Raising the standard
By Greg Scott
Huntington Beach, California
was the home of the first NPPL Super 7 to start off the 2003
national tournament season. This tournament was unbelievable. The
tournament fields were right on the beach. This provided an unbelievable
crowd of spectators. Many people from Huntington Beach came to see what
all the commotion was about. There was a live DJ spinning tracks in
between games and announcing the teams and what was going on, on the
fields. There was a Budweiser VIP tent were you could grab a beer and some
food as well as watch the games. A large stadium style grandstand housed a
crowd of spectators right in front of the Super 7 NPPL field. There was a
huge trade show with many vendors. With three Bauer compressors and 15
bulk tanks there was no air line. They even had extra air nozzles to blow
the sand out of your equipment. There was a players only area with
restricted access, so all your gear could be safe. They also served fresh
fruit and cold water to the players. A professional chiropractor was also
in the players area to deal with any injuries. The vibe of the whole
tournament made you feel like you were an athlete competing in a sport.
Trade Show
Many vendors came out to
the super 7 to show their wares to the public in attendance. Paintball
industry vendors as well as non-paintball vendors were there. WDP had a
large booth showing all the coolest angel products. Their new 03 angel
looks really good. I can't wait till we get one in a store up here. They
also had a lot of add-on parts to totally trick-out you angel or Ir3.
Hoodies, chic shirts, and stocking caps were there also. All this was sold
by very helpful "angels" dressed in cute little green patent leather, army
nurse outfits.
R.P. Scherer was there
with their Evil line of products. They a new gun coming out that force
feeds the balls into the gun with every shot. It looks cool and crazy at
the same time. They also have a lot of new Evil mods and add-ons for the
impulse and autococker. These seem functional as well as cool looking.
Raven was also there
with their new display trailer. Showing all the jerseys and packs. They
also came out with a new spyder that's cut and milled. It also looks
great. This means that even the newbies will be looking good this year.
JT had a good booth
also. They had daily autograph signings from players from avalanche,
lockout, and the brass eagle all-stars. JT has a new pack coming out that
allows you to custom make your own unique pack. You can make a pack with
anywhere from one pod to twenty pods. It also is contoured to fit your
back. Really nice.
There were also many
other paintball companies selling lots of stuff. Non paintball vendors
were there showing off products like, Fuji selling disposable cameras,
Budweiser selling 180 energy drink, and Dank selling cool hoodies,
t-shirts, and hats. A new company called Lovesacs was also in attendance.
They sell huge bean bag chairs. These things are big enough for two people
to lounge on and were by far the largest bean bags I have ever seen.
Great Location
This tournament site was
definitely mainstream. We certainly were not playing in the woods or out
in a cornfield. This was downtown Huntington Beach. The tournament
site was super close to a variety of shops, bars, and restaurants. There
was even a Burger King across the street. How many times have you been to
a tournament and wanted to grab something to eat because you have an hour
or more break? At this tournament good and hot food was only a short walk
across the street.
The 7man fields
The layout of the fields
was nothing like anything that I had played on. Most NPPL ten man fields
have traditionally been set up with three or more strong stand-up back
bunkers that you could support your front guys with and, if needed, mount
a strong defense from. These fields were the opposite. They were
deifnately a mid players field. The corner bunkers were mostly teacups or
small cubes with an occasional lay down. If you wanted to play a big
bunker, you had to move up. I asked some of my friends about this and was
told that the European style 7 man fields are all like this, so that the
games keep moving, it forces you to be aggressive, and not sit back. The
sand kept a lot of players from taking a lot of ground on the break. So,
there were a lot of bump and runs from the front guys. The fields were
also shorter which made the shooters sweetspotting on the break, victims
of the dead box as well as the runners. It seems that this is the way the
super 7 will set up the fields this year. This will definitely make
everyone play more aggressive.
