On the weekend of the 18th and 19th September, the first Annual Cargo Africa Paintball Challenge was held.  It was held at Paintball City in Germiston, Johannesburg on their 'Sup Airball field'.

The tourney attracted a total of 13 teams from around the country, with the furthest traveling from Cape Town.  Games were run on a center flag basis, with 5-man teams playing.

Games started early on Saturday morning, and continued until 5pm that night, and resumed the following day.  All teams were to play each other once, so no mistakes cold be made.  Basically a "Round Robin" format

I Marshaled the whole tourney, and I can tell you, I was knackered at the end.  Too much running and taking hits really takes it out of you.  All in all, the tourney ran very smoothly, with very few problems, barring the arguing with chief marshals about decisions.  Rremember, the Marshals decision is final (that’s 5 points, should they wish to continue).

Special mention has to go to Hit Squad.  They were a really inexperienced team, outgunned and out played, but they put up a remarkable effort.  Some of their games really had me wondering how they did it.  The team was mad up of:

Ryan Louw (Captain)
Gavin Louw
Gillian Louw (Mother)
Wade Rogers
Kyle Rogers

Final placing for the tourney was as follows:

Division "A"
1st - Evil  290pts
2nd - Animals 272pts
3rd - Impact  230pts
4th - Predators 226pts
5th - Venom  149pts (no losses on 1st day)
6th - Bounce  70

Division "B"
7th - Dog Unit 168
8th - Hot Shots 160
9th - Body Snatchers 114pts
10th - DYE Hard  93pts
11th - Saints   78pts
12th - ZAP   74pts
13th - Hit Squad  70pts

For more pictures from the South Africa Tourney, goto the Photo Gallery
 

Richard Hooper
MPN Columnist