Tournament paintball is back on Long Island after almost a decade long absence and it ’ s fantastic to see . In the past few years there has been an upwell of people interested in speedball on the island , with more teams and players coming to the fields every week . Seeing this trend , Cousins Paintball decided it was time to revive their tournament series , with the goal of giving newer players and those who hadn ’ t been competing for a few years a place to learn the sport as well as make a comeback .
The first event of the CTS season was held on April 16th at the Cousins Paintball Calverton , NY location and the weather and setting couldn ’ t have been better . Rain had been threatening all week and it turned out to be a cool spring day after a bit of early morning dampness . This tournament had 15 D5 3-Player teams squaring off in the Race to 2 format , and as the day warmed up , so did the action on the field . To The Max , GZ Red and Northside had fantastic early scores , but as things heated up , the teams got into a groove , with Puffy Bunker Bois and New York Slugs were having success in their brackets . These squads , along with LI Shakedown rounded out who made it out of the playoffs .
Both matches in the quarterfinals went down to the last point , with Northside and Shakedown advancing to face To The Max and GZ respectively . Once again , those sets took all three rounds to decide a winner , but after the dust settled , Northside and GZ Red would move on to play for first place , leaving the other two teams to battle for third and fourth . The first place matchup was between GZ Red who is a very active , but primarily participates in mechanical tournaments , and Northside , who are veterans of the original CTS events , but hadn ’ t played a ton until recently . It was a back and forth affair , with GZ winning the first point in methodical fashion , but Northside answered with a fast response . The third and final point was dominated by GZ Red ’ s off the break shooting , scoring two immediate kills and earning the win . LI Shakedown decisively won their first points against TTM and secured the third place finish to round out the top spots .
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