Blackhawk Down 2010!
On January 29th of 2010, Cobra arrived at Tactical Paintball for the 2010 Blackhawk Down game. Cobra registered as Somalis in an effort to try and balance the game out. This was considered by some to be the battle of the two biggest egos in paintball: Sarge of Tactical Paintball vs Dewayne Convirs of D-Day Adventure Park. Unfortunately, Dewayne could not make it and asked Andy Wofford (Supreme Command of the German Army at D-Day) to step in. As fate would have it, Andy could not make it either. Lucky for us, Ray “Drunkenmaster” Harlan (Chief of Staff for the LXXXIV ArmeeKorps, VizeAdmiral AND a member of Team Hellions ODA 163) was able to step in for the Somali side and proved yet again to be a great commander.
On Friday night, Cobra setup camp and displayed their team new team banners, including the Tippmann banners. Our camp looked pretty sweet, complete with popup campers and massive popup tents. The fire was roaring and the team was mingling with players from all over. We were lucky to have Wolf (of Wolf’s Den fame) come down from Canada to play with us. We also had the pleasure to hang out with Camojoe (of Woodsballgear.com) and Fern (of Kobraline or KLAirproducts.com) from Canada. In the wee hours of the night, we had a team briefing and went over the game strategy.
The game was scheduled to start on Saturday at 10am and end at 10pm. It consisted of an estimated 350 players and our side, the Somalis, were outnumbered this time, so the odds were against us. (Which is how we like it!) The game was a recreation of the Blackhawk Down event that occured in Somalia in 1993. The main battles occured in the city field at Tactical Paintball. The main objective was to see if the Rangers could win their all of their objectives and recover the downed pilots. Once this occured, the players would switch sides and become the Rangers and start the game all over gain. Both the Rangers and the Somalis eventually achieved their objectives.
The Rangers completed their obectives faster, and therefore were considered the winners. The Rangers made for a very formidable army. But, both sides played very well and made it difficult for each other to achieve objectives. Furthermore, Cobra was honored to win the Most Valuble Team award and the Most Notorious Player award. We led a lot of pushes and were one of the few Somali teams to use LAW rockets attacks to achieve mission success. In addition, our entire team now rolls with either X7′s, TPX’s or X7 Phenoms and we represented Tippmann proudly!
After the game, there was an award ceremony. Cobra picked up their awards and Conley Shepherd (Joker) also grabbed the mic and announced our Tippmann sponsorship and how happy we were to represent. Overall, this was a great event for Cobra and the start of a great year for our team and our sponsors!
Grinder, out
