We spoke with Travis Dusek of pro paintball team Phoenix United earlier today and he informed us that United will be taking the 2010 season off. Travis assured us that United will be maintaining their ownership position within the NPPL. Travis also mentioned that Custom Products has been hard at work developing a new barrel and several new products for their tactical line. As of writing we have no word as to what the players will be doing but we anticipate that they will be finding their way onto other teams in the near future.

Today marked the opening of the PRO division in Aldie, VA, for the USPL DC Challenge event. With the West Coast Open being only four weeks prior to this event, the question of whether or not this event would take place was floating regularly in the chatbox. The event is in play, the weather is overcast with high humidity and the crowed’s are looking thin on this Saturday morning.

Update: Just added an article on Indianapolis Mutiny

With the morning underway, who do you think will come out on top today? Stay tuned right here to Pro Paintball dot Com to find out.

Saturday Scores:

Bracket #1

• Dynasty takes a win over the Dogs strongly with 5 alive
• Phoenix United beats Infamous with 2 up, Glenn Takemoto racking up a 1-for-1
• Impact squeeks by and beat Tampa Bay Damage with 3 alive
• DC Arsenal with 5 bodies up over Chicago Legend, JRab motors up the field with 4 kills
• Naughty Dogs take a solid win over Phoenix United only dropping 2 players
• Damage drops a game to Dynasty who now sits at 4-0
• Infamous tally’s another win up over Chicago Legend
• Archie loses a 1-on-3 to Impact, placing their record now at 5-1
• DC Arsenal crushes Infamous as Oliver lands a 3-kill run through, now sitting undefeated at 6-0
• Dynasty loses 4 off-the-break to Arsenal, leaving DC finishing 7-0 and SD 5-2 for the day

Bracket #2

• Oakland Blast leading the bracket along with Sacramento XSV, both currently at 5-1 only losing to eachther
• Mutiny sitting in at 3-3, losing to two of the top teams last event Blast and Avalanche
• St. Louis Avalanche currently 3-2, with Blast and Elevation in their scope to close out the day and advance

Mutiny’s Saturday Wrap-up:

Hello Indianapolis Mutiny fans, we’re updating you live from the NPPL DC Open at Pev’s Paintball. It’s been a hot & humid end-of-summer weekend here in the Virginia swampland; players are dehydrated, paint is bouncing and everyone smells like they need a shower.

We won our first game against XSV thanks to some handy moves from team captains Aaron Tholey and Tommy O’Donnell with a 1-2 snake-dorito combo. Tommy went down the snake side highway to the 50 dorito and bunkered an XSV player on our side of the snake shortly after Aaron ran down 2 XSV players on the carwash side.

We lost our second game to Scottsdale Elevation in no time. They laned Adam Farej running to the snake; the refs then proceeded to pull a 1-for-1, even though no hits could be found anywhere on him. We started on the wrong foot and Elevation did a great job of capitalizing on our mistakes.

We lost our third game to Avalanche who scouted out our game plan and shot a few key players off the break. Once they were up on bodies, it was a battle of attrition. We expected a different game from Avalanche and got caught with our pants down.

We regrouped, changed our game plan and got back out to the field to play Oakland Blast. There isn’t much time between games, so action in the pit has been frantic.

Blast gave us a heavy gunners look, sending both Zack Long and Dave Bains out to the snake side with their guns up. Dave & Zack chopped up our runners and the pressure was on. They laned three of us off of the break. We fought back, but we were too many bodies down when they steam rolled down the field.

After the Blast loss we regrouped, got our heads together and prepared to play San Francisco Explicit. We opted for a more conventional game plan that kept our players alive off the break and both teams settled in for a gun fight.

Explicit were the first to take the car wash, but Tholey bunkered Explicit’s carwash to give us a much needed boost during the mid-game lull. We mopped up behind Tholey to keep ourselves in contention.

Our last game of the day was against X-Factor, who were already eliminated from Sunday. We expected an unexpected game against X-Factor, which is exactly what we got.

Both teams broke out aggressively and made it out of the gate with all 7 players alive. X-Factor pushed heavily up the carwash side, sending three players that way.

Dusty Odell in the carwash shot Adam Geis off the snake side before we realized he was into the 50. Smelling blood, X-Factor began pushing up the snake side  almost simultaneously.

Suddenly, bodies started dropping everywhere on the field. X-Factor sent three runners up the middle who were all shot out but took one of us with them. We traded a few more bodies back and forth until it came down to a 3-on-2, with Shane in the center stand-up, Tommy in the back center and Andy in the snake-side corner on our side.

Tommy got shot trying to make a move to bunker out the X-Factor player at the stand up next to the 50, leaving Shane and Andy in a 2-on-2. The X-Factor player moved from the stand up into our brick where Shane picked him up and gunned him down. Andy and Shane worked out the last guy to take us into Sunday as the 8th seed.

We’ve got a big quarter-final day tomorrow, stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks for all the support!

-Indianapolis Mutiny

Readers; Who do you predict will win this event?! Leave your comments below!

It was a long drawn out, fly infested weekend many of us have grown to be familiar with through many seasons at SC Village. Paintball photographers Kyle Johnson and Matt Dawson took to the field with their man soda at 7:30am Friday morning and proceeded to finish out the weekend Sunday evening incredibly dehydrated and with leather necks they had not had just days prior.

Kyle’s gallery below presents many of the emotional moments of the hard fought weekend that is stop 2 for the USPL this season. Next stop, DC Challenge.

[Show as slideshow]

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The USPL West Coast Open is quickly approaching and the pro teams are making final preperations for the big paintball event. Read on as we break down the practices, the injuries, and feature a video of Scottsdale Elevation.

