PaintballX3 Magazine June 2014 | Page 52

52 The Method You hear the debates all the time in professional sports. Who are the great teams... the greatest players, the greatest quarterbacks, pitchers, boxers or race car drivers? And there have been debates about paintball teams and players before, mostly centered around current teams and players. So we thought we’d give you a larger historical perspective on what we’ve seen firsthand the past 29 years, as well as a good bit of research and record-keeping we’ve done throughout the years. Yes, this Top Ten Greatest Teams of All Time list is our opinion but we’ve formed these opinions from not just the “eyeball test,” but from the actual stats, facts, numbers and research. When trying to rank sports teams that cross generations and decades it’s far from a scientific process. Simply counting wins and losses is not a suitable method as competition levels ebb and flow, new series’ are founded, rules and styles change, and other variables make it impossible to compare “apples to apples.” That said, if a team dominates its generation it’s safe to say they are an all-time great. Equally, if a team has a 15-year run where they win occasionally at the highest level and place in the top four perennially, they should also be considered. Finally a team that wins a boatload of five-man events where the field of teams is limited has to be a somewhat lesser achievement than a team that wins an equal amount of seven or ten-man events. So it’s with that backdrop that we give you our ten greatest paintball teams of all time. June 2014 February 2014