Latest Paintball News

Palm Beach Vipers Paintball Summer School

Florida paintball players rejoice! The Palm Beach Vipers are hosting their 2009 paintball summer school July 7th-11th at Hot Shots Paintball Park in Loxahatchee, FL. Vipers coach Ken Bryson has planned out an action packed week in which players will learn critical skills such as proper break outs and lane shooting, effective communication, and focusing on game play development. As an added bonus, the Palm Beach Vipers will be hosting a PSP Referee course and all participants of the summer school will exit the course qualified to both compete and referee in a PSP national X-ball event.

This summer school is a great opportunity to participate and be seen by a well established semi professional X-ball team. If your interested in taking your game to the next level, this is one you won’t want to miss.

CSP South American Paintball Circuit

The Circuito Suramericano de Paintball is a South American X-Ball league that has been in operation since 2005. Our friend Juan from the CSP wrote in to let us know about a 2 minute video they put together to promote paintball in the area. The video provides some perspective on paintball abroad and how things are shaping up. Its interesting to note the PSP bunkers and the sheer number of players utilizing dye uniforms and equipment. Thanks Juan!

This league is definitely a great opportunity for American athletes to team up with local organizations and promote both sponsors and paintball as an international sport. Interested parties can check out the website at CSP-paintball.com

Billy Bernacchia unveils blog, recaps Chicago Open

Star player Billy Bernacchia of the New England Hurricanes has officially unveiled his new website, BillyBernacchia.com. To start things off, Billy walks us through the Hurricanes matches during the 2009 Chicago Open paintball tournament and provides fans an excellent opportunity to view the games from the players perspective.

The following is an excerpt of the match recap posted over at Billys blog.

Hurricanes vs Tampa Damage
Having two overtime points basically brings us to 1 win. Depending on how the brackets go, 2 wins can usually get you in the top 6. There was still hope for us but either way we wanted to win this game. We came out strong winning the first point convincingly and then lost the next 4 in a row. We fought back very hard and tied it up 5 to 5. The next point was fairly long and they got a major, they did however burn most of penalty time off. We won that point with 3 alive, and sprinted the flag in to save as much time on the penalty as we could altho there was not much at all. Unfortunately, not going to say names *cough* (Mark Lancia) hung the flag with a hit. That basically means it was considered a dirty hang with no point plus we get a penalty and play with 4 the next point. We ended up losing that next point giving them the 6-5 lead. We lost the match mainly cause of an error on our part. Tampa played a great game. They are a good team and I’ve played with a bunch of them on Doc’s, Mad respect for Paul Richards.

Chicago didn’t go as we planned. I feel we made an large improvement from the first event but we are still not where I want us to be. World Cup is next and we plan to practice are asses off and get back to the top. We are truly a top team and it kills us not being in the top at events. With the new roster and staff the team is improving greatly. [..]

Thanks for all the support,

Billy Bernacchia
New England Hurricanes

Stay tuned to BillyBernacchia.com for further updates and an indepth look into the life of a pro paintball player.

Brandon Short Leaves London Nexus

In a press release on his blog this morning, LA Ironmen player Brandon Short announced his departure from London Nexus, the team he played for in Europe.

Below is what Brandon posted with regard to the situation in his blog post:

Since 2007 I’ve been traveling overseas to play in the Millennium Series with DYE’s European flagship team, Nexus. The team had just left Eclipse and had signed a deal with DYE. Dave Youngblood had Mikko Huttunen and I join the team in an attempt toget the squad on the right tract. The 2007 season was a very successful season to say the least. We never snatched a 1st place victory, but we were always on the hunt. The first season was the “Rebuild” and the following season was the year of “Results”. 2008 started off a little rocky, but around mid season the sun soon appeared. Mikko was no longer playing on the team and I was the only non-European player. We won the World Cup Championship in Toulouse, France, beating out the All-Americans from the NXL. It was a major step for the team’s confidence and respect from our peers. The next event was Germany, which we did well at but didn’t win. Then came the last event in Paris, which we won. Nexus was the only team that season to win 2 events.

It’s now 2009 and already it’s mid-season. It’s very unfortunate that I have to leave the team, especially before the 2009 season is over. However, this game is a business and business was going bad. I no longer felt I was a part of the team. This is understandable, especially since I live on the other side of the world. Many Americans go over seas and “Guest” for teams, but they are typically never more then “Guest”. I truly believe that I was on Nexus, and when anybody would ask what team I played for, I would tell them, “I play for the Ironmen in the States and Nexus in Europe”. I made some great friends and I will never forget how much fun we had over the past few years. I wish the team all the luck and success in the future.

As for me, I have to wait until the 2009 season is over to rejoin another pro team, because the rosters are locked. However, I can’t wait to get back to Europe and compete in the Millennium series. I feel I have a lot to prove and I’m becoming very motivated in the mean time…

Brandon regularly posts about his life at www.bshort5.com.

Chicago Open Paintball Tournament Final Results

The 2009 Chicago Open was an exciting week of paintball to say the least. Paintball teams across the country battled it out point after point as they fought for bragging rights, big trophies and cash prizes.

As a follow up, Pure Sports Promotions has announced the top four teams in each division:

Pro RaceTo – 7
1st – Boston Red Legion
2nd – San Diego Aftermath
3rd – Philly Americans
4th – Dynasty

Semi-Pro RaceTo – 7
1st – Aftermath II
2nd – Sacramento XSV
3rd – Vicious
4th – RNT Allstarz

DI RaceTo – 5
1st – DBS Kidz
2nd – Palm Beach Venom
3rd – Raiden
4th – Cross Eyed Paintball

DII RaceTo – 5
1st - DSSP8NTBALL.COM
2nd – Velocity Wrecking Crew
3rd – L.I.F.T.
4th – Team Unlimited

DIII RaceTo – 4
1st – Cross Eyed Paintball Black
2nd – Boom
3rd – C.V. aka Borracho Bullfighters
4th – Total Karnage Kids

DIV RaceTo – 4
1st – Wreckless Intentions
2nd – Untouchables
3rd – SPK

DIII RaceTo – 2
1st – New Jack City
2nd – Inertia
3rd – Air Assault Factory
4th – PG Style

DIV RaceTo – 2
1st – DBSpaintball.com
2nd- AAF
3rd – Coalition
4th – WC Redemption

Chicago Open Paintball Tournament – Sunday Scores

Those that play paintball competitively know that Sunday is the day the real tournament begins. Teams spent the week reworking battle plans and rotating players as they fought for their seat in the highly sought after “Sunday Club”.

Professional Match Scores:

• 1/2 Finals – Russian Legion take 1st Place in Chicago Open 2009 after defeating SD Aftermath 7-1
• 3/4 Finals – The defending champion Philadelphia All Americans beat Dynasty, 7-3
• Semis 1 – Russian Legion defeated Dynasty 7-6
• Semis 2 – Aftermath beat the Philly Americans 7-6
• Quarters 1 -Dynasty took out Aftershock 7-3
• Quarters 2 – SD Aftermath beat Infamous 7-5

Semi-Professional Match Scores:

• 1/2 Finals -Aftermath II took first place in Chicago, beating XSV in the finals, 7-2.
• 3/4 Finals – Vicious defeated RNT in a hard-fought match, 7-5
• Semi Final 1 – Aftermath II defeated RNT Allstarz 6-3
• Semi Final 2 – XSV stomped Vicious 7-0

For those of you glued to your screens looking for the latest updates from the field, be sure to check out our point by point break downs by following ProPaintballcom on Twitter.

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