Soakemore 2016

Discussion of past, present, and future water war events.
marauder
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Mon May 23, 2016 8:11 am

Look, I'll just say I know 3 people who still thought there was unnecessary downtime at points because we didn't have things listed out. Two were pretty upset, and no, it wasn't me. No one is advocating to sticking to a strict schedule, only having one and or some team ideas on hand to expedite things. If one or 2 people show up it's easier to switch people around than it is to start from scratch. Some people don't like standing around in the rain for more than 10 minutes. I would rather they have fun and want to come back than risk people not being involved or as interested. We need to be inclusive and considerate of everyone.

I've already started film editing. Ben, we should trade footage! If Sam or Rob are interested in making the master video I'd be happy to supply you with the film. My camera wasn't really that great, but for $18 I am happy, and there is a decent amount of usable footage. What I'm doing right now is cutting out the idle time and everything that is way too blurry to use. The end file will be all action and we can make a movie from there.

With that being said, this was crazy fun. Here's my little round by round.

Round 1: OHS
Duxburian CPS 2000, SEAL CPS 1200, Van James CPS 10k, Chief Vanquisher, David XP 150?, HBWW Gargantua (victorious)
vs
Marauder CPS 2000, Scott CPS 1000, Chupacabra CPS 1000, SSCBen XP 150, Tiff Blazer, Kit MD 6000, Gordon Vanquisher

Round 2: CTF + OHS
Duxburian CPS 1000?, Marauder MXL, SEAL CPS 1200, Tiff Blazer, Kit MD 6000, HBWW CPS 1200 (victorious)
vs
Chief Vanquisher, Scott CPS 1000, Van James CPS 10k, Chupacabra CPS 1000, Gordan Vanquisher, David ??, Ben XP 150

Round 3: Four Team OHK
Marauder SC 600, Van James XP 150, HBWW Gargantua
vs
Scott, Duxburian, Kit MD 6000 (victorious)
vs
Brandon, Danny, Gordan?
vs
Chief, Ben?, David?

Round 4: VIP
Kit CPS 2000 (VIP), Van James CPS 10k, Marauder SC 600, Scott Vindicator, Gordan Vanquisher, Ben XP 150 (victorious)
vs
David CPS 2000 (VIP), Duxburian CPS 1000, Chief Vanquisher, Danny CPS 1000, SEAL CPS 1200, HBWW CPS 2500

Round 5: Long OHS
Chief Vanquisher, Marauder SC 600, Chupacabra CPS 1000, David CPS 1000, HBWW CPS 2500 (victorious)
vs
Duxburian CPS 1000, Van James CPS 10k, Scott Vindicator, Gordan Vanquisher, SEAL CPS 1200

Rob and I were only on the same team 1 out of 5 rounds!!! Pretty amazing. Next time, we will have to join up more. Everyone watch out!

Every round was better than the last, for me at least. In the CTF round I slogged through water and mud up to my waist - carrying a Monster XL - and then crawled through and over fallen debris and giant logs to come up behind the enemy base. It would have been even more epic if I had grabbed the flag, but that honor went to Rob, and I think Ben?

This was the first war that I essentially fought entirely with new weapons. Well, I have had my 600 and Monster XL for a long time, but never used them in community wars. My 2000 went down in the first round with a pull valve/plunger issue. The 600, with modded 3x nozzle, proved to be quite capable in the light rounds.

The Monster XL was capable, just not in the way I thought it would be. I imagined that the MXL would make a lot of hits but also get me hit a lot. Actually, it made few hits and I didn't get hit much either. The wide spread of the double barrels seemed to keep people away, but I also couldn't move very quickly. In soakfests I was used to running around a lot with the MXL, so this was surprising to me. The difference, however, is that the MXL wasn't effecting my top speed at all, what it was effecting was my ability to dodge, and move quickly and with agility. In soakfests there seems to be a lot of running. In hit based rounds there is less running but a lot of dodging and quick back and forth movements. This caused me to play more conservatively. When Scott and I switched guns I immediately got a kill with his 1000 and then he finished the game with my MXL at point blank range. Amazing. I realized, today, how much of my game relies on athleticism, and using the MXL negates that athleticism. If I was defending in 1 flag CTF I think I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the MXL again, but I think I will be searching for a medium alternative in the mean time. My Gorgon performed pretty admirably before, the question is whether or not it will stay fully funcitonal. I need to put it back together.

