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PSP  2003   Las Vegas Open
April 30 - May 4, 2003

5 Man
Doc's Raiders - Novice 1st Place
Doc's Raiders Black - Rookie 1st Place

10 Man
Sin - Rookie 1st Place
Justice - Novice 1st Place
Team Addicted - Amateur 1st Place

X Ball
Division 1 - Naughty Dogs
Division 2 - P&L Hurricanes

Paintball Sports Promotions returns to Las Vegas, Nevada for their second stop in the 2003 season.  An all new site was selected for this year, Ed Fountain Park, northwest of the famous Las Vegas Strip.  Fountain Park is owned by the city of Las Vegas, and is a multi-use sports complex with open grass fields for soccer, a playground and diamonds for baseball.  Green grass through the site made it a stand out venue, with a small paved parking area for the trade show and gravel parking for teams and spectators.  Site setup proved a challenge for the PSP crew.  Drilling holes for the large wooden net poles went smooth for the first foot of soil, but below the surface, much of the park featured a layer of calichi, a dense stone material.  Drilling and post placement moved at a slow pace, with equipment breaking against the hard stone while the 5 and 10 man fields were built, and then a local drilling company was called in with heavier equipment to prepare the X Ball fields.

Through the day Tuesday, under clear skies with cool air, the  winds picked up to as much as 25 miles per hour, teams began filtering in to the site to check in and walk the DYE and JT fields that would be used for their preliminary rounds the following day.

WEDNESDAY

Games started at 8:00 in the morning on Wednesday, with continued cool skies, lighter winds and reffing from Team Fury for the thirty-three five man teams.  Games ran right on schedule on the DYE field, the games actually running quickly, however the JT field was a stalemate field or running to time, getting behind in the morning despite the efforts of the refs to keep them on time.  Vendors continued to roll in on Wednesday, setting  up in the vendors tent though the trucks, trailers and panel vans were dominant throughout the parking lot.

The Femmes Fatale showed again after a great showing in Pomona putting them in third place there.  With only two other teams returning from the Novice bracket after Pomona, the Femmes went into preliminaries here in Vegas in first place.  Organized Crime who took 6th in Pomona ranked in at second place and Team Ambush who took 10th in Pomona took third.  Nine teams joined them for the Novice bracket who were new this year for five man, a few having played other PSP/NPPL events in past years in 5 and 10 man brackets.  The twelve Novice teams were one team up for five man teams after Pomona which had 11 teams.  The Rookies were made up of 21 teams, up from the nine which played in Pomona, five of those nine returning to compete for top rankings.  ACI Turmoil took first in Pomona, coming back to take top ranking for Vegas, Shadow Company was in second, Method in third, Adrenalin Rush in fourth, Organized Crime B advanced from seventh to fifth.  Doc's Raiders Black returned after World Cup in 2002 after a good showing there, making the semi finals.  Ruffnecks joined them after their 78th placement from World Cup in 2002. 

The morning division of five man wrapped up just before 2 PM with an hour break for the refs.  The afternoon session started with a few cross-over teams from the morning bracket playing a game in the afternoon.  Afternoon games progressed on schedule throughout the afternoon and into the evening, the last game being played shortly after 8 PM under the lights of the stadium. 

Eight teams were chosen, based on top scores within their bracket, to move onto the semi-finals.  Doc's Raiders taking top ranking into the semi-finals to compete against the fourth, fifth and eighth placed teams, Havok, Femmes and Paintballa.com Icemen.  Doc's had a great showing winning all of their 8 preliminary games.  Minutemen were right on their heels after winning 7 of their 8 games to take the top rank in the second division going to the semi finals.  Joining Minutemen in the semi finals bracket were third, sixth, and seventh ranked teams, Bad Influence, Organized Crime and Reflex.  Rookie teams also had a good day, Team Ultimate taking the top ranked slot into the semi's after dropping one game and stalemating another.  Rat Factory, Thug Life and ACI Turmoil would face them in their division on Thursday.  Vegas Outkast headed up the second division for the rookie teams after two losses in the preliminary matches.  Method, Team Savage, and Florida's favorite, Doc's Raiders Black joining them in the second division of the semi finals.  After the three round robin games were played in the morning on Thursday, teams would be re-ranked based on scores from the semi-final games alone, the top two highest scores from each division moving on to the final match of four teams to face off in a round robin mid-morning on Thursday.  The schedule for the second day of the tournament would be fairly light with only 16 teams playing 5 man though the start of X Ball would definitely draw plenty of attention.

