Richmond Riot Trip to Pevs August 16, 2009

Well known paintball team, Richmond Riot, went up to Pevs Aldie to practice against the Arsenal squads this past Sunday. Richmond Riot shot some winter shelled paint in the 97 degree weather which proved to be quite the challenge. Riot was successfully bouncing people left and right all day managing to win a couple games here or there. The Arsenal camp is definitely looking stronger every time Riot bumps into them picking up key players here or there to improve their on field domination.

The four seven man teams practiced on a field setup exactly like the DC Challenge 2009 event will be like and on the actual playing surface, which is a very nice astro turf. The first thing that Riot noticed was the very nice layout at Pevs new field but quickly realized that some shade would be nice and utilized the 20 foot netting from one field as their shade. Next the team quickly registered and paid their fee which was definitely very reasonable considering the amount of money that was spent on the facility. Then, Riot finally got up to go on the field and filled up their tanks right there in the walk into the field with 4500psi fills in the morning then dropping down to 3000psi fills towards the middle of the day.

As Richmond Riot started the game several players quickly discovered how much faster the astro turf plays compared to the grass they've been playing on most of the time. Everyone's slides went past their bunker and ended up having to scurry to get back into the bunkers they were trying to slide into. The burn package is particularly hard on this field layout because there are so many bunkers in the way blocking the burn lanes along with the bouncey paint and it's darn near impossible for the team. The first game was pretty good with players making key moves into the U and the snake but quickly having a problem because of shooting their own team out and getting shot underneath bunkers. The team played past the problems and the next game ended up pulling out a win.

It went on pretty much all day the same way, bouncing players left and right with the now marshmallowy textured winter style paint the team was shooting. Riot got in about 8 games making this the most amount of games the team has gotten in at an organized team practice in a long time. DC Arsenal and Arsenal Predators were very helpful with the whole practice and definitely some great competition. This was perhaps one of the first times that a pro practice was involved that did not involve any real arguments or fights on or off the field. This is particularly amazing considering there were no refs on the field the whole day. A couple players sitting would ref here or there trying to keep up while they could.

All in all, the field was definitely located in a much easier to get to location compared to the old Leesburg field. Parking was in a gravel parking lot, a pro shop was on sight and pricing was much better than before. The teams were very strong competition and the attitudes were very friendly. This was definitely one of the best outings that Richmond Riot has seen in the past few years for an organized scrimmage/practice. Everything ran smoothly despite the extreme heat and added temperatures for playing on the astroturf. Riot will be making one more scrimmage/practice trip up to Pevs this Sunday which is about a week before the tournament for another quality practice against the Arsenal Lineup once again.