After last year ’ s big splash of a premier for the Youth Division at the NXL World Cup , the young guns returned this year a bit more grounded and with renewed focus .
The youth division was a part of all of the NXL events this season but , to put it nicely , they were not well-attended . The majority of teams who participated this year managed only one event , only six made it to two , and the stand out Dangerous Toys topped out at three . Rather than placing the burden of the bug events , most teams seemed to shift to a more local focus and got back to basics . It seemed that this season ’ s ‘ Cup was regarded more as a cherry on the proverbial sundae rather than a series-ender . Still , 21 teams did turnout to make it their season finale .
A few teams came in hot , and well-polished . However , not unlike lower-division teams , many were throw-together squads , and this created a large disparity in the talent pool .
Throughout the course of the season , there were four main roads that each of the twentyplus teams chose : participating in local , youth-speciific tournaments ; participating in local , NXL affiliated tournaments with youth divisions ; playing alongside adult D4 and D5 in local tournaments ; or , what many did , grabbing kids and throwing them together to create a team for Cup experience .
The dominant class of teams were those who practiced and played consistently together , and competed strictly against other youth . These teams pulled out ahead of the rest of the competition , and never looked back .
Infamous Kidz was the best among them .
“ We picked up local kids who had never played 5-man before ,” said Thomas Taylor , owner and headcoach of Infamous Kidz . “ They were playing local 3-man , so we grabbed them , brought them over , and started working on core fundamentals , gun control , and quick reactions . And because they didn ’ t come in with a lot of bad habits , they started , pretty quickly , working together as a cohesive unit .”
Other local programs have sprung up across the country this year , and grown in a similar way . One example is the Pirates Kids , a team sponsored and coached by the Pirates from Quick Shot Paintball in Shamong , NJ . These kids were given the opportunity to train alongside up-and-coming Division 2 and 3 teams like Noobies , Tropic Thunder , Bombsquad , and the High Rollers , but they remained together as a unit , playing in the youth division of Tri-State XBall League . That consistency paid off for them , and they took home a third place medal from World Cup .
Then there was the class that competed against the big boys .
Representing the East coast was MLKids out of Tiki ’ s Paintball in Tampa , Danagerous Toys from Brother in Arms down in Alabama who were hardened playing in the Maximum Velocity Series against the adult squads , and WHIL ’ s Kids from WHIL ’ s in Jacksonville , a program that has been in place since 2014 putting in work against the adult squads in novice and D5 tourneys .
The Hermans , who trained with the OG Ironmen , and DMG Gold who cut their teeth against the big boys in Capital Edge Paintball League were the pervasive programs out of the west .
And from the South , there were teams like Rampage Kids out of SplatZone in Houston , the Sodakats out of LA Xtreme in Louisiana , and TKO Vale Tudo from Paintball Fit who took advantage of Chris Rangle ’ s kid ’ s program at Bunkerfest .
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