November 14, 2011
Las Vegas paintball team FrontKick2theSternum defeated the LA Hitmen in an amazing double overtime final match to claim First Place in the Pump Division at the 2011 NPPL World Championships at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday, November 13th.
In the preliminaries on Friday, November 11th, FrontKick2theSternum only lost to the world famous Total Greif out of St. Louis in the first game of the day, and FrontKick went on to beat the LA Hitmen, APC from the great Northwest, and Chuck Hendsch's HenchMen. On Saturday, only team Zero from Minneapolis was able to prevail over FrontKick, once again in the first game of the day while FrontKick was getting warmed up to trounce Blitz and Kamandag, both great teams from SoCal.
This locked FrontKick2theSternum into the 2nd seed position to make it to Sunday's semi-finals. On Sunday morning, FrontKick came out guns blazing to avenge Saturday's loss to team Zero by winning two games in a row in the best-of-three to advance to the finals. In an amazing upset, the LA Hitmen knocked out Total Greif in their semifinals to face FrontKick2theSternum in the best-of-three finals.
In the first game of the finals, FrontKick2theSternum received a 1-for-1 penalty, and the LA Hitmen took the advantage to hang the flag for a win. In the second game, it was the LA Hitmen who were penalized for playing on, giving the win to FrontKick, and forcing a third game.
In the third game, both teams played defensively, and time ran out before the flag hang, ending the game in a draw. This forced a sudden-death one-on-one match, with each team choosing a player to represent them in a two minute long gunfight.
The FrontKick player came out aggressively, quickly making his way to the double wedges in the center 50, pumping out paint at the Hitmen player. The player from the Hitmen took advantage of a brief moment when the bunkers blocked the FrontKick player's view, and the Hitman attempted a flank to bunker him. In a controversial exchange, the Hitmen player missed his first shot on the FrontKicker, who spun to return fire, and they both ended up eliminating each other, forcing a double overtime duel.
This time, the FrontKick2theSternum player quickly tree-walked along the dorito side, using the bunkers to block the Hitmen player's view as he advanced to within one bunker before he popped out to snap-shoot the Hitmen player square in the sternum (of course).
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