Avoid "Hunting and Pecking" for a Paintball Tournament

To find local paintball tournaments, you will need to learn where to look. By following a few suggestions you can go from “hunting and pecking” to smoothly locating the tournaments you want to participate in or attend. The big well-known paintball tournaments will be fairly easy to hunt down and find. The smaller paintball tournaments will take a little more effort. It will be worth the effort to find paintball tournament to attend or to participate in. There is a lot to learn, many resources, networking opportunities, and fun to be had from both a participant’s side and a spectator’s side. The bigger the tournament, the more there will be to learn and do. Paintball tournaments can be found in the US and throughout the world.

National Paintball Leagues in the United States:

• National Collegiate Paintball Association (NCPA)
  sanction high school and college paintball tournaments and competitions
• National Professional Paintball League (NPPL)
  tournaments featured the 7-man format, bankrupt in 2008 and operating under the United States Paintball League (USPL)
• National X-Ball League (NXL)
  features X-Ball format in tournaments
• Paintball Sports Promotions (PSP)
  tournaments feature X-Ball format
• Ultimate Arena Paintball League
  professional division of the World Paintball League
• United States Paintball League (USPL)
  created in 2009, tournaments feature the 7-man format, owns all rights to the bankrupted NPPL
• World Paintball League (WPL)
  featured 3-man format, ceased operations in 2006

• American Xtreme Paintball League (AXBL) - Northeast region
• Carolina Field Owner's Association (CFOA) - Southeast region
• Central Florida Paintball Series (CFPS) - tournaments feature 5-man format, known as the Race to World Cup
• Crossroads Tournament Series (CTS) - Midwest region
• Global Paintball League (GPL)
• New England Paintball League (NEPL) - Northeast region
• Southeastern Xtreme Paintball League (SXPL) - Southeast
• Xtreme Paintball Sports League (XPSL) - West coast region

Tactical Paintball leagues in the United States:

• Scenario Paintball Players League (SPPL) - friendship, itegrity, and sportsmanship is a focus
• Tactical-Ten-Paintball-League (TTPL)

Tournaments will have their own individual rules. When participating in a paintball tournament, be sure you are familiar with the rules so that you are able to follow them without incident or disqualification. Rules include guidelines for registration, qualifying, paint, equipment, shields, lauchers, roles, medic, artillery, game rules, uniforms, and more.

In addition to watching great competition and being around fellow paintball enthusiast, paintball tournaments will have a vender area where the following paintball related businesses will have a booth or table:

• Paintball fields
• Paintball gun manufacturers
• Paintball shops
• Online paintball businesses
• Paintball leagues
• Paintball teams
• Paintball clothing

To find paintball tournaments locally, you can go to your local paintball supply store or local paintball field to find tournaments in your area. Just about every field will host a few tournaments throughout the year. Getting online is also a good way to find tournaments. Some tournament information is often spread word-of-mouth; so ask around the next time you are at the paintball field shooting. Paintball forums will be another source to find out information from fellow paintball shooters.

No matter if you go to a big or small tournament, it will be a great experience.

Paintball Games

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