The Tourney

       Tombstone Paintball in Corona, California was the site of the first Summertime Showdown, hosted by The Monthly Paintball Newsletter.  We had a total of 21 teams spread over three divisions: kids, rookies, and novice.  Our prize pool was very generous, with products donated by Check-It Products, Kingman International, Pursuit Marketing Inc (PMI), ACI, I&I Sports, On Target Products (OTP), Lapco, Extreme Sportz, Superior Shirts, Wicked Sportz, Tombstone Paintball, and The MPN.  Each team got 5 "1999 Summertime Showdown" Tournament Shirts with their entry.  Southern California based teams, Broken Arrow and Hostile Takeover reffed the event.

The Fields and Conditions

        The tournament was played on 4 different fields, which consisted of a "Speed Ball X" field, a obsticle field (which had an old car on it!), a "Speed Ball" Tire Field, and a barrel/dirt mound filed.  Teams rotated throughout the day, playing on the various fields in 90ish degree weather.  Conditions were pretty good with exception with the wind kicking up the dust, and the fact that it was pretty darn hot.

The Kids Bracket

        For the kids bracket, things went very smoothly.  Being that there were only 6 teams in their bracket, competition was still pretty good.  Viewers and parents enjoyed exciting games in this division, being that all of the kids teams consisted of players under the age of 18, something which very few tournaments have to offer.  Games with Team Purple Stuff were very interesting being that they played with only 4 players due to 2 of their players not being able to make it!  Kids teams included (in the order of thier results) :

1st place - Killer Bees
Tournament Trophy, 5 Kingman Spyders with their choice of ACI Grafitti barrels, 3 Check-It Angel Bolts, and 2 Check-It Angel Hammers.

2nd place - Team Delusion
Tournament Trophy, 1 PMI Pirahna, 5 JT Spectra Goggle Systems (donated by Wicked Sportz), 5 PMI Gloves

3rd place - Dark Knights
Tournament Trophy, 5 I&I Gun Bags, 5 Check-It Mocks

4th place - RGS
Tournament Trophy, 5 I&I Harnesses, 5 Viewloader Elbows (donated by Check-It)

5th place - * Purple Stuff
5 Check-It T-Shirts, 5 Nitrokick Hats (donated by I&I Sports)

6th place - Ice Age
5 Squeegees (donated by Check-It), 5 goggle bags (donated by I&I Sports)

*Leon from Tombstone donated a special prize of 5 annual passes to Tombstone Paintball to team Purple Stuff.  Team Purple stuff also was awarded the MPN sportsmanship award for the excellent display of sportsmanship, courtesy, and best team edicate.  They were awarded with a Sportsmanship trophy, as well as a $200 gift certificate to Superior Signs (donated by the MPN) to use any way they wish (which includes having team jerseys, stickers, and/or a banner made).

The Rookie Brackets

        Rookie Divions had 2 brackets which had 5 teams each.  Rookie teams included Full Breach, Big Daddy & Sons, Team Splat, Omega, FWG1, FWG2, TKO, Urban Quest 2, Team Rip, and Ray's team.  Scores between these 2 brackets were very close throughout the day.  The top four teams from each bracket made to semi-finals which included everyone except for Urban Quest2 and FWG2.  Unfortunately, due to some complications in our brackets, none of the rookie teams made it to finals.

The Novice Bracket

        There were 5 teams in the Novice Division, which included Outsiders, Lil Rascals, Blur, Apache and Urban Quest 1.  Each of these teams were allowed one Amatuer player.  There was some discretion in this division due to certain players who were present, however, I would like to personally assure you that we did an exclusive check on the teams to verify the current status of the amatuer players.  One team was eliminated due to more than one amatuer player playing.  Other than a few minor complications, games were very exciting to watch, with all scores in this bracket being fairly competitive.

"First time" Jitters

        For the Rookie and Novice divisions, things got a little tricky.  Brackets got a little messed up and had teams waiting in between games.  Due to some complications which occurred in the scores and brackets, some of the rookie teams which should have been in the finals were eliminated in semi's.  Being that this was our first tournament, there were certain issues which arose which couldn't be changed at the time.  I would like to personally apologize for the confusion and misunderstanding of the brackets, and would like to assure you that these "bugs" have been worked out and will not be an issue in the next tourney.

Results for Rookie/Novice Brackets

        After a long day, and I mean long day of preliminaries and Semi Finals, Finals were finally underway.  Results overall for the Rookie/Novice divsion:

1st place - Blur
Tournament Trophy, 5 WGP Autocockers (donated by The MPN) with their choice of ACI Grafitti barrels

2nd place - Urban Quest 1
Tournament Trophy, 5 squeegees (donated by Check-It Products), 3 OTP Barrels, 3 Air America Vigilante Regulators (donated by The MPN)

3rd place - Full Breach
Tournament Trophy, 5 PMI Shirts, 5 Check-It Autococker valves

4th place - FWG 1
Tournament Trophy, 5 I&I Goggles Bags, 5 PMI Gloves, 4 Check-It "Sweet Spot" Angel Triggers

5th place - LiL Rascals
5 Check-It Angel Low Pressure Chambers, 5 Check-It Angel High Rider feeds

6th place - * Outsiders
5 Check-It Mocks, 5 Blow Guns (donated by Check-It)

7th place - FWG2
5 Check-It Drop Fowards

8th place - TKO
5 Check-It Spyder Low Pressure Chambers

9th place - Team Splat
5 PMI Goggle Systems

10th place - Ray's Team
5 Check-It Automag Turbo Valves

11th place - Omega
2 Check-It Tuc-tites, 2 Liquid Angel Low Pressure Chambers (donated by Extreme Sportz)

12th place - Team RIP
5 custom MPN Factory Team Jerseys

* Team Outsiders was awarded the Sportsmanship award for their display of excellent sportsmanship on the fields.  The MPN proudly awarded with a Sportsmanship trophy, as well as a $200 gift certificate (donated by Superior Signs) to Superior Signs to use any way they wish (which includes having team jerseys, stickers, and/or a banner made).

The "Raffle"

        At the end of the day, we raffled off all sorts of prizes.  Tickets were a dollar with proceeds used to help support the MPN.  Here is a small list of prizes that we gave away:

- Vigilante Regs & Custom MPN Factory Team Jerseys (donated by Sean at The MPN)
- OTP 12" barrels (donated by Brian at OTP)
- Check-It Angel High and Low rider feeds, Angel "Sweet Spot" triggers, Angel Bolts, Angel low pressure chambers, Drop Fowards, Spyder Low Pressure Chambers (donated by Glen at Check-It)
- Lapco 12" barrels (donated by Colin Thompson)
- Liquid Angel bolts, and low pressure chambers (dontated by Brandon at Extreme Sportz)
- as well as much, much, more

A Note from the Pres

        I want to congratulate each and every team on a day of great play, and on being a part of making our first tournament a success.  It was our first tourney, but we plan on doing a whole lot more in the future.  We will being kicking off the year 2000 with a tournament series which will have details, to follow shortly.  We will continue to strive to do our best by providing a great playing atmosphere, competition, and prizes.
        We ran into some complications in our first tournament which have been hopefully, ironed out.  Keep an eye out for the next one, which should be coming shortly!

We would like to hear from you!  Whether you want to tell us a story of your day at the 1999 Summertime Showdown, Comments, or Feedback, please let us know what you thought so that we can make the next one even better!

Sean Takeda
President, The MPN