58
6
Russian Legion: The Russian
Legion played their first event
in the U.S. in 2001 at the World
Cup. For those that followed the
pro circuit closely, the team’s reputation had already preceded them. However, their game didn’t--they finished
in last place in the Pro division at the
‘Cup. We had all heard the rumors of
five practices per week, daily weight
training, endurance running and their
own professional paintball training facility. The rumors all turned out to be
true, well except for the one about the
private jet. After taking the year off of
U.S. competition in 2002, the Russian
Legion came back strong in 2003, finishing in 7th place overall in the NPPL
Pro division. But it wasn’t until 2005
that the Legion lived up to the hype.
In their first full season playing in the
U.S. the Russian Legion (known in the
June 2014
league as “Boston” Legion) had the
best win/loss percentage of any team
in the NXL. In the championship game
that season they lost by a single point
to Baltimore Trauma and finished the
season as the second best Pro team in
the league. In 2006 the Legion dominated, winning three NXL events and
took the league’s title for the first time.
In 2008 the Russian Legion won one of
the NXL’s events and took second in the
overall season Pro rankings.
Other Russian Legion notes of interest: Although the majority of the Russian Legion’s roster has always been
from Russia, the team rarely played
in pro events outside of the U.S. Had
they racked up a few “world” wins they
would have been placed higher on this
list.