The Professional Division
Thrills and surprises dominated the early morning Day-One pro clashes as twenty professional paintball teams from around the world battled it out in their quest to make it past the preliminary rounds and into money play . Dropping a game on the first day means facing an uphill battle to make the cut . The reigning champions , San Diego Dynasty , entered the event as everyone ’ s favorites , after winning six of the last seven pro major NXL events . Incredible . But guess what ? They dropped their opening game to Los Angeles Infamous . Not to worry — they won their next three and made the cut . Infamous , Houston Heat and Dynasty , all in the stupidly difficult Division A , each won three of four games . New Orleans Hurricanes , a team clearly on the rise , and Tampa Bay Damage , a team clearly in a resurgence , each won three preliminary round games in Bracket B .
In bracket C it was San Diego Aftermath going 4-0 and San Antonio X-Factor taking three of their four first-round games . Surprisingly , Edmonton Impact only won two of their four games , but made the Sunday cut anyway . New York Xtreme , another team on the rise , went undefeated in the opening round . Some would say they had the easiest preliminary bracket , and they ’ d be correct . But 4-0 is 4-0 and you can only beat who they put on your schedule . Also in Bracket D , was ML Kings , who put in some good work , winning three of their four opening round games .
Making the Sunday cut and playing the dreaded “ ocho rounds ” ( a . k . a . wildcard rounds ) were San Diego Dynasty versus ML Kings and Edmonton Impact versus Tampa Bay Damage . Dynasty and Impact narrowly won their games and moved on to the quarterfinals . In the quarters it was Dynasty over the Hurricanes 4-1 , Infamous over Impact 3-2 , Houston Heat over NYX 2-1 and X-Factor over Aftermath 3-2 .
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