As happens with any paintball tournament, there were games where players felt they received bad calls from the referees.  In one instance a dispute between a ref and a player over physical contact escalated to cursing, dead boxes emptying and a general air of discord for the players, refs and the spectators.  The fall-out from this delayed games, but even with the delay the prelims finished ahead of schedule.  The timing was helped along by SoCal Kids not showing up to the tournament.  Their eight games ending up as forfeits gained schedule time for both fields.  Hopes were high for the behavior of the highly spirited athletes to improve in the coming days, so that games would be played with sportsmanship and reffed with few mistakes.

The site layout was well received.  Most previous PSP tournaments have been laid out with the vendor and trade show area between player staging, air fills and the game fields.  This extended the walking distance for players.  In contrast, the Fountain Park site was arranged with the three 5 and 10 man fields adjacent to the fenced staging and air fill compound.  Player ID badges were used to limit access to this area for security purposes, and the players staged under individual team tents, and were able to take advantage of fresh fruit provided to them under a common lounge tent.  The trade show area and registration/scoring tent lay in the middle of the site, and the X-Ball fields which included their own staging areas were on the opposite side.  This site design effectively encouraged foot traffic through the trade show area without making it a hindrance to players.  All fields, both X-Ball and 5/10 man featured sideline bleachers.

Some complaints were heard at the length of the schedule, which was a factor of the event promoters opting to use 2 fields instead of the three that were originally planned. This choice was made in order to staff a higher ratio of referees to players on each field. 

THURSDAY

The day dawned bright and early, games starting on time at 8 am for the sixteen semi-finalists.  Doc's Raiders showed an early lead in the novice bracket winning their first two games, Havok joined them in winning the top two slot in their bracket after two good games, one a near thing, earning them 80 points.  Paintballa.com Icemen and Femmes Fatale nearly tied in that bracket, each of them with one win of the three games, and bodies to bring them to the scores of 116 and 112 respectively.  In Novice Division 2 Reflex won all three of their games, losing only a few players to take top ranking to the finals for the Novice at 288 out of 300 points.  Organized Crime won a game, stalemated another and lost one but beat out the points of Minutemen and Bad Influence to send them on to finals.  Rookie teams saw a similar circumstance with the Doc's Raiders Black posting two wins and a loss, giving them top billing to finals, Method would join them after a max of 100 points and two losses in fourth place to finals.  Thug Life won their bracket with two wins and a loss with bodies to give them 202 points out of the 300 possible.  Team Ultimate had a win, a near miss giving them 76 points and a game with bodies, putting them in the third eat for the finals games.

Finishing the semi-finals at about 10:30 Thursday morning, the players and refs were given an hour break to recoup and then they hit the field again to play their three round robin games between the brackets of rookies and novices.  Doc's Raiders led the day in both brackets, the Novice team winning all three of their games, losing only 8 bodies.  Reflex took second place after a max loss to the Raiders, Havok following them by 26 points for third place and Organized Crime winning fourth place.  The rookie title was won by  Doc's Raiders Black after two victories, giving the sister teams a sweep of the 5 man tournament.  Method, right on their heels with 202 points was only six points behind for second place.  Team Ultimate broke away from their ranking into the finals to finish out in third place just ahead of Thug Life who took fourth.

