Bea Youngs - Fox College Sports NCPA Commentator

Team Fuzion wins at Vegas XPSL!

Rookie
1 NXN
2 Chim’s Kids
3 Extreme Extractors
4 B.I. - Delinquentz

Intermediate
1 SLT (Salt Lake Tension)
2 Sacramento Ambition
3 Turmoil by CC Paintball
4 Poso Creek Posse

Novice
1 Fuzion
2 Tombstone
3 Jesters Outsiders
4 Acai Paintball (Bart Monroe’s team)

Spyder Cup
1 Fusion
2 PB Addicts
3 Team Ugly
4 LV Effects

There’s alot that goes into making a paintball event successful and what I learned about what takes place behind the scenes made me appreciate tournament paintball events even more. The XPSL in Vegas started on April 21st for me and I actually got to work alongside Shawn Walker, President of Pacific Paintball (NPPL and XPSL), in the Registration Department. When I saw the venue site on Monday at the Las Vegas Sports Park, I was in awe at the fact that we would see paintball action on the same terrain as that of a baseball player. Only two fields needed to be built because two other fields were already in place. The Las Vegas Sports Park not only has baseball parks and batting cages, but also indoor soccer amongst other indoor sports like basketball, tae kwon do, and fencing. Also inside was a full-blown gym with weights and all, and a room for dancers to rehearse. There was also plenty of bathroom stalls and showers for athletes and only a few port-o-potties were needed. Right next to the locker rooms was the concesssion stand inside the building, too. So, if someone wanted to escape the heat, they could run inside for a cold beverage and sit in the air-conditioned sports facility.

When Thursday came, which was the day before the event started for the rookie, intermediate, and novice divisions, we arrived to start setting up the Registration Tent. My job was to help in Registration and ensure that players were getting checked in and ready to go for the competitive weekend. It was a windy day and there was difficulty in getting the fields set up for game play. The XPSL staff worked well into the late night hours after the wind had calmed down in order to get the fields up and ready by the start of prelims.

Friday morning, it was an early rise for me. I got to the venue at 445AM to set up. There was no wind in sight, which was a good thing, considering that the day before, the wind had players wondering if the bunkers would still be there at the start of the competition. We started checking people in at 6AM, an hour before the Captain’s Meeting. Intermediate and Novice teams arrived for Friday’s game day. A total of 61 intermediate and novice teams showed up to play. On Saturday, 61 rookie teams competed.

When Sunday came, it was time for the “Sweet Sixteen”, where the Top 16 in both the intermediate and the rookie divisions saw Sunday action. Then, at around 1130AM, the novice teams were on the fields, called the “Elite Eight”, the Top 8 teams moved on from Friday’s prelims. It was a beautiful weekend so far, and the sun kept shining down on the Vegas XPSL event. Vegas Heat was one of the Top 8 teams to move on and during prelims, they beat ACAI Paintball, which was a roster of former LTZ players like Adam Ellis, Josh Crowe, Neal Williams, and Shawn Moe. Now, during prelims, Vegas Heat actually beat ACAI Paintball, a team of former pros. ACAI Paintball had some players get reclassified because Adam and Josh were both considered “Semi-Pro” after they stopped competing in the NXL as pros. There was a controversy about Neal Williams, however, since they found on the APPA website (PSP’s Classification System online) that Neal was a player and was also ranked semi-pro. But, after making a phone call to owner of Acai Paintball (LTZ Energy Sports Drink), they questioned Neal’s status. Tony Mineo, NXL Commissioner, was called and he verified that Neal Williams was actually LTZ’s coach, not a rostered player, and thus the APPA system was incorrect.

When it came time for Vegas Heat to play against ACAI, it was a best two out of three situation, and therefore, the winner had to beat the other in two out of the three games. The first game was won by ACAI, then Vegas won the second, and in the third, after a very long game, Vegas Heat looked like they would be the victor, but chaos occured, and the game ended in a stalemate. So, it went into a one-on-one between Adam Ellis and Splat Kids Thomas Castagnetto (guesting on Vegas Heat competing in this XPSL event) and Ellis won. So, ACAI moved on to the Top 4 after all the drama with trying to get ACAI disqualified took place.

In the end, it was Fuzion who took home the Vegas XPSL Novice Division Championship and each top finisher received a skid of Draxxus paint amongst other great prizes from sponsors like JT, Planet Ecliipse, Angel, Custom Products, DGX, Karnage, and Spyder.

Spyder Cup was also featured at the second XPSL event and for the Spyder Cup 3-man teams, it would be their season opener. The one-day event also allowed for other XPSL rookie teams to compete, which was ideal for those teams that didn’t make the Sunday cut that wanted to still get some paintball in before the weekend was over. The 3-man teams had to play with Spyder markers and also all had to be rookies. According to the Spyder website at http://www.Spyder.TV, “the winning team from each of these will be awarded an all expenses paid trip to the Spyder Cup Grand Finale hosted at the NPPL World Championships in San Diego. These seven 3-man teams will compete for three brand new MAZDA3 hatchbacks! Over $10,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top placing teams at the regional events.”

Click here for the SCORES.

Will a paintball event like the XPSL return to Las Vegas? With the 122 teams that came to Vegas to compete, it could mean that there is a demand for more competitions to take place in Vegas, but hopefully by 2009, there will be an indoor facility that can host a 7-man event. Until then, we’ll see if paintball returns to Vegas. I’m hoping that it will considering how well this event ran, even with some of the difficulty in putting up the netting necessary to play on.