Planet Eclipse latest paintball video, Artifact: End of Days, zeros in on the importance of College Paintball. Watch as several College Paintball teams race against time and each other in a battle for the College Paintball Championship.

Planet Eclipse Artifact Season2, Episode 2 “End Of Days-the NCPA” Documentary Now Available for download

Planet Eclipse has released the next episode in the second season of Artifact, “End Of Days” featuring the NCPA college paintball scene. The 40-minute documentary chronicles 4 teams-UConn, Liberty University, Ohio, and Penn State as they compete in the 2011 NCPA College Paintball National Championships held in Lakeland, Florida in April, 2011.

The film is narrated by Matt Marshall, and features music by A Day To Remember, Grives, Coma Recovery, Set Your Goals, Grieves, Over It, and more. “End Of Days” is produced by Disconnected Media and directed by Dan Napoli.

The documentary is available for download in I-tunes and I-tunes mobile device from the Planet Eclipse Digital download store for $4.99.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information on College Paintball, be sure to visit NCPApaintball.com.

Empire Paintball, Empire Battle Tested, and JT Paintball have teamed up with paintball parks across the nation to promote this years High School Paintball Day on May 14, 2011. This is a great opportunity for you and your friends to play free paintball! Be sure to sign up as many of your friends as possible to take advantage of this free paintball day. For every 5 high school friends you sign up you will be entered into a drawing to win one of several great paintball prizes from Empire & JT Paintball.

Here is the official paintball news alert;

Exclusive FREE Play for High School Students Nationwide at a field near you.

WIN Prizes for signing up your friends to play. For every 5 friends (or enemies) you sign up you’ll be entered into a nationwide drawing (through your field) to win one of the following:

WINNERS SELECTED – MAY 20, 2011

Three-1st Place Winners: Empire Mini Marker
Five-2nd Place Winners: Empire Halo Too Loader
Ten-3rd Place Winners: JT Proflex Goggle System

Registration begins April 15th thru May 11th, 2011 at these local participating fields.

To learn more about the event and to find a participating field near you, simply visit: http://www.empirepaintball.com/high-school-paintball-day/

ProPaintball photographer Mike Deep is back with his NCPA College Paintball Championship photo gallery. Enjoy the following photos of Saturday’s action.

Missed the event? Be sure to check ProPaintball’s NCPA 2011 Championship wrap up.

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College Paintball: University of Tennessee Volunteers

Sunday brought closure to another successful (and hot) NCPA National Championship, and with it came a new set of victors. In all, 78 teams competed within three divisions, with this year marking the first inclusion of the high school finals along with the traditional A and AA collegiate series. The hype surrounding the event was high and the attendance reflected that. It’s apparent that with the growth of the league (this year marked the largest NCPA Championship in history) has come a new sense of competitive intensity, as teams realize the high level of prestige and exposure that the NCPA has been able to retain amongst a faltering industry. With three days of play concluded, results per division are as follows:

College Paintball: Cal State University- Long Beach 49ers

College XBall (Class A):

1. University of Tennessee Volunteers
2. Cal State University- Long Beach 49ers
3. University of Connecticut Huskies
4. Liberty University Flames

College RaceTo-2 (Class AA):

1. U. at Buffalo Bulls Blue
2. Western Michigan Broncos
3. Southern Connecticut State Owls
4. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

High School RaceTo-2 (3-man)

1. Grayslake North Knights
2. The Lancers
3. G.E.C.A.
4. Hanover Indians

The NCPA continued their tradition of offering a “high profile” experience at the tournament, streaming real time matches for free over the internet and returning the Fox Sports broadcasting group for the 7^th consecutive year to cover the finals match. An all-star cast of paintball celebrities including Matty Marshall, Oliver Lang and Chris Lasoya were on hand to assist in adding color and commentary to the broadcasts. According to the NCPA’s website, Fox’s event coverage will air nationally sometime during June on Fox College Sports and will eventually be available on Hulu.com as well. In the meantime, check out a sample of Mike Deep’s extensive photography collection from the event here.