By mid-afternoon Thursday, the ten man teams who didn't either drive in or rent vans headed out to the field in taxis.  Schedules for the ten man events were available for the teams to pick up and went online at noon on WARPIG.com in time for the teams to walk the three fields with more than the required four hours of daylight.

The 5 man competition was capped by an award ceremony in the early evening, with teams brought up on stage for a chance to thank their sponsors and receive their prize packages.  Immediately following the ceremony, Ultimate Judge Bill Cookston addressed the 10 man teams at the captain's meeting to review the tournament rules and answer any questions they had.

The 5 man competition was not the only thing going on Thursday.  It was also the first day of the event's X-Ball competitions.  In the NXL, Chicago Aftershock defeated New York Xtreme by a single point, 8 to 9.  Oakland Assassins continued their winning streak taking down Miami Effect 12 to 4.  Philadelphia Americans triumphed over the Los Angeles Ironmen in a 10 to 4 victory.  Baltimore Trauma topped Detroit Thunder 8 to 4.  Miami pulled their game together in the afternoon to defeat Chicago 17 to 9.

Unlike the NXL which competes for total points in the season, Division 1 and Division 2 played in double elimination format.  This was also a change from the PSP Pomona tournament where Division 1 played round robin and Division 2 played double elimination.  In Division 1 the first match was between the Jax Worriors and Platinum.  That match went back and forth between the the two teams.  With 2:08 left on the clock  Jax scored a point with Platinum throwing in the towel, hoping to save precious clock time.  The move worked, and Platinum earned a point by hanging a flag with only one second left on the clock.  This put the match into sudden death overtime, where  Platinum won with a hang.  Brimstone Smoke fell to the Naughty Dogs in an 8 to 3 victory.  Nasty defeated Legacy with an even stronger lead, 10 to 4, that victory a bit more remarkable in that Nasty did not hang the flag one time during the match, all of their points came from Legacy throwing in the towel, not wanting the clock to run down while a flag was run in.  All Americans won over Storm under the lights late on Thursday night, 9-2 in a game which was viewed by a great number of spectators.  The quality of the match was high, the spectators helping with coaching and yelling from the sidelines.  Much bantering took place between the two sides of the fans, notably between a Jax Worriors and ex-Storm, newly appointed Assassins players, who were coaching the teams.

Division 2 X Ball kicked off with a match between Twisted Factory and Underworld.  Twisted grabbed a lead early on, held onto it, and built upon it finishing at 8 to 2.  The strong victory set the tone for the day, and P&L Hurricanes were victorious over Rebellion 8 to 5.  TKO defeated Pinnacle Woods 8 to 2.  First Strike defeated Ignition 12 to 5.  Ground Zero defeated Tippmann Effect with a score of 6 to 3.    Under the stadium lights, the games progressed as the temperature cooled off from the heat of the day.  In the last game of the day Affordablepaintballsupply.com faced off against Cypress, the boys from the great North winning the match, Cypress 11, the dot-com team taking a 4.

FRIDAY

There is something indefinable about the flight into Vegas that local teams and those who drive in miss.  Newspapers unrolled in the seats, aisles congested with arms held at length.  Instead of scanning the world news, the financial section or the current events, all of the papers in view are turned to the sports section.  Perhaps it is the escapist in the people who flock to the glitz and glitter of Vegas.  Maybe they're picking their early wins, waging bets even before they hit the tables, still hours away from the never-ending neon.  Whatever it is, sports fans were indeed descending on the Nevada desert on the flight that carried me to the city.  Conversely, there is a definite feeling for the people who fly out.  Going in, there are always high spirits on the flight despite the hour.  Going home, there is inevitably a general feeling of morose.  Hope spring eternal for wins, conquests, wild nights and parties.  When it's over, there is the contemplation of the costs and the exhaustion of the many hours in pure recreation. 

