Tournament

        On Sunday, March 12th, Team Zero Tolerance from the Central Coast of California, hosted their first 5-man rookie tournament. Zero Tolerance started this tournament as an opportunity to help grow tournament paintball in an area that is virtually untouched by the tournament scene. This tournament was a rookie only event, but will hopefully grow to include Novice and Kid's divisions soon. Zero Tolerance is looking to follow in the footsteps of the Showdown series of the MPN, ZT's main sponsor. Also sponsoring this event besides The Monthly Paintball Newsletter was Kick'N Paintballs, Superior Sign's & Shirts, I & I Sports, Paintball Junkies, Custom Product Barrels, and A & R Welding of Paso Robles for the air for the event. Reffing was provided by the Amateur and Novice teams of Zero Tolerance

The Field

        The tournament was played on Zero Tolerance's main speedball field as the second field was down due to heavy winter storms. This field seemed fine though as the number of teams was small. The field was made up of many small bunkers, spaced about every 15 feet so the action became quite intense at times. Bunkers ranged from pallet bunkers, tall stand-up bunkers, huge tractor tires, to water troughs. The field proved very fun and interesting to watch and ref. The weather for the day was awesome, one of the first sunny days of the year. Only bad thing was the wind kicked up during the tournament so it made aiming a bit hard.

Who was there

        For us just usually having a few teams at our field for practices, having all these cars there was something new. We had six teams there for the tournament and for practice the day before. The weekend started on Saturday, with an open practice day for the teams participating in the tournament. This was a good opportunity for the teams to look at the field and offered a chance for the players to meet one another. Sunday opened up with six teams showing up to play. Three local teams playing in their first tournament, one team from Ventura (three hours away), also in their first tournament. Sub Zero North's rookie squad and a local team with tournament experience rounded out the field. The teams that played were Team Rival - Central coast, Team Ramsey - Ventura, Just for Fun - Central Coast, Sub Zero - Northern California, Thunder Bunnies - Central Coast, and Toys in the Attic - Central Coast.
 

Group Shot of Most of the Teams	Sideline Action at the Tournament
Shots from Saturday's Practice	Shots from Saturday's Practice

The Tournament

        In the Preliminary round teams had five games a piece. Team Ramsey had a great first tournament experience, scoring 98 points in their first game, followed with a 12, a 26, a 98, and a 96-point game. Sub Zero was the class of the field with games of 92, 94, 36, 98, and 98. Thunder Bunnies started their day with a perfect game of 100 points and follow that with games of 8, 4, 82, and 82. Toys in the Attic had the youngest team in the field with four of their players under 14 years of age. They struggled with hot gun problems for most of the preliminary round but were able to show good fight for the day. The scores for the  preliminary round were as follows. Sub Zero - 424 points, Team Ramsey - 330 points,  Thunder Bunnies - 286 points, Just for Fun - 137 points, Team Rival - 28 points and Toys in the Attic -102 points (darn stock Tippmanns).

        The top four teams advanced to the final round. In the final round, the Thunder Bunnies set the stage in the first game with a 100 point max over Team Ramsey. Sub Zero answered back with a 100 point win of their own over Just for Fun. Game three had Ramsey and Just for Fun fighting to a draw. Game four pitted the Thunder Bunnies against Sub Zero. The two teams also fought to a draw, with Sub Zero winning on points 34-14. The Thunder Bunnies followed with an 89 point win over Just for Fun in game five to put the pressure on Sub Zero. Game six was the perfect end for the tournament. Team Ramsey came out with a full rush, when two of their players ran to bunkers at the 50 yard line and another Ramsey player ran to the Flag and was finally shot out about ¾ the way down the field. Sub Zero was able to fight back to get the 78-point win, giving them the 9-point margin of victory for the tournament. Overall the players had a great time and the day turned out to be a positive learning experience for the first-time tournament players. Team Zero tolerance is looking forward to offering three more tournaments to the local paintball players and invites all teams to came and play in the Central Coast.

Final Standings:
1st - Sub Zero
2nd - Thunder Bunnies
3rd - Team Ramsey
4th - Just for Fun
5th - Team Rival
6th - Toys in the Attic

Every team earned prizes for their days "work" and a good time was had by all.
 
 

1st Place: Sub Zero & their coach Sean Takeda	2nd Place: Thunder Bunnies	3rd Place: Team Ramsey
4th Place: Just For Fun	5th Place: Team Rival	Our Superior Reffing Crew: Not Pictured-Sean Takeda, thanks for all your help!!

They played great and many thanks to Sean Takeda for donating a case of paint to them as a sportsmanship award for playing so well and being the youngest and smallest (height wise) team there. Average age was 14

Final Word

Overall the players had a great time and the day turned out to be a positive learning experience for the first-time tournament players. Team Zero Tolerance is looking forward to offering three more tournaments to the local paintball players and invites all teams to came and play in the Central Coast. Most important, Zero Tolerance would like to give a BIG THANKS to all our sponsors who helped make the day a success. I & I Sports, Paintball Junkies, Kick'n Paintballs, and A & R Welding of Paso Robles for the air. Last but not least, a special thanks to Sean Takeda of The MPN.com, for all his help in organizing prizes, giving free advice and helping with the reffing all day. One last thank you to the teams that participated in the tournament. We hope to see you at the next one and bring all your friends.
 

Jason Knudson & Brad Scott
Team Zero Tolerance