the positive elements of our sport, I am hopeful that all others would too. Imagine Lee Kuan Yew** as the patron of the Singapore Paintball Series - that would help the sport in Singapore right?

It also came to my attention recently that Tun Dr Mahathir actually mentioned paintball as a training tool for military training way before the first paintball center in the country was set up. This idea was called off after a feasibility study and largely forgotten. I thought what better opportunity than now to help make his vision come through than this November - hence the Command & Conquer event in conjunction with the World Cup Asia 2011 in Langkawi.


What did paintball gained from this meeting with Tun Dr Mahathir?

PAUL: When I looked him in the eye at the end of the chat to reconfirm his agreement to be the Patron of the Command & Conquer event...he said "yes" with a twinkle in his eye. We shook hands for the second time and this is another mission I must and would love to deliver well. It is a great honour for our sport!

Thank you Paul and we all hope that World Cup Asia will live up to every one's expectations.


*The development of Langkawi Island is Tun Dr Mahatir's pet project. It was his vision to create a world class bicycle race that is the Tour de Langkawi and the LIMA Langkawi International Martitime and Air show.
**Lee Kwan Yew former Prime Minister of Singapore

PSP CHICAGO FINAL Dynasty's Coach vs Russians' Coach

By Overtime, I guess Dynasty's coach Mike Hindman was out of voice and somebody else was coacing Mouse in the snake. You can hear his coaching clearly and as well as the Russian coach on the other side of the stands. The Russians have 4 or more coaches so if any one of them lose their voice- another can step in.

Its down to 3 Russians vs 2 Dynasty. JRabb in Snake, Matt Blonski in God and Aleksandr Berdnikov in Center back and Dynasty had Mouse in the snake and Steve Pitts in the Doritos.

After Mouse and JRabb traded, Matt Blonski should have done a better job on Steve Pitts but he gets shot running up the snake. It went to one on one and the advantage was clearly with Russians who had a coach closer to Aleksandr Berdnikov while Steve Pitts was stranded out on the far side.

JRABB's INCREDIBLE MOVE

[Watch it with the sound off]

This was Justin Rabackoff's legendary move on Sunday in the PSP finals against Dynasty. Its Boston Red Legion 4 Dynasty 5 and its 1.22 left on the clock. The Russians need to score a quick point or its all over. Dynasty is going to sit and hold out for the Championship.

JRabb makes it into the snake alive. He goes all the way to the 50 snake. Dynasty has 4 guys across the back 4 bunkers including Alex Fraige in snake back. Ollie Lang is at God shooting at JRabb in snake 2 at the 50. Fraige bumps into snake 1 to counter JRabb but is shot going in.

A momentary lack of attention by Ollie lets JRabb sneak cross field into the center A. He is in the A for a long time and Dynasty try to dig him out. Ollie goes into the snake to get at the A and just that moment JRabb runs though the middle of the field shooting Glenn Takemoto at the back dorito and apparently he gets Ollie as well on the way to hanging the flag.

JRabb dives and hangs the flag with 2 seconds to go injuring himself in the process.

Ties the match at 5-5 and forces sudden death Over Time.

RUSSIANS WIN PSP CHICAGO

Boston Red Legion has finally stopped Dynasty run of championships. They came back from 2-5 -s cored 3 quick points to tie it up at 5-5 to take it to sudden death over time.

Dynasty dominated the first half of the match forcing the Russians to concede 3 points in a row before getting a major penalty and that gave the Russians a chance to score 3 points to tie it up. Dynasty tried going up the middle with Oliver but he get shot in the face and the Russians make quick work and grab 2 quick points.

At 4-5 with nothing left on the clock Justin Rabackoff somehow manages to get the flag from the snake and bumps infield into the center A without getting shot- runs down the field through the center shooting out Ollie Lang at god and Glenn Takemoto and dives the flag in with 2 seconds left in the match.


JRabb in the snake of the left and Alex Goldman on the right is stuck there because Matt Blonski is watching him from God. Across the field is Steve Pitts in Dorito 1

We go to sudden death over time. Its a tight game that stuck at 3 v 2. JRabb in the snake vs Alex Goldman and Steve Pitts in the Doritos. Russians have Matt Blonski in god backing up JRabb and Alex Berdnikov in the back center.


Alex Goldman bunkers JRabb and they trade out.

It stalemates for a long time until Alex Goldman goes to bunker JRabb and they trade out. Matt Blonski starts to push up to shoot Steve Pitts in the Doritos but somehow Steve Pitts pulls a shot on him.


