It’s hard to believe that I have been to 26 World
Cup events dating back to the 1993 Cup in
New York, which was the finale event of the
NPPL for more than a decade before giving
way to the PSP and later to the National Xball
League. So much history has taken place at
the World Cup over the years—some great
and some not-so-great. For the first ten years
of the Cup I witnessed Aftershock win more
Cup events (six) than all other pro teams
combined. In 2001 I watched Dynasty win
their first World Cup and then two more in
the next three years. In 1993 I witnessed two
pro teams conspire to keep the UK Predators
from winning the World Cup and in 2006 I
saw the Russian Legion become the first ever
non U.S. team to win a pro World Cup event.
I was on the field when the infamous “sniper
incident” took place. And in 2016 I was there
to see Edmonton Impact win their first World
Cup in the midst of their 14 major U.S. wins
in 24 events streak.
played against and photographed the
original Houston Heat and Team Image as
well as historic teams like the All Americans,
Ironmen, Avalanche, Rage, Lockout, Ground
Zero and many others. It’s been quite a run!
2018
The 2018 National Xball League (NXL) World
Cup was once again held across the street
from the famous Gaylord Palms Resort in
Kissimmee, Florida. Of all the World Cup
venues this is by far my favorite. While ESPN’s
Wide World of Sports was an awesome
venue, it was not really visible to the public.
The Gaylord Palms Resort is literally steps
from two major highways, in front of one of
the best-known hotels in the world and in the
line of sight of tens of thousands of people
literally every day of the event.
The vendor village was packed with paintball
companies big and small. Industry leaders
I also got to see players like Tyler Harmon, like GI Sportz, Valken Paintball, DYE Paintball,
J-Rab and Konstantin Federov play as Luxe/GOG and Planet Eclipse brought their
teenagers at the World Cup. I’ve watched, biggest and best displays and their latest
www.paintball.media
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