This was the first war I've been to where the newer players all seemed quite competent. At this point it's probably not fair to call David a "new" player, but he is newer, and I think he was definitely tougher this go around than at Frozen Fury. This was Kit's first war, and it certainly didn't seem like it. One positive thing I'll say about Kit is that he has a good tactical mind and works well on a team. He also eliminated me in a double kill on the 4 team OHK round. Gordan was tough and really fit right in. The vanquisher was fairly impressive this war, and Keith pointed out that he actually had more kills with his Vanquisher than with the 1200 or 2500, and so he actually decided to stick with using it. Also, I don't think it's been pointed out yet, but Sam and Van James do really fight well together. These guys were moving up and down the battlefield with only hand signals. That OHK team with the three of us was actually a very good combination. Lastly, it was great meeting finally Ben after, I think it's been 10 years now!

We really should fight more in Maryland. If this was in CT or NY I don't think I would have been able to come. I could probably be able to make wars in MD every other month, possibly more. The staff for the island did seem surprised that we were there, however. This was not on Scott as I know he made contact with them multiple times before. Apparently all of the "civilians" were family members of uncle so and so who ran the island. One lady asked Tiff what we were doing here and if she was ok and then stared at us really odd a few times. Didn't like that, but hey, the battleground was great regardless of what they thought.

Thanks Scott for hosting this.
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SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by HBWW » Mon May 23, 2016 10:08 pm

I like our two venues there in MD, and would definitely be down to play at those locations more often. The unfortunate part is that there aren't really any good known locations outside of the island and labyrinth; Carderock is just not as high quality of a location although it certainly is usable. However, I'd be down to play more than once a year; maybe sometime in August or September we could do an event that's more demanding; Sycamore Island camping/night time would be really intense.

And of course, this past weekend was one of the wars I really, really did not prepare for in any way, shape, or form. I clobbered together a few PVC fittings for fun, threw some CPSs in the bag/car, and went on my way. Been coding myself into a wreck lately and skipping some much needed workouts. I need to go down to some level of hibernation and just focus on some life stuff as much as I can.

As far as downtime goes, we had less downtime during the labyrinth games, yet we had even less planning than the island games. I think our downtime on the island was mainly caused from lots of talking and from Van screwing around with the "AREE PEE GEE" more than from not having a plan. The issue is not that teams weren't planned, it's that we didn't pick quickly and kept arguing back and forth. When accounting for both skill and chemistry, you'll still never get a 100% perfect balance no matter if a team is planned 2 months in advance or 2 minutes.

That said, I feel that we did have an issue with getting the playlist together and no one really stepped up to assert and get things done. For example, we missed some opportunities with 1-flag CTF and other attack/defend variations on the island. With everyone being as busy as they are, it was difficult to get this planned out well enough and that's definitely something we need to have for each war: a good grab bag of games prepared that support the gamut from few players to many, rain or shine, snowy or hot, night or day. These things definitely need to be planned ahead of time to some degree and I'm certainly not trying to argue against that.

I did try to cram some playlist revisions with Scott the night before, but there was too much discussing back and forth amongst just us to even get anywhere. I need to discuss and debate in short quick points, not long elaborations on issues I already get. Unfortunately, I didn't do any better since I couldn't assist with this planning in advance. Ultimately though, it came down to all of us simply being too busy to do any real planning.

Anyway, so far so good. I really look forward to being able to play new CQB games with similar layouts to the labyrinth and I think that's what we need now.

I'll see when I can get some war footage uploaded so we can trade and have a complete archive. This solution will have to do until we have a central repository or better.

Also, I managed to smuggle an entire space shuttle home. Sorry Scott. I can get it to you at Pandemonium or something.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Tue May 24, 2016 1:21 pm

This was an awesome war. Probably the second-best I've ever been to, and that's behind Downpour 2011 which will most likely never get topped just because it was the first. Just about every single battle on the island was amazing. Oddly I wasn't really feeling the night rounds this time around, although that could've been just from lack of sleep. They were still good, just not as fun for me as the night rounds last year. That's probably just me. The only really serious issue was a little too much sitting around, as others have pointed out. At this point I think the only way to avoid that is by lengthening the rounds.

Anyway, I'll give my opinions on each round:

1HS Round 1:
I really liked this one because of all the running around and ambushing. Lots of action and stealth. Some people said it was unbalanced, but I don't remember what the final score was. It didn't seem that way to me, because I'm pretty sure people on our team were getting hit. While I can't recall the exact numbers, I do remember it being very high-scoring. That said, we do certainly have to take into account who works well with whom. This is further proof that stats don't tell the whole story. If each team has good chemistry, it could lead to some very intense fighting.