Alex Berdnikov grabbing the winning flag after bunkering Steve Pitts for the Championsip

And it went down to 1 v 1 Alex Berdnikov at center back vs Steve Pitts in Dorito 3. Berdnikov is well out of paint by now and was picking paint off the ground. He realises that Steve Pitts is stuck out there with out any coach on the doritos side and goes and bunkers him for the Championship.

The Final had everything - it went one way and just when it seemed that Dynasty was going to sit on their 3 point lead and run the clock down - the Russians came back to tie it and still it stale mated down to 1 v 1 in over time.



Russians win it in sudden death overtime. Russians stop Dynasty's run of Championships. Russians came back from 2-5. Justin Rabackoff is definitely the MVP for running the flag in though a live Dynasty field to force Over Time.

5.58am Singapore /Malaysia time

PSP Chicago Semi Final Preview

PSP Chicago Open Semi Finals


DYNASTY v LA IRONMEN
10:40am/11.40pm*
Blue vs red- Ollie Lang vs Ironmen. Dynasty and Ironmen are two old names in propaintball however one is at the top of the game with 4 wins in a row and the other is a team rebuilding itself. Dynasty's line up is too good for them to lose against a younger greener Ironmen. Ironmen need to stop Mouse and Dalton from running up the sides.

And they also have to deal with guys like Ollie, Yosh, Ryan and Alex filling after they shoot Dynasty's forwards out. On top of that Dynasty have a great coach in Mike Hinman who can read the game and adjust the plays to beat you.

The only way to beat Dynasty as we saw in their match against Tampa Bay - is for the Ironmen to somehow take it to them and roll on the momentum. They key to holding Dynasty up is to get out and cut Mouse off from the snake and cut Dalton from the Doritos. It'll be a good match up Mouse vs Mike Spika in the snake and Brandon Short vs Dalton in the Doritos.



BOSTON RED LEGION v EDMONTON IMPACT
11:30am/1230am*
The Russians have everything going for them. They have good laners and get Gs on the break- they have JRabb that usually owns the snake. They have 4 coaches to control the game. They train and specialise in the PSP format. They go stung by Dynasty in Texas and they want to get another shot at them.

Edmonton Impact have the talent and the experience to take points from the Russians. They have experienced guys like Josh Davey and the All Americans they picked up Tim Montressor, Chad George and Ryan Moorehead who know how to play the Russians. It definitely wont be a walk over when these guys bring their game. They just need to not panic and take it point by point and not let them get away. Russians always play two stacked at home on the break to lane - Impact needs to get outside alive and pinch them before the Russians break out from home.
Hopefully it'll be a close match and they trade points.

*SIN/MAL time


I'll Jinx Dynasty and Boston and pick them to prevail and meet in the finals. That is what I think every want wants to watch tonight.

Pro Finals is Scheduled at 4.20am SIN/MAL time

PSP SATURDAY PRO RESULTS

I had a bad day on Saturday with only half my picks right.

SATURDAY
VICIOUS 3 vs Chattanooga CEP 7
LA Infamous 2 vs Los Angeles Ironmen 7
Boston Red Legion 5 vs Chattanooga CEP 1
Los Angeles Ironmen 4 vs VICIOUS 6
Boston Red Legion 7 vs LA Infamous 2
Edmonton Impact 5 vs Chicago Aftershock 4
Tampa Bay Damage 1 vs X-Factor 7
DYNASTY 7 vs Chicago Aftershock 1
X-Factor 2 vs Edmonton Impact 7
DYNASTY 3 vs Tampa Bay Damage 6


Team Rankings After Prelims
1. Boston Red Legion 4-0
2. Dynasty 3-1
3. Edmonton Impact 3-1
4. LA Ironmen 2-2
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5. X-Factor 2-2
6. LA Infamous 2-2
7. Tampa Bay Damage 2-2
8. Vicious 1-3
9. Chattanooga CEP 1-3
10. Chicago Aftershock 0-4

Boston Red Legion justified their no1 seed and romped through Chattanooga and Infamous and finished top 4-0. In the big match up against Infamous they dropped 2 quick points initially before regrouping and running 7 straight points past Infamous to secure Sunday.

Dynasty totally dominated a helpless Aftershock 7-1 and surprisingly blew a big 3-0 lead with Tampa Bay and let them score 6 unanswered points. Momentum is the chink in their armor that the others will have to exploit to beat them. Matty Marshall said that losing to Tampa bay was a good thing for them because it mean they avoid Boston in the semifinals but also the loss should wake them up in time for the finals.

Impact lost only 1 match and that was to Dynasty. They won both Saturday matches and qualified 3rd spot. They have been the better team in terms of controlling the matches and holding out against Aftershock 5-4 and dominating x-Factor in their last match. They play Boston Red Legion on Sunday in the semifinals, if they can remain calm and not let the Russins get a momentum going they can beat them.

