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[img]../newsimages/szenenews2003/2004-10-07-europeanindoormasters390.jpg[/img][img]../newsimages/04ergebnisse/2004-11-26-PB032035.jpg[/img]Die Start Divisionen der European Indoor Masters stehen fest. Hier die Ergebnisse der gestriegen Auslosung.[img]../newsimages/04ergebnisse/2004-11-26-PB032109.jpg[/img] Division 1 N1 Paintballworld Graz N9 Ohio Fun N17 Bugs N25 Niñatoz N33 Fabrik A1 Bullets 2 A9 CD Next Blue A17 Atomic A25 Mohawks P1 Nexus Division 2 N2 Red Dragons N10 Benzville N18 High Noon Munich N26 Capital N34 Triumphant Reign A2 Gung Ho A10 Dark Shadows A18 Chillout A26 Mafia P2 Reckless Division 3 N3 Cowboys Rebells N11 Hot Chocolate N19 Dragons DK N27 Cologne Predators Ygst. N35 Ohio Falcons A3 Rebirth A11 Cowboys Reloaded A19 AllStars A27 Frag'l Rock P3 Wing Wang Gang Division 4 N4 Pegasus N12 Fireballs N20 Old Guns N28 Roughnecks N36 Rodeurs A4 Generation X A12 Hot Guns A20 Breakdown A28 Ranger P4 Mercs AAS Division 5 N5 Fastn Deadly N13 Comin' at ya Kidz N21 Daredevils Hellfire N29 CD Next Red N37 Vipers A5 Templer A13 Lübeck Lions A21 Wombles A29 Berlin-Randale P5 Bullets Division 6N6 Rebirth 2 N14 Hetrodox N22 Mohawks Bravo N30 Zero-Sport N38 Projekt yX A6 Fat Lady's Charms A14 Blackout A22 Dynamic-Fusion A30 Mercs CPU P6 Arsenal Division 7N7 Splat Ants N15 Knights of Paintz N23 Chamäleon-Flash N31 Who Cares N39 Spaceballs NRW A7 Instinct-MPG A15 Doriane Golak A23 Daredevils Inferno A31 Syndicatz P7 Defcon 5 Division 8N8 Demolition N16 Muchachos N24 Rats N32 Spartans N40 Rebirth Next Generation A8 Freak Show Red A16 Crazy Monks A24 FreeFall A32 Cowboys Revolution P8 Joy Division

Am 24. November ist auf SignOnSanDiego.com ein Artikel über das Team Dynasty erschienen. Hier der Originaltext für Euch:

Team Dynasty is professional paintball's equivalent of the Joe Montana-led 49ers of the '80s.

Members are what they say they are – a dynasty.

„We have won everything there is to win,“ said Vista resident Brad Maughan. „We have beaten the best in the country and the best in the world.“

Paintball has taken Dynasty, based in San Diego, to four continents and dozens of countries since its inception three years ago. The team has played the best other states and nations have to offer and has won … handily. The group has even beaten all-star teams put together by corporations with the sole purpose of crippling the Dynasty. That didn't work.

„It's harder to stay on top rather than just getting to the top,“ said Mike Hinman, 24, who lives in Escondido and is one of the newer members of the team. „We are the team everyone wants to beat, but no one wants to play.“

Forgo preconceived notions that the 16 members of Dynasty are military wannabes who love to pop off guns outside secluded forest shanties, all the while waiting for the next revolution. Professional paintball has moved from the forests, and players are no longer bathed in camouflage. The garb of today's paintball player most resembles BMX and motocross racers.

„This has nothing to do with the military – it's something we play,“ said Todd Martinez, 24, who lives in Mira Mesa. „It's just like going to the gym or picking up a basketball to go shoot hoops.“

In professional tournaments, teams play on a football-like field with forwards, midfielders and rear players. At the start, the forward sprints to the 50-yard line and tries to control the center bunker, one of several inflatable bunkers that can be moved to create different playing environments. All the while, midfielders and rear players bark out commands while showering opponents with a barrage of paintballs that travel as fast as 200 mph.

