Paintball Journal

Paintball Sports Promotions is now happy to offer even more great divisions for the 2007 Chicago Open. The event will be held June 20th-24th at the Bolingbrook Recreation and Aquatic Center in Bolingbrook, IL.

Teams that cannot miss that extra day of work or school, but cannot bear the thought of missing one of the biggest events of the year now have an option to play in the D3 and D4 5-man Saturday-Sunday divisions. Teams registered in this division will have all of their preliminary games scheduled to be played on Saturday morning. Quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will then follow Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Entry fee for these divisions are $1400 for D3 and $1200 for D4.

D2 5-man has also been added to the list of divisions at the Chicago Open. This is the only 5-man division that is open to players that are also playing XBall at the event. Preliminaries will be played on Saturday with quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals to follow into Sunday. Entry fee for this division is $1500.

Registration for D2 5-man will remain open until Friday, June 22nd for those teams that just can’t get enough play time. Please note that while the D2 5-man preliminary round will not conflict with XBall, it is possible for later rounds of D2 5-man to overlap with XBall finals. No adjustments or refunds will be made for conflicting schedules resulting from players playing both XBall and D2 5-man.

For classification purposes D2 5-man at the Chicago Open will count as a D3 event. No NXL players will be admitted to this division.

Registration for the 2007 Chicago Open will open at www.pspevents.com on Wednesday, May 9th. Entry fees will be as follows:

Open Xball - $2750
D2 Xball - $2500
D3 Xball - $2400
D2 5-man - $1500
D3 5-man - $1200
Sat/Sun session - $1400
D4 5-man - $1000
Sat/Sun session - $1200

We expect registration to fill up quickly for this spectacular event so make sure to register your team early. For more information about the 2007 Chicago Open please visit www.pspevents.com . Make sure to check back often as we continue to add more great features to one of the largest events of the year!

Paintball Sports Promotions – Advancing the SPORT of Paintball

~Keely Watson
Paintball Sports Promotions

In an interesting move, PSP will now offer several new divisions of play for their Chicago Open. I fail to see the reasoning behind it. The D2 of 5-Man play will be a good addition, spreading the field a little for fairer play, but honestly, I doubt it will attract many more teams.

On the other hand, the Sat./Sun. 5-Man Division have many teams willing to play that. Probably can entice many more teams willing to make it a purely weekend thing. So, it looks like a mixed bag for PSP this time around.

Found another bash on paintball, this time with solid proof that it is used to do terrible things.

THE MODERN FACE OF TERRORISM….Federal authorities have arrested six men who were plotting to kill American soldiers at Ft. Dix in New Jersey. From the Washington Post:
Charging document filed in federal court in Camden yesterday portray an ambitious and cold-blooded — but somewhat bungling — cadre who hoped to kill at least 100 soldiers, but also dropped training videos off at a local store to be copied, and spoke openly to a Philadelphia police sergeant about obtaining maps of Fort Dix.

….In March of 2006, an FBI informant established a relationship with one of the men believed to be in the videotape….The informants convinced members of the group that they could help them obtain automatic weapons to use in their attacks.

….Their training regimen included playing paintball, the documents say.
Let me get this straight: these guys dropped off jihad videos at a local store, talked to Philly cops about getting a map of Ft. Dix, were still trying to procure weapons after 17 months of planning, and practiced for the attack by playing paintball.

So maybe they were really dumb and got caught, but that doesn’t help our image! Now people can associate paintball with violence, terrorism. And that’s what the people will see. Most will make conclusions that paintball is promoting this crap, when instead terrorists are just using IT to do whatever it that they do. Basically, if it wasn’t paintball, then it would be something else. For all we know, these morons would be using airsoft…or nerf…

It’s never going to end.

Paintball is growing. We see signs of it every day, in the growth of the sport as a whole and in the fact that more and more people are beginning to take paintball’s staying power as a legitimate sport seriously. One place where it becomes harder for paintball to take that handhold is on the college campus.

Fact: College students are poor. Paintball costs money. Logically…

Fact: Many colleges don’t have nearby paintball facilities, limiting students of a potential paintball club to woodsball excursions, a scenario that doesn’t appeal to serious speedball players.

