The two best teams in the world would meet in the finals— both undefeated and both strong enough to win. It would be the United States versus Germany and the game lived up to its hype. This defensive battle ended with the Americans on top, 2-1 United States.
The UPBF U16( under 16 years old) 3V3 division was all United States from the jump. The Americans won all four preliminary round games, their semifinal game versus Poland and the final round versus France. The American kids were never challenged.
Observations: Poland is the new Russia.
In the earliest days of competitive paintball, the Americans dominated the pro scene. In the mid-90s the Brits planted their flag firmly in the competitive fields worldwide, with teams like the UK Predators, NAM Wrecking Crew, Banzai Bandits and others entering the world paintball stage. In the 2000s Russia and France became powerhouses with the Russian Legion and TonTons leading the pack. With the best Russian players scattered across a dozen teams and countries, Poland has become the newest paintball hot-spot. Looking at what the Polish
National teams have done in Dreux is all you need to see to know they are for real.
And now countries like Mexico, Columbia, Latvia, Italy, Malta, South Africa and Luxembourg are fielding very competitive teams. The world of competitive paintball is leveling up.
Pro Xball Division
Coming into the NXL European Championship, Poland’ s Ranger Warsaw sat alone at the top of the season leaderboard, with first-place wins in each of the league’ s first two events— the Czech Cup and the British Invitational. France’ s LTF would be the only team within striking distance of Ranger Warsaw— and even that is a bit of a stretch.
In the preliminary rounds Ranger Warsaw did Ranger Warsaw things— four games, four completely dominating wins. France’ s LTF and Paris Camp Carnage also swept their first round brackets. Germany’ s Offenbach Comin At Ya, Austin FSU from the States and Sweden’ s Joy Division each won three first-round games.
048 paintball. media magazine