Sunday, December 5th was the the scene of Tombstone Paintball's first of kind, "Rookie Sponsorship" tournament, hosted by owner and tournament coordinator, Leon Styles.  Over 20 teams competed to become the new Tombstone, Rookie Team, who will represent Tombstone Paintball in the year 2000 by competing in a minimum of 4 Major events in the Pan Am Series.  Over $20,000 worth of prizes were given away to the overall winner who swept it all.  Prizes included 5 Bushmasters donated by Indian Creek Designs, 200 cases of Blaze paintballs donated by Diablo, 5 Bulldog systems donated by ACI, harnesses donated by Unique, full uniforms donated by Paintball Junkies, and free play as one of the "home" teams for an entire year at Tombstone donated by Leon himself.  The winning team is also given the opportunity to use Tombstone paintball to host events (tournaments) to raise money for the team to travel to the events, being allowed to keep all of the money they raise.

        Vendors such as Tim Daleo from ACI, Chris Corcino from Paintball Junkies, were also present to show of their new products, and to talk with the players.  Paintballs were supplied by Diablo West.

        Sean Takeda from Team Broken Arrow was the ultimate ref for the day, with assistance from Mike Haynes from Team Outsiders.  Players were reviewed before the start of the day by refs reviewing wavier forms to ensure higher level players (players past the Novice status) weren't allowed into the tournament to try and make the tournament as fair as possible.  A "modified" version of the GWS rules were implemented (players were allowed to use unlimited paintballs, vs the 200 round limit) to help keep things regulated and simple.

        All of the teams were put into a single bracket, with each of them playing opponents generated randomly.  Each team played 5 games, then the top four were taken to finals.  Competition was very stiff, with most of the games lasting a majority of the time limit.  As the day pushed on, the games really started to heat up, as tensions on the field started to increase, with all of the teams wanting to make it to the finals.  There were a few arguments prior to the posting of the top 4 teams.  Being that so much was at stake, teams really repeatedly checked the scores to make sure that they had every point they could get.  The four teams which made it to the finals: Marine Team, Full Breach, Nomads, and Team Blitz.

        Prior to the finals, referees were each assigned a player, to get full coverage of all of the action on the field to ensure eliminated players were removed immediately.  Referees and players alike were getting hit by paintballs on the field due to the enormous amount of the paint flying on the field.  In the end, the Accurite Nomads had prevailed as the victor and new Rookie team for Tombstone Paintball.  Ambush followed a close second, Marine Team third, and Team Blitz fourth.  Team Blitz actually played their last game with only one person (Ray Nulod), who took out 2 opponents before being taken out himself.  Team Heavy Hitters was awarded 5 annual passes to Tombstone.  Leon Styles also awarded a Bushmaster 2000, as an upgrade to a player who played the tournament with a Spyder.

        Congratulations to all of the teams and who played very well, and to the staff and referees who did an excellent job.  Leon would like to make this an annual event which should attract many teams every year.  Though the concept is still fairly new, and might take a while to catch on, it will only be a matter of time before other fields and sponsors start doing the same thing.
 

Sean Takeda
MPN Columnist