2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open

The 2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open was a paintball tournament held from 21 to 25 August 2002 at the Atlantic County 4-H fairgrounds in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, United States. Produced by Paintball Sports Promotions, it formed part of the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) season and included five-player and ten-player competitions.[1]

Strange won the professional ten-player division, ahead of the Southern California Ironmen, San Diego Dynasty and Ground Zero Gold.[2]

Venue and organisation

The tournament moved from the Atlantic City Race Track, used in 2001, to the nearby fairgrounds after the previous venue became unavailable. The new site provided six grass playing fields with inflatable bunkers, alongside shaded staging, scoring and exhibition areas.[1]

PSP introduced covered elimination areas with screened sides to conceal eliminated players from those still competing. Almost all five-player referees came from the Paintball Referee Organization; ten-player officiating combined PRO referees with members of Bob Long's Ironmen, OBR and Bad Company.[1]

Five-player preliminaries took place on Wednesday, followed by semi-finals and finals on Thursday. Ten-player competition began on Friday. Rain and lightning interrupted Saturday's games, and the final professional preliminary game was completed on Sunday morning.[1]

Five-player results

Final-round totals are taken from WARPIG's contemporary scoreboard. ClassicScores records the same placements.[3][4]

Division	Place	Team	Final-round points
Amateur	1	Shooters & Looters	294
	2	Brimstone Smoke	132
	3	Shocktech	116
	4	ECX Factory Team	76
Novice	1	Tropical Illusion	206
	2	Fuel	146
	3	Ground Zero Silver	120
	4	Team No Name	28
Rookie	1	Team Tempest	296
	2	Black Magic	138
	3	Collateral Damage	98
	4	Phoenix	22

Shooters & Looters won all three Amateur final-round games, scoring 98, 96 and 100 points. Team Tempest likewise won all three Rookie final-round games, finishing with 296 points.[3]

Tropical Illusion led the Novice preliminary standings with 788 points from eight games, four ahead of Shadowmen, before winning the division.[3]

Ten-player results

Final-round totals are taken from WARPIG's contemporary scoreboard. ClassicScores records the same placements.[2][4]

Division	Place	Team	Final-round points
Professional	1	Strange	231
	2	Southern California Ironmen	202
	3	San Diego Dynasty	127
	4	Ground Zero Gold	20
Amateur	1	Trauma	286
	2	Naughty Dogs	207
	3	Farside	118
	4	Shocktech	14
Novice	1	KAPP Factory	286
	2	Naughty Dogs Silver	129
	3	Gridlock	108
	4	Justice	52
Rookie	1	Philadelphia Eclipse Gold	283
	2	Static AKA	206
	3	Hyperactive	120
	4	Black Magic	20

Professional competition

Dynasty led the preliminary standings with 765 points and the semi-final qualifiers with 289. Strange, the Southern California Ironmen and Ground Zero Gold joined Dynasty in the finals.[2]

Strange secured the title by defeating Dynasty in the last round of games. The Southern California Ironmen finished second.[1][2]

Amateur, Novice and Rookie competition

Trauma and Naughty Dogs each won their first two Amateur final-round games. Trauma won their deciding encounter 94–12 to take first place.[2]

KAPP Factory won all three Novice final-round games. Philadelphia Eclipse Gold also recorded three wins to claim Rookie.[2]

References

NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Contemporary tournament report. WARPIG, 21–25 August 2002.
NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Ten-player Scoreboard. WARPIG, August 2002.
NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Five-player Scoreboard. WARPIG, August 2002.
ClassicScores historical tournament results, 2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open, listed as “Altantic City Open”.