ProPaintball photographer Mike Deep spent the weekend covering the action at the NCPA College Paintball Championships. We are proud to present his photos of Friday’s action. Stay tuned for more photos from Mike Deep‘s 2011 College Paintball Championship Gallery.

Be sure to check out Mike’s website at, MikeDeep.com. For information on his camera equipment, check his “about Mike Deep” page.

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This weekend, the NCPA College Paintball Association is hosting the 2011 Collegiate Paintball Championships at Central Florida Paintball (CFP) in Lakeland, FL.

Watch the FREE LIVE webcast presented by Empire and DYE.

For those of you that have not ordered your event t-shirt, you can still do-so, and they will be shipped after the event.

For more information and further details, please visit http://ncpapaintball.org/nationals/

Best of luck to all the teams participating in this year’s event!

In preparation for this weekend’s NCPA Championship, pro paintball’s Baca Loco offers his insight into the frame work of a successful breakout. Any collegiate team making the trip to Central Florida Paintball could benefit greatly from his extensive analysis of shooting lanes and break strategies. Check out a quick teaser below and view the full article at View from the Deadbox.

A taste of what the article has to offer:

Beginning with the (orange) OTB lanes from Home it appears at first glance that lots of potentially effective options exist. On the D-wire they do not and it may be worse depending on the relative position(s) of the 40 Can & the Pin closest to the A given that the best OTB lane for denying the corner or the wire has only a narrow window between the Pin and the Can. The other wide lane controls the bump to the 40 SD. The interior lanes are less useful unless your opponent is consistently trying to camp in one of the (green) zones and contest the Home shooter or a mirror opponent.

ProPaintball received the following news alert from the National College Paintball Association. On behalf of everyone at ProPaintball, I would like to congratulate all of the teams that competed in the High School Regional Championship events. Great job guys!

–NCPA News Release

The National Collegiate Paintball Association staged 8 High School Paintball Regional Championship events across the country this March. Each Regional Champion has been awarded free paint and entry to the NCPA High School Paintball National Championship presented by Empire Paintball and DYE Precision, to be held April 16th at Central Florida Paintball in Lakeland, Florida. In addition to the free entry and paint, the NCPA is also providing each regional champion team with a cash travel reimbursement of up to $1,500 to cover each team’s costs to travel to the National Championship tournament.

There is still time for your team to compete for the National Championship! The High School Paintball National Championship is open to any team of players who attend the same high school, including Junior High, privately schooled and home schooled students who would attend the same public high school. Your team does not need any official recognition from your high school to compete, and teams can enter directly into the National Championship tournament without competing in previous events.

The High School National Championship is a 3-man Tactical RaceTo-2 tournament designed to maximize fun while highlighting each team’s communication, movement and accuracy skills and keeping participation affordable. The entry fee even includes all the paint you will need to compete! Each team plays a series of RaceTo-2 matchups where theteam starts each point with up to 600 paintballs to distribute amongst their players.

Can’t make this year’s National Championship? Start your high school team now and compete in the 2011-2012 season, with local high school events near you starting in late August, 2011. Top teams at local events win entry intothe Regional Championships, and Regional Championship winners win a free trip to the High School Paintball National Championship on April 14, 2012. Don’t forget to watch all three days of the free, live NCPA National Championship webcast on Fox Broadband. Check out www.ncpapaintball.com for more info.

• The NCPA would like to congratulate the 8 teams who won their respective Regional Championship events:
• Northeast Region at Boston Paintball: Hanover High School Indians, Hanover, M
• Mid-Atlantic Region at Skyline Paintball: Paintball Club from Webster County High School, Webster Springs, WV
• Florida Region at Central Florida Paintball: Raiders from St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Midwest Region at CPX Sports: Grayslake North High School Knights, Grayslake, IL
• South Region at Twisted Paintball: Klein High School, Klein, TX
• Southwest Region at SC Village: Bishop Amat Memorial High School, La Puente, CA
• West Region at Capital Edge Paintball: Gilroy Early College Academy, Gilroy, CA
• Northwest Region at Doodlebug Sports: Seattle HotBreadz from Stanwood High School, Stanwood, WA

The National Collegiate Paintball Association is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that promotes paintballparticipation at colleges and high schools around the country. The NCPA College and High School Paintball League is thesecond largest paintball league in the United States and sanctions over 50 events nationally each year.