Fact: College students are only around for about 4-5 years. Once their time is up, they leave. This makes it very hard for a continuously successful paintball program in the NCPA, because team members change so often from year to year.

Despite all these challenges however, there are some success stories. The NCPA is one. Their regularly held tournaments and widely accepted dominance of the college team playing sphere show that college paintball can and will continue to grow in popularity over the years to come.

And the latest success: Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA is building a paintball field for it’s paintball club, who recently took first at an NCPA event. The link for this awesome groundbreaking event is right here.

K2, owner of WGP, JT USA, Viewloader, and the super awesome Brass Eagle (plus a butt load of other sport related companies), has just been merged with Jarden Corporation for $1.2 billion. In a statement released yesterday, Jarden said that they will claim full control of the California based K2, Inc. by the third quarter this year. Jarden Corporation already owns brand names like Mr. Coffee, Patton, Sunbeam, and Coleman.

Let us hope that this will benefit the paintball community greatly by providing useful and innovative products in the near future. I’m sure that Jarden will be more than open to suggestions like Flex’s that double as Grill Masters and Sunbeam Edition Karnivores.

Everybody knows that paintball is one of the most intense sports out there, and players lay a lot on the line, like money, careers, and friends. But now I realize where this all comes from, it comes from all the paintball companies suing each other over pointless crap (like $400,000 in this case)! We see more bickering and drama coming from the largest companies in the paintball industry than we do from high school girls (and the ones I know…well that’s simply amazing).

Here’s the official article.

April 4th
Originally Posted by Dale Ford
It would appear that Bob Long and his company, Bob Long Action Sports Technologies are suing Gino Postorivo, NPS, PBS Holdings, Inc. and AJ Holdings, LLC.

A scan of federal court records indicates that case #: 3:07-cv-01547-CRB was filed March 19th, 2007 in the Northern California Federal District Courts. At this time the complaint itself isn’t available on PACER, but a hearing notice has been issued in the case. While the specifics aren’t available, the documents indicate that Long and BLAST are suing over a contract dispute. The lawsuit indicates a possible reason why BLAST products are now being distributed by Archon Paintball, rather than NPS as they had been for several years.

As the details become available they’ll be reported here. Representatives for both BLAST and NPS have been contacted for comment.

Seriously, just pay your dues and move on. Or perhaps it’s the other way around; stop your whining and move on. This is paintball!

And that’s all I have to say about that.

The morons are at it again!

BALLSTON SPA– A 34-year-old South Glens Falls man was arrested Wednesday following a road rage incident that resulted in one man shooting another in the face with a paintball gun, according to The Post-Star’s news partner, WNYT-TV NewsChannel 13.

Christian D. Gleason, of 53 Merrit Road, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, Ballston Spa Police said.

The incident occurred after Gleason became involved in a minor accident with Scott Mayberry. Apparently angry, police said, Gleason shot Mayberry right under the eye.

Mayberry was treated and released from an area hospital.
Gleason was sent to to Saratoga County Jail and is out on $10,000 bond, according to police. He is due back in court May 7.

I mean what more can I say about this? We see it over and over again, and it’s always the same. Some idiot is goofing off, or gets mad, and then what do you know, it’s all over the news making us look bad. The problem, paintball guns are borderline between lethal and “nerf� like. They have to shoot hard in order for the balls to break, but yet they can’t be too powerful, so this naturally gives a person a good way to inflict paint without actually doing too much damage. Bah, will it ever end?

A new bill-in-writing in RI (Rhode Island for those of you who are acronymically challenged) is being revised to target paintball within its scope. You can read the whole thing here. Anyway, most of it is common sense safety stuff to everyone who actually plays. The only people I can see this inconveniencing are those who wish to vandalize property.

That said, there are some significant changes that have to be made. For example, if this was passed as is, ‘ballin in the woods would be out. “Designated paintball areas only.” No way.

It would also require cases for every gun when outside, as well as prohibiting carrying a gun anywhere but the trunk of a car. Neither is a big deal, but I could see some poor kid getting in some trouble for inadvertently not following one of the rules.

Overall though, this is a great idea. No serious paintballer likes to see the name of the sport tarnished every time some stupid kid shoots a car.

