Paintball Magazine April 2020 Issue | Page 18

National Xball League Las Vegas Open From the time the National Xball League’s 2020 opening event began, to the time of this writing just three weeks later, the world as we know it has changed. COVID-19 has caused not only a virtual shutdown of the game of paintball but a complete rethinking of how we live our daily lives—for now at least. That said, we’re going to do our best to keep you connected to the game. Once again the Craig Ranch Regional Park, located just ten miles from the Las Vegas strip was home to the league’s season-opening event. The old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” adage is fitting for Craig Ranch Regional Park, Las Vegas and the NXL. With plenty of space for the seven playing fields, the trade show and parking the location is perfect for the NXL. Reasonably priced flights and hotels, the Vegas nightlife and of course the weather help make this a great kick-off event for the league each season. Last we left you it was San Antonio X-Factor putting together their best season ever, winning two events and placing third twice after opening the 2019 season with a sixth-place finish in Las Vegas. X-Factor won the pro 2019 NXL title and for the better part of the season looked like the world’s best paintball team. Moscow Red Legion kept the pro title race close all year with their four top four finishes but just couldn’t pull ahead of X-Factor by the season’s end. Houston Heat also had four podium showings in 2019, finishing the season in third place, just 16 seed points from the top spot. The final top four spot for the 2019 pro season belonged to ac: Dallas—by far their best season since turning pro. For three months leading up to the start of the 2020 NXL season most of the talk revolved around player- movement in the off-season—as it usually does. One of those off-season moves—Nick Slowiak to the Los Angeles Ironmen, seemed to be paying 018 paintball.media magazine