PaintballX3 Magazine April 2014 Issue | Page 87

87 The inaugural event of the Carolina Cup tournament series was held April 6, 2014 just outside Charlotte, at Glory Road Paintball in Monroe, North Carolina. While a five-man competition on an airball field like many others, what made this event and the league itself different is its unique take on competitive paintball with a goal of “getting the band back together” and allowing high and lower-level divisional players to compete together inside the net at the same time. Rather than promoting numerous divisions of tournament paintball at the same event and preventing players in different divisions from mixing it up, Motes and company are trying out a new concept centering around a roster points cap. Players from the professional level on down through the many divisions of tournament paintball are welcome on the same roster and inside the net at the same time, so long as the team’s combined player ranking points total doesn’t exceed a league-set cap. In simpler language, what this means is that players who compete at the highest level are no longer locked out of local and regional competition at their local fields with their friends and forced to get on a plane to compete against other professional or upper-echelon players at major events. This unique concept, combined with a mix of five-man scoring and Race-To matches, enables players from “the old days” to get back on the field and play modern paintball with an old-school twist, and this is precisely how the Carolina Cup’s first event played out. Newer divisional players battled with and against former and current professional players and some competitors who had played tournament paintball longer than many at the event had been alive. Seventeen five-man teams entered the Carolina Cup’s first event. While this was by no means a massive number, it was more than enough to satisfy Motes and Ultimate Judge Steve Burkett who expressed excitement at the number considering it was their league’s very first event, and the first event promoted with their new format. Referees from the event were the most experienced in the Carolinas, with both current WWW.PAINTBALLX3.COM