1997 New Zealand Paintball Nationals

The New Zealand Paintball Nationals 1997 was a national tournament paintball event held on 25–26 October 1997 at Actions Paintball Sports Arena in Te Atatū, Auckland, New Zealand. Eleven teams competed in a five-player, centre-flag format.[1]

Katipo One won the tournament and First Division with 1,008 points. Saints Black finished second overall, while Kamo Karzi placed third overall and won Second Division.[1]

The event formed part of the inaugural season of the original New Zealand National Paintball League.[1]

Organisation

The tournament was originally planned for a field in Māngere, Auckland, but was moved to Actions Paintball Sports Arena in Te Atatū several weeks before the event.[1]

The contemporary report identified Dave Pellet as the tournament organiser and credited a wider group of co-organisers and marshals with operating the event. The venue was run by Kyn Jackson, a member of Saints.[1]

Despite the late venue change, the two-day competition finished approximately 15 seconds behind schedule.[1]

Format

The tournament used five-player, centre-flag games with a ten-minute time limit.[1]

Teams played each other once, with First and Second Division teams intermingled in the draw. Total points determined both the overall standings and the separate divisional placings.

Two playing fields were used:

• A bush field containing light scrub and large trees
• An artificial-barricade field constructed over a former go-kart track[1]

Wind affected play on the more exposed barricade field, while the weather otherwise remained mostly fine across the two days.

Teams

Twelve teams were originally included in the draw, but Team Gothique did not attend. Eleven teams competed:[1]

Team	Division	Regional information recorded
Paint Contractors	First	Whangārei
Saints Black	First	Auckland
Saints Grey	First	Auckland
Katipo One	First	Auckland
Flashpoint	Second	South Island
Katipo Two	Second	Auckland
Kamo Karzi	Second	Auckland
Red Alert	Second	Auckland
Syrian Suicide Squad	Second	Not stated
Team Raven	Second	Not stated
Bay Boyz	Second	Hawke's Bay

Flashpoint was appearing at its first Auckland tournament. Bay Boyz travelled from Hawke's Bay, while Kamo Karzi entered after winning the 1997 NPL Second Division.[1]

Saints Gold did not compete because members of the squad were attending the Paintball World Cup in Orlando, Florida.[1]

No-show procedure

Team Gothique was included in the original draw but did not attend.[1]

When a team was scheduled to play Gothique, it received a bye and was awarded the maximum game score of 100 points. These awarded scores contributed to the tournament totals.

Tournament

First day

Katipo One led after the first day with 598 points from a possible 600. Paint Contractors followed with 575 points.[1]

Kamo Karzi defeated both Saints Black and Saints Grey during the opening day. Flashpoint led the Second Division standings after the first day, followed by Kamo Karzi, Katipo Two and Team Raven.

The contemporary report contains inconsistent first-day figures for Saints Black, giving 336 points in its narrative and 366 in its accompanying table. Neither figure is required to establish the final tournament result.

Second day

Flashpoint's divisional classification became the subject of discussion after it was initially reported as a First Division team. Officials confirmed on the second day that Flashpoint would compete in Second Division.[1]

Saints Black recovered from its opening-day performance by scoring 530 points from a possible 600 on the second day.

Kamo Karzi moved to the top of Second Division and third place overall after defeating Paint Contractors in its final game and drawing 58–58 with Flashpoint.[1]

Results

The final overall and divisional standings were:[1]

Overall position	Team	Division	Divisional position	Points
1	Katipo One	First	1st	1,008
2	Saints Black	First	2nd	866
3	Kamo Karzi	Second	1st	818
4	Paint Contractors	First	3rd	791
5	Saints Grey	First	4th	780
6	Team Raven	Second	2nd	642
7	Katipo Two	Second	3rd	608
8	Flashpoint	Second	4th	602
9	Syrian Suicide Squad	Second	5th	422
10	Red Alert	Second	6th	370
11	Bay Boyz	Second	7th	210

Katipo One won First Division and the overall tournament. Kamo Karzi won Second Division and finished third overall.[1]

Trophy presentation

Saints Black captain Jo Pitts presented the national tournament trophy to Katipo One captain Reg Lowe.[1]

Kamo Karzi captain Allan Gatland accepted the Second Division trophy and thanked the team, tournament organisers and Kyn Jackson for his support during the season.

The spelling of Reg Lowe's surname was queried in the contemporary report. It should not be altered without supporting evidence.

Officiating and support

The contemporary report described the refereeing as consistent and stated that games began on schedule.[1]

The draw avoided back-to-back games for participating teams. The report also credited the players with generally fair conduct and good sportsmanship.

Fox Force Five, identified as an all-women team, provided food during the event but did not compete.[1]

Historical documentation

The tournament was documented by Rob Maddox, who competed for Kamo Karzi. His report was originally published through Paintball.co.nz.[1]

The report preserves the venue change, format, participating teams, divisional structure, final scores and trophy presentation.

The 1997 results were later incorporated into the retrospective Valhalla National Rankings. Those rankings should be distinguished from the results of the Nationals itself.

See also

• New Zealand Paintball Nationals
• National Paintball League (New Zealand)
• Actions Paintball
• Katipo
• Kamo Karzi
• Paintball.co.nz

References

1. Rob Maddox, The 1997 Two Day NZ National “SplatMan” Tournament, Paintball.co.nz

External links

• Later archived copy of the tournament report