Play of the tournament
Undoubtedly the dopest
move of the tournament was on the JT field. The game was between Kapp
factory and Hypersonix. The JT field was laid out with a huge pyramid on
one tape and a zipper-style arrangement of bricks on the other. The JT
pyramid is the largest bunker I have ever seen. It's probably 20 to 30
feet tall and wide enough to have two to three players comfortably play
in. Jai of Kapp factory was in the pyramid and just got done stickin' his
opposing player on the other side of the pyramid. Jai knew that the
pyramid was clear of hypersonix players but, the main threat came from the
mid player in the stand up behind the pyramid that was posted up on his
location. If Jai even peeked around the corner the hypersonix player would
blast the edge of his bunker.
Now, the top side of the
pyramid at the base corner is over six feet tall and the side edge of it
is getting blasted from the hypersonix player. Jai does a vertical leap,
high enough to see over the top of the bunker and shoots two balls from
his intimidator, while in mid air. Before he even hits the ground the
hypersonix player recieves two hits to the gogs and with a roar from the
crowd goes to the dead box. That is most definitely the move of the
tournament. So, at our next practice when you warm up by doing a little
snap-shooting drill. You better remember Jai from Kapp factory and start
doing some jump shots.
Community hours?
Here is an update on
'The sniper" from the world cup. If you remember one of the scandals of
the 2002 world cup was the sniper incident. A player from Avalanche, the
pro team, decided to give his team some extra support by borrowing an all
black, super quiet stealth matrix, don his black ninja outfit and proceed
to dump a hopper on Ground Zero from the shadows of the Florida jungle.
The preliminary game
between Avalanche and Ground Zero started out fast and furious, like most
pro on pro games. It seemed like Ground Zero had the upper hand with their
front guys moving into the fifties on both sides of the field. That’s when
the sniper came into action he proceeded to eliminate one entire tape
before he got caught. ( caught and dragged out of the jungle by a few
members of Ground Zero to be exact)
As a result of his
strategy, his team was ejected from the world cup and the x-ball depute
held at Disney's wide world of sports. I thought we would surely
never see Jeremy Salm aka "the sniper" again.
Well, it seems as though
Jeremy has confessed and been sentenced. He is currently serving his time
by giving back to the sport. He was sited several times at Huntington
Beach (this time without the ninja outfit). He is has decided to help out
a novice team and a rookie team that will play all of the super 7's.
Jeremy is very good at reading fields and analyzing a teams' strengths. He
has been working with Vicious and vicious kids in an effort to give back
to the sport that he feels he has taken from.
This takes a lot of guts
to come back and face the crowd after what he did. I think that it shows
that he is making amends with the community.
Many New teams
With the splitting of
the NPPL and the PSP there are a lot of new teams. There are the
Viewloader all-stars, an Evil factory team, a team Maxim (from the
magazine), Redz factory team, a pro team called Wone factory team
(with 12 year old brothers), A second Boston paintball team, and a bunch
of Bushwacker teams.
The finals
Right before the finals
started a lady came out and sang the star spangled banner just like at
other sporting events. Then there was a tribute to Maurice Gibb who passed
away recently and was deeply involved in paintball. They released his
doves and let them go free.
The finals were played
in a best of three format that made two teams play for 1st and
2nd, while two and then two other teams play for 3rd
and 4th. Dynasty, a group of California boys played the French
team the Ton Tons in the pro division This game was exciting as both teams
took a lot of ground on the break and also did a lot of run-throughs on
each other.
The prizes
The
prizes were cool. The pro's competed for $20,000 in cash but,
they were a lot of non-paintball prizes for the other divisions.
They consisted of 48 inch TV's, digital cameras,
and some custom bikes.
The first place prize for the rookie team was this
dope car seen in the picture with me.
Conclusion
This tournament is really like nothing I have attended yet (after
attending every NPPL for the last three years). Thanks to all the
people that put it together, cuz I certainly had a good time. I would like
to thank all my teammates. Those that came and played, and also those that
didn't. I would also like to thank my sponsors, because without their help
A LOT of things could not happen. R.P.Scherer/PMI for the ultra evil, it
shot great, breaks on all my victims and too slimy to cheat. Raven for the
cool jerseys, packs and goggles. Splat Tag, Inc. and PGI for having the
perfect place for us to train.
Feb. 18th,
2003
By Greg Scott

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