In July of 2011, ACUppsala hosted the first ever Ultimate Woodsball League tournament in Sweden. Here is a writeup of that game and two videos by SPbTV member Ben Thompson. After months of planning and preparation, which included hours of construction and field improvements, the first leg of the Swedish Ultimate Woodsball League tournament series went off smoothly on July 9th at AC Paintball in Uppsala. With only four teams in attendance, the event was smaller than expected, but that was not necessarily a bad thing according to Patrik Samuelsson, co-owner of Wizeguy Paintball, one of the Swedish venue’s sponsors:
“I think it is alright today that we only have four. Right now, it is better with a smaller group. If it works today, then people will hear about it and come to the next one and we can grow. It is much better than if we had 16 teams and a bad day and then no one wanted to come again.” He laughs, “And besides, we would need two fields for that.”
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| UWL was put on by WizeguyPB and ACpaintball... my gf had nothing to do with it. |
The UWL has been expanding rapidly around the world. The 10-man woodsball format offers a balanced and competitive tournament, easily exportable. Competitions have spread out of the US to the several countries in Europe and Asia. The tournament on July 9th was Sweden’s first UWL competition. The day dawned bright and sunny, thwarting the gloomy and rainy forecast predictions. Three teams showed up to play, Helt Lost, Lost in Woods, and Ignition Oldschool. The fourth team was comprised of members of AC’s home team, BFP, and free agents.
I started out the tournament with this group, aptly named Mixed Team 1, in the first game versus Lost in Woods. We lost the coin toss and LIW took the two instant respawns. With only seven players, we didn’t have a lot of manpower and staying in the game was critical. Things went well off the break. Three of us moved on the right tapeline heading for Objective 2. But after ten minutes of mostly holding action, we turned around to see blue armbands in our base area. LIW swept our left side and would score thirty points if they captured our base. We returned to try stop them, only to be caught between the three players in our base and the ones pushing the tapeline. They made short work of us. We headed to the deadbox. There was one player left on our team and he put up a stand for several minutes before we realized that if he just got himself killed we wouldn’t have to wait for respawn, the game would be reset. He lowered his weapon and walked out into enemy fire, but the delay cost us nearly 10 minutes of clock time. The last 10 minutes were a desperate firefight to stay on the field and we lost soundly to LIW.
The little nuances of the game, like the respawns or the game resetting if one team gets eliminated, make the UWL more than just a shoot-em-up. The more we played, the more we began to understand how the rules could help or hinder game strategy. The Ultimate Woodsball League is simple enough that a new team can pick it up quickly, but also intelligent and detailed, so that a smart team who studies the game well can develop a formidable strategy.
As soon as we got off the field, they were preparing to start the next game, Lost in Woods (again!) vs the Ignition Oldschoolers, a full 10-man roster composed of member of the original Stockholm Ignition speedball team. LIW asked if I’d like to be their pump player, and they take two more players from the Mixed team to bring them to a full 10. With 10 players on each side, the game proved much more intense. LIW communicated well, shouting out positions and movements. Ignition was no different, pressing hard on all fronts. The match was thirty minutes of adrenaline-fueled, action-packed paintball, with both teams fighting for advantage.
Videos of this match:
I ended up playing the first five games in a row as both Helt Lost and LIW asked me to fill in their sniper position. In what would be my last match, I found myself facing off against the Ignition players again. I scrambled into the first objective and pulled up the flag, then sprinted back into the trees to take up an overwatch position. Ignition player Lars Dahlén managed to slide into a small protected space and switch the flag. I decided to sprint down the tapeline and outflank the objective. I was sprinting through the trees when I came face to face with another player from Ignition. Luckily for me, his gun had just turned off. Luckily for him, I was sprinting past and didn’t take the time to stop and shoot him. I raced past him and slid into some trees. My heart was pounding. He called out to his teammates that I had run through their line. I slowly doubled back on him. When he raised his head to talk to them again I got off three quick shot and took him out of the game. I tried working the tapeline around behind the Ignition players, but three of them converged on the thickets I was hiding in. With only a pump-gun, the last ten minutes of the game were a wild goose chase of ducking and diving through the thick bushes trying to find each other. I managed to fall down on some hidden rocks and tear my shin open. We stayed circling eachother in the overgrowth until the game was called. I switched out playing with Johan Nordling and became a referee for the remainder of the games and rest my battered leg.
For Part 2:
Lost in Woods and Ignition dominated the field. Both of them played extremely well as a group. The firefights were intense and competition raged back and forth all day. But the intensity was not without it’s humorous moments. Near the end of regulation play, the scout from Ignition, too accustomed to playing the field from only one direction and pulling up the coinciding red flags, accidentally pulled up the Objective 2 flag to the wrong color and left it there for over twenty minutes. It took a game reset before anyone on the team bothered to double check the flag color, or it might very well have stayed Red the entire game.
At the end of regulation play, the scores stood:
Helt Lost, 89
Mixed Team 1, 184
Ignition Oldschool, 331
Lost in Woods, 413
For the final, Lost in Woods was slated to play the Ignition Oldschoolers in an epic showdown to decide which was the best woodsball team of the day, but several of the members of LIW had sustained injuries. With not enough players to take the field against Ignition’s 10-man roster, Lost in Woods ceded victory to the Ignition Oldschoolers, who were declared the day’s winners by default.
Despite the low turnout and fizzling finale, everyone had a great time. Even some of the die-hard ex-speedballers from Ignition commented on how much fun it was to be back in the woods. The style and simplicity of the UWL made it easy to get the hang of and enjoy. Hopefully, the word will spread in Scandinavia and more teams will show up to the next round.
ACPaintball will be hosting the second leg of the Ultimate Woodsball League tournament on October 15th, 2011, at the Uppsala field. Registration and other information can be found at www.uwl.se.
Photographs for the event were taken by Bullitproof Monkey. See more at: bullitproofmonkey.com or on Facebook (search Bullitproofmonkey and go to UWL pics)
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