Paintball by Steven Biard March 12, 2007

After a few months in the off-season, the players and vendors are enthusiastic for 2007. The past month, before the February 16th-18th tournament, was busy as teams tried to fill in empty spots in their line-up and squeeze in extra practices. The XPSL (Xtreme Paintball Sports League) kicked off its 2007 season on the grass fields at the Kern County Fairgrounds in desolate Bakersfield, California. 120 teams from Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, and Nevada made up four divisions; Novice, Intermediate, Rookie, and Young Guns. The preliminary rounds were held Friday and Saturday, and then the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals finished the tournament on Sunday. The Novice and Intermediate teams played Friday and fought for the 24 open spots in the quarterfinals. The 54 Rookie teams played all day Saturday in the warm weather battling for 12 spots in the quarterfinals. The competition and desire to start the season strong made for three great days of paintball. G4H, in the Novice division, scored 614 out of a possible 800 points in the prelims ranking third going into Sunday. They carried their strong play into the finals beating Destiny to capture first place. Congratulations to Enigma who won the Intermediate division, Sacramento Ambition who won the Rookie division, and Chims Kidz who won the Young Guns division. The next XPSL event will be held at the Nation Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California from April 27-29. Expect more great competition from all teams.