Back To College Soon

Hohoho... 4 months have finally passed, my internship is finally over!!

Bye bye boring cubicle...

No more waking up at 6:45am every morning...
No more getting stuck in the traffic jam everyday before and after work...
No more sitting in the cubicle looking at the same wallpaper everyday...
No more eating the same dishes in the cafeteria everyday...
No more going to bed early...
And last but not least, no more being restricted to going out only on weekends!!

The new semester is starting next week. This will be my third and final year, and probably the busiest one.

Time to start getting into the mood for academic life!!

Inspiring Story

I saw this inspiring video about team Vicious, from an unknown D3 team, all the way to becoming a D1 champ in the 2008 PSP.

A bunch of kids owning other more well-known teams in Semi-Pro, that's a good source of motivation for us all...

Tiring Job...

Maintaining a paintball field is no easy task, especially when rain and wind keep visiting...

Year end is the raining season, the wind will be strong and rain will be frequent. The week after WCA, 3 of the poles holding up the net got blown down. The poles were nailed to the ground by iron rods of about 2 feet long, yet the wind was strong enough to pull all the rods out of the ground! Imagine how strong the wind was. Putting the heavy pole back up was not easy, and after that we had to climb up all the way to the top of the pole to fix the net.

And because of the rain, the grass grew like there was no tomorrow. Running around in the waist-high grass was almost impossible. If you were to lie down in the open, the grass would still hide you from the enemy. Not bad huh, the first 7-man speedball field with elements of woodsball... lol


Cutting the grass was super tiring, took us 2 weekends to finish the job. You know those grass cutters that are carried like a backpack, the ones you see MPPP guys use so effortlessly? They are actually quite heavy, and you have to swing them back and forth, my muscles ached as if i just went to the gym. Look at the before-after pics below.

Girly...

"Not 'girly' as in the feminine type, but 'girly' as in disgusting..."

Remember the bulu ayam served to us (see previous post here)? I thought that was as worse as it can get. But I was wrong.

Yesterday we were having breakfast in the cafeteria as usual, Maggie goreng. Suddenly my colleague shouted out "I got extra ingredients in my rice!!"


They fried the snail together with the Maggie!! And the most disgusting part was when we cracked open the shell, the snail's meat was still in there!! Eeww... My appetite suddenly went to zero, yet I had to finish my food, or else... motanai!!

The good part is, there's only one week left before internship ends :)

WCA 2009

One of the biggest attraction for me at the World Cup Asia 2009 is probably the trade booth. Even though they're not as big as what they have in the states, they're still Asia's biggest. A lot of big names in paintball were present that day, with the exception of MacDev.

The trade booths

The Planet Eclipse Ego 10

Etek 3

"Rogue!!!"

The best part is their tech service. My teammate's PMR was having problems with the electronics since MY-NPL Kuantan in June. He had went to the local paintball store to get his board fixed. After replacing the board the problem still persists. The tech guy at the WCA Dye booth took a look at it, and immediately threw away the board, swapped in a new one, and he's good to go. He wasn't even charged a single cent!! So guys, next time you have any marker problems, just bring to one of their techs at such events, you'll definitely save a lot on repair cost.

The GPS system was taking us in circles around KL...

KL's bikers are so 'dua liap'...

The Mines Shopping Fair. Boat rides are so overpriced.

There was a lot of new gears to see at the booths. I also had the chance to hold Chris Lasoya's personal custom lasered G.I. Milsim Nano. It has almost the same design as his ST Ripper DM9.

Chris Lasoya's marker, the ST Ripper Nano50 selling for US$1000 including loader and tank.

G.I. Milsim Nano

The Impulse 50

The .68 cal Impulse, heavy...

.50 cal is so tiny...

While walking around the Napshot booth, I came across one of the most innovative new products at the event. Ben Frederick from Hater Paintball was there promoting their new Vici electronic boards for DMs, Egos and the Prophecy loader. It has all the high-end features one can possibly think of - RF, sound activation, break-beam eyes, force selection, speed selection, bla bla bla. The loader board is super user-friendly and easily adjustable with the clever use of LEDs. The boards also comes compatible with USB, which means all settings can be adjusted on a computer. Better yet, Ben said that they're coming up with a software for the iPhone, which will allow us to configure the board settings on the iPhone via USB! Paintball technology is changing fast...

