2001 NPPL World Cup

The 2001 NPPL World Cup was an international paintball tournament held from 22 to 28 October 2001 in Orlando, Florida, United States. Sanctioned by the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL), it comprised professional and amateur five-player and ten-player competitions.[1][2]

A contemporary report described the tournament as the largest paintball event held up to that time. It attracted 194 five-player teams and 156 ten-player teams, giving a combined entry of 350 teams.[1]

Chicago Aftershock won the professional five-player competition, while Dynasty won the professional ten-player competition. Aftershock also secured the 2001 NPPL professional season championship.[1][2]

Background and organisation

The tournament followed a period of restructuring within the NPPL and among its event promoters. The previous World Cup in 2000 had been affected by problems including collapsed safety netting, queues at compressed-air stations and long distances between the playing fields, staging areas and other facilities.[1][2]

For the 2001 event, construction began several weeks before the tournament. Twenty-foot safety nets were suspended from steel cables supported by wooden poles, while the ten playing fields were arranged around centrally located staging areas, compressed-air stations, toilets and vendor displays.[1][2]

Nine of the ten fields used inflatable bunkers. The DYE Precision field was constructed in the Hyperball style. Other field or site sponsors included PMI, Shocktech, Smart Parts, Diablo Paintball, JT USA, KAPP, Ultimate Air and Kingman/Raven.[1][2]

The compressed-air filling area was also reorganised. Separate filling stations were provided for 3,000 psi and 4,500 psi systems after concerns were raised about players potentially connecting lower-pressure systems to the higher-pressure station.[1][2]

Participation

The five-player competition attracted 194 teams:

Division	Teams
Professional	18
Amateur A	21
Amateur B	85
Novice	70
Total	194

The ten-player competition attracted 156 teams:

Division	Teams
Professional	15
Amateur A	20
Amateur B	83
Novice	38
Total	156

The tournament included teams from several countries. Russian Legion made what the contemporary report described as its first appearance in United States professional competition. French team Ton Ton Flingueurs reached the five-player professional final, while VIP of Puerto Rico won the ten-player Novice division.[1]

Five-player competition

The five-player competition began on 22 October and concluded with the finals on 24 October.[1][2]

Chicago Aftershock won the professional division ahead of Ground Zero Chaos, Ton Ton Flingueurs and the All Americans. Strange Red won Amateur A, Ravage won Amateur B and Static AKA won the Novice division.[1][3]

Results

Division	First	Second	Third	Fourth
Professional	Chicago Aftershock	Ground Zero Chaos	Ton Ton Flingueurs	All Americans
Amateur A	Strange Red	Strange Black	Shocktech	Naughty Dogs Black
Amateur B	Ravage	Static	Rebellion	European Union 1
Novice	Static AKA	Hawaiian Homegrown	Team NME	Wrecks

A scoring error affected the five-player professional semi-finals. Ground Zero Bedlam's flag pull was credited to the wrong team, leaving it four points behind Ton Ton Flingueurs for the final qualifying position. Because both teams had signed the score sheet and the result had already been posted, the score was not changed.[1][2]

Ten-player competition

Thursday, 25 October was reserved as a break between the two formats and allowed ten-player teams to inspect the fields. The ten-player competition began on Friday and concluded on 28 October.[1][2]

Dynasty won the professional division, with Chicago Aftershock second, Bob Long's Ironmen third and Bad Company fourth. Trauma won Amateur A, Warped Kids won Amateur B and VIP won the Novice division.[1][4]

Results

Division	First	Second	Third	Fourth
Professional	San Diego Dynasty	Chicago Aftershock	Bob Long's Ironmen	Bad Company
Amateur A	Trauma	Farside	Naughty Dogs	All Americans 2
Amateur B	Warped Kids	Outta Control	Mox Nix	Nemesis DYE
Novice	VIP	Non Stop	Mortadelos/Kaya	Static AKA

Professional final dispute

The professional championship was decided following a disputed penalty during the final-round game between Dynasty and Aftershock.

Aftershock player Ronnie Simpkins, the last active Aftershock player in the game, was hit in the pack and penalised for continuing to play after being eliminated. Dynasty was awarded the flag hang. Representatives of both teams subsequently signed a score sheet recording 92 points for Dynasty and 16 for Aftershock.[1]

That result would have left Aftershock two points ahead of Dynasty in the overall final standings. Dynasty protested that the prescribed 12-point penalty had not been deducted from Aftershock's score. Ultimate judge Bill Cookston ruled that the deduction should be applied because it was a mathematical correction to the posted score. After the deduction, Dynasty finished ten points ahead of Aftershock and was awarded the professional championship.[1][2][4]

NPPL season championships

The World Cup concluded the 2001 NPPL tournament season. Chicago Aftershock secured the professional season championship by qualifying for the ten-player final.[1][2]

Division	2001 NPPL season champion
Professional	Chicago Aftershock
Amateur A	Team Strange
Amateur B	Warped Kids

See also

• Paintball World Cup
• National Professional Paintball League
• Paintball Sports Promotions
• San Diego Dynasty
• Chicago Aftershock
• Russian Legion
• 2000 NPPL World Cup
• 2002 Paintball World Cup

References

1. Bill Mills, "NPPL World Cup 2001", Action Pursuit Games, March 2002, pp. 216–223.
2. WARPIG, "NPPL World Cup 2001", October 2001. Contemporary event coverage.
3. WARPIG, "NPPL World Cup 2001: 5 Man Semi-Finals and Finals".
4. WARPIG, "NPPL World Cup 2001: 10 Man Semi & Finals Scoreboard", 28 October 2001.

External links

• WARPIG 2001 World Cup archive