BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)

BOP Blast is a New Zealand tournament paintball team from the Bay of Plenty. The team has previously competed under the names TPC Blast, Tempest and Tempest Blast. TPC referred to Tauranga Paintball Club, while BOP refers to Bay of Plenty.

The team's documented tournament history extends from 2010 to 2026, including appearances in the New Zealand Paintball Players League, the South Auckland Paintball Club Race Series, the New Zealand Local Series (NZLS) and competitions at Arena Paintball.[1][2][6][13][19]

History

TPC Blast (2010–2012)

TPC Blast competed at the Christchurch Easter five-player tournament on 3–4 April 2010, finishing fifth among seven entries.[1]

At the June 2011 NZPPL Rotorua tournament, the team finished seventh in the opening standings with 397 points and was subsequently reported as runner-up in the Plate competition behind Phoenix.[2]

Contemporary New Zealand paintball forum discussions associated TPC Blast with Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty Paintball Club.[3]

The team was also listed among prospective competitors for the 2011 NZPPL Nationals, although the surviving list does not establish its final participation.[4]

At the first NZPPL Super 5-Man tournament of 2012, held at Lock N Load Paintball in Auckland on 7–8 April, TPC Blast was placed eighth in a participant-reported classification. This result remains provisional because an official final standings sheet has not been recovered.[5]

Tempest and Tempest Blast (2014)

The team competed in all four documented events of the 2014 SAPC Open X-Ball Race Series under the names Tempest and Tempest Blast.[6]

Competing as Tempest, the team finished third at the February opening event. As Tempest Blast, it finished third in May and fifth in July. It returned to the Tempest name for the September event, finishing third.[7][8][9][10]

PBLeagues identifies Tempest as a Tauranga team and maintains the Tempest and Tempest Blast results under the same team identity.[6]

BOP Blast (2015 onwards)

BOP Blast competed at the opening two events of the 2015 SAPC Race Series, finishing seventh in January–February and fifth in April.[11][12]

The team was registered for Division 4 five-player competition at the 2017 NZLS Event 1 at Aces High Paintball in Palmerston North.[13][14]

BOP Blast subsequently appeared in Arena Paintball competition records during 2025 and 2026. The team was included in the March 2025 pools and the May–June event draw, as well as the 2026 Easter and Matariki draws.[15][16][17][18]

An Arena Paintball standings update published on 12 July 2026 placed BOP Blast seventh in the series after two rounds, with 262 points.[19]

Tournament results

The following results are supported by published competition records or contemporary tournament reporting.

Date	Team name	Tournament	Division or stage	Result
3–4 April 2010	TPC Blast	Christchurch Easter five-player tournament	Open	5th of 7 [1]
June 2011	TPC Blast	NZPPL Rotorua tournament	Plate	2nd, participant-reported [2]
7–8 April 2012	TPC Blast	NZPPL Super 5-Man Auckland Event 1	Overall	8th, participant-reported [5]
8–9 February 2014	Tempest	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 1	Open X-Ball	3rd of 6 [7]
3–4 May 2014	Tempest Blast	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 2	Open X-Ball	3rd of 8 [8]
12–13 July 2014	Tempest Blast	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 3	Open X-Ball	5th of 7 [9]
27–28 September 2014	Tempest	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 4	Open X-Ball	3rd of 5 [10]
31 January–1 February 2015	BOP Blast	2015 SAPC Race Series Event 1	Open X-Ball	7th of 8 [11]
11–12 April 2015	BOP Blast	2015 SAPC Race Series Event 2	Open X-Ball	5th of 7 [12]
12 July 2026	BOP Blast	Arena Paintball 2026 series standings	After two rounds	7th, 262 series points [19]

Historical medals and trophies

In 2026, Vince Knipmeijer shared photographs of a collection of tournament medals and trophies accumulated over several years of New Zealand paintball competition. He described the awards as mainly associated with BOP Blast and TPC Blast.[21]

The collection contains identifiable awards from NZLS, SAPC, Paintball Direct NZ, Arena Paintball and other regional competitions.