All of Dynasty's members have athletic backgrounds. For most of the team, the love of paintball was born out of a love for extreme sports. And the group is convinced paintball is a bona fide action sport.

„Paintball is definitely a legitimate venue for athletes because of the physical and mental demands,“ said Maughan, who at age 31 is in the twilight of his professional career. „The players of today are fast and cut.“

They are also business-savvy. In paintball vernacular, Dynasty is more than a team, it's a brand name. Aside from the approximate $20,000 it receives with each tournament win (usually between 15-20 per year), Dynasty has sold itself as paintball's first marketing superpower. From clothes and gear to clinics and videos, Dynasty is doing everything it can to give its game credibility in a market saturated by extreme sports. The next step is finding a place on television. The team has even retained the services of Bay Area sports agent Ryan Morgan to help with business decisions. „The sport has everything that makes interesting television,“ said Morgan, whose clients include Kerri Walsh, an Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball. „Once people get into the sport it tends to become addicting. From a marketing perspective the sport is great. It's the perfect age range that companies want to reach. The trouble is making the sport conducive to television.“

Much like any professional team, Dynasty has practices, scouting reports on opponents and different lineups for different scenarios. The most common question team members get is: „Do you have other jobs and can you make a living playing paintball?“

„You can make a living doing anything if you are willing to put everything into it,“ Hinman said. „We are the premier team, but we've worked really hard to get here. It's all about how much you put into it. And we've put a lot into it. That's why we're here.“

That's why they are a dynasty.

Seit heute Abend gibt es die vierte Auflage des P8NT Magazine: Ride or Die online. Wir haben es für euch von PBStar.

SAN DIEGO WRAP-UP: ONE BAD WEEKEND

In all fairness, the NPPL San Diego event was fine (though the site was a bit of a letdown). The reffing was not up to par, but the trade show was packed and the event received a ton of exposure. From the standpoint of the top teams, however, San Diego was a nightmare. I haven't seen that many top teams blow out at an event since, well, ever.

Traditional wisdom is that the top teams play best at the last event of the year, but that just didn't happen in San Diego. Just how bad of a weekend was it for top teams? Only one (XSV) out of the top 15 Pro teams made the final four, and only one (TX Storm) of the top five Division I teams even made the prelim cut. It's going to be a long off-season for a lot of people trying to figure out what went wrong.

What does it say when a throw-together team (The Men) from the rival league (NXL) walks on to the final event of the year and wins the Pro Division?

DYNASTY DYSTRUCTED

San Diego was a rough event for a lot of teams, but no one had a worse weekend than Dynasty. Consider:

1) Dynasty 's 23 game NPPL winning streak came to an end on Sunday when they lost in the first game of the quarterfinals.
2) It was cross-town rival XSV who beat them in that game. XSV has now beaten Dynasty 4 of the last 5 times they've faced one another in 7-Man.
2) That game ultimately cost them a spot in the finals, ending their two and half year streak of making the final four in 7-Man events (both NPPL and Millennium).
3) Dynasty 's second team (Entourage) was disqualified for using an illegal gun.
4) In the words of NPPL scrutineer Dave Zinkham, the gun in question was „the most illegal gun ever tested on the robot.“
5) Dynasty lost one of its two franchise pro spots for 2005 as a result.
6) Dynasty 's first team received a „zero“ in the game against the Bushwackers, because Oliver Lang refused to let the referee test his gun after they had hung the flag.
7) All of this went down in their home town of San Diego.

One of Dynasty 's greatest strengths has been their ability to rebound from hardship. It will be interesting to see how they weather this one, and what changes are made between now and the start of 2005.