The NCPA is also a leader in paintball broadcasting, now televising the NCPA National Championship for the seventh year in a row. Visit www.ncpapaintball.com for more information, and check out the NCPA National Championships on Fox Broadband, Fox College Sports, Fox Sports Net, and Hulu.com.

–End NCPA News Release

The NCPA has long been the most consistently televised paintball league, with their National Championship airing on CSTV (now CBS College Sports) in 2005 and 2006 and Fox College Sports in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.  The NCPA broadcast was extended to Fox Sports Net, the same channel that broadcast “Beyond the Paint”, for 2009 and 2010.  In 2009 the NCPA also secured broadband distribution on Hulu.com, the internet TV portal owned by News Corp, Disney and Comcast, where Fox, ABC and NBC stream all of their Prime Time television programming.  Starting last year the NCPA extended coverage again with a live broadcast of the entire 3-day event on Fox Broadband, including over 20 hours of content, which received a great response from viewers.

We’ve learned that the NCPA National Championships will be extending their streak into 2011 with a live broadcast April 15th through 17th and a filmed Championship show premiering later in June.  Pro Paintball players Matty Marshall, Oliver Lang, Chris Lasoya, Kevin “Catfish” Arcilla and Rocky Cagnoni, who received great reviews in the NCPA’s 2010 broadcast, are all slated to return.

If you can’t wait until April, you can catch the past three years of the NCPA Championship on Hulu.com.

We get excited every time we learn that paintball is going to be broadcast on television. This time around the College Paintball Championships will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net to a nationwide audience during prime time!

Fox Sports, through its subsidiaries Fox College Sports and Fox Sports Net, picked up the College Paintball broadcast through what we understand to be a very beneficial deal for all parties involved. This is a healthy alternative to previous airings in which the NPPL and NXL paid a pretty penny to purchase airtime for their broadcasts.

Today’s nationwide broadcast on Fox College Sports will air all summer long. Grab your friends, family and teammates and tune in to watch the championship match-up between Drexel Dragons vs. Cal State Long Beach 49′ers as they compete for the NCPA Championship title.

Click here for the complete TV schedule

Update: Baca Loco from VFTD has shared his thoughts on the episode.

Student athletes from across the country converged at Central Florida paintball park to compete in the College Paintball Championships, hosted in part by Fox College Sports, Empire Paintball and Dye Precision. Read on for the event results and a write up from the event.

Updated @ 10:00pm PST: Added links to college paintball photo galleries.
With the best college teams in the nation once again meeting in Lakeland, Florida for the 2010 National Championships, everyone hoped for fair weather and a smooth event. Friday went unhitched, with the Class A prelims starting at 8am for a day of qualifiers, as teams fought long and hard to earn their place in the Saturday spotlight if they hadn’t already qualified. The top teams from each conference included Drexel in the “North”, Penn State in the “Ohio Valley”, Northern Illinois in the “Midwest” and Tennessee in the “South East” conferences.

The qualifiers concluded Saturday morning, sending 6 of 18 teams home as underdog Cal State Long Beach beat out Northeastern University Huskies in the first match of the day. As the day went on, University of Florida Gators knocked out Ohio University, Last years second place team, while FAU beat PITT followed by Liberty sending Virginia Tech packing home.