Ironmen turned out to be the dark house of the weekend. They quietly took wins from favourites Infamous and that along with their 7-0 win from Chattanooga was enough to squeeze past Infamous, Tampa Bay, and XFactor (who were all 2-2) to make it to the Final four. Consistency is still not there yet because they lost to Vicious 6-4. But they did just enough to make it to Sunday. they some something really special to bead tournament favourites Dynasty to make it to the final.

X-Factor played really well this tournament. There were 4 teams that finished 2-2 record and X-Factor just missed out on Sunday finishing 5th. Not enough to make it to Sunday but will have good things to bring to the next tournament. They did trash Tampa 7-1 to prove that the full team back together is something to contend with.

Infamous surprisingly lost to the Ironmen which meant they had to come out and beat Boston which they didnt. Infamous ended losing both their games on Sat with a 2-2 record which was the same as the Ironmen but the Ironmen go through from a better point margin

Tampa Day was also disappointing they dropped points when they shouldnt and couldn't get back up. They were already out by the time they played Dynasty in the last match but it was the match of the day by the great come back from 0-3 to make it 6-3. Proves that they have what it takes but today it wasn't there.

Chattanooga finally got their first win of the year beating Vicious. A big upset in more ways as it killed any chance Vicious had to progesss to Sunday. They avoid being last place overall with the single win.

Aftershock took it to Impact - traded points all the way to the line. Good Close game Impact just held them just off long enough to beat then 5-4 a one point game. This took too much out of Chicago for their last game against Dynasty. They came out strong in the first point against Dynasty winning is less than a min. I thought it was going to be a close game but it was all downhill from there. some of the point weere chaotic blood baths but with Dynasty alwasy coming out winners. Pressure got to Aftershock and theyself destructed with penalties at the end going down 7-1.


The match of the day was Tampa Bay's come back from 0-3 to beat Dynasty 6-3

PSP CHICAGO FRIDAY PRO RESULTS

There were a few close games on the first day of PSP Chicago -
Infamous were taken down to the wire edging out VICIOUS with 51 secs left on the clock.
X-Factor and Aftershock went to Overtime and got the win.
Impact pulled the surprise win over favorites Tampa Bay Damage and is the only pick I got wrong out of 10 matches.

FRIDAY PRO DIVISION RESULTS
LA Infamous 7 vs VICIOUS 6
Los Angeles Ironmen 7 vs Chattanooga CEP 0
Boston Red Legion 7 vs VICIOUS 1
LA Infamous 7 vs Chattanooga CEP 1
Boston Red Legion 7 vs Los Angeles Ironmen 2
Tampa Bay Damage 5 vs Chicago Aftershock 3
DYNASTY 7 vs Edmonton Impact 4
X-Factor 7 vs Chicago Aftershock 6
Tampa Bay Damage 2 vs Edmonton Impact 7
DYNASTY 7 vs X-Factor 3

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My Picks are in BOLD
Correct picks at in RED

SEBURO's PSP PICK'EM

I find predicting the scores on Pick'em rather hard but I submitted my scores and here are my* Final Four teams. Tampa Bay Damage vs Boston Red Legion and La Infamous vs Dynasty. Boy if that came true it'll be one heck of a Semi final / Final Four series.
BTW I picked Infamous over Boston Red Legion in the final.

Good luck with your picks.

*With due respect to the other 6 teams.

Here are my prelim game picks AFL TIPPING style - just pick the winner.
Let see how many I get right/wrong.
If you'd like to submit your tips please cut and paste the line ups below mark or bold your picks and email them to me here

MY TIPS ARE IN BOLD

FRIDAY
LA Infamous vs VICIOUS
Los Angeles Ironmen vs Chattanooga CEP
Boston Red Legion vs VICIOUS
LA Infamous vs Chattanooga CEP
Boston Red Legion vs Los Angeles Ironmen
Tampa Bay Damage vs Chicago Aftershock
DYNASTY vs Edmonton Impact
X-Factor vs Chicago Aftershock
Tampa Bay Damage vs Edmonton Impact
DYNASTY vs X-Factor

SATURDAY
VICIOUS vs Chattanooga CEP
LA Infamous vs Los Angeles Ironmen
Boston Red Legion vs Chattanooga CEP
Los Angeles Ironmen vs VICIOUS
Boston Red Legion vs LA Infamous
Edmonton Impact vs Chicago Aftershock
Tampa Bay Damage vs X-Factor
DYNASTY vs Chicago Aftershock
X-Factor vs Edmonton Impact
DYNASTY vs Tampa Bay Damage

SEBURO's GUIDE TO PSP CHICAGO

PSP FORMAT
Here is how its going to run this weekend. Each Pro team will play 4 preliminary Race to 7 games: 2 games on Friday and 2 games on Sat. Top 2 teams from each bracket will play each other in the Semi finals for a spot in the Finals.

