ATWL Event Two Played Rain and Shine

The second event of the 2012 Tippmann X7 Phenom Atlantic Tactical Woodsball League was played June 9th at Hypersportz Paintball in Mount Uniacke Nova Scotia.

Rain overnight and all game day morning left many players disheartened that once again they would be playing in boot sucking mud, with players afraid that an inadvertent marker drop would result in a gun never being seen again. Although the ATWL had visited this location in previous seasons, this woodsball field had not been seen by players in the past.

Hypersportz Paintball (formerly Overkill Sportz) has been taken over by a new owner who is making considerable field improvements. Teams that are visiting Hypersportz for the first time since last season were very impressed with the changes.

Thousands of dollars invested by the new owner in improved drainage, clearing firing lanes, leveling the ground and reposition bunkers will make the field play faster and put a premium on communication plus coordinated fire and movement.

Often the first game can set the tone for the entire day. The cold rain didn't dampen the excitement as the Nova Scotia Mercenaries went up against the SU Militia. The fighting was so fierce that at times it seemed there were more paintballs in the air than rain drops. If this game was an indication event two would be an exciting day.

As the day wore on, the weather improved but there was no improving on the already top notch paintball. The matches between current and former champions, plus epic battles between two new teams to the league all the games were back and forth fights went down to the wire.

The SU Militia from Moncton, New Brunswick went on a tear at event two. They kicked their game up a notch since event one, and were the team to beat at event two. The Militia won all four of their games with a total combined 790 flag capture points.

Another surprise of the day was the improved play Green Acres Goblins. First year teams in a very competitive league can sometimes get overwhelmed. The Goblins showed they were able to adapt their play and fight toe to toe with the best teams in the region.

No one team is breaking away from the pack. The top of the leader board is tightening. The new teams are improving quickly. The 2012 Tippmann X7 Phenom Atlantic Tactical Woodsball League has reached the half way point and who will be crowned champion is anybody's guess. This may turn out to be the most exciting finish in ATWL history.

Event 2 Results
Place	Team	Games Played	Capture Points	Win Loss Points
1	SU Militia	4	790	8
2	Anthraxx	2	555	4
3	Mersey Road Predators	2	310	2
4	Nova Scotia Mercenaries	4	310	2
5	Green Acres Goblins	4	75	0

Season Standings
Place	Team	Games Played	Capture Points	Win Loss Points
1	Mersey Road Predators	6	1320	10
2	Anthraxx	6	1115	10
3	SU Militia	8	970	8
4	Nova Scotia Mercenaries	6	535	4
5	Green Acres Goblins	6	105	0

Black Friday Launches Atlantic Season

The event that many players consider to be the unofficial opening of the Atlantic Canadian paintball season, Black Friday, was held on Friday April 6th, 2012 at Mersey Road Paintball in East River Nova Scotia.

Black Friday is a special kind of event where after a winter of being able to only play the occasional game of indoor reball, woodsballers, speedballers, milsim teams, xball teams and rec players gather for a day of fun before players gravitate back to their preferred style of play.

Black Friday is a non competitive event. ‘Event’ may be to strong a word. Black Friday is a one of a kind paintball gathering. It is a gathering where players of any skill level and experience can play together, and against each other, as long as the players only want to have fun.

Another aspect of Black Friday that makes the game special is there are no landmarks to be taken, no points awarded, no commanders yelling orders, and no winners announced at the end of the day. The players break into two teams and go play paintball just for the fun of it.

The game was immediate respawn broken into 90 minute halves. The teams switched ends of the field at the lunch break. The non stop game made for non stop action all over the field. On the field you could see ghillie suits next to colourful speedball jerseys, high end electros playing side by side with pump guns.

Players of all sort come out to Black Friday to bang the rust off skills that lay dormant over the winter. Many players don’t even look at their markers until game day. Fortunately Eastern Paintball and Supply made the 3 hour trip from Moncton to set up a pro shop offering players a low flat rate to repair malfunctioning markers.

At the end of the day players had run the field, shot paint, been hit and come back for more with no other objective in mind other than to have fun. The on field action a prize filled pod toss by Eastern Paintball and Supply plus a Tippmann and PBL prize raffle by the Tippinators made for a day that left smiles on all players faces.

In many areas paintball participation has been in decline. The exact opposite is true for paintball in Atlantic Canada. The official attendance of nearly 300 makes Mersey Road’s Black Friday the most successful annual event in Eastern Canada. The high attendance at Black Friday, the continued growth and expansion of the Atlantic Tactical Woodsball League (ATWL), and Minor Xtreme Paintball League (MXL), proves that paintball is as strong as ever.

Black Friday once again showed paintballers, be they prefer woodsball or speedball, can come together in the spirit of the game and play for fun. If Black Friday is any indication of what is in store for the remainder of the 2012 paintball season will be one to remember.