Cal State Long Beach 49ers

As it became apparent the match-ups were “Do or Die” and the quarter-finals began, teams fought even harder for survival as University of Connecticut Huskies, the 2007 Champs, battled Cal State Long Beach for their place in the Sunday club. Cal State brought it hard the first half, with the Huskies unable to get a point on the board, but came back just as hard to finish the match at 7-8 without enough time at the end to tie it up. Tennessee was next, starting out playing smart and fast against the Florida Gators with all their money on the table, ending with a wrecking 9-2 win over Florida on their home turf.  Next up was Drexel and FAU, in what was perhaps Drexel’s closest matchup all season, Drexel took it home in overtime, 8-7. Last years champions, Purdue, then stepped up to battle Liberty Flames, and it was down hill from there. Barely able to get points on the board, Purdue struggled as Liberty kept their winning momentum going. Purdue started to bring it back, but couldn’t stop the Flames as they won it 9-3. With one match to go before the Final Four was determined, Penn State and Long Beach were up to bat. Hoping Long Beach was tired in their third match of the day, Penn State started the afternoon with their first match fresh and ready to rock. But down in points the first half, they gained ground with a come-back in the second half, and with only 17 seconds on the clock and the board reading 5-7, every player pushed while one sprinted up the center to grab the flag. But Long Beach, guns blazing, were able to stop the stampede as the buzzer sounded and they made the last spot in the Sunday lineup.

Drexel University Dragons

Finally, the day you’d all been waiting for. With the final four up to Tennessee, Drexel, Liberty, and Long Beach, only one could claim the crown as this years National Champion. The first game of the day started with Long Beach battling Tennessee, where the first two points Tennessee won with ease, ending Long Beach’s usual first half winning spree. Pulling it back together, Long Beach gained points back and took the lead, in a great matchup between two top teams Long Beach pulled ahead to win 8-4. Meanwhile Drexel and Liberty prepared for battle, with Drexel arming their players in camo face-paint for extra appeal. The first half barely any points had been scored, with both teams getting penalties and slowing it down, it appeared Liberty might take the cake — but only the second half would tell. Drexel, un-tarnished and hungry for victory, brought it back playing their hearts out, and were able to win it 7-5.

Enter the championship match! Drexel University, a seasoned x-ball team, winner of the Northeast Conference, with great talent all around and 12 players rostered — Versus Cal State Long Beach, a team many thought wouldn’t make it past prelims, having no x-ball experience, 8 players, no staff, and learning the field layout Friday with their first games — but strength doesn’t always come in numbers! Two teams, both incredibly talented, both having made it this far, and yet still only one could be this years grand champion!

Drexel University Dragons

The games started out hot and heavy, with Cal State chanting “West Coast! Offense!”, while the sidelines, nearly entirely East Coast fans, challenged back with their own chant of “East Coast! Defense!”, and their favored team Drexel to do just that. Heavy laning off the break, both teams had 5 guns up, but Drexel held their conservative line and gun battled to win the first point. And then the second! But Cal State wasn’t giving up, coming back to win two of their own and tie it up. Long Beach continued to try their offensive maneuvers, while Drexel held fast and rolled their guns, where some would say it fell apart for Cal State from there. Penalty after penalty stacked up, at first for both teams, but by the second half Long Beach continued to start games with a player or two in the box as Drexel pushed forward. As the fans cheered and counter coached, Cal State couldn’t bring it back, eventually meeting their demise 4-11 — Making Drexel University Dragons your 2010 National Champions!!

Long Beach and Drexel congratulating each other

This year’s 2010 NCPA College National Championships were excellent, with Chris Raehl doing a great job as always running a smooth event, we hope all you fans out there were able to catch the live streaming webcast on Fox College Sports Broadband. Be sure to look for the final matches to begin airing June 4th on Fox College Sports, followed by the NCPA DVD release and matches to be shown on Hulu internet tv. Can’t get enough College Paintball? Watch previous years NCPA Championships on Hulu.com today!

Class A College Paintball Final Results

1. Drexel University Dragons powered by Understood Paintball
2. Cal State Long Beach 49ers
3. University of Tennessee Volunteers
4. Liberty University Flames

Class AA 5-man College Paintball Final Results

1. East Tennessee State University Buccaneers
2. University of Wisconsin – Platteville Pioneers Blue
3. University of North Texas Mean Green
4. University of Nebraska – Omaha

The following paintball photogalleries have been uploaded:

• Oakes Photography
• Ben Johnson Photography
• Mike Deep Photography

Additional Resources:

• Be sure to check out the sports scores for all of the colleges that competed visit the APPA’s Scores for All Divisions
• For more information on College Paintball, be sure to visit NCPApaintball.com