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The National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) was an American paintball tournament series that existed in various incarnations operating between 1990 and 2013. It featured both the top teams of professional paintball as well as amateur divisions of play at each stop. The NPPL typically featured four events per year, each held in a different city. The season typically opened in March and closed in October. Each individual event crowned a tournament champion. The NPPL also awarded a Series Championship based cummilative points accrued throughout the season based on placings at each individual event.
Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules ("paintballs") that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using a low-energy air weapon called a paintball marker that is powered by compressed air (nitrogen) or carbon dioxide and was originally designed for remotely marking trees and cattle.
Contents
- History
- Bankruptcy and reorganization
- General regulations
- Past venue locations & results
- Teams
- Professional
- See also
- References
- External links
The NPPL featured 10-man, and later the 7-man format of play.
At one point, it was the largest professional seven-man paintball league in the world.[ citation needed ]
It is most well known for its Surf City Open Event, and hosting the majority of San Diego Dynasty’s tournament wins, who’s 60+plus tournament victories is the most of all time.
The league, originally served as a de facto governing body of play.
After years of playing the lively tournament circuit, the players call a "players only" meeting to discuss starting a player-run league. They met in Chicago and formed a league which they called the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL). The NPPL ran four events in their first season as a new league. [1]
By the late 1990s, it was ultimately run in tandem with a small collection of the major manufacturer owners, who each were responsible for producing one of the four events, held in their region of the country.
By the early 2000s, the relationship between the promoters group and the teams grew contentious, eventually leading to a separation in the winter of 2002.
In 2003, manufacturer WDP launched a spin off company called Pure Promotions who worked with the NPPL governing body and produced a league, The NPPL Super 7 Series, between 2003-2007.
This was arguably the most successful version of the league, garnering tv deals with Fox Sports and producing their season-opener event from Pier at Huntington Beach each March, in front of ten of thousands of people.
Pure Promotions eventually sold the league to group called Pacific Paintball, LLC. A subsidiary of Clear Channel.
Less than 18 months later, Pacific Paintball declared bankruptcy in 2008.
In 2009, no play happened under the NPPL banner as litigation and bankruptcy ran through its process. Instead, a league was ran under the moniker the USPL in 2009.
The NPPL returned in 2010, this time as its own company and without A separate promotional group or parent company.
In February 2014, the NPPL announced that the series would not return for 2014 in order to restructure and reorganize and has now disbanded.