The ten man teams showed up to play on Friday morning.  The professional division had been wiped away after several teams opted not to show; Dynasty, Fusion, Lockout and Bushwackers, were absent, and Fury opted to ref rather than play.  Legacy, new to the pro division in Pomona moved to Division 1 X Ball, joined by the Naughty Dogs who took first in the professional bracket at Pomona.  In 2002 there were 14 professional teams in Vegas, 24 Amateur, so the reduction in teams looked to be an indicator of not only X Ball's popularity but the waterline for the split in the league.

After Pomona's 7 professional teams and 16 amateur teams, the Vegas event saw the merger of the pro and amateur classes into the new pro-am.  Evil started in the first seat after their win in Pomona, Shockwave Canada, Nasty and Gridlock all took second, third and fourth place into the Vegas Amateur event after reffing Pomona, earning 50 points each.  This knocked KAPP Factory, who took second in Pomona down to fifth place in the rankings.  Static, Hostile Takeover, Cartel, Maxim Shocktech, ECX Factory, Team Addicted, MO Magic , Image, Thunderstruck, and Robinhood all returned to the amateur bracket.  Splat Factory  moved up to pro-am from Novice 27th seating and Rough & Ready Red moved up from their 2002 Vegas, Chicago, Atlantic City and World Cup status to round out the pro-am bracket at 17 teams. 

Novice ten man faced a similar reduction in teams.  There were 63 teams in Vegas in 2002 compared to 35 in Pomona and the loss of four teams to the X Ball squads.  Platinum who took seventh in Pomona, Ignition who was 21st, Affordablepaintballsupply.com who was 26th and Underworld who was in 29th all went to Division 2 X Ball.  In total, thirteen teams didn't make the trip to Vegas after Pomona leaving 26 teams to take to the field in the Novice bracket.  Justice who was top ranked after the first event returned joined by most of the top 10 teams as well as eight of the 11th through 31st teams.  Driven joined the novice group after playing four events in 2002 as well as Icon, Industry, Mox Nix and Sting who all played several events in 2002.

Rookie ten man squads always seemed to be lower in the second event of the season, with 11 teams showing in 2002, 13 in Pomona and an increase to 16 for this year's Vegas tournament.  Five teams didn't make a return after Pomona, including the top two teams, Rock It Kids and Mayhem.  Cartel Empire took top placement after their third place win, seven of their bracket from Pomona returning.  There were six teams who were new to the circuit who made the trip as well as Precision and XXX who both played at the 2002 World Cup, scoring Rookie 49th and 84th respectively.

Ten man and X-Ball fired up at 8:00 AM with light clouds and warmer temperatures with gentle winds.  At the start of the day there was some confusion over the time length on 10 man games.  Weeks before the event, a change to 10 minutes was announced, but after substantial team feedback the game length was changed back to 12 minutes.  This led to some confusion at the start of the day, with some teams expecting 10, but teams and all the referees were notified before games started, and the 12 minute clock was in place with a three minute break between games. 

While the ten man teams battled in the warmest weather of the event, the X Ball teams fought for points in their 40 minute games.  In the second half of the Twisted Factory/Cypress game, in a mad rush to get players onto the field, Cypress accidentally fielded five players when one of their player was serving a penalty in the box.  The refs were on the ball and pulled the offending player before the fired a shot, but that served as an example of just how hectic the game can get with trying to re-air, re-fill pods and hit the field with the right number of players.  The match finished out with a 9 to 1 victory for Twisted. 