Demonstrating the Vici board.

Peyton's thank you banner.

The official hotel was also great. The queen size bed was the biggest bed I've slept in during a paintball tournament. They have a balcony in every room, perfect for hanging out our gears to dry, even though it's probably against the hotel's policy. On the second night however, we managed to sneak into our room the porter's trolley and hang our wet gears indoors on the trolley... lol

Captain's meeting

The table has horse legs!!

Stolen trolley... lol

The games on the PSP size field was faster than MY-NPL games, which uses NPPL fields. Getting into the snake alive off the break needed a bit more effort as the field was smaller. It was a great experience nonetheless, some of the games we played were really fun and exciting.

After the prelim games on the second day, team Cryptic from South Africa were kind enough to let us shoot their Dye NT. The marker was amazing. It is everything a high-end marker should be. The shot was ridiculously quite and super smooth. You think the Droid is quite? Wait till you hear the NT. The trigger and UL frame felt really comfortable.

The Dye NT, one amazing gun.

Your drawings are so confusing...

Another great thing about the WCA is we get to rub shoulders with famous people from paintball. Some familiar names present at WCA were Chris Lasoya and Mikko Huttenen. The commissioner of the NPPL, Chuck Hendsch, and Devon Stutz of Dye Precision were also at the event.

Chris Lasoya!!

...and Mikko Huttenen!!

WCA 2009 - Rants

World Cup Asia, supposedly the LARGEST and most anticipated paintball event in Asia, has ended. Does it live up to all the hype and expectations? YES and NO.

First the NO part - Expensive paint, terrible field condition, and a venue which could be better improved.

Firstly, the paint costs us RM235 a box. Why so expensive?!?! In the MY-NPL, the price is below RM200 per box. Even the ISSC, also an international event, sells paint at only RM190 per box. In the Xtion forum, the organisers posted that WCA is an international event, hence they have to charge more. WTF!!

The second thing is the super muddy field. It was so muddy that Kok said as if he was "swimming" when playing the snake.


Seriously, as Asia's LARGEST paintball event, the field could have been in a better shape. They could have picked another venue, it's not like they didn't know that the Xtion field will be super muddy during this time of the year. Next year's MPOC will have all legs played in Xtion. I won't be going to any of the events after seeing how bad it was at the WCA.


Another turn-off about the venue is the security. People could go in and out of the players paddock at anytime of the day, players or non-players. They do have the whole area surrounded by netting and ID tags need to be shown at the entrance to gain entry. But the netting was not properly put up. Anyone could just lift the net and walk straight through, in which case the guards at the entrance are just for show. Come on, they could at least tie the nets to the ground. And speaking of ID tags, they didn't come lanyards. This might not be a big issue, but HELLO... this is LARGEST paintball event in Asia!

One last thing, the refs. They are really hardworking and friendly people, but they could made a more noticeable call. There was one game where I was hit and didn't notice, which was a norm in tournaments. It was on my knee pad off the break, not a very obvious hit. One of the ref saw the hit and called me out with a voice so soft no one can barely hear him amidst all the firing. He called again and again and again, still too soft for anyone to notice. Then after quite a while, he finally he ran over and pulled me out, 1 for 1 for playing on. His call was by all means a fair one, I did played on after getting shot, albeit a not so obvious hit. But if he could have ran over and pulled me out straight instead of standing at the sidelines calling. I got hit on the break, and managed to get all the way to the 50 before he pulled me out! Imagine that! If he really did called loud enough, I wouldn't have gone so far down the field without hearing him. Other than this particular case, the refs at WCA are great and did their jobs well.


Whew... that was quite a lot of complaints. Normally I would just shrug off any dissatisfaction, but since this is the LARGEST paintball event in Asia (again), I guess it's ok to complain about even the teeniest issue. After all, we did pay quite a large sum for the registration fee...

This is all for now. Now that I've written about all the NO-s, the next post will be all about the YES-es!