Editing 2002 NPPL season

The '''2002 NPPL season''' was the [[National Professional Paintball League]]'s United States tournament season, featuring five-player and ten-player competition at five events produced by [[Paintball Sports Promotions]] (PSP). The relationship between the league and its promoters was disputed during the season, particularly over the status of the Las Vegas Open.[1][2]

[[San Diego Dynasty]] and the [[Southern California Ironmen]] shared the professional ten-player series championship with 229 points each. [[Trauma]] won Amateur, [[KAPP Factory]] won Novice and Static AKA won Rookie.[3][4]

== Organisation and NPPL–PSP relationship ==

The NPPL acted as the rule-making and sanctioning organisation, while PSP produced the tournaments. The Los Angeles Open operated as an NPPL-sanctioned event despite the absence of a completed agreement between the organisations for the season.[1]

Negotiations concerned sanctioning fees, event requirements, the proposed length of the agreement and the independence of league leadership. The disagreement became public around the Las Vegas Open. Following that tournament, the NPPL announced plans to organise its own remaining events, including a tournament competing directly with PSP's Chicago Open.[1]

An agreement announced on 21 May restored NPPL sanctioning for Chicago, Atlantic City and World Cup. PSP agreed to a US$5,000 sanctioning fee per event and a set of event requirements. The proposed competing Chicago tournament was dropped.[1][2]

=== Las Vegas status ===

The second event was promoted as the '''PSP Las Vegas Open''', without NPPL branding. WARPIG's report from the tournament recorded NPPL officials asserting that it was sanctioned and that its results would count towards the NPPL series.[5]

However, WARPIG's subsequent May report and its end-of-season account described Las Vegas as unsanctioned because an agreement had not been reached. Its promotional title and sanctioning status should therefore be distinguished from its treatment in the season rankings: the published final NPPL standings included points from Las Vegas.[1][2][4]

== Calendar ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Event !! Dates !! Venue !! Notes
|-
| [[2002 NPPL Los Angeles Open|Los Angeles Open]]
| 6–10 March 2002
| SC Arenas, SC Village, Corona, California
| NPPL-sanctioned season opener
|-
| [[2002 PSP Las Vegas Open|PSP Las Vegas Open]]
| 1–5 May 2002
| All American Sports complex, Las Vegas, Nevada
| Sanctioning disputed; included in final NPPL rankings
|-
| [[2002 NPPL Chicago Open|Chicago Open]]
| 19–23 June 2002
| The Badlandz, Crete, Illinois
| Held following the May agreement
|-
| [[2002 NPPL Atlantic City Open|Atlantic City Open]]
| 21–25 August 2002
| Atlantic County 4-H fairgrounds, Egg Harbor, New Jersey
| Relocated from the previous year's racetrack venue
|-
| [[2002 Paintball World Cup|World Cup]]
| 19–27 October 2002
| Poinciana Boulevard, Kissimmee, Florida
| Additional concluding X-Ball competition at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex
|}

Sources: contemporary WARPIG coverage and the existing Los Angeles event article.[3][5][6][7][8][9]

== Classifications ==

Revised classification names were introduced at Los Angeles. Amateur A became '''Amateur''', Amateur B became '''Novice''', and the previous Novice classification became '''Rookie'''. Professional retained its existing name.[6]

== Ten-player results ==

The table lists event winners, rather than recipients of ranking points for refereeing. Placings are recorded in WARPIG's contemporary reports and corroborated by ClassicScores.[3][5][6][7][8][10]

{| class="wikitable"
! Event !! Professional !! Amateur !! Novice !! Rookie
|-
| Los Angeles Open
| [[San Diego Dynasty]]
| [[Trauma]]
| [[KAPP Factory]]
| —
|-
| Las Vegas Open
| [[Chicago Aftershock]]
| [[Trauma]]
| Static
| Urban Quest
|-
| Chicago Open
| [[Southern California Ironmen]]
| [[Trauma]]
| Naughty Dogs Silver
| Static AKA
|-
| Atlantic City Open
| [[Team Strange|Strange]]
| [[Trauma]]
| [[KAPP Factory]]
| Philadelphia Eclipse Gold
|-
| World Cup
| [[Chicago Aftershock]]
| [[Trauma]]
| Cartel
| Momma's Boys
|}