In the second round of points for Los Angeles and Oakland on the NXL field, Mike Carey from Oakland and JP from LA were battling from opposite V's on the tape line.  JP was shot from cross field seconds before Carey ran to bunker him.  Carey showed great sportsmanship in not firing a shot though it seemed that the hesitation might have cost him, as he was hit going into the prop.  Later in that game, a terrific one-on-one was played between Billy Wing of the Ironmen and Ron Nelson from the Assassins.  Wing was in the Ironmen back pyramid and Nelson in the 50 line soda can.  Trading shots back and forth between the two men, the last two players on the field, both coaches held back their towels and allowed them to battle, the clock winding down for more than a minute is they traded shots.  The crowd definitely made a difference in letting the men know which side of the prop their opponent was shooting from.  Nelson scored the point against Wing by catching his gun exposed for a second.  Billy trotted out to the fifty to shake Ron's hand for a point well earned.  The match ended in a 9 to 6 victory for the Oakland.

Ground Zero and P&L Hurricanes played against each other in the morning with much participation from the crowd.  Tim Maher (Hurricanes) and Dave Rotunda (GZ) traded in another one-on-one event, circling round and round on the fifty for several seconds.  Spectators were screaming, "He's coming!  He's coming!" which only seemed to add to the chaos on the field as the players tried to find their targets.  Dave finished it by hitting Tim at the X.  That match went to the Hurricanes with a score of 9 to 4.

By mid-afternoon, the morning session of ten man teams had played their rounds of games for the day and moved on, the event running 45 minutes ahead of schedule.  A longer than planned lunch break was able to be enjoyed by the refs and the afternoon teams hit the fields to play.  The wind started picking up in anticipation of the storm that was forecast to roll through on Saturday, with rain predicted and lower temperatures.  Despite heavy gusts at points, the netting stood strong without problems.

On the NXL field Detroit Thunder and New York Xtreme had a close finish at 6 to 7 in favor of New York.  Baltimore and Philadelphia tied 7 to 7, each earning a single point for the season rankings.  Los Angeles Ironmen took back to the field in the afternoon against Miami Effect, and defeated them 9 to 7.  Detroit played against Chicago, Detroit playing quite well, though the boys from the windy city prevailed 10-7.  The last NXL game of the day was a loss for Oakland, their first defeat since the creation of the league against Philadelphia, 9-7.

In Division 1, the Worriors defeated Storm 10 to 5, knocking Storm out.  Smoke took Legacy out of the running with a 9 to 6 victory.  The All Americans defeated Platinum 9 to 2, Platinum still in the running having suffered only a single loss.  Naughty Dogs defeated Nasty 11 to 3.

In the Division 2 matches, TKO was defeated by First Strike 10 to 7.  Underworld's matchup against Affordablepaintballsupply.com made the second loss for the dot com team sending them home, the score ending at 12 to 2.  Rebellion went up against Tippmann Effect and was victorious 10 to 3.  That was the second loss for Tippmann, knocking them out of the tournament.  In the last Division 2 match of the day, Pinnacle Woods faced off with Ignition.  That match went to Ignition, with a score of 8 to 7, taking out Pinnacle Woods.

Ten man games finished about 1/2 hour ahead of schedule, with Fury, Strange and Shadowmen reffing efficiently, turning games around fast.  When the first day's prelims were done Static was looking best with an average score of 94 points.  ECX Factory, Image, Cartel, KAPP Factory and Nasty were also solid leaders. Maxim-Shocktech, Gridlock and MO Magic looked like they would be hotly contending for that 8th slot into the semifinals.  Atomix Factory, Momma's Boys and Mantis Factory lead the novices, with Turtles, Reign and Fallout hovering around the 8th rank.  Cartel Empire was the favorite for the rookies with an average score of 76, while Sin, Dominion V3 and Demonic Factory Team were riding the bubble. 

SATURDAY

As with the days before, games started promptly at 8:00 AM.  While weather reports predicted thunderstorms, the morning was graced with cool temperatures in the upper sixties, partly cloudy skies and gusty winds at up to 30 miles per hour which didn't inhibit play, though it did make it more of a challenge with balls not always following the course of the shooter's choosing.  The netting held up flawlessly without a problem, and the NXL field was augmented with solid netting on the back and sides to completely block the possibility of end zone coaching which is prohibited.

