Editing BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)

'''BOP Blast''', formerly represented by the related names '''TPC Blast''' and '''Tempest Blast''', is a New Zealand tournament [[paintball]] team associated with the Bay of Plenty region. BOP refers to '''Bay of Plenty''', while TPC referred to '''Tauranga Paintball Club'''.

The team is documented in national competition from 2010 to 2026. It competed as TPC Blast from 2010 to 2012, as Tempest Blast during the 2014 [[South Auckland Paintball Club]] Race Series and subsequently as BOP Blast.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

The team recorded simply as '''Blast''' at the 2008 Wellington Easter Tournament has not been merged because the surviving sources contain no player names or regional information connecting it with the Bay of Plenty team.

== Tournament history ==

=== TPC Blast ===
TPC Blast competed at the Christchurch Easter five-player tournament on 3–4 April 2010. The results placed the team fifth among seven entries.[1] A later unofficial ranking calculation assigned TPC Blast 40 points, but those points were not an official tournament score or confirmed national-series standing and are not included in the results table.

At the 2011 NZPPL Rotorua tournament, TPC Blast finished seventh in the first-day standings with 397 points. It advanced to the Plate competition and was reported as the Plate runner-up behind Phoenix.[2]

Contemporary forum signatures connected TPC Blast with Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty Paintball Club. A member posting as ''Armagedonmad'' signed as Steve, described himself as a Bay of Plenty Paintball Club member and listed his team as TPC Blast.[3]

TPC Blast was included in a nineteen-team pre-event list for the 2011 NZPPL Nationals. That list records intended attendance rather than a confirmed tournament result.[4]

At the first 2012 NZPPL Super 5-Man event, held at Lock N Load Paintball in Auckland on 7–8 April, a participant-reported classification placed TPC Blast eighth.[5] The author expressly qualified the result from memory, and no official final result sheet has been recovered.

=== Tempest Blast ===
The team competed as Tempest Blast during the 2014 SAPC Open X-Ball season. PBLeagues uses the same team identity for Tempest and Tempest Blast.

Tempest Blast finished third at the May event and fifth at the July event.[6][7]

=== BOP Blast ===
BOP Blast competed in Open X-Ball at the first two 2015 SAPC Race Series events. It finished seventh at the opening event on 31 January–1 February and fifth at the second event on 11–12 April.[8][9]

BOP Blast was registered for the 2017 New Zealand Local Series Event 1 at Aces High Paintball in Palmerston North. The entry was in Division 4 five-player competition, but the registration record does not establish attendance or a final placing.[10][11]

The team returned to documented Arena Paintball competition in 2025. It was listed in Pool B of the March event and appeared in the draw for the 31 May–1 June round.[12][13] These draws establish scheduled participation but do not provide final placings.

BOP Blast appeared in the pool draws for the 2026 Arena Paintball Easter and Matariki events.[14][15] An Arena Paintball standings update dated 12 July 2026 placed BOP Blast seventh after two rounds with 262 series points.[16]

== Team identity ==
The following names form part of the same related Bay of Plenty team history:

* '''TPC Blast''' — Tauranga Paintball Club Blast
* '''TCP Blast''' — a transposed spelling of TPC Blast printed in the 2010 Easter event announcement
* '''Tempest Blast''' — the name used during the 2014 SAPC Race Series
* '''BOP Blast''' — Bay of Plenty Blast and the team's current name

The relationship between the names is contributor-confirmed. Surviving records establish the shared regional context and, for Tempest Blast, a shared PBLeagues identity. They do not establish exact dates for each organisational or naming transition.

The following entry remains unresolved:

* '''Blast''' — a team that placed thirteenth at the 2008 Wellington Easter Tournament. No player or regional evidence connecting that entry with BOP Blast has been recovered.[17]

== Recorded results ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Published entry
! Event
! Division or stage
! Result
|-
| 3–4 April 2010
| TPC Blast
| Christchurch Easter five-player tournament
| Open
| Fifth.[1]
|-
| June 2011
| TPC Blast
| NZPPL Rotorua tournament
| Plate
| Second in the reported Plate classification.[2]
|-
| 7–8 April 2012
| TPC Blast
| NZPPL Super 5-Man Auckland Event 1
| Overall
| Eighth, participant-reported.[5]
|-
| May 2014
| Tempest Blast
| SAPC May Race
| Open X-Ball
| Third; 70 series points.[6]
|-
| July 2014
| Tempest Blast
| SAPC July Race
| Open X-Ball
| Fifth; 40 series points.[7]
|-
| 31 January–1 February 2015
| BOP Blast
| SAPC Race Series Event 1
| Open X-Ball
| Seventh.[8]
|-
| 11–12 April 2015
| BOP Blast
| SAPC Race Series Event 2
| Open X-Ball
| Fifth.[9]
|-
| 12 July 2026 standings update
| BOP Blast
| Arena Paintball series
| Not specified
| Seventh after two rounds; 262 points.[16]
|}

== See also ==
* [[South Auckland Paintball Club]]
* [[Arena Paintball]]
* [[Paintball in the Bay of Plenty]]

== References ==
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20130218034735/http://paintball.net.nz/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2590&view=print 2010 Season Points and Event Results — NZ Paintball forum]
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20130207161019/http://paintball.net.nz/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3517 Scores from Rotorua — NZ Paintball forum]
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20130207/http://paintball.net.nz/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3997 SAPC 2011–2012 discussion — NZ Paintball forum]
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20130207150546/http://paintball.net.nz/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4021 2011 NZPPL Nationals teams-attending list — NZ Paintball forum]
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20130206050213/http://paintball.net.nz/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4203&start=10 NZPPL Super 5-Man Auckland Event 1 discussion and participant-reported results]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/3267/rankings PBLeagues — SAPC May 2014 Race placings]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/3574/rankings PBLeagues — SAPC July 2014 Race placings]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/3851/rankings PBLeagues — SAPC Race Series Event 1, 2015 placings]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/3852/rankings PBLeagues — SAPC Race Series Event 2, 2015 placings]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/4893/teams PBLeagues — 2017 NZLS Event 1 registered teams]
# [https://pbleagues.com/event/4893/info PBLeagues — 2017 NZLS Event 1 information]
# [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1031241422362145&type=3 Arena Paintball — March 2025 pools, 20 March 2025]
# [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1075266014626352&type=3 Arena Paintball — Round 2 draw, 17 May 2025]
# [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1322097636609854&type=3 Arena Paintball — Easter pools and draw, 23 March 2026]
# [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1399469198872697&type=3 Arena Paintball — Matariki pools and draw, 23 June 2026]
# [https://www.findglocal.com/NZ/Feilding/102027051785091/Arena-Paintball Arena Paintball — series points after Round 2, 12 July 2026]
# [https://web.archive.org/web/20081018150035/http://www.paintball.net.nz/archive/index.php/t-1646.html 2008 Wellington Easter Tournament results — NZ Paintball forum]

== External links ==
* [https://pbleagues.com/team/F6Y0LM3CEOJMDgCI BOP Blast — PBLeagues profile]

[[Category:New Zealand paintball teams]]
[[Category:Paintball in the Bay of Plenty]]
[[Category:2010s in New Zealand paintball]]
[[Category:2020s in New Zealand paintball]]