Trauma won the Amateur division at all five events.[3][4]

== Five-player results ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Event !! Amateur !! Novice !! Rookie
|-
| Los Angeles Open
| Shocktech Factory Team
| Storm
| Crush
|-
| Las Vegas Open
| ECX Factory Team
| Shadowmen
| Wicked Junkies
|-
| Chicago Open
| Shocktech Dumb
| Tippmann Effect
| Da Boyz
|-
| Atlantic City Open
| Shooters & Looters
| Tropical Illusion
| Team Tempest
|-
| World Cup
| Naughty Dogs 1
| Chronic Platinum
| Formula
|}

Sources: WARPIG event reports and ClassicScores.[3][5][6][7][8][10]

At Los Angeles, scheduling delays prevented completion of the intended five-player format. Amateur placings were determined from preliminary scores, while the qualifying Novice and Rookie teams were ranked using their semi-final scores.[6]

World Cup also offered professional five-player competition, won by Aftershock 2.[3]

== Season championships ==

=== Ten-player ===

WARPIG's World Cup report identified the following series champions, with their totals confirmed by the final ranking table.[3][4]

{| class="wikitable"
! Classification !! Champion !! Ranking points
|-
| Professional
| [[San Diego Dynasty]] and [[Southern California Ironmen]]
| 229 each
|-
| Amateur
| [[Trauma]]
| 250
|-
| Novice
| [[KAPP Factory]]
| 225
|-
| Rookie
| Static AKA
| 125
|}

Strange finished third in the professional standings with 215 points, followed by Aftershock with 210 and Bob Long's Ironmen with 208.[4]

=== Five-player rankings ===

The published five-player standings recorded the following highest totals. The equal Amateur totals are retained without assigning a tie-break outcome.[4]

{| class="wikitable"
! Classification !! Highest-ranked team or teams !! Ranking points
|-
| Professional
| Aftershock 2
| 50
|-
| Amateur
| Brimstone Smoke and Shocktech Factory
| 175 each
|-
| Novice
| Shadowmen
| 168
|-
| Rookie
| Crush
| 129
|}

== World Cup and X-Ball ==

Alongside the NPPL five-player and ten-player tournaments, World Cup introduced professional and collegiate [[X-Ball]] competition. The main tournament site was in Kissimmee, with concluding X-Ball competition at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex.[3]

== Subsequent separation ==

On 11 November 2002, the NPPL announced its Super 7 programme for 2003, moving away from its established five-player and ten-player formats. PSP planned to continue its own tournament series with five-player, ten-player and X-Ball competition. This established separate NPPL and PSP programmes for the following season.[2]

== See also ==

* [[National Professional Paintball League]]
* [[Paintball Sports Promotions]]
* [[2001 NPPL season]]
* [[2003 NPPL season]]

== References ==

# [https://www.warpig.com/paintball/articles/news/052202_NPPL_PSP_rejoin.shtml Bill Mills, “NPPL and PSP Get Back Together”. WARPIG, 22 May 2002.]
# [https://www.warpig.com/paintball/articles/news/111102_nppl7.shtml Bill Mills, “NPPL Announces Super 7”. WARPIG, November 2002.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/worldcup/index.shtml “PSP/NPPL World Cup 2002”. WARPIG, 19–27 October 2002.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/ranking/ranking.shtml “NPPL Ranking 2002”. WARPIG. Final ten-player and five-player standings.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/psp/2002/vegas/index.shtml “PSP Las Vegas Open 2002”. WARPIG, 1–5 May 2002.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/la/index.shtml “NPPL LA Open”. WARPIG, March 2002.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/chicago/index.shtml “NPPL Chicago Open 2002”. WARPIG, 19–23 June 2002.]
# [https://warpig.com/paintball/tournament/nppl/2002/atlantic_city/index.shtml “NPPL Atlantic City 2002”. WARPIG, 21–25 August 2002.]
# [https://www.wikipaintball.com/index.php/2002_NPPL_Los_Angeles_Open “2002 NPPL Los Angeles Open”. WikiPaintball. Existing event article and linked contemporary scoreboards.]
# [https://www.classicscores.com/ ClassicScores. Historical results for the five 2002 NPPL-series events.]

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