The Atlantic Canadian paintball scene has gone through the Xball transition stage. Teams are used to 15 player rosters, 25 minute halves and 5 minute majors. We combined the 5 man format with quasi-xball rules, threw in some coaching and away we went, HCO was born.
With 32 teams registered in four divisions, the attendance topped last year and also included players from Quebec. Team PBL Shock, comprised of former World Champion All-American, Jeff Macdonald, plus Current and past members of Mirabel Impact Philip”Sparky”Guy, Gerry Harris and Bryce Coady, wee the team to beat.
The three man division was tough, as it always is. Usually this is the wild card division because it’s an assortment of new/old, ringers and non-ringers…..and this year was no exception.
Three Man Rookie is where it all begins. This is the division where players are introduced to the tournament paintball scene. It is so important that these players are introduced against teams of similar calibre. Play in this division was awesome, they not only gained the experience by playing but also by watching the more experienced players play. These guys are the lifeblood of our sport.
The most important feature to this years event was the pump division. The four man open pump division was tied together with the Maritime Heart Charity foundation. This was the First time a pump tourney was held and there was six teams competing in this division. There were run throughs, bunkering, gog shots, combat rolls, X-jumping and lots of fun. HCO Head Reff, Ken Gardiner was on hand representing Maritime Heart. Gardiner was elated, “Anytime the paintball community has a chance to give back, it should and a charity as close to my heart as this, is a great start, Thank you.”
The finals kicked off at 4:30 and the crowd was rocking. Coors Lite and PBL t-shirts were given away all day and the the trophies were gleaming. The intensity was building, especially in the 5man division as the Strict Union and Shock match was eagerly anticipated. During the day, we were very happy to see the amount of family watching the events. Too see relatives offering their support to players, is just awesome. Tournament players devote no less of their time to this sport then do hockey players and family support goes a long way towards legitimizing what we do.
Once again, this event could not have gone on without the following sponsors:
Mersey Road Paintball (www.merseyroad.com)
Atlantic Xtreme Xball League (www.axbl.ca)
Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling (www.coke.ca)
BUYPBL.COM (www.buypbl.com)
Coors Lite (www.molson.ca)
Exalt Paintball (www.exalt.com)
Thanks to all the reffs: Ken, Gilbert, (Tippinators) Bruce Johnston, Justin Landry, Dan Lapham, Ben Van Horne, Mark Miller and Pat Hamblin. The tower crew (Tippinators) Chris Landry, Jason Thomson and Austin Flaherty, the beer tent crew, (Tippinator) Trevor Colwell, Heather Nairn and Branigan Gilles, the food crew, (Tippinators) Steven Fong, Josh Boiduk and Jim MacNeill, videographer (Tippinator) Richard Robinson, plus a big thanks to (Tippinator) Mark Miller for all of his hard work. Without the Tippinators, this event would not have been possible.
Thanks to everyone, BC Et AL
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