Editing 2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open

The '''2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open''' was a [[paintball]] tournament held from 21 to 25 August 2002 at the Atlantic County 4-H fairgrounds in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, United States. Produced by [[Paintball Sports Promotions]], it formed part of the [[National Professional Paintball League]] (NPPL) season and included five-player and ten-player competitions.[1]

[[Team Strange|Strange]] won the professional ten-player division, ahead of the [[Ironmen (Southern California)|Southern California Ironmen]], [[San Diego Dynasty]] and Ground Zero Gold.[2]

== Venue and organisation ==
The tournament moved from the Atlantic City Race Track, used in 2001, to the nearby fairgrounds after the previous venue became unavailable. The new site provided six grass playing fields with inflatable bunkers, alongside shaded staging, scoring and exhibition areas.[1]

PSP introduced covered elimination areas with screened sides to conceal eliminated players from those still competing. Almost all five-player referees came from the Paintball Referee Organization; ten-player officiating combined PRO referees with members of Bob Long's Ironmen, OBR and Bad Company.[1]

Five-player preliminaries took place on Wednesday, followed by semi-finals and finals on Thursday. Ten-player competition began on Friday. Rain and lightning interrupted Saturday's games, and the final professional preliminary game was completed on Sunday morning.[1]

== Five-player results ==
Final-round totals are taken from WARPIG's contemporary scoreboard. ClassicScores records the same placements.[3][4]

{| class="wikitable"
! Division !! Place !! Team !! Final-round points
|-
| rowspan="4" | Amateur
| 1 || Shooters & Looters || 294
|-
| 2 || [[Brimstone Smoke]] || 132
|-
| 3 || Shocktech || 116
|-
| 4 || ECX Factory Team || 76
|-
| rowspan="4" | Novice
| 1 || Tropical Illusion || 206
|-
| 2 || Fuel || 146
|-
| 3 || Ground Zero Silver || 120
|-
| 4 || Team No Name || 28
|-
| rowspan="4" | Rookie
| 1 || Team Tempest || 296
|-
| 2 || Black Magic || 138
|-
| 3 || Collateral Damage || 98
|-
| 4 || Phoenix || 22
|}

Shooters & Looters won all three Amateur final-round games, scoring 98, 96 and 100 points. Team Tempest likewise won all three Rookie final-round games, finishing with 296 points.[3]

Tropical Illusion led the Novice preliminary standings with 788 points from eight games, four ahead of Shadowmen, before winning the division.[3]

== Ten-player results ==
Final-round totals are taken from WARPIG's contemporary scoreboard. ClassicScores records the same placements.[2][4]

{| class="wikitable"
! Division !! Place !! Team !! Final-round points
|-
| rowspan="4" | Professional
| 1 || [[Team Strange|Strange]] || 231
|-
| 2 || [[Ironmen (Southern California)|Southern California Ironmen]] || 202
|-
| 3 || [[San Diego Dynasty]] || 127
|-
| 4 || Ground Zero Gold || 20
|-
| rowspan="4" | Amateur
| 1 || [[Baltimore Trauma|Trauma]] || 286
|-
| 2 || [[Naughty Dogs]] || 207
|-
| 3 || Farside || 118
|-
| 4 || Shocktech || 14
|-
| rowspan="4" | Novice
| 1 || [[KAPP Factory]] || 286
|-
| 2 || Naughty Dogs Silver || 129
|-
| 3 || Gridlock || 108
|-
| 4 || Justice || 52
|-
| rowspan="4" | Rookie
| 1 || Philadelphia Eclipse Gold || 283
|-
| 2 || Static AKA || 206
|-
| 3 || Hyperactive || 120
|-
| 4 || Black Magic || 20
|}

=== Professional competition ===
Dynasty led the preliminary standings with 765 points and the semi-final qualifiers with 289. Strange, the Southern California Ironmen and Ground Zero Gold joined Dynasty in the finals.[2]

Strange secured the title by defeating Dynasty in the last round of games. The Southern California Ironmen finished second.[1][2]

=== Amateur, Novice and Rookie competition ===
Trauma and Naughty Dogs each won their first two Amateur final-round games. Trauma won their deciding encounter 94–12 to take first place.[2]

KAPP Factory won all three Novice final-round games. Philadelphia Eclipse Gold also recorded three wins to claim Rookie.[2]

== See also ==
* [[National Professional Paintball League]]
* [[Paintball Sports Promotions]]
* [[2001 NPPL Atlantic City Open]]
* [[2002 NPPL Chicago Open]]

== References ==
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/atlantic_city/index.shtml NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Contemporary tournament report]. ''WARPIG'', 21–25 August 2002.
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/atlantic_city/10pre.shtml NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Ten-player Scoreboard]. ''WARPIG'', August 2002.
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/atlantic_city/5pre.shtml NPPL Atlantic City 2002: Five-player Scoreboard]. ''WARPIG'', August 2002.
# [https://www.classicscores.com/ ClassicScores historical tournament results], 2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open, listed as “Altantic City Open”.

[[Category:National Professional Paintball League events]]
[[Category:Paintball tournaments in the United States]]
[[Category:Paintball tournament results]]
[[Category:Paintball in New Jersey]]
[[Category:2000s in American paintball]]
[[Category:2002 in paintball]]