Editing Banzai Bandits (section)

=== Hyperball championship (1997) ===

One of Banzai Bandits' most significant victories came at the 1997 Hyperball Championships in Birmingham, England.

The event was organised by [[WDP]] and featured 40 ten-player teams from several countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ukraine.

Competition used both woodland fields and the developing [[Hyperball]] format, with the finals played on fields constructed from large plastic drainage pipes. [1]

Banzai competed against teams including [[Bad Company (American paintball team)|Bad Company]], [[Team Image]], UK Predators, [[Shockwave UK]] and Shades of Grey.

During the preliminary competition, Banzai defeated Bad Company, one of the established American professional teams.

Banzai subsequently defeated Shockwave in the semi-finals. Mike "Spanner" Snape was identified by Leadbetter as having made a decisive attacking move during the match.

The final was contested against [[Shades of Grey]], another established British team.

Banzai won the final to claim the championship. [1]

In a 2017 interview, Leadbetter described the victory as an important achievement for the organisation during the transition from woodland tournaments to concept-field competition.

The event was also associated with the increasing use of artificial bunkers and spectator-friendly tournament layouts, which subsequently became standard in competitive paintball. [1]