Music City Open

The Music City Open was a recurring American paintball tournament held in the Nashville, Tennessee, area and produced by Jim Lively and Sam Caldwell through Lively Productions. Contemporary coverage described the event as being in its ninth year in 1993 and identified the 1994 tournament as the tenth annual Music City Open.[1][2]

The tournament was distinct from Lively Productions' larger International Masters, serving as the promoters' Nashville-based event. Its competition formats changed over time and included ten-player, five-player and seven-player tournaments, as well as separate pump and open equipment classes.[1][2][3]

History

Jim Lively and Sam Caldwell became involved in tournament production through the National Survival Game championship system. They hosted an NSG regional tournament in Nashville in 1984 and subsequently produced other events within the championship series. Their five-year relationship with NSG ended after they hosted the 1988 NSG World Championships.[1]

Lively Productions continued organising the Music City Open after the NSG championship tournaments ended. In 1993, Action Pursuit Games described the Music City Open as being in its ninth year and characterised it as the longest-running annual national-level paintball tournament in the United States.[1] The following year was promoted as the tenth annual event.[2]

1994 tournament

The tenth annual Music City Open was held in Nashville on 14–15 May 1994. Twenty-one five-player teams representing nine states entered. Rather than separating professional and amateur teams, competition was divided according to equipment: 13 teams entered the Open class and eight entered the Pump class.[2]

Open-class teams could use equipment ranging up to constant-air semi-automatic markers. The Pump class was restricted to pump-action markers.[2]

Pump class

The Pump-class tournament used a round-robin format in which aggregate points determined the winner. Thunderstorms interrupted play during the seventeenth set of games, but the remaining rounds were subsequently completed. Phantom Regiment won the class, followed by Crow Warriors I, Guns of Paradise and the Rad Busters.[2]

Place	Team	State
1	Phantom Regiment	Alabama
2	Crow Warriors I	Ohio
3	Guns of Paradise	Michigan
4	Rad Busters	Tennessee

Open class

The Open-class preliminary games used ten-minute time limits, with the leading teams advancing to a four-team round-robin final. Ridge Runners won the division ahead of Team Farside, Sasquatch and the C.I.A. Widowmakers.[2]

Place	Team	State
1	Ridge Runners	Tennessee
2	Team Farside	Illinois
3	Sasquatch	Florida
4	C.I.A. Widowmakers	Tennessee
5	Ruby Shooters	Tennessee
6	Phantom Regiment	Alabama
7	Timber Wolves Gray	Tennessee
8	Deadly Assault Force	Not stated
9	Timber Wolves Black	Tennessee
10	Bush Pilots	Tennessee
11	Tasmanian Devils	Michigan
12	Wacky Warriors	Missouri
13	Slam	Kentucky

1998 return

Lively Productions returned to tournament promotion with another Music City Open at Nashville Paintball Sports on 17–19 April 1998. The event included a seven-player centre-flag tournament with 29 teams, as well as Top Gun, quick-draw and target-shooting competitions.[3]

The Squad won the seven-player tournament, followed by Benchmark Warriors, Nemesis and Tagg Team.[3]

Place	Team	Final-round points
1	The Squad	176
2	Benchmark Warriors	150
3	Nemesis	128
4	Tagg Team	21

References

Randy Kamiya, “Masters Experience”, Action Pursuit Games, Vol. 7, No. 6, June 1993, p. 74.
Andy Lahner, “The 10th Annual Music City Open”, Action Pursuit Games, Vol. 8, No. 11, November 1994, pp. 37–40.
1998 Music City Open, WARPIG, April 1998.