Admin: Expanded the 2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series overview with links to all three event articles, verified King’s Birthday and Labour Day results, Expendables’ season championship and original contemporary references.

2026-10-31T19:32:01Z

Expanded the 2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series overview with links to all three event articles, verified King’s Birthday and Labour Day results, Expendables’ season championship and original contemporary references.

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The '''2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series''' was a three-round five-player [[paintball]] tournament series held at [[Arena Paintball]] in Feilding, New Zealand. The published calendar scheduled events for Easter, King's Birthday and Labour Day weekends in April, June and October 2023.[1]

[[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]] won the series championship and the final tournament in October. The team also won the second round in June.[2][3]

== Calendar ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Round
! Event
! Advertised dates
|-
| 1
| [[2023 Arena Paintball Easter Race|Easter Race]]
| 8–9 April 2023
|-
| 2
| [[2023 Arena Paintball King's Birthday Race|King's Birthday Race]]
| 3–4 June 2023
|-
| 3
| [[2023 Arena Paintball Labour Day Tournament|Labour Day Tournament]]
| 21–22 October 2023
|}

The three-round calendar was published by Arena Paintball in December 2022.[1]

== Format ==

The organiser's original calendar specified five-player race matches, a four-point mercy rule, a firing-rate limit of 10.5 balls per second and a hopper-and-four-pod ammunition limit.[1]

At the final event, the reported format consisted of ten-minute matches and eight preliminary matches per team.[2]

The series included Cup and Plate competitions, although surviving records of the individual competitions are incomplete.

== Season ==

=== Round 1: Easter ===

The opening event was scheduled for 8–9 April 2023.

The published master schedule identified Ballistics Unit, Crisis, Defiance, Expendables, Fatality, PB Corp and Rebels, as well as a bye.[4]

The PB Corp entry name was disputed in contemporary comments on the organiser's announcement, with a participant requesting that the entry be identified as Carcharodons instead.[4]

Complete final results have not been established.

=== Round 2: King's Birthday ===

The second round took place over 3–4 June 2023.

The surviving tournament draw named Ballistics Unit, Carcharodons, Crisis, Defiance, Expendables and Fatality.[5]

Expendables won the event, with Crisis Paintball Northland finishing second in the Cup final.[3][6]

=== Round 3: Labour Day ===

The final round took place on 21–22 October 2023.

Nine teams entered the event, including visiting team Phoenix Tahiti from French Polynesia.[2]

Expendables defeated Ballistics Unit 3–0 in the Cup final, while Phoenix Tahiti defeated Carcharodons 3–0 to secure third place.[2]

Crisis Paintball Northland reported finishing second in the Plate competition.[7]

== Documented results ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Round
! Competition
! Position
! Team
|-
| 2
| Cup
| 1st
| [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]
|-
| 2
| Cup
| 2nd
| [[Crisis Paintball Northland]]
|-
| 3
| Cup
| 1st
| [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]
|-
| 3
| Cup
| 2nd
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit]]
|-
| 3
| Cup
| 3rd
| [[Phoenix Tahiti (French Polynesia Paintball Team)|Phoenix Tahiti]]
|-
| 3
| Cup
| 4th
| [[Carcharodons (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Carcharodons]]
|-
| 3
| Plate
| 2nd
| [[Crisis Paintball Northland]]
|}

These are the individual event results established from contemporary reports. Missing positions are omitted rather than inferred.

== Series championship ==

'''Expendables''' won the 2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series championship.[2]

In an October 2023 interview, Ralph Tsing stated that he had represented Expendables during the first two rounds and that the team had won both the final event and the overall championship.[2]

Complete cumulative season standings have not been established from the available sources.

== See also ==

* [[Arena Paintball]]
* [[2022 Arena 5 Man Race Series]]
* [[2024 Arena Paintball Race Events]]
* [[History of paintball in New Zealand]]

== References ==

# [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=515284927291133&type=3 Arena Paintball – 2023 tournament calendar, Facebook, December 2022].
# [https://pf.airtahitinui.com/actualites/ambassador/paintball-ralph-tsing-enchaine-les-bons-resultats Air Tahiti Nui – Paintball : Ralph Tsing enchaine les bons résultats, October 2023].
# [https://www.instagram.com/p/CxHSDmHL7FU/ Ralph Tsing – Expendables first-place announcement for Round 2, Instagram, 12 September 2023].
# [https://www.facebook.com/ArenaPaintballNZ/posts/594272616059030/ Arena Paintball – Easter event master schedule, Facebook, 7 April 2023].
# [https://www.facebook.com/ArenaPaintballNZ/posts/623041429848815/ Arena Paintball – King's Birthday event draw, Facebook, May 2023].
# [https://www.facebook.com/groups/aucklandpaintballclub/posts/2592438174245440/ Crisis Paintball Northland – King's Birthday Cup runner-up announcement, Facebook, 5 June 2023].
# [https://www.facebook.com/CrisisPaintballNorthland/posts/799735438618400/ Crisis Paintball Northland – Labour Weekend Plate runner-up report, Facebook, October 2023].

[[Category:Paintball tournaments in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Paintball tournament results]]
[[Category:2020s in New Zealand paintball]]

Updated article: 2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series - Revision history

Admin: Expanded the 2023 Arena 5 Man Race Series overview with links to all three event articles, verified King’s Birthday and Labour Day results, Expendables’ season championship and original contemporary references.