2012 NPPL season

The 2012 NPPL season was a four-event United States tournament season organised by the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL). Events took place in Huntington Beach, Chicago, northern Virginia and Las Vegas. The season introduced seven-player RaceTo competition for the Professional and Division 1 classes, alongside traditional seven-player and separate five-player competitions.[1][2][3][4]

Sacramento XSV won the professional season championship with 63 points, finishing one point ahead of Tampa Bay Damage. Camp Pendleton Raiders won the Division 1 championship.[5]

Competition formats

The NPPL introduced seven-player RaceTo-5 matches for Professional teams and seven-player RaceTo-4 matches for Division 1. At the Huntington Beach opener, professional matches had a 15-minute regulation limit, while Division 1 matches had a 10-minute limit.[1]

Traditional seven-player capture-the-flag competition remained available in Divisions 2, 3 and 4. Huntington Beach also included separate Division 3 and Division 4 five-player RaceTo-4 competitions and five-player pump RaceTo-2. No Division 2 RaceTo competition took place at the opening event.[2]

The distinction between player numbers and scoring formats was significant: the Professional and Division 1 RaceTo competitions retained seven players per side, while the lower-division RaceTo competitions at Huntington Beach used five players.[2]

Calendar

Round	Dates	Event	Venue	State
1	29 March–1 April 2012	Huntington Beach Open / Surf City USA Open	Beach beside Huntington Beach Pier, Huntington Beach	California
2	18–20 May 2012	Chicago Open	CPX Sports, Joliet	Illinois
3	24–26 August 2012	D.C. Challenge	Pev's Paintball Park, Aldie	Virginia
4	5–7 October 2012	Las Vegas World Championships	Riviera Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas	Nevada

Huntington Beach expanded to four playing days to accommodate the combination of competition formats. The Chicago tournament took place at CPX alongside Living Legends V. Las Vegas concluded the season on artificial-turf fields constructed in the Riviera's car park.[2][3][4][6][7]

Event results

Professional and Divisions 1–3

The following table lists event winners. Professional and Division 1 used seven-player RaceTo; the Division 2 and Division 3 results below are for traditional seven-player competition.[2][3][4][7]

Event	Professional	Division 1	Division 2	Division 3
Huntington Beach	Sacramento XSV	TX Storm	Arsenal Kidz	Good For Nothing
Chicago	Infamous	Distortion	Mean Machine	LA Collision
D.C. Challenge	San Antonio X-Factor	TradeMyGun	High Octane	Avalanche D3
Las Vegas	San Diego Dynasty	TCP Machine	Arsenal Kidz	Avalanche D3

Four different teams won professional events. XSV opened the season by defeating Damage 3–0 in the Huntington Beach final. Infamous defeated Edmonton Impact 3–2 in Chicago, while San Antonio X-Factor defeated Chicago Legend 3–1 at the D.C. Challenge. San Diego Dynasty won the Las Vegas finale ahead of XSV.[2][3][4][7]

Division 4 and pump

Event	Division 4 seven-player	Pump
Huntington Beach	DMG	HenchMen
Chicago	Miltown Throwdown, according to the league's season points allocation	CPX Ambition
D.C. Challenge	Farside Kids	West Coast Sharks 2
Las Vegas	West Coast Sharks	West Coast Sharks 2

The Chicago Division 4 result requires qualification. The contemporary Social Paintball report listed NVP as the Division 4 winner without identifying the format. The archived NPPL season standings instead awarded Miltown Throwdown the highest Chicago points allocation in the Division 4 category containing the other events' seven-player results.[3][5]

That archived category was headed “Division 4 - 5 Man”, although its Huntington Beach, D.C. and Las Vegas points allocations correspond to the seven-player results published in contemporary coverage.[2][4][5][7]

Additional five-player competitions

The following separately identified five-player winners were reported during the season.[2][4][7]

Event	Competition	Winner
Huntington Beach	Division 3 five-player RaceTo-4	WC Grizzlies
Huntington Beach	Division 4 five-player RaceTo-4	RIT Tigers Orange
D.C. Challenge	Division 4 five-player	University of Missouri
Las Vegas	Division 4 five-player	SPOG
Las Vegas	Division 4 five-player RaceTo-4	PDX VexX

Season championships

Professional standings

XSV won the professional championship despite finishing second to Dynasty at the final event. Damage finished one point behind XSV, with Edmonton Impact third.[5][7]

Position	Team	Huntington Beach points	Chicago points	D.C. points	Las Vegas points	Total
1	Sacramento XSV	21	10	13	19	63
2	Tampa Bay Damage	19	15	17	11	62
3	Edmonton Impact	12	19	12	17	60
4	Infamous	13	21	11	10	55
5	San Diego Dynasty	17	8	7	21	53

Divisional standings

The archived official standings recorded the following category leaders after all four events.[5]

Category	First	Points	Second	Points	Third	Points
Division 1 seven-player	Camp Pendleton Raiders	178	TX Storm	175	TCP Machine	154
Division 2 seven-player	Arsenal Kidz	182	High Octane	157	Camp Pendleton Raiders 2	151
Division 3 seven-player	Sacramento Royals	152	Damage Inc.	135	DC Onslaught	111
Division 3 five-player	WC Grizzlies	50	CenterMass Hawaii	46	DC Onslaught	43
Division 4 category labelled “5 Man”	CEPP DMG	182	Farside Kids	161	West Coast Sharks	152
Pump five-player	West Coast Sharks 2	192	HenchMen	93	West Coast Nation	89

The Division 3 five-player standings contained points from Huntington Beach only. The Division 4 category label is reproduced from the official archive; its relationship to the published seven-player results is noted above.[5]

Camp Pendleton Raiders secured the Division 1 title without winning an individual event, recording two second-place and two third-place finishes. Sacramento Royals similarly led the Division 3 seven-player standings without receiving a first-place event points allocation.[5]

All-Star competition

The D.C. Challenge hosted the third annual professional East–West All-Star Game on 25 August. The East defeated the West 5–0, earning its first victory in the competition.[4]

References