2022 NXL Australia

2022 NXL Australia was the 2022 season of NXL Australia, an Australian tournament paintball league. Its early calendar advertised regional competitions in Victoria, Western Australia and ACT NSW, followed by national finals at Paintball Games Coldstream. The league subsequently suspended the season finals and associated prize pool because of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, while allowing regional events to continue where possible.[1][2]

Verified results include Asylum winning Division 2 at ACT NSW Rounds 2 and 4, PBG winning Division 3 at ACT NSW Round 4, and Nomads winning Division 2 at WA Round 1. Lumberjacks records Division 2 victories at Victorian Rounds 2, 3 and 4 and the Victorian Division 2 season title.[5][6][10][11][12]

Format and venues

The early league calendar advertised five-player competition at Paintball Games Coldstream in Victoria, WASP Paintball in Western Australia and Paintball Sports ACT for ACT NSW.[1]

Victoria and Western Australia advertised Divisions 1 and 2. ACT NSW advertised Divisions 2 and 3. The proposed national finals listed Divisions 1 and 2.[1]

Events

The following table distinguishes advertised arrangements from evidence of completed competition. A completed round does not necessarily establish that every advertised division was contested.

Event	Date or scheduling record	Venue	Status and evidence
ACT NSW Round 1	Scheduled: 13 February 2022	Paintball Sports ACT	Unconfirmed. The league calendar documents scheduling; completion, cancellation and results remain unverified.[1]
Victoria Round 1	Scheduled: 6 March 2022	Paintball Games Coldstream	Unconfirmed. Completion, cancellation and results remain unverified.[1]
WA Round 1	20 March 2022	WASP Paintball	Completed. The venue reported the opening round, and dated photography identifies Nomads as Division 2 winners.[4][5]
ACT NSW Round 2	24 April 2022	Paintball Sports ACT	Completed in Divisions 2 and 3. The venue published four placings in each division.[1][11]
Victoria Round 2	Originally 15 May; later records give 28 and 29 May 2022	Paintball Games Coldstream	Completed in Division 2. Lumberjacks records victory and an eyewitness account identifies Chaos Inc. as runners-up. The exact date remains disputed.[1][3][8][9][10]
ACT NSW Round 3	Scheduled: 5 June 2022	Paintball Sports ACT	Unconfirmed. Completion, cancellation and results remain unverified.[1]
WA Round 2	Event listings survive for both 19 June and 14 August 2022, each labelled Round 2	WASP Paintball	Completed; exact date unresolved. Nomads reported a round victory, and a separate video description identifies the team's participation at WASP. The winning division is unspecified.[3][6][7]
Victoria Round 3	Scheduled: 17 July 2022	Paintball Games Coldstream	Division 2 competition documented. Lumberjacks records a Round 3 victory. The result supports completion, but does not independently confirm the advertised date.[1][10]
Victoria Round 4	Originally 11 September; RAW advertised 18 September; an eyewitness account gives 16 September 2022	Paintball Games Coldstream	Completed in Division 2. Lumberjacks records victory and Illicit's participation is documented. The exact date remains disputed.[1][8][9][10]
ACT NSW Round 4	2 October 2022	Paintball Sports ACT	Completed in Divisions 2 and 3. The venue published both divisional podiums; PBG independently confirmed the Division 3 first and second places.[1][12][13]
WA Round 3	Later event listing: 23 October 2022	WASP Paintball	Scheduled; completion unconfirmed. The later listing supplies a full date, replacing the incomplete date field in the early league calendar. No results have been verified.[1][3]
WA Round 4	No complete date recovered	WASP Paintball	Unconfirmed. The early calendar advertised this round, but no completion or cancellation has been established. It should not be equated with the October event explicitly listed as WA Round 3.[1][3]
Finals	Initially scheduled: 6 November 2022	Initially advertised: Paintball Games Coldstream	National finals and prize pool suspended. A November team report subsequently describes participation in “NXL Finals 2022”, but does not establish reinstatement of the advertised national championship or prize pool.[1][2][14]

The surviving event directory also advertises an NXL Queensland M800 Round 3 at Townsville Paintball on 23 July 2022. That listing establishes scheduling, but does not supply results or confirm completion.[3]

Results

ACT NSW

The following placings were published by Paintball Sports ACT.[11][12]

Event	Division	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Round 2	Division 2	Asylum	Wicked Assassins	CBR Mafia	CBR Damage
Round 2	Division 3	Asylum 2	PBG Bin Chooks	CBR Reapers	Anarchy
Round 4	Division 2	Asylum	Lumberjacks	Mafia	Not established
Round 4	Division 3	PBG	PBG Anomali	Reapers	Not established

For Round 4, the venue abbreviated the third-placed teams' names to Mafia and Reapers and listed the Division 3 runners-up as Anomali. PBG's report identifies the second-placed squad as PBG Anomali and confirms the club's first and second places in that division.[12][13]

Victoria

Event	Division	Place	Team	Evidence
Round 2	Division 2	1st	Lumberjacks	Team's published competition record.[10]
Round 2	Division 2	2nd	Chaos Inc.	Eyewitness report in Paint Magazine.[8]
Round 3	Division 2	1st	Lumberjacks	Team's published competition record.[10]
Round 4	Division 2	1st	Lumberjacks	Team's published competition record.[10]

Lumberjacks also records the 2022 Victorian Division 2 season title. This regional title does not establish a national championship result.[10]

Paint Magazine identifies Illicit as a Division 2 participant at Round 4, but does not give its placing.[8] Further Victorian placings and Division 1 results have not been verified.

Western Australia

Event	Division	Place	Team
Round 1	Division 2	1st	Nomads[5]
Round 2	Unspecified	1st	Nomads[6]

The Round 1 result is supported by a photograph caption explicitly dated 20 March 2022. Nomads' Round 2 victory was reported in a September post, but the post's publication date does not establish the tournament date.[5][6]

No complete Western Australian divisional standings or season points table have been verified.

COVID-19 impact and finals

The league's terms and conditions, preserved on 13 August 2022, explicitly state that the 2022 season finals and associated prize pool had been suspended because of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The notice allowed events to continue at host venues where possible and within government guidelines.[2]

The league left open the possibility of holding finals following a later decision by NXL Australia and its host venues. This suspension therefore applied to the finals and prize pool rather than establishing cancellation of every regional event.[2]

A contemporary Order 66 team report published in November describes participation in “NXL Finals 2022”. It establishes that an event using that description took place, but does not identify a national winner or establish that the previously suspended national championship and prize arrangements were reinstated.[14]

No verified national finals standings or overall Australian championship result have been established.

Records and limitations

The surviving sources distinguish several different kinds of evidence: advertised calendars, later event listings, contemporary results reports and teams' published competition records. Scheduled dates are not automatically dates of completed play.

Some dates changed during the season, while other records conflict. In particular, the two WA listings labelled Round 2 and the conflicting Victorian Round 2 and Round 4 dates remain unresolved.[3][8][9]

Match scores have not been verified for the results summarised above.

References