Check out the Black Friday image galleries at the Mersey Road Paintball Facebook page

The Best of Both Worlds - Tippmann Crossover

For over 25 years Tippmann has produced high quality paintball markers like the 98, SL68 and Pro Carbine that are the most rugged and reliable on the market. Over the last 10 years Tippmann has produced the benchmark scenario and military simulation markers with the A5, X7 and Phenom. Now Tippmann ruggedness, reliability and quality have been put into the first paintball marker designed for any style of play with the Crossover.

The Tippmann Crossover is a sleek, lightweight, center fed marker that embodies woodsball durability with tournament speed and agility. The marker is smaller than any other made by Tippmann and is of comparable size to other tournament markers. As they have done so many times in the past Tippmann is set to redefine the gold standard in paintball markers again, with the Crossover.

At the core of the Crossover is the proven FlexValve. FlexValve Technology makes the Crossover the first electro-pneumatic speedball style marker to offer the winning combination of improved air efficiency, superior accuracy due to the spool valve design, manual or electronic mode firing, and the flexibility of CO2 or High Pressure Air (HPA). Although the Crossover will work on CO2 it needs to be setup properly, such as using a remote line and using a low rate of fire so marker internals do not freeze.

The ruggedness of the FlexValve and the ability to operate below 300 PSI will give all players the competitive edge on the woodsball or speedball field. The low operating pressure greatly improves air efficiency allowing you to get up to 1,400 shots from a 68 cubic inch 4500 psi tank.

The Crossover’s searless trigger design incorporates fewer parts to wear, making maintenance easier than ever. Because this new marker is built around the existing Phenom internals and can accept an A5 threaded barrel the look may be a little foreign to die hard Tippmann users but the feel, reliability and performance are undoubtedly Tippmann.

Like the Phenom the Crossover has a lightweight aluminum body with internal gas line and no cocking handle. Unlike the Phenom the Crossover has sleek lines with custom body milling and all excess metal shaved back.

Like other tournament markers the Crossover is a center feed and comes with a clamping feed neck that will adjust to fit any loader without tools. The center feed system also uses beam break style eyes to prevent ball chopping and dual ball detents to hold the most brittle paint without barrel breaks.

One thing players will immediately notice about the Crossover that makes it different than any other tournament marker is a manual thumb safety on the left side of the receiver body with three settings; Safe, Semi, Electro. As the name implies Safe prevents the marker from firing. Semi means the marker will fire one shot with each pull of the trigger, because of the FlexValve Semi will work without a battery in the marker. Electro setting activates the markers electronics. The stock board will fire up to 15 balls per second, full auto, PSP, NXL, response and three round burst. A single button on the back of the grip is used to program the board or turn the eyes on and off.

In the past, Tippmann markers have angled the Air Source Adapter (ASA – the thing the tank screw into) at an angle so liquid CO2 would not be drawn into marker when fired. The Crossover is the first Tippmann marker to have a 90 degree ASA that brings the marker down to eye level and in closer to the body when shouldered.

The Crossover will run on CO2 or HPA. Most HPA tanks put out 800 pounds per square inch (PSI) pressure, because the Crossover operates at 300 psi Tippmann has designed an ASA that regulates the pressure from the tank down to a useable level for the marker. To lighten the marker the regulator for the Crossover is built into the ASA with a velocity adjustment on the front of the regulator.

The engineers at Tippmann have thought of players who want to degas the marker when not playing but not remove the tank. With the Crossover players have the option to remove the factory installed regulator ASA and front grip and install a vertical regulator and on / off ASA. In only minutes with a few off the shelf parts and a macro line the unique appearance of the Crossover can be changed to look like more traditional tournament markers.

Unlike other high end tournament markers the Crossover has kept woodsball players in mind. The gap between the front grip and trigger guard is wider to leave room for gloved hands. The same is true of the oversized trigger guard that allows players to easily roll the trigger while wearing bulky milsim gloves.

“Tippmann has created the perfect marker for which the Tippinators have been searching.” said Tippinators Super-tech Mark ‘Tinman’ Miller. “The Crossover is fast and light enough for tournament play yet tough enough for woodsball and reliable enough for league xball.”

True to the name this new marker can crossover from woodsball to speedball to xball and back again. “This is the marker I have wanted for years,” said Tippinator Captain Bruce ‘Charon’ Johnston, “Tippmann has really listened to players; the Crossover is an incredible marker for any style of play.”

Johnston continued, “The Tippmann Crossover is the perfect choice for players of any experience level, it is the only marker you will ever need.”

For more than 25 years, Tippmann Sports has been dedicated to quality manufacturing and the pursuit of cutting-edge technology and design. The company serves the paintball industry from its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne Indiana. Tippmann Sports’ complete line of paintball markers and related accessories can be found at paintball stores and fields as well as mass retail and sporting goods outlets throughout the world.