The inscriptions provide direct evidence of the awards themselves. However, as Knipmeijer did not identify the team associated with every individual medal, the following records should not automatically be treated as confirmed BOP Blast team placings.

Identifiable awards

Year	Competition	Award or placing	Details
2014	SAPC Open	3rd	Trophy inscribed "SAPC Open 3rd Place 2014".
2015	NZLS Whanganui Cup	3rd	Medal identifying the Whanganui Cup.
2016	NZLS Round 1	1st	Rotorua Ballbusters.
2017	NZLS Event 1	2nd	Event medal.
2017	NZLS Event 2	3rd	Event medal.
2017	NZLS Event 3	1st	Aces High Paintball.
2017	NZLS season	Season winner	Medal inscribed "NZLS Season Winner 2017".
2017	NZLS Hawera	1st, Division II	Trophy identifying Paintball Direct NZ as host and Planet Eclipse as sponsor.
2018	NZLS Event 2	3rd	Asylum.
2018	NZLS Event 4	2nd	Asylum.
2019	Paintball Direct NZ 5 Man Challenge	1st, Division I	Hawera.
2019	NZLS Event 3	2nd	TECT Park.
2019	NZLS season	2nd	Season placing engraved on medal.
2021	2021 Corkill Cup	2nd	Trophy inscribed "Corkill Cup 2021". The competition was held at Arena Paintball on 23–24 October 2021.[23]
2022	Arena Cup	1st	Trophy inscribed "Arena Cup June 2022, 1st Place".
2024	Arena Labour Day	2nd, Plate	Trophy inscribed "Labour Day 2024, 2nd Place Plate".
2026	Arena Matariki	1st, Plate	Trophy inscribed "Arena Plate Matariki 2026, 1st Place".

All entries in this table are drawn from Knipmeijer's photographic collection unless an additional source is specified.[21]

The photographed 2026 Matariki Plate trophy represents the Plate competition rather than the main Matariki Cup championship.

Additional photographed awards

Other identifiable material in the collection includes:

NZLS Event 4 at Lock N Load Paintball in Auckland, third place, year not established.
NZLS Event 6 at Lock N Load Paintball in Auckland, third place, year not established.
A New Zealand Race Series medal dated 2020, without a clearly established placing.
East Coast Paintball League (ECPL) medals and trophies.
A BOP Paintball Triples trophy without a visible date or placing.
A Paintball Direct NZ Five Man Competition Challenge Cup without a visible date or placing.
An Arena Cup third-place trophy without a visible year.

Several additional medals are visible but cannot be reliably attributed to a specific event from their inscriptions.[21]

Team identity

The documented names associated with this team history are:

TPC Blast – Tauranga Paintball Club Blast.
TCP Blast – a transposed spelling appearing in a 2010 tournament announcement.
Tempest – used during the 2014 SAPC Race Series.
Tempest Blast – used during the 2014 SAPC Race Series.
BOP Blast – Bay of Plenty Blast.

PBLeagues maintains Tempest and Tempest Blast under the same historical team record.[6]

The continuity between TPC Blast, Tempest, Tempest Blast and BOP Blast is contributor-confirmed. The exact dates of each name change have not been independently established.

A separate team recorded as Blast at the 2008 Wellington Easter Tournament has not been included because its identity has not been verified.[20]

Documented people

Name	Documented involvement
Steve (surname unconfirmed)	A contributor using the forum name Armagedonmad identified himself as a Bay of Plenty Paintball Club member and listed TPC Blast as his team.[3]
Vince Knipmeijer	Historical paintball participant who shared the collection of BOP Blast and TPC Blast trophies and medals in 2026.[21] Also identified as secretary of the Bay of Plenty Paintball Club.[22]

References

External links