The first XPSL tournament of the season was held in Las Vegas this past weekend. 90+ teams showed up to battle it out in the Rookie, Novice and Amateur Divisions. The XPSL (formerly PanAm) stepped up to the plate by bringing in 2 new airball fields to bring the total number fields up to 5. The field design on the 2 new airball fields was top notch and provided some exciting games that worked well with the new 7 minute time limit. Bonebrake's Factory team provided the reffing which helped to eliminate bias from the reffing. Bonebrake's team will not be playing any of the XPSL events this season. The weather was absolutely perfect despite a grim forecast for the weekend. The only drawbacks to playing in Vegas usually are the wind, heat and dust. The dust and heat were not an issue at this event, however the wind did kick up on day two causing some bunkers to dislodge and netting to rip in some areas. I have been assured by the XPSL that a new netting system is currently being put into place at the Sports Center in time for the finale.
The schedule moved along quickly throughout all 3 days with only a field or two falling behind 15-30 minutes, but these delays were made up for by the end of the day.
I was very surprised by how proactive the judges were in enforcing the rules. The hopper stickers, tucked in jerseys and swearing rules were heavily enforced. They also implemented a rule that any hit accept that on the back of your pack/pods is an obvious hit. Players had to be aware of whether they were hit in heavily padded areas, their hoppers and guns otherwise 1 for 1's were assessed. The judges were also on their toes the entire game and even though they had reffed 3 days, they stepped up their reffing on day 3 to make sure the finals ran smoothly. This was some of the best reffing I had seen in the PanAm in a quite awhile.
Here are the results from the event:
YOUNG GUNG
1st CHAOTIC EFFEX
2nd URBAN QUEST KIDS
3rd DYSFUNCTION
4th BREAKOUT KIDS
ROOKIE
1st SKURGE T&J
2nd LTZ
3rd THUNDER KIDS
4th TURBULENCE
NOVICE
1st CRUEL INTENTIONS
2nd TOTAL CHAOS
3rd SUDDEN IMPACT
4th TEAM RIP
AM'S
1st ACI SPLAT FACTORY
2nd TRIPLE TAP
3rd COLO. SHARP SHOOTERS
4th URBAN QUEST
The schedule moved along quickly throughout all 3 days with only a field or two falling behind 15-30 minutes, but these delays were made up for by the end of the day.
I was very surprised by how proactive the judges were in enforcing the rules. The hopper stickers, tucked in jerseys and swearing rules were heavily enforced. They also implemented a rule that any hit accept that on the back of your pack/pods is an obvious hit. Players had to be aware of whether they were hit in heavily padded areas, their hoppers and guns otherwise 1 for 1's were assessed. The judges were also on their toes the entire game and even though they had reffed 3 days, they stepped up their reffing on day 3 to make sure the finals ran smoothly. This was some of the best reffing I had seen in the PanAm in a quite awhile.
Here are the results from the event:
YOUNG GUNG
1st CHAOTIC EFFEX
2nd URBAN QUEST KIDS
3rd DYSFUNCTION
4th BREAKOUT KIDS
ROOKIE
1st SKURGE T&J
2nd LTZ
3rd THUNDER KIDS
4th TURBULENCE
NOVICE
1st CRUEL INTENTIONS
2nd TOTAL CHAOS
3rd SUDDEN IMPACT
4th TEAM RIP
AM'S
1st ACI SPLAT FACTORY
2nd TRIPLE TAP
3rd COLO. SHARP SHOOTERS
4th URBAN QUEST
