"MACCA" SUPER 7s ROUND ONE RECAP

Our Aussie connect, Nathan "Macca" McDonnell from Queensland, Australia, drops in for a play-by-play update about his time during the first event of Super7s at Action Paintball Games -

"The Australian Super 7s Series kicked off with a bang and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The weekend before the event I got a call from the Eskimo Bro's Captain, Jamie Angus, with some bad news. Chad George from Houston Heat, who was to be guesting with the Eskimo Brothers for this round, wasn’t sure if he could make the event due to some last-minute unforeseen circumstances. So, Jamie asked if I could be on standby for the event if he couldn’t make it. Come Tuesday before the event Chad was a no go and I got the nod that I was in. Getting a last-minute flight down to Sydney was going to be costly, but worth it. Let me paint a picture. You know that other life? The one where paintball isn’t your day job? The one where getting a Friday off work last minute would be a mission? Yes, unfortunately, this time I really couldn’t make the first day of the round as the boss in my other life was away, which meant I had to run the shop. Friday was however a long day as I was paying close attention to how the guys went. There were some good matches, but the Eskimo Bros ended Friday 0-4.

Then finally came Saturday. Since I missed all of Friday's games, I caught up with Jarrahd Cosier, fellow nVs teammate, and headed to the field super early so that I could walk it and try to come up with some plays for the team. The team showed up soon after and we had a talk about the layout and game plans. Our first match was against a favorite old rival, Sydney SWAT. As usual, they came out swinging and took early points. We weren’t going down without a fight. Not on my watch! We ended up losing the match 1-4, but the score does not match the effort the boys put in. Eskimo Bros fought hard from start to finish. Our second match was against Perth Torque. These guys were just as solid as they brought out Thomas Kim from Sacramento Damage. The match was another fight and we lost 0-3. Our third match of the day would be against Marauders. As the team was improving from game to game, our confidence was as well. The game started with us losing the first two points. It wasn't the start we had hoped for. Without losing hope we clawed our way back taking the next three points to win the game 3-2. Finishing Saturday's prelims with a win was a great confidence boost for the team as we had been battling it out all weekend.

Sunday had us face off against Menace and NZ Expendables. Both teams were contenders for the finals. Menace had brought over Raney Stanczak from Edmonton Impact and Expendables had Ryan Greenspan and Blake Yarber from San Diego Dynasty. Our first match was against Menace. They got off to an early lead taking the first point. After shuffling our line-up, we took the next three points to win the match 3-1.

Our final game of the weekend was against NZ Expendables. These guys were one of the favorites to win the event. We could hear people in the crowd already writing us off for the match saying that we would loose 0-4, but that just made our boys even more hungry to prove them wrong. The Expendables came out blazing taking the lead 2-0, but we weren’t giving up taking the next point making it 2-1. After some close points and great battles, we lost the match 3-4 with one second left on the clock. This was a great result for the team as we showed that we can take it with the best of them.

I can’t wait to see what happens at round two. I’ll be there for the full event now as well as having a couple of other surprises with me. I’d like to thank the Eskimo Bros for having me for the weekend. I’d also like to thank my sponsors DYE Precision and Craig McIver from Paintball Addiction for supporting me with all of the best gear in the game."           - Nathan "Macca" McDonnell