I personally don’t know the feeling of coming back to a staging area to find that my gun has been stolen, and I hope I never have to face that. I have, however, seen it happen at a local field, and heard plenty of stories about it. A paintball gun can be a high dollar item, especially markers built for the tournament level that can run well over $1,000 new, and because they are quite small they can easily be carried off without anybody noticing.

There has recently been a much larger operation running at an airport, where paintball gear is being targeted and stolen from the terminal, while it’s being taken out for loading, or sometime in between. These people seem to know what they’re doing, and probably know the paintball market well.

To all fellow players please be aware there is a out break of theft at Detroit Airport that is targeting paintball equipment. Members of Philly and Smart Parts Staff have had total of 11 guns and air systems stolen. Most of this has happened through the Mesaba Air portion of the NWA which fly’s the smaller Aircraft. Gant has 2 shockers stolen (1 a Tremor), and this Friday seven of the Philly Players flew into Detroit for a connection to Latrobe and had a total of 8 Shockers stolen. Eric Dearman’s return to the Team was ruined by having his custom engraved Hybrid stolen and JT Bouchard lost his Hybrid as well; Gant had another NXt stolen. The thieves are working at the Ramp level as articles of clothing were found in the cargo hold of the aircraft on arrival at Latrobe. So please be aware and careful. As usual there will be the hater’s but we are trying to warn all of the paintball community.

I hope that these guys are found, and get what’s coming to them…like a bullet to the brain, or maybe even a Mack truck. It’s a shame to see this happening, but paintball is a high dollar market, and the demand for high-end guns has never been greater. Be a responsible baller and always keep an eye out for suspicious activity at the field, or especially when buying a gun from somebody. If the thing is priced oddly lower than what they usually sell for then there could be something to it; most likely a scam, but it could also be somebody trying to make quick money off of it. And be sure to click the picture below to see if the gun matches anything that has been reported stolen in this stolen marker database.

Another up and coming stolen marker data base is Paintball Theft. Check it out, and help them grow if you’ve had equipment stolen. It’s a great aid to everyone in the paintball community.

DYE USA
10637 Scripps Summit Court, San Diego, CA 92131
P.858.536.5183 F.858.536.5191

PRESS RELEASE:
Dye Precision Incorporated Signs Professional Paintball Player Nicky Cuba to Multi-Year Endorsement Agreement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

San Diego, California (March 29, 2007) - Dye Precision Incorporated today announced the signing of professional paintball player Nicky Cuba to a multi-year endorsement agreement.

Terms of the agreement call for Cuba, a highly publicized player and multi tournament-winning champion, to play for The Los Angeles Ironmen, use Dye paintball products exclusively and consult in future product development.

“I am excited to be a core part of the new Ironmen. I admire the direction they are taking to pursue a more dominant and professionally run team. The Ironmen have been a competitive paintball team for over 20 years and I am honored to now be part of a great organization. I look forward to promoting Dye and the team to my fullest potential, while continuing the Ironmen legacy,” said Cuba.

“Nicky’s, personality, style, image and aggressive play, make him an excellent addition to The Los Angeles Ironmen and representative for the Dye brand. We also believe that he has a great professional image, a strong fan base and is one of the industry’s most upcoming talented players. Additionally, we are hopeful that this endorsement agreement will play a part in continued endorsement arrangements with other professional players, adding more legitimacy to our great sport,� said Dave Youngblood, CEO of Dye Precision Incorporated.

Cuba will continue to perform instructional playing clinics around the world, attend tournaments as a member of The Los Angeles Ironmen, and appear at autograph signing sessions, promoting paintball wherever he can.

For future information on Nicky Cuba, please visit www.teamironmen.com or www.dyepaintball.com .

It’s about time. Stability for a team is an important factor, and that can’t come if the team is dropping and switching players every season. Multi-year contracts are a good move in the push to completely legitimize the sport.

Nicky Cuba is also getting huge benefits from this. This means he doesn’t have to worry about his main sponsor for the next few years, and doesn’t have to worry about anything except for playing well, and not putting Dye down.

Plus, I really like the direction that the LA Ironmen have taken this year. I expect big things, not just because of the big additions like Lang and Cuba, but because of the way the team is being run. Definitely a team to watch for the next few years.

