<-- From left to right Osvaldo, Justin, VinnieJustin G., Ryan, Spencer, Mat, Evan, Ryan, Will

PSP Chicago.

Chicago definitely had it's high's and lows. We took second place in Division 3 and it was a great experience, it being my first time and all in a national event. Going in we only had 3 NRG players, 2 Ontario Chop Shop players and had picked up 2 CFOA rookie kids (Spencer and Evan). Luckily the DOC's Raiders were there to offer support and found us two Brazilian, Vinnie and Osvaldo. I got to say that the PSP had great organization and was well run.
We breezed through the prelims, just trashing all the teams. Winning our bracket was one of the most exciting moments of my paintball career. In one of our games against Air Assault the Chi town Raiders (who had just lost to us) were counter coaching. They even had the audacity to scream U.S.A against us. Weird since we were an international team...I don't know why Americans don't like Canadians but c'mon if you’re going to vandalize a porta potty learn to spell Canadians, as in Go Home Canadains!

I guess at this point you want to know what was the issue was. Well when the time came to collect our prize money, Will surprised everyone by saying that he wanted a share of the prize money. Now there isn’t anything wrong about this, considering he did arrange our sponsorship deal with Draxxus it's just the fact that it wasn't said and none of us had ever even thought about it. The Chop Guys (Ryan and Justin G.) were the most displeased, after all they had shot their own paint all weekend, Chop Shop being a Zap team and all. Justin being their friend and all was even more displeased when he was asked to pay back a portion of the money he rightfully owes Will for his travels at WPL. In the end, Justin decided to leave the team and Ryan followed.

What made me regret the whole trip was the way people acted in front of the PSP organization and staff. As we collected the check, right in front of the crowd, an argument over whose name it would be signed too broke out. The staff member got so disgusted she sent us to the administration tent where we got further ridiculed. After further discussions the PSP got so sick of us they just gave us cash. On PSP's defense I would have done the same, why not make fun of a team that falls apart when they win, mostly for 40$ per person.

Photo by: Spencer's Dad at Chicago PSP, Bolingbrook