Colt Roberts: Sudden Death

San Antonio X-Factor’s Colt Roberts has been playing some of the best paintball of his long career the past few events. He stood out yet again at the Chicago Open, but had a crucial, major penalty in Sudden Death overtime against the Los Angeles Ironmen. The penalty cost his team the tournament. He talks to Paintball Access and give us a detailed description of the fateful moment.

Talk me through that last point in overtime against the Ironmen. You made a great move, but it was a move that ended up costing your team a chance at advancing to the next round, because you got a major penalty.

We broke out for the overtime point against the Ironmen, and it was a great breakout for us. We ended up shooting one of them really quick. But then I believe we lost Mike Kovar pretty much right after that though. Which made it a close point. I’m in Dorito 1, Ashton (Johnson) is right behind me and Archie (Montemayor) is over in the diamond temple, and Billy is in the diamond corner. The Ironmen are set up with a solid line across the field, we were pretty much mirrored up, but they may have had slightly better position than us, but only by one bunker.

So it’s 4 on 4, about as close as a point can get. Ashton was supposed to be in front of me, he’s one of the newer guys, and we put him because he was playing hot, being an impact player the whole event.


This is Mike Johnson right?

Yeah, you guys keep calling him Michael, which I guess is his real name.


Guess we should start calling him Ashton. He’s the highest ranked player for X-Factor on the stats, at least heading into the event; he’s doing work this year.

Yeah, Ashton is a stud, he’s one of those guys that, even when you watched him play when he was green, well he’s still kinda green, but right away you could see he’s one of those guys, he just got it, he’s got that paintball mentality. You can see this come through; the guy just has a certain natural ability to play the game. We look for him to be one of the best guys in the league shortly. I really think he’s going to blossom and be an awesome player. But that being said, he still green, and to be put into an overtime point, a Do-or-Die situation, we wanted him in his most comfortable position, and that’s in a front Dorito spot.

But it didn’t happen that way, I ended up getting in there. I made the move before him, because if I see a move, of course I’m going to take it.

Of course, but that’s where he has to transition and play behind you instead of the other way around. Move aren’t exactly a dime a dozen in Sudden Death, you have to take it when you see it.

Right, so I get in the Dorito, and he gets right in behind me, and I hear him say “Colt, I’m right in here with you”. So I think, “Sweet, we’re set up, we’re in good spots, and we’re going to go to work.” Then not long after that, I hear him yell, “Hit!” Raney (Stanczak) must have shot him.

This puts us in a bad situation. It’s now 3 on 4, and I’m the lone soldier on the Dorito side. And the Ironmen are spaced out, two players on each side of the field. It’s now looking much better for them, than for us.

Billy (Bernacchia) makes a move up on the snake side for us, right behind the diamond, so he’s mirrored up with the Ironmen first guy on that side.

We have a battle, it’s a long drawn out point. I’m watching my paint count, which is really important in overtime, and I’m mostly zoned up on (Mike) Paxson, who’s really the only guy I have a good shot on. I didn’t want to battle down the wire, because if I die, we lose the game and get knocked out of the tournament. It would be over, no doubt.

So I’m zoned up on Pax, hoping to catch a pack, or something. I see a few things but he’s not giving me much, don’t really have good shots either way. Then they make the snake, and that’s when it gets weird for me. I know have to dedicate my gun to the Ironmen’s snake player, because if he comes up on me, I’m toast.

About a minute goes by, and then I hear the crowd erupt. So I come out down my wire with my gun up, and I see Raney’s head and LJ’s (Justin Schwarz) head. They’re both looking right at me, but they don’t have their guns out. So I quickly snap both of them in. And think, “Ok, This is the move.” I either take it now, or wait for LJ to come stick me or for them to shoot Billy across the field.

Billy and I are both committed. I either make this move to win the point and we move on, or I let the game come to me, down bodies. You always want to take those moves; it’s how you win those come from behind points.

You know, when we played Houston Heat, during the overtime point, I felt like I could have made a move. I felt it, I didn’t think it was necessary my move to make, but at that point, when I felt the move, if I had made it, we would have won the match. I’m not going to let that happen again. I’m either going to make the move, and we’re going to win, or we lose.

So, we’re in bad spot, and the move is now mine to take.

So as soon as I snap those two guys in, I take off running. I know Paxson was looking at the snake side at the moment in time when I took off, ‘cause I was looking at him right when the crowd erupted and I switched, so I knew I had a window of opportunity to go.

So I take off and stick LJ clean. 100% sure, no doubt about it, I get LJ. And then I continue down and I stick Raney. Well, I look down after I stick Raney and I’ve got a hit on my leg. So I stop there, and you see me in the replay, I stop and look down. Then I see a red flag in my peripheral vision. I think “Oh yeah, that’s it, they just got a major. This games over and we win.”

But the penalty was on you.

Yeah, then the refs say the penalty is on me. And I ask how’s that? They say, “Pax shot you across the field.” Well, that doesn’t make sense to me, if I’m Paxson and I see a guy running the Dorito wire, my gun is on him, and as he continues to go, my gun is still on him. Paxson is notorious for putting you into the dirt if you try to come stick someone.

Totally.

So the fact he’s not shooting me still, I’m like, “There’s no way did I not just get shot by Raney, he must have spun on me.” So that was my thought process, and I thought I just got screwed out of the game winner. Then you send me the shot of the video, of the play, and it shows I’m three steps past LJ (Justin Schwarz) and there’s a hit on my leg.