On MSNBC recently, there was a short bit featuring paintball in the form of a recruitment tool for the US Army. In the newscast they explain paintball in one of the best, most simplistic ways I’ve seen in a long time from the media. Indeed, they don’t portray paintball as a violent sport, and share the concerns of many about the negative aspects of linking paintball with the military.

I am one of those who would rather not see paintball as something that the military can recruit with ease from. Really, the two have vague at best similarities, and while woodsball is the largest portion of the sport right now, for speedball to get the type of publicity and backing that it wants from the public, they really need to shy away from that violent, militaristic image. In 10 years, I see the speedball easily eclipsing the woodsball part of the sport, but it has to have public support.

The Mid Atlantic Open has an interesting field this year. It’s the standard PSP, but the snake side is pretty different with the very close, angled rolls. There’s also a dorito sitting right on the fifty that pretty much guarantees to block an angles a player might get from the first section of the snake, and even some of the second.

But I think I like the 07 layout a lot more than the 06 MAO Layout. That one just looks too crazy with the first snake portions being offset just a little.

Whoa! Dynasty…Joy…taking third and fourth? What’s happening here? Is this a sign? Is the Dynasty finally coming to an end? No, no – it’s not like they’re bad, and it’s not like third is a bad finish, it’s just not first. It’s an interesting year so far.

Pro:
1st: Oakland Blast!
2nd:Impact!
3rd: Dynasty!
4th: Joy!

Semi Pro:
1st. S.E. X-Factor
2nd. SD Aftermath
3rd: Arsenal A
4th: Elite

D1:
1st. Synergy
2nd. TCP Machine
3rd. Dynasty Entourage
4th. Misfits

D2:
1st. Splat Kids
2nd. Throttle
3rd. Reds Org. Chaos
4th. 187 cRew

D3:
1st. Xclusive
2nd. FYT
3rd. Titan Paintball
4th. Island Breed Black

Young Guns:
1st. The Academy JV
2nd.Cuttthroats
3rd. LA Distraction YG
4th. Kolohe Kids Blue

I really wish I could visit an event in person (oh how I hate the Midwest). I could go to a Chicago event, but that’s a good six hour drive, and probably the closest an event comes to my area. Someday though, someday.

Check out this massive sponsorship deal that Dynasty has landed with JT – three years for over $1,000,000! It’s just another sign that paintball is on the rise! Simply amazing; that’s the most money any paintball team has ever seen, and that will be a tough one to break for awhile. I’ve always liked JT, and this is what the sport really needs right now. Two thumbs up to both JT and Dynasty for bringing the sport to the world!

As quoted from Paintballstar.com:

JT Sports LLC, a K2 Inc. company, announced today that it has signed a three-year partnership with the professional paintball team Dynasty. The deal’s value is estimated at more than $1 million.

JT Sports, the worldwide leader in the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of paintball products, has sponsored Dynasty since its formation in 2001. The new deal runs through 2009. Dynasty, the world’s top-ranked professional paintball team, has won the past five consecutive World Paintball Championships and has more tournament titles than any other team in the history of the sport.

“JT Sports prides itself on developing high-quality products for paintball players worldwide – from professionals like Dynasty to the millions of amateur and recreation players. The success of Dynasty is a true measure of what can be accomplished by using the best products,� said Chuck Hendsch, vice president of JT Sports.

As part of the deal, Dynasty will work with JT Sports to create a new line of customized Dynasty-branded, tournament-grade products. JT Sports and Dynasty will host paintball clinics around the world and appear together at JT Sports’ nationwide network of retailers. In addition, JT Sports and Dynasty will collaborate on tournament and event appearances.

“JT Sports makes products that help us win; without the support of JT Sports it would be difficult to have achieved all that we have,� said Dynasty captain Alex Fraige. “The same commitment and dedication that we apply on the field, JT applies in their products, which is why we’re thrilled to work with the JT Sports family.�

I’m anxious to see these new “product lines� as well – really anxious. I liked the past Dynasty jerseys, and JT always have solid gear and blending the two should make for a wicked awesome combo.

And a special thanks to PBStar for keeping us up-to-date on all the latest news!

Posted by Chris (President of NCPA) on PBNation.

