NPPL Boston Recap

[Junkie]

NPPL Boston Recap
by Lucretia Ranere, OffTheBreakNews.com

The NPPL Super 7 Series welcomed the half way point of the season with event #3 at the Brockton Fairgrounds outside of Boston, MA, which was an appropriate stop for the league as Brockton is known as the City of Champions.
Drawing over 150 teams, this event saw the level of competition and intensity raise as the pressure of the mid-season is starting to be felt by the teams racing not only for first, but also for the series championship. This event also marked the return of professional paintball to national television. The Fox Sports Network crew was on Center Court Saturday and Sunday filming the 13 week docu-drama series which will give an in-depth look into the lives, personalities and culture of the sport of paintball, which begins airing October 2nd.

The action began early Friday morning with Division III through Semi-Pro playing their preliminary games, which continued through Saturday afternoon. The Pro Division played their preliminaries Saturday afternoon. Each team played 8 games to determine who would be packing their gear bags and who would be filling their pods on Sunday.
Sunday morning brought the Sweet 16 round for Divisions II and III and the Elite 8 round for Division I, Semi-Pro and Pro Divisions. In each of these rounds the teams are matched highest ranked against lowest ranked and compete to see who moves on to semi-finals and finals, which are played best 2 out of 3.
In Division III, FYT, Air Assault Factory, Team RNT and Storm Riders all found themselves competing in semi-finals. In finals, the battle for first came down to FYT and Storm Riders, in the end FYT came out the victors for this event. In the face-off for third and fourth Air Assault Factory beat out Storm Riders, and have now found they are ranked first for their division with a 3-point spread between themselves and FYT who are currently ranked second.
Division II semi-finals were made up of Splat Kids, NeX, STD Factory and SCP EPIC. NeX and SCP EPIC moved on to compete for first place and in two games SCP EPIC took the first place trophy. Splat Kids, who notably were the only team at the event to have an undefeated preliminary round, came in third over STD Factory, which put them in second in the overall season rankings 15 points behind SCP EPIC who have nestled into a comfortable first place position after only winning one event.
Naughty by Nature, Dynasty Entourage, Miami Devious and Rock-It Kids made up the finals in Division I. Rock-It Kids welcomed their first win of the season when they beat out Naughty by Nature winning back to back games. After placing first in Tampa, Dynasty Entourage came in third followed by Miami Devious in fourth. Dynasty Entourage has continued to maintain their first place ranking for the season with an 8-point lead over TCP Machine in second.
Out of the Semi-Pro teams competing in this event, Redz Infamy, SD Aftermath, SA X-Factor and local favorites, Boston Paintball all made their way to compete in finals. After winning the first game and the second game being a draw, SA X-Factor came back in the third game and took first over SD Aftermath. Also playing all three games in finals, Boston Paintball took third over Redz Infamy who placed fourth. Despite not winning an event this year, SD Aftermath is currently ranked first and has a 10-point lead over second ranked A-Team, both teams along with OC Bushwackers, who are currently ranked third, are vying for the top 3 positions which are promoted to the Pro Division in the 2008 season.
The Pro Division finals has always been a big draw for spectators, both in the grandstands and via the live webcast, this event was no different. Crowd favorites Stockholm Joy Division took on Pittsburgh All Americans for third and fourth and in the first two games, Joy Division came out the victors over All Americans. Los Angeles Infamous faced San Diego Dynasty in the battle for first. The first game was a draw and Dynasty took the second game, which gave them the room to play the third game a bit more conservatively and defensively as all they needed was a win or a draw to take first. A win is what they got, which gets them one step closer to maintaining the status of the only Pro Division team to have ever won the Super 7 Series Championship since 2003, when the series began.
With 2 events left in the season, San Diego Dynasty is still ranked as first, but now with a 10-point lead over Edmonton Impact, followed by Los Angeles Infamous in third and Ironmen in fourth. On the other end of the spectrum, Miami Rage, Sacramento XSV and Las Vegas LTZ appear in the bottom three of the Pro-Division and could be in jeopardy of losing their Pro status and dropping to the Semi-Pro division. Of course, there are still 2 events left in the season and in paintball you never know what will happen next!
Congratulations to all the placing teams, event #4 will be at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri September 21 – 23. Team Registration opens Wednesday at NPPL !

Lucretia Ranere, OffTheBreakNews.com