ALL IN

San Diego was the first NPPL event in which players from all nine NXL franchises competed. In fact, there were so many NXL players running around that it was almost impossible to keep track of them. Here's a (possibly incomplete) list:

Philadelphia Americans played for: Fusion, Ton Tons, Entourage
New York Xtreme played for: The Men, Sedition
Chicago Aftershock played for: The Men, Static
Oakland Assassins played for: Ironmen, Bob Long's Ironmen
Baltimore Trauma played for: Fusion
Detroit Strange played for: Team NXe
San Diego Legacy played for: Platinum
Los Angeles Ironmen played for: The Men
Miami Effect played for: Futureball, Ton Tons

That's a total of (at least) ten different teams with NXL players lending a hand.

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT . . .

Then there was Nexus. Faced with the very real possibility of losing their pro spot for 2005 (Nexus came into the event ranked 16th) the team realized that they were going to have to pull together, practice hard and fight for their spot. Or better yet, pay the Russian Legion to compete in their place. In the words of the NPPL, „Should this be allowed to happen? Probably not.“ But happen it did, and it worked. „Nexus“ finished third at the event and 11th overall for 2004, well within the 17 team pro cut. And Euro teams wonder why they get no respect . . .

X SYSTEM X

After being one of the main sponsors for the first four events of the season, the System X field was quietly replaced with a National field for the San Diego event. What this means is anyone's guess, but it does seem that National is cementing its relationship with the NPPL.

DYE/SHOCKTECH RETURN

In another show of support for the league, both Dye and Shocktech returned to the NPPL tradeshow after sitting out the Vegas event. Proto even signed on as a Gold sponsor for the event, so that teams could use Proto paint.

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

In protest over how they have been treated by the company all year long, Justice spray-painted over the JT logos on their jerseys with black paint before taking the field on Sunday. This was a bold move from JT 's highest ranked amateur team and it did not go unnoticed. In truth, it was less a statement about the company and its products than it was about the people who are in charge of sponsorship and team relations. Hopefully JT can fix the problems before it suffers widespread revolt amongst its teams.

PRO DEATHWATCH: 27

This is the big one. With the final 2004 event over, we now know which teams made the cut and which teams didn't. In all, 27 of the 42 teams who played 7-Man „Pro“ this season won't be able to next year, at least in the NPPL. The teams that missed the cut can basically be broken down into five categories:

The Old School Pros: This is the big one. Long-standing names like Brass Eagle, Ton Ton Flinguers, Bad Company, Jax Worriors and Tippmann Effect are now in the awkward position of trying to justify pro-level sponsorship deals for what are essentially amateur teams. Of the 27 teams that ended up on the wrong side of the cut, these were the five that fought the hardest to make it, and these are the five that will be hurt the most by missing it.

The NXL Pros: The Men (L.A. Ironmen), Shock (Aftershock), NXe (Strange), New York Raiders (NY Xtreme), Platinum (Legacy)

The Sister Pros: Entourage (Dynasty's second team), Famous (Infamous' second team), Bob Long's Ironmen (Oakland Assassins' second team)

The Faux Pros: Triple Tap, Icemen, Eclipse Factory, Organized Crime, Godspeed, Naughty X Nature

The Foreign Pros: Worms, Hard Core, Millennium, Syndicate, Camp Tigers, Storm, Stockholm Ignition, Powertrip

THE LAST CHANCE 32

With San Diego being the last „open“ Pro division, a record number of teams registered Pro, if for no other reason than to be able to tell their grandchildren that they once played Pro in the NPPL. Altogether, 32 teams competed in the top division. What's so significant about that? That's the magic number that bumps the total teams making the prelim cut from 12 to 16.

The four extra teams that made the cut as a result ended up 10th, 14th, 15th and 16th overall, so one could argue that the impact was minimal. Unless you go back and look at what a three division bracket would have looked like, had there been 31 teams or less. But you'd have to be really anal to do that . . .

