2011 NPPL season
The 2011 NPPL season was the four-event United States tournament season of the National Professional Paintball League. Competition included professional and amateur seven-player divisions, five-player competition and pump play.[1][2][3][4]
San Diego Dynasty won the professional season championship with 67 ranking points, ahead of Edmonton Impact on 57 and Chicago Aftershock on 55. Dynasty won the opening two tournaments, Chicago Legend won the D.C. Challenge and Aftershock won the Las Vegas finale.[5]
Calendar
[edit]| Round | Event | Dates | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Beach Open | 1–3 April 2011 | Huntington Beach, California |
| 2 | Chicago Open | 20–22 May 2011 | CPX Sports, near Joliet, Illinois |
| 3 | D.C. Challenge | 16–18 September 2011 | Pev's Paintball Park, Aldie, Virginia |
| 4 | Las Vegas World Paintball Championships | 11–13 November 2011 | Riviera Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada |
Sources: contemporary tournament reports and the league's Las Vegas event information.[1][2][3][4]
Chicago shared its venue and weekend with Living Legends IV, combining the NPPL tournament with Viper Scenarios' scenario event.[2]
Professional results
[edit]| Event | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| Huntington Beach | San Diego Dynasty | Sacramento XSV |
| Chicago | San Diego Dynasty | St. Louis Avalanche |
| D.C. Challenge | Chicago Legend | DC Arsenal |
| Las Vegas | Chicago Aftershock | San Diego Dynasty |
Sources: contemporary reporting and the final official ranking table.[1][2][3][5]
Dynasty defeated Avalanche in two consecutive championship games at Chicago. Legend won the D.C. Challenge against Arsenal in an overtime decider.[2][3]
Aftershock's Las Vegas tournament victory was separate from Dynasty's professional season championship.[5]
Divisional results
[edit]The following table records the teams awarded first-place ranking points for each event in the league's final season table. Some entries differ from contemporary tournament reports and brackets, as noted below.[5]
| Event | Division 1 seven-player | Division 2 seven-player | Division 3 seven-player | Division 4 five-player | Pump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huntington Beach | Critical Wrecking Crew | UXP Tombstone | DBS Paintball | Sacramento Royals | Total Greif |
| Chicago | Dynasty 2 | 3CT | DBS Paintball | Centermass Hawaii | Total Greif |
| D.C. Challenge | Impact Echo | TCP Machine | Blackout | Haze | Total Greif |
| Las Vegas | Dynasty 2 | Top Gun Evolution | Good For Nothing | Centermass Hawaii | FrontKick2theSternum |
Differences between records
[edit]The archived Huntington Beach championship brackets identify Seattle Siege as Division 1 winners, Capital Edge Fuzion as Division 2 winners and LA Hitmen.com as pump winners. These differ from the first-place ranking allocations in the final season table.[5][6]
At Chicago, WARPIG identifies LSD Savage as Division 2 winners, whereas the final official season table awards first-place points to 3CT and second-place points to LSD Savage.[2][5]
These records are retained as distinct evidence rather than treating the final ranking allocations as an uncontested reconstruction of every tournament result.
Season champions
[edit]The league's final official rankings identify the following series champions.[5]
| Classification | Champion | Ranking points |
|---|---|---|
| Professional seven-player | San Diego Dynasty | 67 |
| Division 1 seven-player | Impact Echo | 179 |
| Division 2 seven-player | Top Gun Evolution | 169 |
| Division 3 seven-player | Blackout | 148 |
| Division 4 five-player | Centermass Hawaii | 182 |
| Pump five-player | Total Greif | 193 |
The official table spells the pump team's name “Total Grief”; contemporary WARPIG coverage uses “Total Greif”.[2][5]
Dynasty 2 won the Division 1 tournament in Las Vegas, while Impact Echo secured that division's season championship. Similarly, Blackout won the Division 3 season title despite finishing second at the finale.[5]
Rules and competition formats
[edit]Seven-player competition remained central to the 2011 programme. Events also included Division 4 five-player and pump competition.[1][3]
A contemporary review of the 2011 rulebook recorded the introduction of a 15-balls-per-second firing-rate limit alongside the existing semi-automatic marker requirement.[7]
The same review described classification provisions under which players generally retained their previous season's rank, while members of divisional championship rosters moved up a classification, except at Division 1 and in open pump competition.[7]
The season should be distinguished from the seven-player RaceTo programme documented in 2012. Contemporary 2011 reports describe preliminary game-score totals and best-of-three contests, including games decided on points when time expired.[2][8]
Broadcasting
[edit]Huntington Beach received live ESPN network coverage. WARPIG reported sixteen professional teams, 76 amateur seven-player teams, 35 five-player teams and fifteen pump teams at the opening event.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “NPPL Huntington Beach”. WARPIG, 1–3 April 2011.
- “NPPL Chicago Open”. WARPIG, 20–22 May 2011.
- “NPPL DC Challenge”. WARPIG, September 2011.
- National Professional Paintball League, “2011 Las Vegas Paintball Championship”. Official player information, archived 30 October 2011.
- National Professional Paintball League, “Rankings”. Final 2011 season standings, archived 5 December 2011.
- National Professional Paintball League, Huntington Beach divisional championship and consolation brackets. Archived 9 April 2011.
- “NPPL 2011 Rulebook Reviewed”. View from the Deadbox, 22 February 2011.
- Bea Paxson, “NPPL Surf City USA Open — Friday Coverage and Photos”. Social Paintball, 31 March 2012. Documents the subsequent seven-player RaceTo formats.