Humbleness in Defeat

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My career in pro tournament paintball over the last five years has been one of ups and downs, but overall the team has been heading in the right direction. And that's up. From my first year in the pros finishing 11th in the world standings, then 9th, 7th, 4th, and finally finishing second in the standings at last year's World Cup, we have been going nowhere but to the top. But 2nd place isn't good enough. We wanted more. In the finals of World Cup last November, we fought like dogs to unseat the most dominant team in pro paintball, a team named Dynasty (a fitting name for them, as they are truly a dynasty in the paintball world). We fell short. Don't get me wrong, we were more than ecstatic to finish as high as we did, but we worked like hell in the off-season to get even better. Because we felt we were the better team. Call it arrogance if you will. Fast-forward to the first tournament of the new year, the Sunshine State Major. A tournament in our backyard. A chance for the home team to shine. A chance to prove we are the best. And dominate we did, easily cruising through the brackets and finding ourselves in very familiar ground...in the finals against Dynasty, a rematch of last year's World Cup final. This time, we were going to take them down, and establish ourselves as the new king in paintball. And fight to the end we did. But it was all for naught. We lost. Once again. Second place. And it was my fault. I blew it. As the final seconds ticked away on the clock, I had a chance to make a very risky move on the field that--if successful--would have won us the game and the match and crowned us as champions. But sometimes life throws us lemons. I made the risky move. I executed it perfectly. I made the kills I had to make. The victory was in our hands. I had a straight line up the field unabated to hit the buzzer and win the tournament. But as I jumped up and spun to make the move, I heard a snap, and down I went, in agonizing pain. As I laid there on the field, the enemy closed in and took me out. Game over. A broken right foot. Just like that. Out of the blue. And I was done. I let my team down. I was angry, hurt, frustrated, disappointed. I had that win right there in my hands. But there is humbleness in defeat. I look back now and realize that both myself and my team were getting more cocky and arrogant with each passing victory throughout the weekend. So we deserved that loss. No. We needed that loss. Because it humbled us. It humbled me. But it's going to feed us and drive us and help us to get even better and move forward. Humbly. And although the saying goes, "humble in victory, gracious in defeat," we needed to be humbled in defeat, and that's exactly what happened to us. But we're going to be a better team because of it. But not a cocky team. Because that's not who we are. I've got 4-6 weeks of healing and rehabilitation on my broken foot. And 8 weeks to the next tournament. I will be healed. I will be better. I will be ready. And I will be gracious and humble. Because last weekend, the better team won. And that team was not us. Photo is me in that last game of the tournament, limping off the field with my pride hurting much more than my broken foot.