CFOA Tarheel Open  
Aug 26,27, 2006 

Circus Runaways - 1st Place Novice
Cross Eyed - 1st Place Rookie
DC Confidential - 1st Place Rookie

Since 1999, The Carolina Field Owners Association has been producing paintball tournaments in the southeastern US. In the 2006 series, the league has had a very full calendar with four X-Ball tournaments, and seven 5-man tournaments. Adding to the mix are ten more three-man events produced by The CFOA staff for Paintball Central. In recent years most of the larger regional leagues have moved their five and ten-man competitions to the newer 7-man format, the NPPL moved to 7-man and PSP replaced their 5-man competitions with 5-man X-Ball. This has left The CFOA as one of the few places with large-scale 5-man paintball, and its scale has been continuing to grow. The CFOA is also a rarity among regional and local tournament series in that teams are allowed to bring their own paint to the event, rather than being required to purchase tournament paint.

The Tarheel Open drew out 77 teams to compete in Beginner, Rookie and Novice categories to compete at Carolina PB Park in China Grove, NC. Two days of play over the weekend were judged by the CFOA professional ref corps. An on-site trade show included Planet Eclipse, DerDer Productions, Paintball Kingdom, Paintball Central, and the Matrix Center.

In the Beginner division, DC Confidential finished the tournament in first place, followed by Gravity Kids, Malicious and Outta Kontrol. CrossEyed took home the trophy or the Rookies with Tainted Gold in second, followed by Kryptonite and KPS Hard Knox. The top level of the tournament was the Novice division, where Gridlock finished second and Circus Runaways took home the first place prize package which included 5 ICD Promasters and 5 Crossfire HPA systems. The Tarheel open marked the third win in a row for Circus Runaways. That didn’t put them in the top of the season rankings, but it the tournament did un-seat top ranked Last Call, which was replaced by Gold Rush as the series leader.