2001 NPPL season

The 2001 NPPL season was the National Professional Paintball League's five-event United States tournament season. It comprised the Los Angeles Open, Gettysburg Open, Chicago Open, Atlantic City Gambler's Open and World Cup, with ten-man and five-man competition. Paintball Sports Promotions (PSP), formed through the combination of the event promoters, produced the tournaments.[1][2]

Aftershock won the professional series championship, Team Strange won Amateur A and Warped Kids won Amateur B.[3]

Organisation and PSP's role

At the NPPL organisational meeting on 12–13 January 2001, league representatives and tournament promoters discussed event standards, player representation, finances and responsibility for the series. The promoters agreed to combine their events under a jointly owned organisation. The resulting arrangement retained the NPPL as the sanctioning body, with authority over rules and event requirements, while the promoters undertook tournament production.[1]

Contemporary reports identified this combined promotional organisation as Paintball Sports Promotions. At Gettysburg, Smart Parts carried out much of the event organisation within that arrangement.[4]

Before the Chicago Open, the NPPL steering committee negotiated further terms with PSP. These included a US$5,000 sanctioning fee per event to support the league's budget, in addition to assistance already provided for identification cards and staffing.[5]

PSP's involvement in 2001 therefore concerned the production of NPPL tournaments; the season was not a separate PSP championship running alongside the NPPL.[1][2][5]

Calendar

The completed season comprised five events. Dates are given to the precision established by the contemporary event reports.[2][3][4][5][6]

Round	Event	Date	Venue
1	Los Angeles Open	March 2001	SC Arenas, Corona, California
2	Gettysburg Open	May 2001	Allstar Sports Complex, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
3	Chicago Open	20–24 June 2001	The Badlandz, Crete, Illinois
4	Atlantic City Gambler's Open	August 2001	Atlantic City Racetrack, Mays Landing, New Jersey
5	World Cup	22–28 October 2001	Kissimmee, Florida

Ten-man results

The following table records the winners of the three principal ten-man classifications at each event. Contemporary WARPIG reports and the ClassicScores archive agree on these placings.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Event	Professional	Amateur A	Amateur B
Los Angeles Open	Ground Zero	Team Strange	Warped Kids
Gettysburg Open	Avalanche	Naughty Dogs	Team Worr
Chicago Open	All Americans	Team Strange	Exile
Atlantic City Gambler's Open	Aftershock	Team Strange	Nemesis DYE
World Cup	Dynasty	Trauma	Warped Kids

World Cup also included a novice ten-man classification, won by VIP.[3]

Five-man competition

Five-man competition appeared at all five events, although the classifications offered varied between tournaments.[2][6]

Event	Classification	Winner
Los Angeles Open	Amateur	Sinister
	Novice	Full Breach II
	Rookie	American Heat II
Gettysburg Open	Unspecified in the published results	Eclipse
Chicago Open	Amateur A	Shocktech Factory Team
Chicago Open	Amateur B	Sharpshooters-Black
Atlantic City Gambler's Open	Unspecified in the published results	High Velocity
World Cup	Professional	Aftershock
	Amateur A	Strange Red
	Amateur B	Ravage
	Novice	Static AKA

Sources: WARPIG's event reports and ClassicScores.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Los Angeles did not offer a professional five-man division. At Chicago, the professional five-man competition began but its remaining games were cancelled following heavy rain. The professional teams divided the prize fund rather than completing the competition; no professional winner is listed for that event.[5][6]

Season champions

WARPIG's World Cup report identified the following series champions.[3]

Classification	Champion
Professional	Aftershock
Amateur A	Team Strange
Amateur B	Warped Kids

Aftershock secured the professional championship by qualifying for the World Cup ten-man final. Dynasty won that tournament, while Aftershock finished second.[3]

League developments

At Gettysburg, teams selected an NPPL steering committee comprising three representatives from each of the professional, Amateur A and Amateur B classifications. Registration began collecting player information and photographs for the league's identification database, although printing problems delayed implementation of the cards.[4]

By Chicago, barrel bags were required for markers outside playing areas. Identification-card enforcement continued to be phased in, with full enforcement for ten-man players planned for the final day of that event.[5]

PSP also introduced a new compressed-air system at Atlantic City, comprising four compressors and ten player-operated filling stations.[2]

References