2003 NPPL season

The 2003 NPPL season was the inaugural season of the National Professional Paintball League's Super 7 World Series. Organised with Pure Promotions, it comprised five United States tournaments using seven-player competition in Professional, Amateur, Novice and Rookie classifications.[1][2]

San Diego Dynasty won four of the five American professional tournaments and the professional series championship. Naughty Dogs won the Chicago event. Team RM won Rookie at the first four American tournaments before moving into Novice for the season finale.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Background and PSP separation

Following disagreements between the NPPL and Paintball Sports Promotions during 2002, the organisations developed separate tournament programmes for 2003. The NPPL announced its Super 7 plans on 11 November 2002, replacing its previous five-player and ten-player programme with seven-player competition.[1]

Pure Promotions, WDP's event-production company, produced the new NPPL tournaments. Its first event was held at Huntington Beach in February 2003.[2]

PSP continued with its own events, retaining five-player and ten-player competition while introducing X-Ball. The NPPL Super 7 tournaments and PSP tournaments held in some of the same cities were separate competitions.[1]

United States calendar

Round	Event	Dates	Venue
1	Huntington Beach Open	7–9 February 2003	Beach beside Huntington Beach Pier, Huntington Beach, California
2	Las Vegas Open	11–13 April 2003	Grass practice fields beside Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
3	Chicago Open	6–8 June 2003	Tweeter Center grounds, Tinley Park, Illinois
4	New Jersey Open	8–10 August 2003	Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, New Jersey
5	Commander's Cup	November 2003	Tamiami Park, Miami, Florida

Sources: contemporary WARPIG reports and existing WikiPaintball event articles.[2][3][4][5][6][9]

WARPIG's Las Vegas coverage dates the event programme from 10 April, when teams inspected the fields; preliminary games began on Friday 11 April.[3]

Event results

The following table lists the winners of the five American tournaments. WARPIG's contemporary reports and ClassicScores record the same divisional winners.[2][3][4][5][6][10]

Event	Professional	Amateur	Novice	Rookie
Huntington Beach Open	San Diego Dynasty	Evil Factory	Vicious	Team RM
Las Vegas Open	San Diego Dynasty	KAPP Factory	Shockwave Los Angeles	Team RM
Chicago Open	Naughty Dogs	STP	Twisted Factory	Team RM
New Jersey Open	San Diego Dynasty	Evil Factory	Vicious	Team RM
Commander's Cup	San Diego Dynasty	Static	Diesel	Derange

Vicious competed as Diesel at the Commander's Cup; these names represent the same team within the season.[6]

Professional competition

Dynasty won Huntington Beach and Las Vegas before Naughty Dogs won Chicago, where Dynasty finished third. Dynasty subsequently won New Jersey and the Commander's Cup.[2][3][4][5][6]

At the finale, Dynasty defeated Brass Eagle All Stars in the championship contest. Static won Amateur, Diesel won Novice and Derange won Rookie.[6]

Rookie competition

Team RM won all four American Rookie events preceding the Commander's Cup. WARPIG reported that the team had secured its leading series position before moving into Novice for Miami.[6]

Format and rankings

Super 7 games used a 100-point scoring system: three points for each opposing player eliminated, one point for each surviving player, 32 points for pulling the flag and 40 points for hanging it.[4]

Competition progressed through preliminary games, quarter-finals, semi-finals and placing contests. The number of quarter-final qualifiers depended on the size of the classification, and the advancement rules changed during the season.[4][6]

Refereeing no longer earned teams series points. WARPIG noted this change when Joy Division entered Las Vegas after officiating at Huntington Beach.[3]

Although the calendar above lists only United States events, the championship rankings were not calculated solely from those tournaments. Selected European results could contribute to NPPL rankings. WARPIG reported that Dynasty entered Miami with 250 ranking points after counting overseas results, while Naughty Dogs had 182 points from the four preceding American events.[1][6]

Season championship

Dynasty won the professional series championship. The title is recorded in Dynasty player Ryan Greenspan's career results.[7]

Team RM's secured Rookie series position is documented in WARPIG's contemporary Commander's Cup report.[6]

WARPIG's surviving page headed “NPPL Super 7 2003 Year Ranking” contains results only through Chicago, with the later-event columns unfilled. It records an intermediate ranking rather than complete final season standings.[8]

References