Once upon a time. Before I hung up my cleats and retired from the game. I used to play competitive paintball.

There's this one game that really stuck out in my mind.

We were 2-0 down, a 3rd lost point would end it.

We were having our asses handed to us by this team who were top end of the division we'd only newly been promoted to. They were worlds ahead of us.

Buzzer goes and we drop both our snake and Dorito guys straight off the break. Our 2s tried to fill from the corners but got blasted tryna regain control of the game. We were at this point "O4, Gzero" meaning out 4 gone zero. (An opposing kill is a G. A lost team mate is an O (oh))

I am doing all I can getting pretty intimate with the Dorito corner I'd filled out to.

I snap out, and gogg (get the guy in the goggles, aka shoot him in the face) the guy who was coming down the wire at me. O4, G1. His mate cross field in the snake starts laneing (shooting a lane of paint) down the inside of my bunker, so me and that bunker get even more intimate so as not to expose any part of me as a target.

There's a guy at the center 50 laneing the other side of my bunker, so I "pop the top" (shoot over the top of the bunker) and manage to get the center 50yard guy, wrap round the side he was surpressing me on to get the cross field shot on the snake 50 and his back up who were stood tall and proud knowing they had the number advantage. 04, G4. It's one on one now. Just me and some guy I had no idea where he was. All I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears and the "pst pst pst" of my spire telling me I was down to a handful of paintballs at best in the loader.

Then he comes storming down the open side, paint lighting up the side of my bunker to keep me pressed in and unable to do much.

I made one quick snap and got that one lucky shot square into his chest and managed to snap back in before he could adjust his lane. 04, G5.

I went and hit the buzzer to score the point.

2-1

I came off that field having no idea what really happened until my coach grabbed me and just said "you clutch M****** *****r" then I got bundled by the team. We'd forgotten we still had a game to play by this point.

They walked through us on the next point to win 3-1. But that whole tournament we were the only team to knick a point out of them. They 3-0'd every other team and went on to win the tournament. But we took a point. I'll never win a 5v1 again... But there's few players who can say they ever did.

I'd started to question my spot on the roster up to that point, we had some younger more athletic guys who were gunning for my spot, but our coach always kept me in quoting "veteran leadership". I'd started to feel like the only reason I still held that spot was because they'd voted me captain. Turns out, the old timer still had something left in the tank. Even if the outcome from a tournament perspective didn't change. Still managed to achieve that feat.

I retired from the game at the end of that tournament.

Rode off into the sunset, cape flapping in the wind behind me. That feeling of coming off the field knackered after giving it all for that one point is one euphoria I'm not going to forget.