In Division 1 X Ball Jax Worriors defeated Platinum 11 to 5.  Nasty put the heat on Brimstone Smoke.  In the first half Smoke scored a single flag hang, against Nasty's 5 points 4 coming from towel throws by Brimstone.  Smoke made another two hangs in the second half, but Nasty pulled in 5 more points for a 10 to 3 finish taking Smoke out of the running.  Naughty Dogs defeated the All Americans 7 to 2.  For the All As, that was their first defeat, they were still in the running.  The Dogs, undefeated would next play in the finals match.  Jax Worriors beat Nasty 8 to 2.  They would next face the All Americans on Sunday, the winner moving on to play the Dogs.

In Division 2, Rebellion posted a 9 to 4 score over TKO, which knocked TKO out of the running.  The Ignition versus Cypress match went to Ignition, the final score at 7 to 6, eliminating Cypress from the tournament.  First Strike played the P&L Hurricanes, the victory going to the Hurricanes 8 to 4.  Ignition was matched up against Underworld and Underworld went on after a 7 to 4 win that sent Ignition home.  The final match of the day was between Twisted Factory and P&L Hurricanes, playing past the sunset and under the stadium lights, this match was even subject to a minute or two of very light rain.  The Hurricanes were victorious, winning the match by a single point, with a score of 6 to 5.  This win advanced them to the final match, guaranteeing at least second place.  Who the Hurricanes would face on Sunday depended on the outcomes of three more matches - they could be up against Underworld, Rebellion, First Strike or Twisted Factory.  A match up with First Strike would be desirable after their 8 to 4 victory, but Twisted had proved to be formidable, a win by a single point that might go the other way if the two teams were to face each other again.

Fountain Park receives a fair amount of visitor traffic on warm days even when there are no special events.  This, combined with local promotion brought out spectators who were watching both X Ball and 10 man, as well as wandering through the trade show collecting posters and autographs.  For some, it was their first look at paintball.  For others it was a chance to see new products and meet players they had only read about.  Others who defied categorization showed up as well, like the pair of young men in woodland camo pants with hard shell knee pads who were looking for a place to fill their 9 ounce CO2 tanks.  Numerous venders set up inside the main vendor's tent which, due to stringent inspection by the city fire marshal was required to have lighted exit signs.  Being located in a city park, the City of Las Vegas was very involved in both making sure the city property was taken care of, and that public safety was paramount.  Las Vegas Enforcement and Detection Marshals were on site through the entire event. 

The paved parking lot took center stage for the trade show, and was a hub of activity like the tree lined pavilion next to it.  Xtreme Enterprises brought their new show trailer.  DYE's two trailers were on site, and both PMI and Draxxus had paint trucks. Some people were confused by a West Coast Corvettes display truck - it was actually a new truck for Draxxus awaiting new graphics on its sides.  Odyssey Paintball brought their tech trailer providing tech support for HALO users.  National Paintball Supply's show truck was on scene, as were the big trailers from Custom Products, JT, Shocktech, PMI/Evil, Worr Games Products, and Smart Parts.  At the Smart Parts trailer Darryl Trent was doing more than coaching the Philly Americans, he was also meeting with area store and field owners to introduce Smart Parts West, Smart Parts new warehouse just outside of Reno, Nevada.

On the NXL field the first match of the day was between the Philadelphia Americans and New York Xtreme.  New York took the match 8 to 6.  Baltimore Trauma defeated the Los Angeles Ironmen 9 to 5.  Detroit Thunder faced Miami Effect, and Effect was victorious 12 to 5.  Philly scored 9 points over Chicago Aftershock's 3 in the afternoon.  Oakland Assassins were unshaken by their defeat the day before and took out Trauma 9 to 6.  In the final match of the day the Ironmen defeated Thunder with a score of 9 to 7.

