August 17, 2005
2005
PSP Northeast Open
The forth leg of the Paintball Sports Promotions (PSP)
circuit took place in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania at the Turner Valley
Complex. The event previously set to be held at the prestigious
Nemacolin Resort was canceled due to scarce hotel accommodations. The
Turner Valley Complex turned out to be about thirty minutes from the
airport, give or take depending on traffic. Once you arrived at the
field, you were greeted with a large parking lot, soccer fields to your
left and the PSP venue to your right. The event location was as most
would say, “out in the boonies.” With a venue in this remote of a
location, it was rare to see spectators, especially those who have just
stumbled upon the event. PSP seems to have trouble with their locations,
with the exception of Disney’s Wide World of Sports. The location was
definitely one of the greater downfalls of this event. Another
reoccurring problem is the heat. Don’t promoters take weather and
location into consideration? For example, why host an event during the
summer in Orlando? It’s going to be miserably hot. Not only was it
ridiculously warm and uncomfortable, but the PSP didn’t provide any sort
of replenishment for the athletes. This is ridiculous. Teams travel half
way across the country and pay an entry fee and the PSP doesn’t even
provide water for the athletes. Ludicrous.
Minnesota athletes were in full effect at the Northeast Open. They’re
starting to prove that they are serious competitors from our humble
state and are making regular appearances at these national events. It
was great to see team God Squad trying their luck at Division III 5-man.
They started the event off on the right foot beating Delirious on the
Dye field bright and early. The God Squad seemed to be having a good
event, but they just couldn’t keep consistent, winning a game, and then
loosing the next. They finished out the event well, beating Team
Encounter with five bodies alive and going four and four for the event.
MN Infusion was a surprise MN team at the NE Open. Composed of Josh
Blaschko, Nick Danner, Ted Fosburgh, Brian Harrison, and Mike Peterson
they set out to try their luck at Division III 5-man. MN Infusion ended
up with a good learning experience with two wins and six loses. I’m sure
we will see these guys at the next event in Orlando.
Regulars, Team Splatball were in attendance at the NE Open playing 5-man
Division II. They rolled through the prelims, as expected, with only one
loss to local Midwest team Psycho Circus. Semi finals however proved to
be tough for the squad as they lost their first semi-final to Shiver,
but they bounced back and beat Full Throttle. They had to win their last
game semi final game to have any chance at making finals. NaughtyXNature
proved to be too tough for the Splatball crew and took home the victory
in the end.
The only xball team from MN that was in attendance was Team Vintage.
Vintage started off the event very well beating Chaos decisively 9-7 in
a great to watch match. Their second match had them facing off against
the event winners Team Xtreme. Vintage gave it their all but were
out-matched in experience and learned a good lesson loosing 5-14. With
the loss Vintage went to the loser’s bracket and were forced to play
another game on Thursday. That’s three xball matches in a day, which had
to be quite exhausting. In their third game Vintage faced off against
GRC Factory on the PSP field and proved they didn’t want to go home
early winning by a huge margin, 13-5. An exhausted Team Vintage left the
field knowing they had a big day ahead of them in the morning as they
had to play the Smart Parts Factory Team. Friday kicked off with Team
Vintage vs. Smart Parts Factory Team on the Empire field. Vintage got up
early winning the first few points with their strong first line. Smart
Parts Factory countered and came back scoring a point. It was a battle
back and forth but Vintage proved to be the stronger of the teams and
won a great match 9-8. Later that day, a strong Vintage team took the
field against XO Paintball Authority on the Smart Parts field. This was
a slower paced game than usual and the refs were not pulling major
penalties. There was even an instance where XO Paintball Authority
players were playing with face shots and not being penalized. Over
coming even the poor referring on the Smart Parts field, Team Vintage
won another good match, 8-5, earning them the right to play Saturday.
That’s when the competition gets really fierce. Team Vintage faced off
against Voltage on the same Smart Parts field. Unfortunately, it wasn’t
their day as Voltage really got the best of the team and won a decisive
match 2-15. Congratulations to Team Vintage for taking 7th place in
Division II, as this is the best any MN team has done in an Xball Event
for some time now and I only see them improving.
Other MN players were also in attendance at the NE Open. The three
Philly Americans: Todd Hugo, Pat Roberts, and Aaron Tholey were playing
in the NXL, and all on the same line. Thursday, Philly faced off against
the Boston Red Legion and had the lead early on, however stupid mistakes
cost them the game and the Legion pulled away in the end winning 11-7.
Friday, Philly had to play tough Detroit Strange Team; it was a close
game coming down to the wire with Philly edging Strange out and winning,
8-7. Saturday was Philly faced off against the LA Ironmen who just came
off a great win against the Boston Red Legion and were really rolling.
The game went back and forth, Philly had the lead by one the last minute
of the game, however a goggle violation penalty was enforced as a Philly
player came out onto the field without his goggles to try and cheer his
teammates on. This put the Ironmen at an advantage and they ended up
hanging the flag with about 10 seconds left and tied the game. Philly 8,
LA-8. Sunday was an exciting match to watch as Philly faced off against
their sister team Miami Effect. Philly jumped out to an early lead 6-1,
but penalties killed them and Miami came back and tied the game up 7-7.
But as the penalties ended so did Miami’s streak and Philly pulled away
winning, 13-8.
Overall, the NE Open was a well played paintball event with a bad
location in some hot hot heat. The PSP should have at least provided
water and I am sure the snow cone vender made millions. It was great
seeing MN teams actually compete in a national scene. I hope we can keep
this consistent.
Here is a link to the PSP website if you are looking for more
information on the PSP.
www.pspevents.com
This is Aaron “LumberJack” Tholey reporting on the 2005 Northeast Open
with nothing but hATe.
For more information on our contributing writer Aaron Tholey please
visit
www.aarontholey.com
Read more
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