2024 ICPL season

The 2024 ICPL season was the sixth season of the International Classic Paintball League. Its United States programme included regional tournaments, the Texas Classic major and a concluding Classic Cup. Although held from 31 January to 2 February 2025, the Classic Cup counted towards the 2024 season.[1][2]

The programme included professional and amateur ten-player classifications, Open and Amateur five-player competition, and additional Amateur B divisions at the Lone Star Open. Image won the professional competition at the concluding Classic Cup, while Louisville Asylum was identified as the 2024 Open five-player series champion.[9][10][12][14]

Organisation and formats

The season used a combination of minor or regional tournaments, a major and a championship event. Team Smoke's contemporary account described the championship calculation as using a team's best minor result, its major result and its championship result. PBLeagues specified that three ten-player scores counted, with no more than one regional result included.[1][2]

The Texas Classic awarded double ranking points. Its professional and amateur ten-player winners each received 200 points, compared with the 100-point winning scores recorded at regional events. The concluding Classic Cup also awarded 200 points to each divisional winner.[3–6][8–10]

Minor tournaments could combine professional and amateur teams in the playing brackets while retaining separate classification results. Team Smoke contrasted this arrangement with the major tournaments, where teams played within their respective divisions.[2]

The available formats varied between events. Golden State, Las Vegas and Pro DNA offered ten-player competition. Badlandz was a standalone Open five-player event. Texas, Pittsburgh, Lone Star and the Classic Cup offered combinations of ten-player and five-player competition.[3–10]

United States calendar

The following United States events contributed to the season's published records.[1][3–10]

Dates	Event	Venue
17 February 2024	2024 ICPL Golden State Classic	Capital Edge Paintball Park, Sacramento, California
8–10 March 2024	2024 ICPL Las Vegas Invitational	Craig Ranch Regional Park, North Las Vegas, Nevada
12–14 April 2024	2024 ICPL Pro DNA Open	The Farm Sports, Shelbyville, Tennessee
31 May–2 June 2024	2024 ICPL Texas Classic	Cousins Paintball, Forney, Texas
21 July 2024	2024 ICPL Badlandz 5-man	The Badlandz, Crete, Illinois
2–4 August 2024	2024 ICPL Pittsburgh Open Classic	Urban Assault, McDonald, Pennsylvania
6–8 December 2024	2024 ICPL Lone Star Open	Official Paintball Games of Texas, Forney, Texas
31 January–2 February 2025	2025 ICPL Classic Cup (January)	Thunder Valley Paintball Park, Seffner, Florida; promoted before the event as Tiki's Paintball Park

The Texas Classic and Lone Star Open were separate tournaments at different Forney venues. The former took place at Cousins Paintball in May and June, while the latter was held at Official Paintball Games of Texas in December.[6][9]

The January 2025 Classic Cup was included in the 2024 season rankings. Its advance announcement advertised the venue as Tiki's Paintball Park at 210 Pruett Road; PBLeagues subsequently identified the same address as Thunder Valley Paintball Park.[1][10][13]

Event results

The following table gives the first-listed team in each principal PBLeagues classification. Professional and amateur classification results at combined tournaments do not necessarily represent separate playing competitions. A dash indicates that the classification was not contested.[3–10]

Event	Professional ten-player	Amateur ten-player	Open five-player	Amateur five-player
Golden State Classic	Rogue	Sac Street Fighters	—	—
Las Vegas Invitational	Chicago Aftershock	Omaha Bulls	—	—
Pro DNA Open	FARSIDE	GRIDLOCK	—	—
Texas Classic	ac EMPIRE	AAF	Louisville Asylum	AAF 2
Badlandz 5-man	—	—	Prime Suspects	—
Pittsburgh Open Classic	Adrenaline	GRIDLOCK	ac EVILPB BLACK	—
Lone Star Open	ac EMPIRE	ac EVILpb.com and Hydra.Fit, both listed first	ac EVILPB BLACK	—
Classic Cup, January 2025	Image	Dark Carnival	FARSIDE	AAF 2

Texas Classic

Heavy rain and flooding affected the Texas Classic at Cousins Paintball. Contemporary coverage described water encroaching onto the playing fields before receding during the tournament.[11]

ac EMPIRE won the professional ten-player competition ahead of Image and Chicago Aftershock. AAF won Amateur ten-player ahead of Omaha Bulls and Dirty., while AAF 2 won Amateur five-player.[6]

PBLeagues ranked Louisville Asylum first and Florida Annihilators second in Open five-player. However, Cheryl Ellis's contemporary report for Paintball Media described the two teams as tying for gold. The published classification and the reported shared tournament honour therefore differ.[6][11]

Lone Star Open

The Lone Star Open added Amateur B competition alongside its other classifications. Texas Storm won Amateur B ten-player ahead of PPS and ac GALAXY. In Amateur B five-player, ac GALAXY finished first, followed by SVNT1 Factory and Old Fat Ninjas.[9]

The Amateur ten-player results listed both ac EVILpb.com and Hydra.Fit in first place, each receiving 100 ranking points.[9]

Concluding Classic Cup

Image won professional ten-player ahead of ac EMPIRE and Team Smoke. Dark Carnival won Amateur ten-player, followed by LOCKOUT and AAF.[10]

FARSIDE won Open five-player ahead of Louisville Asylum and East Koast Ops. AAF 2 won Amateur five-player, with Roadies Factory second and AAF 3 third.[10]

DYE's tournament report confirmed Image's professional victory. Its separate series report identified Louisville Asylum as the 2024 ICPL Open five-player champions.[12][14]

Season championship records

Louisville Asylum's Open five-player season championship was explicitly reported by its equipment sponsor, DYE, following the concluding Classic Cup.[12]

PBLeagues retains separate 2024 ranking tables under Classic and unprefixed division labels. Regional results from Pro DNA, Pittsburgh and Lone Star appear separately from some major and championship results. The displayed table leaders therefore should not automatically be treated as consolidated season champions.[1]

Published ranking table	First-listed team	Displayed total
Classic – Professional ten-player	Image	485
Classic – Amateur ten-player	AAF	386
Classic – Open five-player	ac EVILPB BLACK	460
Classic – Amateur five-player	AAF 2	400

These figures reproduce the totals in the named PBLeagues tables. They are not a reconstruction combining results across differently labelled classifications.[1]

References