2001 International Amateur Open

The 2001 International Amateur Open, also known as the 2001 International Zap Amateur Open, was the eleventh edition of the International Amateur Open, an American tournament paintball competition held in early August 2001 at Three Rivers Paintball in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.[1]

Organised by Debra Dion Krischke and Team Effort Events, the tournament featured three-player, five-player, ten-player and Young Guns competitions. Its principal sponsors were Zap Paintball and 32 Degrees Paintball.[1]

The 2001 event also incorporated the annual Paintball Industry Conference and a major equipment trade show. The conference marked the twentieth anniversary of organised paintball and included a lifetime achievement award presented to Bob Gurnsey, founder of the National Survival Game.[2][3]

Tournament

Venue and playing formats

The tournament was held at Three Rivers Paintball, a woodland paintball facility in Cranberry Township.

The 2001 competition combined traditional woodland fields with constructed speedball fields, including Ultimate Airball inflatable-bunker layouts.[1]

The ten-player competition was played entirely on woodland fields, while the smaller formats also used constructed playing areas.

The event offered:

Three-player competition.
Five-player rookie, novice and amateur divisions.
Ten-player novice and amateur divisions.
Young Guns competition for younger players.

Preliminary games were followed by semi-finals and finals, with results determined by the tournament's points-based scoring system.[4][5][6][7]

Three-player competition

The three-player tournament included preliminary rounds held across several days.

Four teams advanced to the championship final.

Total Anarchy won the competition with 414 final-round points, ahead of Brimstone Smoke on 255.

The final standings were:

Position	Team	Final-round points
1st	Total Anarchy	414
2nd	Brimstone Smoke	255
3rd	Minute Men	221
4th	Mass Confusion	215

The results are preserved in WARPIG's contemporary three-player scoreboard.[4]

Five-player competition

The five-player competition featured separate rookie, novice and amateur divisions.

Quiet Storm won the rookie division, finishing ahead of Shadow 5.

Robinhood-Black won the novice division, defeating Trinity and the other finalists.

Brass Eagle All Stars II won the amateur division, finishing ahead of Team Rogue, Mercenarios-Black and Retarded Monkeys.[5]

The amateur final was closely contested, with Brass Eagle All Stars II scoring 246 points and Team Rogue finishing second with 234.

The first-place prize for Brass Eagle All Stars II included entry to the Aruba Open later in 2001.[1]

Ten-player competition

The ten-player competition was held on woodland fields and included novice and amateur divisions.

Team Wrecks won the novice championship with 198 points in the final round.

Great Balls O'Fire finished second, followed by Team Pinnacle Woods and Sonic Rage II.[6]

Team Nasty won the amateur championship, recording 211 points in the final round.

Brass Eagle All Stars finished second with 130 points, followed by Team WORR! and Brimstone Smoke.

The amateur final standings were:

Position	Team	Final-round points
1st	Team Nasty	211
2nd	Brass Eagle All Stars	130
3rd	Team WORR!	119
4th	Brimstone Smoke	26

Brimstone Smoke's ten-player squad included additional woodland players from New York, according to WARPIG's contemporary tournament report.[1]

Young Guns

The Young Guns competition was won by Little Scooters, which scored 405 points in the championship final.

Erie Extreme finished second with 387 points, followed by Misguided and Erie Rage.[7]

The original preliminary scoreboard contained a discrepancy concerning Team Fear's recorded points, which WARPIG noted at the time.

The published final-round standings nevertheless identify Little Scooters as the championship winner.[7]

Tournament results

Division champions

Format	Division	Champion	Runner-up
10-man	Amateur	Team Nasty	Brass Eagle All Stars
10-man	Novice	Team Wrecks	Great Balls O'Fire
5-man	Amateur	Brass Eagle All Stars II	Team Rogue
5-man	Novice	Robinhood-Black	Trinity
5-man	Rookie	Quiet Storm	Shadow 5
3-man	Open	Total Anarchy	Brimstone Smoke
Young Guns	Youth competition	Little Scooters	Erie Extreme

Source: WARPIG's contemporary tournament coverage and final scoreboards.[1][4][5][6][7]

Sportsmanship award

The tournament's overall sportsmanship award was presented to I Have No Idea.

WARPIG preserved a separate listing of teams nominated for sportsmanship recognition during the event.[1][8]

Paintball Industry Conference

The 2001 International Amateur Open incorporated the eleventh annual Paintball Industry Conference, held at the Sheraton Hotel in Cranberry Township.

The conference took place on 1 August 2001 and included presentations, equipment announcements and workshops for paintball manufacturers, field operators and retailers.[2][3]

Its programme commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the first organised paintball game in 1981.

Bob Gurnsey recognition

Bob Gurnsey, an early participant in organised paintball and founder of the National Survival Game, received a lifetime achievement award.

Gurnsey discussed the establishment of the National Survival Game, the early development of commercial paintball and the challenges faced by the industry during its formative years.

He also displayed a plywood target bearing paint marks from the original 1981 game.[2][3]

The presentation was organised by Debra Dion Krischke and formed part of the conference's historical programme.

Industry presentations

The 2001 conference featured new-product announcements and business presentations from paintball equipment manufacturers.

WARPIG reported that 26 companies introduced products or announced business developments during the conference.[2]

Among the products discussed were:

Zap Mach 404 – An electronically assisted paintball loader using a vibrating agitation mechanism.
Zap ZXS-600E – A proposed lower-cost electropneumatic paintball marker.
Crossfire 4500 psi air systems – Compressed-air systems offered with different preset regulator output pressures.
WGP Black Magic Autococker – A tournament marker produced by Worr Game Products.

The conference also included discussions of proposed ASTM equipment standards, safe compressed-air filling procedures and paintball retail operations.[2]

Trade show

The 2001 International Amateur Open included a substantial equipment exhibition at Three Rivers Paintball.

The principal exhibition area was supplemented by an additional tent used by manufacturers and distributors.

Companies represented at the event included Warped Sportz, KAPP, WDP, Bad Boyz Toyz, Planet Eclipse, DYE Precision, Kingman International and National Paintball Supply.[1]

The trade show provided opportunities for players to inspect equipment and for retailers to meet manufacturers.

The 2001 tournament was one of the final editions of the International Amateur Open to be held at Three Rivers Paintball.

For 2002, the event relocated to the Big Butler Fairgrounds, where additional space was available for playing fields, exhibitors and spectators.[9]

References

WARPIG – International Zap Amateur Open 2001. Bill Mills, August 2001. Contemporary tournament coverage, principal results, sponsorships, playing fields and trade show.
WARPIG – International Amateur Open: New Product Introductions. Bill Mills, photographs by Dawn Mills, August 2001. Contemporary industry conference and equipment announcements.
Team Effort Events – Paintball Founder to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award. GlobeNewswire, 24 July 2001. Original announcement of Bob Gurnsey's 1 August conference presentation.
WARPIG – 2001 International Zap Amateur Open: Three-Man Scoreboard. Preliminary, semi-final and final tournament results.
WARPIG – 2001 International Zap Amateur Open: Five-Man Scoreboard. Rookie, novice and amateur division results.
WARPIG – 2001 International Zap Amateur Open: Ten-Man Scoreboard. Novice and amateur competition results.
WARPIG – 2001 International Zap Amateur Open: Young Guns Scoreboard. Preliminary and final results.
WARPIG – 2001 International Zap Amateur Open: Sportsmanship Awards. Contemporary sportsmanship nominations.
WARPIG – Diablo International Amateur Open 2002. Bill Mills, August 2002. Retrospective information confirming the relocation from Three Rivers Paintball to the Big Butler Fairgrounds.

External links