After Friday's games wrapped up, an estimate of the what the cut might be for each bracket in the ten man competition was written in small print on the scoreboards.  Amateurs were guessed to be in the 570 range, Novice in the 420 area and Rookie at 320.  After the morning games wrapped up with about half of the teams posting all 8 of their preliminary scores it looked as if the Amateur cut might stick after Static ended with one loss and posted 669 points.   ECX finished out with 603 points, Nasty, Addicted and Shockwave Canada all ended with 500's.  In the Novice bracket it was readily apparent that the 420 was desperately too low as six teams posted 500's, 1 team was in the 600's and Momma's Boys 8 game wins at 754 points set the cut extremely high at 510 as of noon on Saturday.  Rookie's looked to be on target for  320 with the high scores at noon being a tie at 430.

In the late afternoon, the wind gusts grew stronger, and storm clouds loomed menacingly on the horizon, but the fields stayed rain free with nets in place and the games continuing to run ahead of schedule.  Finishing the games well ahead of schedule, a good thirty minutes before the last game was due to be played.  The Amateur cut was 520 with Team Addicted bringing up the 8th place, three teams having made over 500 points but not making the cut, bodies alone making the difference.  Cartel took top ranking with 683 points after just one loss, Gridlock close on their heels was just 9 points away and Static right behind them with 5 points separating them.  All in all, the amateur bracket looked like it would shape up nicely for the semi-finals with Cartel, Gridlock, Static, Image, ECX Factory, KAPP, Nasty and Team Addicted showing up to play on Sunday morning.

The novice division had a stunningly high cut of 591, two losses for Wicked giving them 8th place.  Atomix Factory would lead the pack at 767, losing only 33 bodies in the 8 games.  Mantis was in second along with Momma's Boys in third, both of them undefeated.  Justice lost one game, taking fourth, Reign in fifth, Fat City in sixth after dropping 2 games, BK Paintball Factory in seventh and Wicked in eighth.

Rookies were pretty close to the guess of the cut, Cartel Empire rampaging through the bracket with two losses but a high score for the bracket at 580.  Outlaws and Breakout tied for points but had their ties broken by counting the bodies lost throughout the preliminary games.  Outlaws lost 62 bodies while Breakout lost 2 more, giving Outlaws 2nd and Breakout 3rd.  Demonic Factory Team, Lockdown, Outkasts, Sin and Dominion V3 brought up the fourth through eighth places, the cut at 341.

SUNDAY

Sunday began with perfect paintball weather.  The temperatures were in the lower 60s, but sunny skies kept things from getting chilly, and the wind stayed below 12 miles per hour.  Ten man semifinals started up at 8:00 am on schedule, and X-Ball kicked off at 9:00. 

In Division 2, Underworld defeated Rebellion 5 to 1, putting them one match away from the final round against the undefeated P&L Hurricanes.  Twisted Factory then beat First Strike 6 to 5, meaning they would be paired up against Underworld in the next match.

Division 1's first match of the day was between Jax Worriors and the All Americans, that win going to the All As with a score of 8 to 1.  The All Americans would next face the undefeated Naughty Dogs in the final match to determine first and second place.

Ten man wrapped up their semi final games just after noon on Sunday after some close scores in the Amateur bracket.  Team Addicted solidified their placement after two wins and only dropping six bodies at 206 points but the last game for the first amateur bracket was between Cartel and Image who at 188 and 104 were close enough to do damage to each other.  Image won the game with the pull and hang and five men alive, giving them the win with just one point, knocking Cartel out of the finals.  In the second division of amateur semi finals, KAPP won all of their games giving them first place into the finals at 285 points, the outcome of the Static/Gridlock game to determine who would join them for the final four into the last round of games.  Static was the winner 97 to 6, which left the ranking at KAPP Factory first, Addicted second, Image third and Static fourth.