CTF + 1HS:
I thought this was just CTF. I don't remember adding up the scores at the end, I thought we just declared my team the victor because we captured the flag first. But either way, this was a very high-quality round, as CTF games often are. I made two attempts at the flag: in the first one I was to go along the shore and strike from behind while my team attacked the front, but I found that the water was too high and the shore was too muddy to walk in without sinking in. So I had to stick to the woods, and got spotted by the enemy. While fighting them, I actually slipped on a log and did a back flip. It was insane, and somehow I didn't get hurt. This was a very slippery war. I think just about everyone tripped at least once. So I made it around back, but my team was nowhere in sight, and I got double-teamed and killed.

After spawning, I ran back the same way and found my team breaking up the defense. I came in at just the right time, taking out the last defender and grabbing the flag. I dropped my gun and ran back with Duxburian escorting me. We got to our base just in time to see two enemies making off with our flag. But we got it there first obviously. Huge amounts of fun. I've actually made quite a lot of flag captures. Something I'm good at, yay! :p

4-team 1HK:
This round was good, but not as much fun for me because I was eliminated early on. My team was trying to herd the other teams together so that they'd wear each other down so we could pick off the stragglers, but we ended up getting surrounded and I was hit from behind while trying to get my team to get the eff out of there. I then picked up a camera and tried to take some good shots, but I don't know how well they turned out. It looked like lots of fun and I really wish I could've played longer. Oh well. Usually I'm one of the last people standing in rounds like this, but this time I was the first one hit, haha.

VIP:
Another fun round, but we didn't play very smartly and our VIP ended up getting hit. We should've kept him behind the lines like the other team did. Once the VIP was hit, only me and my brother were left to try taking out the entire enemy team with only one life. We tried to set up an ambush, but my brother went somewhere else or something and I was the only one to trigger it. Unfortunately for me the enemy was too spread apart and I only ended up hitting one or two of them, and not the VIP. Then Chief ran into an MXL and the round was over. The few seconds before the ambush were extremely intense. I was hiding behind a tree in the middle of a field; the only piece of cover for like 40-50 feet.

1HS Round 2:
This round was basically split up into two parts. Scott had gone to take his friend home or something, so we started without him. The first half was excellent, very similar to the first 1HS we played. Lots of running and sneaking around. Then Scott joined us, and we had a brief intermission before continuing. I wish all rounds had that little time in between them. Filling was mostly done during the round, which not only saved time, but made for some interesting tactical scenarios. But anyway, the second half wasn't quite as good for some reason. The fighting was more stationary, although some of us still snuck around and ambushed people. This was the last one we played on the island, ending one of the best days of fighting I think I've ever had.

Night 1HS:
Surprisingly this was my least favorite round. Again, it was probably just me, but I didn't have a whole lot of fun playing it. As usual I crept around, trying to catch the enemy with their trousers down, but a lot of the fighting was head-on as well, which I don't like. Then I somehow lost everyone and I think my brother found me to tell me the round was over. I feel like it was a good battle, I just didn't have the best time of it for some reason.

VIP Defense:
This one was kinda boring too. I was on offense. The enemy just stayed in the same place, which made tactical sense, but didn't make for that much action. That was why I didn't really want to play it. It still wasn't bad though; I made an awesome ambush on the VIP from a hidden place, and swore that I hit him, but I had to quickly get out of there because people were shooting at me. When I came back, everyone was still fighting and the VIP was still there. My brother says it looked like I hit him as well, but I guess not...? Either way, it didn't end up mattering because my team came together and made the hit with like three minutes left on the clock. Then the round transitioned to...

Soak 'n' Destroy(?):
I think that's the name of the gametype, but I'm not sure. It was basically a carbon copy of the game we played last year where the defending team had to keep the attackers from shooting over three bottles. The bottles were in the same places and everything. The first one went down almost immediately when Scott hopped the fence. Then there was lots of skirmishing. I eventually hit the second bottle by sneaking kind of under the boardwalk and poking around the corner to make the shot. Then for the third one, I teamed up with Scott and we climbed over the fence into a dark area. When the defenders were out of sight, we rushed in and I shot the last bottle. All three hits came out of nowhere, which was awesome. Stealth is my favorite way to fight. I didn't want to play this one either, but I admit I did have fun. However that was because I was on the attacking team. I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much if I were a defender.