The NCPA is hosting six JT USA High School Paintball Regional Championships. All of the events, like the JT USA High School Paintball National Championships, are 3-man events. The winner of each regional championship event will receive an all-expense paid trip to the National Championships in Dallas on April 21-22.

What is included:

- Airfare for 4 (3 players, one required adult chaperon)
- Rental Car
- Friday, Saturday and Sunday night hotel stay
- Rental car for your stay
- Entry Fee
- 3 cases of JT USA paintballs

This award is GUARANTEED for the 6 regional championship events - even if only ONE team plays, they will get the trip to the National Championships.

The only requirement to enter either the Regional or National Championships is that all the players on your team need to attend the same high school or junior high school. It’s also OK if you have kids on your high school team that go to a junior high school that feeds into your high school as long as that is approved in advance.

You can get more information about the events and sign up here:

http://www.college-paintball.com/high/events.html

In order to play a NCPA-sanctioned high school paintball tournament, all players on your 3-man team must go to the same high school. There are a few exceptions to this if you get approval in advance by emailing ncpa@college-paintball.com.

- You can play with kids from a junior high school that will attend your high school once they are done with junior high.
- You can play with kids who are attending a private school or who are home schooled if they would attend your high school were they to switch to public schooling.
- Kids from exceptionally small high schools (less than 100 students total) may combine with kids from other exceptionally small high schools in the same area. This exception will get the most scrutiny.
- Teams from the same private school are OK.

Remember, you only need three students to play. Don’t worry if everyone on your team isn’t a seasoned tournament player; every other school is limitted to students from their school just like you are.

What events can I play?

If you have an eligible high school team (see above) you can play ANY events you’d like to. If you live in Washington, you can fly to Georgia and play the high school event there. You can play just the Regional events. Or you can skip the regional event and just play the National Championships. It’s all up to you.

Do I need my school’s approval to play?

NO! - The only requirement is that all of your players go to the same school (or meet the other criteria above). You don’t need to be an official club or team in order to compete, we just want you to get out there and play!

We have 6 players who are interested and can’t fit on one team - now what?

Enter two teams! Each school can enter as many teams as they would like. We encourage you to get as many people involved as possible. The events are inexpensive, and all the other teams are high school teams, so everyone should have a lot of fun regardless of whether you win or not. It’s a great chance to get some other students at your school interested in paintball and paintball tournaments.

Where are this year’s events?

Northwest Regional: March 17, Danger Zone Paintball, Tacoma, WA
Southwest Regional: March 25, NPPL Huntington Beach, CA
Midwest Regional: March 31, The Badlandz, Chicago, IL
South Central Regional: March 31, Xdrenalin Zone, Dallas, TX
Northeast Regional: March 31, Cobra Command, Philadelphia, PA
Southeast Regional: Dynamic Games, Atlanta, GA

I’d love to play the event in The Badlandz, but we definitely didn’t have enough forewarning. Next year I’m thinking we should hit it up for sure. Wouldn’t that be a freakin’ tight Spring Break. The entry fees don’t look bad at all, $30 a person is less than a CTS event, and the paint prices are pretty standard. If anyone is attending any of these events I’d love to hear how they go!

badlandz paintball, ncpa, doritos, paintball championships

Haha, Smart Parts it at it again. Here’s what they’re up to in their latest shenanigans.

Smart Parts today announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against AJ Intermediate Holdings LLC and AJ Acquisition I, LLC, doing business as Kee Action Sports. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the Tyler Division. The suit alleges infringement of seven patents that Smart Parts believes are being infringed by Kee. The seven patents are generally directed to electropneumatically operated paintball markers and barrels for paintball markers.

“Smart Parts has invested considerable resources in the development of advanced paintball markers and accessories,” said William Gardner, Jr., Smart Parts’ President and co-founder. “We value our intellectual property highly, and have filed this case to protect our products, our market, and our many licensees,” Gardner said.

Yeah, what else is new? And here’s some feedback.

“Bahahahaha - SP vs. KEE…. this one will be glorious.â€?

“Boycot SP�

And to bluntly put it, “Smart parts is great and all but they are little girls.

They want to take over.

Imagine every paintball gun in the future being SP.�

As usual, Smart Parts gets flamed. Can’t blame them for doing it though, that’s just business.

Paintball, Smart Parts, Lawsuit