Breakout Spa, coming into the event with the season title from 2025 returned to the Czech Cup, but did not make it beyond the prelims. Although a second-place finish in 2025 left the Lucky 15s hungry, they repeated their sputtering performance from World Cup that started strong and showed flashes of excellence, but ultimately stalled at the close of the matches as the event wore on and landed them a loss in the Ochos. And Joy Division came out of last season with a third place and the match against Dynasty that had everyone on their feet at Cup, but they too failed to put anything together for the Czech Cup.
Another story that everyone was watching was the legacy Shock, anchored by veteran Mark Johnson, who is creating a new lane after dismantling ac: Diesel at the end of last season. Generating only one victory over London Attrition, they struggled to find any sort of rhythm.
Guest players have historically been a storyline of their own. Surprisingly, this year, there weren’ t many, and the teams that competed at this event were homegrown- a statement in favor of the elevated level of competition in the European league.
Coming out of the prelims it was Ranger Warsaw, Ronholt Dynamite, and Ballistics Giettingen who looked like the teams to beat. Each of them went undefeated in their brackets with margins of 4 or better.
Despite high expectations for the French teams, only Paris Camp Carnage would survive into the playoffs with ashort-lived berth in the Ochos. On the other hand, there must be something in the water in Poland this season. The Polish teams showed up hot on Sunday. The young ALA Warsaw, a team only in its second full season, had their breakout moment- beginning when they ended the weekend for the French by issuing a crushing loss to Carnage, and then going on to annihilate Ballistics Goettingen in a statement 7-1 match.
Ranger Warsaw, not to be outdone by their brothers at ALA, were one of few teams who bolstered their rosters with hired guns. Adding guest Jonathan Chavez of PBFit gave them a boost need to knock off Lucky 15s in the quarters in a slow battle 3-2.
094 paintball. media magazine