San Diego Pro Quarter Final Divisions for 12 Teams:

1. Avalanche
6. Nexus (Russian Legion)
7. Dynasty
12. Sedition

2. XSV
5. The Men
8. Ironmen
11. Infamous

3. Famous
4. Arsenal
9. NXe
10. Naughty Dogs

That first division is no joke, but the smart money would be on Dynasty to make it through. Odds are that the wildcard would come out of that division as well, which would probably go to Nexus (Russian Legion). The second division is by far the hardest. Since The Men ended up beating most of these teams, you'd have to pick them to make it out of the wreckage, which means the Ironmen and XSV wouldn't. That alone would have changed the complexion of the finals quite a bit. The third division is a toss up, with no team standing out above the rest. The Naughty Dogs played tough on Sunday in what was the hardest division of the bunch, so we'll give them the nod.

That would have left a final four of: Dynasty , Nexus (Russian Legion), Naughty Dogs and The Men.

The question then becomes, „Could The Men (or the Russians) beat Dynasty 2 out of 3?“ We will never know. The point is that all those „Faux Pros“ overloading the division does have an impact on the final outcome of the events, which is one of the reasons the NPPL decided to drop the hatchet on the bottom 27.

GREG HASTINGS' TOURNAMENT PAINTBALL RELEASE

Finally out, and the early word is that it's good. The only real mark against it is the lack of a multi-player, split screen mode. But that's only a drawback for people who have real friends, who they interact with in the real, physical world. Like paintball players.

In der 189. Ausgabe der Paintball Games International gibt es einen besonders großen Teil über den PSP World Cup. Dieser umfasst nicht nur einen normalen Bericht und Bilder vom Turnier, sondern auch einen Einblick in die Box von Team Strange.

Zusätzlich finden sich noch diese Themen im Heft:

Russian Legion 101: The inside deal on getting Jedi gun skills.

Play like an American: Snack reveals how Philly made it two from two in the NXL.

Voodoo: XSV's own black magic woman, Micah McHarryPotter, unveils the magic tricks that the Pros have kept for themselves…until now.

Angel Speed 05 and Raven Primal on test

Interview Central: Robbo on retirement, Carmen Borgia on the rise and rise of Redz Hurricanes, Jeff Perlmutter on all things PMI – plus Mike Carey talks to Canada's best ballers and Dan Maskell explains what life is like for the foreign legion plying their trade in Moscow.

Plus XPSL Las Vegas, Millennium Malaga, View from the Deadbox, latest DVDs reviewed and all the latest gear, gossip and gadgets hitting the scene this month.

PGI: If it were a hotdog, it's have extra onions, mustard and ketchup. And it would be free. And served by Carmen Electra. And it would do your homework whilst tidying your room. Probably.

Zwei Pressemitteilungen hat die NPPL Super 7 Series in den letzten beiden Tagen herausgegeben. Die erste handelt von dem jährlichen NPPL Meeting, welches am 09. Dezember 2004 in Huntington Beach stattfindet. Das Meeting beginnt um 9 Uhr morgens und endet um 17 Uhr. Pro Team ist ein Vertreter erlaubt und es wird unter anderem über diese Themen gesprochen:

– Regelwerk
– Format
– Zeitplan
– Marshalling

Um sich für das Meeting zu registrieren soll man seinen Teamnamen, Namen und Kontaktinformationen an Chuck Hendsch schicken.

In der zweiten Pressemitteilung werden Informationen über die Berichterstattung vom Commanders Cup 2004 veröffentlicht.

THANKS TO OUR GOLD SPONSORS (NPS AND FACEFULL) THE FIRST 20 INTERNATIONAL TEAMS THAT SIGNUP WILL GET FREE FEE, FREE PAINT, FREE PARTY AND FREE HOTEL!!!Mit diesen Worten fängt die Turnierausschreibung der Acapulco Open an. Klingt nicht so schlecht oder? Am 3. und 4.Dezember wird dieses 5Mann Event ander Pazifik Küste in Mexico stattfinden. Alle Details dazu findet ihr hier.