Multi-team 1HS:
This was an interesting battle. There were three teams of two, and DX went solo. Scott and Chives had to go back to the house to use the bathroom, but would join in the game as a fourth team when they came back. This battle was decent I suppose. I made some ambushes and stuff, but the best part was when HBWW and Snoop inexplicably decided to camp out by the school outside the Labyrinth. They were standing right next to a corner with their backs to it, which I saw as an absolutely golden opportunity. We snuck along the wall behind them, but when we got about 70 feet away, my brother's team thought it would be a good idea to distract them so we could get them easier. However I wished that they wouldn't have done that, because they never looked my way anyway, and it would've been much more fun to get them when they had their guard down. We still got them though, and it was still epic. But several minutes later we had to stop because Snoop had allergies or something. HBWW drove him back to Scott's, and those of us who remained played one last round.

FFA 1HS:
Again, pretty fun. I think I actually like playing FFAs in the Labyrinth more than team games. Reason being, there are more enemies, and people tend to get separated anyway. It's pretty hard to coordinate stuff with teammates in that battlefield. Chief actually found a way onto the roof during this battle, which I wanted to do earlier but couldn't find a way. Plus it's an unfair advantage, because anyone who's up there can see everyone, and nobody can see them. I don't think we even counted any of the hits Chief made. But it was fun. I managed to spot him early and stayed away for the most part. That was the last battle, and we left the school at like 4AM.

I slept until like 1 in the afternoon the next day. There wasn't going to be any day rounds, and there wouldn't be enough people for more night battles, so my brother and I just ended up leaving. Even though it was cut short, it was still one of the best wars I've ever been to. I loved sneaking through the undergrowth on the island in the rain, making ambushes and getting muddy and bloody. We all went in hard this war, even though Soakemore isn't traditionally a "hardcore" war. The high number of people, which ties Hydropocalypse for most participants at one time, was a huge plus as well. People were leaving and there were still more players on the field than at some other wars! I feel like that's the biggest factor that made this war successful, although the undergrowth on the island definitely helped. It wasn't all swept down like it was two years ago. I may have said that the island would start to get old, but now I eat my words. Definitely want to play there again. The Labyrinth is still sick as well, and we also found some new potential night war locations on Friday night. There is literally a map of schools with portables in the area that Scott found online.

I have pictures from 1HK, but since I left my camera cord at Scott's (and the camera doesn't use an SD card, but this little card that doesn't fit in my computer slot), you'll have to wait for them. I don't know if they're that good either; I didn't want to interfere, so I stayed kinda far away. I definitely want to see the group photo though. Chief requests a copy so he can work some magic on it with Photoshop.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by DX » Tue May 24, 2016 11:29 pm

marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by HBWW » Fri Jun 03, 2016 4:49 pm

I just got a PM from Chupacabra (Danny). He apologized for not calling a hit loudly enough or something during a game in the portables. The end result is that I mistimed some moves I wanted to make and then got hit, then got frustrated over it and yelled a bit too loudly about it. I probably scared him off a bit and he kept apologizing again and again over something that was my own fault.

So with that said, I want to apologize to everyone at the games for any situations where I experienced said frustrations and expressed it too aggressively. I can't recall what other times this may have happened, but it's obviously not the first time in any water war where it's happened. The game experience can get frustrating at times when I'm just not at my best to play, and when a few small/stupid mistakes lets my whole team down. The nature of our rounds demands the best playing from each player and that gets me to be too easily frustrated when I'm not at my best and when I'm not sufficiently rested from the past few weeks.

With that thrown out there, I will do my best to ensure I get enough sleep and exercise in the weeks leading up to a war. Things get tumultuous in life outside of water wars and I guess I'm still adjusting to how I handle all of it. In the past, I've been horrible at handling the routine of getting up ridiculously early every morning for a job I hated, and ended up constantly depriving myself of sleep which lead to health problems. The current job is much, much better since I wake up later, but I still have a few too many nights where I stay up too late to talk to friends. I've had one or two similar incidents at nerf events that happened to much worse degrees, so it's something I need to stay on top of and take care of.

Anyway, if anyone needs to discuss this matter with me further, send a PM or text.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:17 am

Now that I have my camera cord back, here are the pictures I took during 1HK while I was out. I had hoped to get some good action shots, but unfortunately my timing wasn't good enough to get any actual shot pictures. Although they are light weapons, so maybe you just can't see the streams in the photos.

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Ugh, Photobucket is so slow.
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We probably won't be back, but the legacy lives on.

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:50 pm

Wow, how did I miss these photos?You got some great match ups. When I get back home I'll edit these.

This makes me more excited to meet up in VA or MD. Let's do it!
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SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

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