FRIDAY FRIDAY started with registration,
weapon verification, and vest weigh-in. Yes,
the entire match is run wearing a nearly 7 kilo
weighted vest—no easy day. Luckily, that was
the only mandatory gear requirement; no hel-
met or other annoyances were needed, tho-
ugh the vest itself was enough to kick your
ass over two days. After that, high-fives with
friends, stage walk-throughs, and we hit the
hotel. An early wake-up call awaited us, as the
match began at the crack of dawn on Saturday.
Let the Games Begin
The official opening took place on Saturday
morning. A speech from the TTG USA team,
followed by the Polish mastermind, Mateusz
"Głowa" Goliszek from Kobe, and strategic
partners — the Polish Ministry of National De-
fence (MON) and the 1st Engineer Regiment
in Brzeg. It was good, it was huge, tension was
building, and spirits were still high. We gathe-
red our kit and rolled out to the first stage.
Across two days, TTG athletes always tac-
kle eight stages: two purely shooting-focused,
two exclusively physical, and four that are
a brutal combination of both. The effort is tru-
ly demanding, compounded by the significant
weights required in each category. Competi-
tors are sorted into five-person teams, star-
ting in intervals of a few minutes.
One of the unique features distinguishing
TTG from other tactical matches is the man-
datory requirement to R.O. (Range Officer) the
following heat after you finish your run. Yes,
first you leave your heart and lungs on the co-
urse, then you grab a timer, score the run, and
cheer on the next athlete. It's an interesting
solution that speeds up the match and brings
people from different corners of Europe closer
together.
I'll describe the stages from the perspective
of my run in the Intermediate Category, in the
order our squad executed them. This is desi-
gnated as the "entry-level" category with the
lightest weights, yet it proved to be a signifi-
cant challenge and a humbling lesson in my
conditioning.
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