2002 NPPL Los Angeles Open

The 2002 NPPL Los Angeles Open was a paintball tournament held from 6 to 10 March 2002 at SC Arenas, part of SC Village in Corona, California, United States. It opened the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) season and featured five-player and ten-player competition.[1][2][3]

The event was produced by Paintball Sports Promotions (PSP) and sanctioned by the NPPL, although negotiations over their season agreement remained unresolved.[4]

Tournament

The event introduced revised classification names: Amateur A became Amateur, Amateur B became Novice, and the previous Novice classification became Rookie.[1]

A shortage of referees restricted five-player competition to two fields, causing delays. Amateur teams agreed to determine their placings from preliminary scores. Novice and Rookie finals were also abandoned, with the qualifying teams ranked using semi-final scores.[1]

Before the tournament, several teams practised on event fields with the venue's permission. Although no written rule prohibited this, the NPPL considered it contrary to established policy. It fined the professional teams involved US$2,000 each and Amateur teams US$500 each, and introduced an explicit restriction on pre-event play.[1]

Five-player results

No five-player finals were played. Amateur results below use preliminary totals; Novice and Rookie results use semi-final totals.[1][2]

Division	Place	Team	Points	Deciding round
Amateur	1	Shocktech Factory	576	Preliminary
	2	Brimstone Smoke	544	Preliminary
	3	Nasty JT	540	Preliminary
	4	Nasty Smart Parts	486	Preliminary
	5	Camp Tigers	446	Preliminary
	6	Element	372	Preliminary
Novice	1	Storm	296	Semi-final
	2	Tropical Illusion	276	Semi-final
	3	Shadowmen	190	Semi-final
	4	RIP	152	Semi-final
Rookie	1	Crush	292	Semi-final
	2	Team Ambush	206	Semi-final
	3	N-Control	180	Semi-final
	4	ICU	112	Semi-final

ClassicScores independently records the same top-four Novice and Rookie placements.[5]

Ten-player results

The professional and Amateur semi-finals each contained eight teams, with four advancing. Novice teams competed in four semi-final groups, with each group winner progressing to the final.[3]

Division	Place	Team	Final-round points
Professional	1	San Diego Dynasty	280
	2	Chicago Aftershock	196
	3	Bob Long's Ironmen	120
	4	SC Ironmen	46
Amateur	1	Trauma	207
	2	Warped Kids	199
	3	Naughty Dogs	127
	4	Check It	30
Novice	1	KAPP Factory	211
	2	Gridlock	127
	3	Strange B	123
	4	Full Breach	20

Source: WARPIG's contemporary scoreboard; placements corroborated by ClassicScores.[3][5]

Dynasty won all three professional final-round games, scoring 95, 94 and 91 points. Aftershock finished second with two wins and one loss.[3]

Trauma won Amateur by eight points over Warped Kids. KAPP Factory won Novice, while Gridlock's recorded total placed it four points ahead of Strange B.[3]

See also

• National Professional Paintball League
• Paintball Sports Promotions
• SC Village
• 2001 NPPL Los Angeles Open

References

1. NPPL LA Open 2002: Contemporary tournament report. WARPIG, March 2002.
2. NPPL LA Open 2002: Five-player Preliminary and Semi-final Scoreboards. WARPIG, 6–10 March 2002.
3. NPPL LA Open 2002: Ten-player Semi-final and Finals Scoreboard. WARPIG, 6–10 March 2002.
4. NPPL and PSP Get Back Together. Bill Mills, WARPIG, 22 May 2002.
5. ClassicScores historical tournament results, 2002 NPPL LA Open, Corona, California.