Novice teams were Lead by Justice who similarly won all of their games with a 288, Momma's Boys followed up after two wins, Fat City missing the mark by 8 points into the cut.  Atomic Factory tied with Mantis for semi-final points but went into finals ranked ahead not only because of their prior ranking but by body count as well.

The rookies saw Cartel's sister team Cartel Empire in first at 285, Outlaws at 281, Demonic Factory at 209 and Sin at 204 after all four teams performed very well within their divisions.

After a lunch break, the 10 man teams went on to their finals.  Addicted beat strange, and KAPP Factory fell to Static in the first Amateur round.  There was an odd score in the Addicted/Static game after Static eliminated all of the Addicted players, got the pull and similarly lost all of their players, yet Addicted was given the hang, likely a technicality of checking in with a hit when the flag was hung giving Addicted the higher score. In a surprise outcome, KAPP dropped to both Image and Addicted, putting Addicted in first, Static in second, Image in third and KAPP in fourth.

In the novices Momma's Boys defeated Atomix Factory and Justice was victorious over the Mantis Factory Team. 
In the second round Momma's Boys beat Mantis Factory, and Justice beat Atomix Factory.  Atomix faced off against Mantis, beatin them with six men alive putting Atomix in third place, Mantis in fourth.  The last round of novice games were Momma's Boys against Justice which went to Justice dropping only 3 men in the game to secure first place in a very tight round as both teams went into the match with 1 point separating them from first place.

Rookie Sin beat Cartel Empire and Demonic Factory beat the Outlaws.  Sin then beat the Outlaws and Cartel Empire beat Demonic Factory.  In the last matches for the rookies Cartel Empire won against Outlaws but after dropping their game, the 204 finish was just enough to give them second place after Demonic Factory dropped to Sin giving Sin a total of 287 points for first place.  Demonic came in third, Outlaws in fourth.

The Division 1 final match between All Americans and Naughty Dogs ended with a 8-3 win for the Dogs giving them the victory for the event.  That placed Jax Worriors in third, and Nasty in fourth.

In division 2, Twisted Factory defeated Underworld, which moved them on to the finals match against P&L Hurricanes.  For Twisted, it would be a long day, facing the Hurricanes in their third match of the day, while the P&L came at them fresh.  The finals match would determine the first and second place slots, and Underworld placed 4rd.  Due to the number of teams the double elimination structure made a natural tie for 4th/5th between First Strike and Rebellion.  Under X Ball rules, the first tie breaker is to tally all the points a team earned, subtract the points against them, then average that over the number of games played, the greater score winning the tie breaker.  Both teams tied.  The next level tie breaker was to total the points earned by the team, and average that over the number of games played, this method ranked First Strike in fourth and Rebellion in fifth.

Meanwhile in the NXL, New York Xtreme defeated the LA Ironmen 8 to 5.  Chicago Aftershock handed the Oakland Assassins their second defeat with a score of 9 to 6.  Baltimore Trauma took down Miami Effect 8 to 5, followed by a 7 to 7 tie between Detroit and Philly.  The last match of the day went to New York over Oakland, 12 to 3.

The last game of the Division 2 match went to the Hurricanes after a solid game of 6-1 against Twisted, giving the Hurricanes the first place trophy. 

Special thanks to Darryl Trent for supper and the show, we had such a good time, what a great way to start the event!  Thanks to Kevin from Smart Parts for always being there to have intelligent conversations, PSP for the banner - thank you for making us feel special.  The clean up crews who will probably never read this but who worked so hard to keep the site clean.  Paul Sattler for the cart - we got to run teams from staging to fields with heavy gear and show our support in a new way - thanks!.  CJ for the lolly pops, you're awesome and I look forward to events because of you.  Misty for the Big Stick.  The owner of Atomix for taking time to talk with us...thank you again, and you're more than welcome.  Sin Sity Raiders for lunch and the frequent visits - I love you guys.  And last but certainly not least, all the teams who support me, wear the stickers and show their love.
 

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