Dynasty Entourage vs. Phoenix United: The teams battled it out in 100 degree weather at Action Star Games in Southern California over the weekend. Reports indicated that the field played out very well, and seemed balanced on both the snake and carwash sides of the field. Phoenix United had a few players guesting with the team and there performance wasn’t up to par; Entourage was the clear leader throughout the weekend. The teams had a successful practice and spent most of the weekend trying new plays and breaking the field down.

Tampa Bay Damage spent the weekend training with Guatamala-based paintball team, The Rangers. The rangers were in town for the Central Florida Paintball Series tournament on Sunday and Damage helped them walk the fields and practice for the event. TB Damage will be holding a private practice this weekend at their home field in preparation for the USPL 7-man event.

Scottsdale Elevation: Arizona was heating up and the team got an early start to beat the heat. Nick Slowiak of Chicago Aftershock came out and played against Scottsdale Elevation with his AZPPL team, Retribution. This weekends practice was a hot one with weather reaching above 110+ degrees. The team spent the weekend trying to get ready for the West Coast Open, and is working to put together a trip out to California before the tournament to get in a solid grind against some of the stronger teams in the league. Check out the paintball video clip from practice below;

SF Explicit, Bushwackers, BLAST and SAC XSV: Capital Edge Paintball Park was host to an amazing weekend of paintball. Between the WCPPL event and 4 pro paintball teams there was alot of paintball action taking place. On Saturday, SF Explicit, Blast and XSV battled it out playing approximately 12 or so matches each.  On Sunday, the OC Bushwackers joined in on the fun and the teams played balls to the wall paintball. Word has it that SF Explicit played hard but suffered a few injuries; Adam Florendo suffered bruised ribs and Ryan Pruitt hyper extended his knee.

With all the pro teams preparing for the Chicago Open event and numerous readers trying to find out when and where; we are proud to introduce the Pro Practice Schedule [PPS]. The PPS is a new series of updates in which we showcase the professional teams preparations leading up to the next major event. Each week we will do our best to provide the inside scoop on who, and most importantly, where your favorite Pro paintball team is playing.

For the weekend of June 6th and 7th, 2009;

• Aftershock is holding tryouts at Badlandz for their new semi-pro squad. If your in the area (or a free agent), be sure to check it out.

• Tampa Bay Damage and San Diego Aftermath will be practicing at Central Florida Paintball Park in Lakeland, FL.

• San Diego Dynasty will be practicing Sacramento XSV at Camp Pendleton Park in Oceanside, CA.

• Indianapolis Mutiny will be practicing at Third Eye Paintball Park in Louisville, KY.

• Phoenix United will be practicing against Scottsdale Elevation at 23bps in Avondale, AZ.

• LA Infamous will be practicing against Los Angeles Ironmen at Velocity Paintball Park in San Diego, CA.

• DC Arsenal and Arsenal Evolution will be practicing Sunday at Outdoor Adventures in Chesapeak City, MD.

Want to see your team here? Drop us a line and let us know what your team is up to!

Phoenix United

Players:

Dustin Armstrong

Joel Buffington

Jake Jablonski

Lee Miller

Tim Montressor

Zachary Smith

Adam Veselinovic

Missing: Rich Avila, Travis Dusek

After much anticipation, Chris Raehl has finally posted the USPL Huntington Beach schedules! They can be found here on the APPA website.

Pro Player signing schedules for USPL Huntington Beach:

Pro Signings
Sacramento XSV Signing at Ninja Booth
Saturday 10:00 – 11:00 am
Saturday 2:20 – 3:30 pm
(Giving an Air system away each day!)

San Diego Dynasty Signing at Pev’s San Diego/Dynasty Booth
Free Posters
Time to be announced at the event

Phoenix United T-Shirt Signing at Custom Products’ Truck
Saturday at 2:00 PM
Phoenix United T-Shirts can be purchased at the Phoenix United Booth, or the Pros will sign any article of your own that you would like autographed.

Indianapolis Mutiny Signing at the Sly Booth
Saturday at 11:00 AM

The Pro Players that have been hired to assist divisional teams are as follows:

Edmonton Impact
Josh Davey (Part-time Ninjas, D2)
Justin Cornell (The Fallen, D2)
Coach Bart Yachimec (Tombstonerecball Center, D3)

Los Angeles Infamous
Travis Lemanski (Internal Fury, D3)
Glenn Takemoto (Saiyan, D3)
Arnold Francisco (LA Collision, D2)

Sacramento XSV
Rich Telford – (Lancaster AGGRSSN, D3)
Thomas Taylor – (Breakout SLC, D2)
Junior Brown – (Davis XSV, D2)
Conrad Rangler – (Farside Kids, D2)

San Diego Dynasty
Alex Fraige – (Surge, D2)
Ryan Greenspan – (Fuzion, D2)
Yosh Rau – (EFFECTS, D3)
Davey Williamson – (Thug Life, D2)
Todd Martinez – (Vicious, D1)
Angel Fragoza – (Thug Life, D3)
Johnny Perchak – (Bad Intentionz, D3)
Justin Schwarz – (SC Karnage, D1)

DC Arsenal
JC Whittington (Team Revolution, D2)
Coach Tom Fore (Team Factory Black)

Oakland Blast
Kenny Tsuda (SCP Edge, D3)
Dave Baines (Black Cell, D2)
Bob Long – Coach (Team Retribution, D3)

One of the Phoenix United players made a stop by the Pro Paintball chatbox and provided a link to the 2009 Phoenix United jerseys. As per the thread on PB Arizona message board, the final version of the new jerseys will feature the Custom Products logo as one of the teams paintball sponsors.