1996 ZAP International Amateur Open

The 1996 ZAP International Amateur Open was an amateur tournament paintball event held at Three Rivers Paintball in Pennsylvania from 8 to 11 August 1996. Promoted as the Sixth Annual ZAP International Open, it was organised by Debra and Ryan Krischke through Team Effort Events and formed part of the annual International Amateur Open.[1][2]

The event included novice and amateur five-player competition, amateur ten-player competition, a pump-marker tournament, youth speedball, an industry conference and a trade show. Contemporary promotional material anticipated more than 800 competitors and over US$60,000 in sponsored prizes.[1]

Name and chronology

The event was described contemporaneously both as the “ZAP International Open” and the “ZAP International Amateur Open”. The latter name distinguishes it from the separately organised ZAP International Masters and reflects the tournament's emphasis on amateur competition.

Although the tournament traced its history to the National Amateur Open held in 1990, it adopted the International Amateur Open name in 1991. The 1996 tournament was consequently promoted as the sixth annual International Open.[3]

Organisation

The tournament was produced by Team Effort Events, operated by Debra and Ryan Krischke. ZAP Paintballs was the principal paint sponsor.[1][2]

Debra Krischke revised the eligibility rules for 1996 to maintain the amateur status of the tournament. Experienced players who no longer qualified as amateurs instead participated as judges or coaches. A novice five-player division was also introduced.[1]

Competition format

The principal competitions used wooded playing fields and divisional preliminary rounds. All tournament games used ZAP paint, while the officiating crews included judges certified by the North American Paintball Referees Association.[1]

The five-player competition took place on Thursday and Friday. It used a centre-flag format with ten-minute games. Each team was scheduled to play at least seven games and could play as many as thirteen.[1]

The ten-player competition was held on Saturday and Sunday. Games used a dual-flag format and a twenty-minute time limit, with each team again playing between seven and thirteen games.[1]

Additional competitions included:

A five-player pump-marker tournament sponsored by Daisy.
A three-player Gotya speedball competition for players aged between 13 and 22.
A public speedball arena sponsored by Kingman International.
A target-shooting competition.[1]

Kingman also offered a US$10,000 award if the ten-player championship was won by a team whose members all used Kingman Spyder semi-automatic markers.[1]

Results

Novice five-player

Place	Team
1	Bite ’Em Black
2	Criminal Mischief
3	Rapid Fire
4	The Family

Amateur five-player

Place	Team
1	Team Raptor
2	Dragoons
3	TAGG Team
4	Thunder Chickens

Amateur ten-player

Place	Team
1	Green Dragons
2	SOB’s
3	Thunderstorm
4	Virginia Gentlemen I

The all-women Lady Treedancers competed in the five-player tournament and received a divisional sportsmanship award.[2]

Trade show and industry conference

The accompanying trade show was promoted as having more than 60 booths. The sixth annual Paintball Industry Conference attracted more than 130 attendees and concentrated on issues affecting commercial paintball fields. Its round-table discussions included debate over field-paint-only and bring-your-own-paint policies.[1][2]

Several markers and related products were presented during the event. WARPIG's contemporary coverage reported that Glenn Palmer displayed a prototype of the Palmer Blazer, while an early WDP Angel V6 and Component Concepts' electrically operated Revolution marker were also shown.[2]

Brass Eagle announced its Talon and Raptor markers and discussed plans to distribute paintball equipment through large retail chains. USA Performance Products presented the Viper-M1, while the Smart Parts Shocker was displayed and used during the tournament. RTC also demonstrated its illuminated Tracerball system during night-time speedball games.[2]

Media coverage

WARPIG provided contemporary internet coverage of the tournament, publishing results, scheduling information and reports from the trade show and industry conference. Technical problems with the telephone system at the reporting team's hotel prevented the fuller daily coverage originally planned.[2]

References

Staff report, “The 6th Annual ZAP International Open”, Action Pursuit Games, Vol. 10, No. 8, August 1996, pp. 30–32.
WARPIG, “The ZAP International Amateur Open”, contemporary event coverage, August 1996.
Dawn Mills, “IAO Goes Retro”, WARPIG, June 2006.