2023 ICPL season

The 2023 ICPL season was the fifth season of the International Classic Paintball League. Its United States programme combined ten-player and five-player classic paintball tournaments, including an expanded network of affiliate events. The season began with the 2023 ICPL Sunshine Classic in February and concluded with the 2023 ICPL Windy City Classic in October.[1][2]

Organisation and formats

The ICPL expanded its programme through affiliate tournaments in 2023. The league described these events as officially supported competitions operating within the Major League Paintball structure. The 2023 ICPL Pro DNA Open, held at The Farm Sports in Tennessee, was its first affiliate tournament.[2][3]

Competition included professional and amateur ten-player classifications, together with Open and Amateur five-player competition. The available divisions varied between events. Badlandz 5-man offered Open five-player competition, while the Heartland Classic offered Amateur five-player competition.[4][5][6]

At the Sunshine Classic, ten-player teams used mechanical markers across mounds, hyperball, town and hybrid fields. The professional field comprised 24 franchise teams, while the amateur ten-player division contained 32 teams.[1]

The Pro DNA Open used a combined ten-player playing division containing professional and amateur teams. Its 28 entries competed together, although PBLeagues recorded professional and amateur classification results separately for season-ranking purposes.[2][3][7]

Professional competition

Kapp Factory entered the season as the defending professional champions. Maple Leaf Chiefs joined the professional franchise field for 2023, with the league's opening-event preview identifying a playing core associated with the KC Missouri All Stars.[1]

Chicago Aftershock won the Sunshine Classic ahead of Kapp Factory and Los Angeles Infamous. Aftershock finished the tournament unbeaten, winning all 11 of its games.[8][9]

Infamous won the combined ten-player competition at the Pro DNA Open. Ground Zero Gold subsequently won the professional classification at Old Bay, Maple Leaf Chiefs won at Golden State, and Saberwolves led the professional classification at Pittsburgh. Image won the concluding Windy City Classic.[3][7][10][11][12]

United States calendar

The following United States events appear in the ICPL's 2023 PBLeagues records. The programme included tournaments registered directly under the ICPL and associated events carrying their own organiser listings.[4–7][13–17]

Dates	Event	Venue	Competition offered
3–5 February 2023	2023 ICPL Sunshine Classic	Tiki's Paintball Park, Seffner, Florida	Professional and Amateur ten-player; Open and Amateur five-player
31 March–2 April 2023	2023 ICPL Pro DNA Open	The Farm Sports, Shelbyville, Tennessee	Combined professional/amateur ten-player competition; Open five-player
19–21 May 2023	2023 ICPL Old Bay Classic	Outdoor Xtreme Chesapeake City, Chesapeake City, Maryland	Professional and Amateur ten-player classifications; Open five-player
24–25 June 2023	2023 ICPL Golden State Classic	Capital Edge Paintball Park, Sacramento, California	Professional and Amateur ten-player classifications
16 July 2023	2023 ICPL Badlandz 5-man	The Badlandz, Crete, Illinois	Open five-player
11–13 August 2023	2023 ICPL Pittsburgh Open Classic	Urban Assault, McDonald, Pennsylvania	Professional and Amateur ten-player classifications; Open five-player
2 September 2023	2023 ICPL Heartland Classic 5v5	Crowley Ridge Paintball, Bloomfield, Missouri	Amateur five-player
28 September–1 October 2023	2023 ICPL Windy City Classic	The Badlandz, Crete, Illinois	Professional and Amateur ten-player; Open and Amateur five-player

The Badlandz five-player tournament was registered under the Midwest Mechanical League, while the Pittsburgh Open Classic maintained its own organiser listing. Both events' results also appeared in the ICPL season-ranking records.[4][6][7]

Event results

The table lists the leading team in each PBLeagues classification. At combined events, classification winners should not be interpreted as winners of separate playing divisions. A dash indicates that the classification was not contested.[3][7–12]

Event	Professional ten-player classification	Amateur ten-player classification	Open five-player	Amateur five-player
Sunshine Classic	Chicago Aftershock	Valhalla FSU	Rogue Silver	AAF 2
Pro DNA Open	Los Angeles Infamous	New York Xtreme	Ground Zero	—
Old Bay Classic	Ground Zero Gold	gg_Factory Mech Gold	Ground Zero	—
Golden State Classic	Maple Leaf Chiefs	Reno Respawn	—	—
Badlandz 5-man	—	—	Social Mutants	—
Pittsburgh Open Classic	Saberwolves	ThunderHorse	ac POWERHOUSE	—
Heartland Classic 5v5	—	—	—	AAF 2
Windy City Classic	Image	Valhalla FSU	Ground Zero	ac EVILpb.com

Windy City Classic

The concluding tournament awarded Image 600 professional ranking points, ahead of Annihilators with 552 and Adrenaline with 518. Valhalla FSU won Amateur ten-player ahead of AAF and Louisville Asylum.[12]

Ground Zero won Open five-player ahead of Rogue Silver and Florida Annihilators. In Amateur five-player, ac EVILpb.com finished first, followed by AAF 3 and AAF 2.[12]

Published season rankings

PBLeagues publishes the season's results in separate tables using the labels Mechanical, Classic and unprefixed division names. Consequently, the displayed totals do not form a single consolidated championship table covering every event.[7]

The leaders of the tables specifically labelled Classic were:[7]

Published ranking table	First-listed team	Displayed points
Classic – Professional ten-player	Image	828
Classic – Amateur ten-player	Louisville Asylum	279
Classic – Open five-player	Florida Annihilators	286
Classic – Amateur five-player	ac EVILpb.com	200

These are the totals displayed within those particular ranking tables, rather than consolidated totals incorporating every differently labelled result.[7]

References