Note that the LIVE WEBCAST is on only for Sat and Sun. Which means we'll only get to watch matches on Saturday Day 2 Prelims and Sunday Finals.

Semi-Final and Final schedule is not up as of now.

PRO DIVISION
Pre-Event Team Ranking
1 Dynasty #DYN
2 Boston Red Legion #BRL
3 LA Infamous #INF
4 Tampa Bay Damage #TBD
5 X-Factor #XFR
6 LA Ironmen #IRM
7 Vicious #VIC
8 Edmonton Impact #IMP
9 Chicago Aftershock #CHI
10 Chattanooga CEP #CEP

Bracket 1
DYN TBD FXR IMP CHI

Bracket 2
BRL INF IRM VIC CEP


FRIDAY - [NO LIVE WEBCAST ON FRIDAY]
CHICAGO TIME / SIN MAL TIME
9:15am/10:15pm LA Infamous vs VICIOUS
10:00am/11:00pm Los Angeles Ironmen vs Chattanooga CEP
10:45am/11:45pm Boston Red Legion vs VICIOUS
11:30am/12:30am LA Infamous vs Chattanooga CEP
12:15pm/1:15am Boston Red Legion vs Los Angeles Ironmen
1:45pm/2:45am Tampa Bay Damage vs Chicago Aftershock
2:30pm/3:30am DYNASTY vs Edmonton Impact
3:15pm/4:15am X-Factor vs Chicago Aftershock
4:00pm/5:00am Tampa Bay Damage vs Edmonton Impact
4:45pm/5:45am DYNASTY vs X-Factor

SATURDAY
CHICAGO TIME / SIN MAL TIME
9:00am/10pm VICIOUS vs Chattanooga CEP
9:45am/10:45pm LA Infamous vs Los Angeles Ironmen
10:30am/11:30pm Boston Red Legion vs Chattanooga CEP
11:15am/12:15am Los Angeles Ironmen vs VICIOUS
12:00pm/1:00am Boston Red Legion vs LA Infamous
1:30pm/2:30am Edmonton Impact vs Chicago Aftershock
2:15pm/3:15am Tampa Bay Damage vs X-Factor
3:00pm/4:00am DYNASTY vs Chicago Aftershock
3:45pm/4:45am X-Factor vs Edmonton Impact
4:30pm/5:30am DYNASTY vs Tampa Bay Damage


TEAM ROSTERS

BOSTON RED LEGION #BRL
Aleksandr Berdnikov
Matt Blonski
Konstantin Fedorov
Denis Golev
Mikhail Knyazev
Vasiliy Panteleev
Kirill Prikhidni
Justin Rabackoff
Sergey Solnyshkov
Evgeny Zakharov

CHICAGO AFTERSHOCK #CHI
Chad Bouchez
A.J. Lawhead
Cody Mickowski
Samuel Monville
Zack Patient
Nicholas Slowiak
Chris Sosine
Drew Templeton

DYNASTY #DYN
Alex Fraige
Alex Goldman
Ryan Greenspan
Oliver Lang
Michael Mesa
Yosh Rau
Tyler Shelton
Glenn Takemoto
Dalton Vanderbyl

EDMONTON IMPACT #IMP
Justin Cornell
Josh Davey
Jonathon Edgington
Chad George
Tim Montressor
Ryan Moorhead
Josh Ouimet
Cole Scott
Zachary Yachimec
Zane Yachimec

LA INFAMOUS #INF
Robert Aviles
Nicky Cuba
Chris Lasoya
Travis Lemanski
Marcello Margott
Jon Richardson
Kevin Rudulph
Justin Schwarz
Greg Siewers
Zack Wake
COACH RUSTY GLAZE
ALEX SAVINO

LA IRONMEN #IRM
Osvaldo Brito Neto
Chris Catt
Eric Humphreys
Scott Kemp
Michael Paxson

TAMPA BAY DAMAGE #TBD
David Bains
Keith Brown
Chad Busiere
Mike Carthy
Jacob Edwards
Ramzi El-Yousef
Tyler Harmon
Daniel Holliday
Timmothy Propst
Bryan Smith

VICIOUS #VIC
Bryan Bortol
Shane Colby
Christopher Hooker
Brock Jolliff
Phil Kahnk
Trevor Resar
Parker Rosenthal
Zachary Sherman

X FACTOR #XFR
Ryan Cohen
Grayson Goff
Michael Johnson
Derick Jordan
Mykel Kovar
Archie Montemayor
Todd Morrow
Dusty Odell
William Odell
Colt Roberts