So the ref’s made the right call, obviously. I still don’t know if Pax shot me. From the picture you sent me, Raney looks like he’s about to come out on the tape, so maybe it was him.

It was tough to tell at first. We watched it from a bunch of different angles on the webcast, and couldn’t see the hit, but then Todd (Martinez) sent me a screen shot from Der Der. And that one was pretty obvious.

Yeah, got the same screenshot.



It’s tough, though. When you’re in that situation, what else could you have done? I guess, if you had felt the hit a little bit earlier, you could have just got the first kill. If you had just shot LJ, and not engaged with Raney, because Billy B. made a move off your move.

It would have been a 2 on 1. They would still have Raney in Dorito 1, and they still have Paxson, because Billy trades out with the snake guy. So yeah, Raney and Paxson against Archie, but, you know, I’ll put my money on that. Looking back, yeah, I could have stuck LJ and stayed in his bunker, but the way I took off..

You were going too fast. You looked like Usain Bolt.

Yeah it was that window you see from all the years of playing, that Spidey Sense.

Honestly it was the right move, at the right time. It tough, that’s why paintball is hard, sometimes you make the move that needs to be made but it doesn’t work and you get shot. It’s just part of the game.

The way I see it, we either lost that point by sitting there and waiting. LJ had a great shot on Billy, who’s at a disadvantage in that spot. Or I try to rely on Archie to hold him from coming to stick me. There was a small gap there, and Archie would possibly shoot him too, but he’d get me. I had to make the move.

I didn’t second-guess myself, literally the second I felt it, I went. Immediately. I have no regret whatsoever. I thought it was a game winner, but I didn’t work out. There have been times when a ref has missed that call, and it could’ve gone my way. But they made the right call, props to them. It is what it is.

Hey, X-factor looks good. You’re playing well, Johnson is playing well, Archie’s great. You are doing what you need to do to be the high level vets on the squad. Todd and Grayson have pulled out clutch points. I look at your roster and it’s real strong. How are you guys feeling coming off this event? I hope you are staying positive about your chances this year.

Yeah, we got back to the hotel that night and it was really cool. Archie, Alex and Dixon we all chatting about everything and I joined the conversation. That’s basically the core, thinking computer of the team. When stuff needs to happen, and things need to get discussed, that’s the four you’re going to see in on it. And Grayson also.

We talked about how there are guys on this team who are actually doing the things they need to do to become better paintball players, but that everyone needs to be doing that. They are guys who are out there watching games and watching players, to see what’s working on the field. For instance, I like to watch Greg Siewers, I think I play like him, and I think he’s just a phenom, one of the best players in the league. So I watch the other guys at my position to see what’s working for them, what’s not working. I am putting myself in situations where I can learn. Instead of waiting for game, I’m going to find it. You might sit there and say, “Oh well, next time I’ll do this different”, but when you’re playing, you have to remember there is no next time, try to get it done now.

It just spawned this whole awesome meeting of putting people on blast, but not in a negative light, more of, “Hey this is what I think of you and this is what you need to do.” We’ve all come to the realization that this is the team, there is no other talented pick up right now, we’re not flying people in, so quit worrying about your spot, and start owning up to your responsibility. If you’re not playing well then come ask us about it. I still come up to Archie and ask his opinion on things.

I’m never too proud to learn. If a rookie came up to me and gave me a valid point, I’ll take it. It was a great “Come to Jesus” moment for the team. Afterwards we all went out and bought steaks, had a big BBQ, drank some beer, and went out that night for Ryan Brand’s (their coach) birthday, with the whole crew. It was a great time. Good team bonding.



Yeah you need that sometimes.

We have four or five guys that are pulling their weight, and other guys who need to step up. Others aren’t living up to their standards.

Like Billy Bernacchia.

It’s time for those guys to look at themselves and say “Hey, ok, I’m one of the guys who has to step up now.” Billy made a comment, how he’s the new guy on the team, and he’s not making the moves he would normally make, because he’s trying to stay alive. And we’re like “Billy that’s not where you are good, you got to be where you are now by getting in spots and trying to make things happen, you’ve gonna get shot, it happens, but you got to be that guy, that’s why we picked you up.” He’s going to open up his game.

But we’re not negative, we’re just frustrated because it’s like you said, we know we have a good roster capable of great things. This is two tournaments in a row where we lost by one point to the team who went on to win the event. And we beat ourselves, we lost a 2 on 1, which is just absolutely terrible, terrible. And then I make a stupid move, we could have beat Ironmen, there’s no doubt about it, but in the end it was our own mistakes that cost us.

The Ironmen 7-0 us last event and we should of beat them. We’re they and anyone who doesn’t think that is a fool. They are no teams that are looking at our team, glad to have us in their bracket. We’re getting it together and we will win an event this year.

It ‘s great to hear guys like you and Archie are still hungry for greatness, hungry to get better, watching the other amazing players in the league to pick up on what’s working out there. It’s like you guys are Bruce Lee right now, you trying to learn anything possible from anybody. That’s what great champions do. Look at Anderson Silva, the most dominant fighter in the history of the UFC. He had Stephan Seagal helping him with his front kick form, which is a kick he’s been doing since he was a child, and he perfects it, and the very next fight knocks out Vitor Belfort with that exact kick.

Right.

It’s about actively pursuing every possible bit of information you can gather, every variable, and then processing that info and you choosing what’s going to affect your style. And it’s great to the fight still in you; I see a lot of fight left in in your team.

Yeah, man, because we’re fighting for something important.. each other.