1997 NPPL World Cup
The 1997 Paintball World Cup, also known as the 1997 NPPL World Cup, was a tournament paintball event held from 21 to 26 October 1997 at Paintball World in Kissimmee, Florida, United States. Promoted by Jerry Braun and conducted as part of the National Professional Paintball League season, it featured five-player and ten-player competitions for professional and amateur teams.[1][2]
Jacksonville Warriors won the professional five-player competition, while the Fighters won the amateur division. Team Image won the professional ten-player competition and Lockout won the amateur division.[1][3][4]
The tournament included the World Cup debut of Sup'AirBall, an inflatable-bunker format developed in France. Sup'AirBall appeared alongside woodland and Hyperball fields, reflecting the increasing use of spectator-oriented artificial playing fields in tournament paintball during the late 1990s.[1][5][6]
Tournament
Competition began on Tuesday, 21 October, with the five-player preliminary rounds. The five-player finals were held on Thursday, 23 October. Ten-player preliminary competition began on Friday, with the finals concluding the event on Sunday, 26 October.[1]
The tournament was organised by Jerry Braun at Paintball World, a multi-field paintball facility in Kissimmee. Both the five-player and ten-player competitions were divided into professional and amateur classifications.[1][2]
Playing fields
The World Cup used a mixture of traditional woodland or jungle fields and artificial tournament fields.[1][5] These included:
- woodland and jungle-style fields;
- Hyperball fields constructed using corrugated plastic piping; and
- a Sup'AirBall field using inflatable bunkers.
Hyperball had made its American World Cup debut at the 1996 event. Sup'AirBall was added in 1997, providing a more open playing area that improved visibility for spectators. Contemporary coverage also noted that the flexible inflatable bunkers could cause paintballs to rebound rather than break.[1]
Competition format
Five-player competition
The five-player preliminary round consisted of ten divisions containing nine or ten teams each. Each division generally included one or two professional teams, with the remaining places filled by amateur teams. The highest-scoring professional and amateur teams from each preliminary division advanced.[1]
A separate novice competition had not originally been scheduled. During the event, Braun adopted a proposal attributed to J. J. Brookshire of Brass Eagle, under which the three lowest-scoring teams from each preliminary division were placed into novice semi-finals. The resulting novice classification therefore operated as a consolation competition drawn from the five-player preliminary field.[1]
Ten-player competition
The ten-player competition was divided into professional and amateur classifications. Preliminary games began on 24 October, followed by the finals on 26 October.[1][2]
Results
Five-player results
| Position | Professional | Amateur | Novice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacksonville Warriors | Fighters | Bizzaro |
| 2 | All Americans 1 | Farside | Chameleons |
| 3 | Rage | Shockwave CA | Bad Karma White |
| 4 |