The Millennium Series season opener is around the corner and the European pro teams are making last minute adjustments to their rosters. Read on for the latest paintball news and rumors!
Mikko Huttunen of the LA Ironmen has joined London Nexus for 2012. Nexus is a DYE team as well, so chances are Mikko will be floating back and forth.
Ramstein Instinct has picked up Archie Montemayor of US pro team X-Factor for 2012 Millennium Series competition.
Copenhaggen Ducks have picked up brothers Karl-Johan and Sebban Samuelsson. The Samuelsson brothers previously played with Joy Division. ProPaintball insiders indicate that this is a huge pick up for the Ducks.
Frankfurt Syndicate picks up Kiril Prikhidnyy of Russian Legion and Alan Goulding from Amsterdam Heat for the Millennium Series. Last year Kiril played the Millennium Series with Art Chaos (primarily Russian Legion players).
G.I. Sports Montreal is a new Millennium Series Pro team formed for the 2012 paintball season. Tampa Bay Damage, a U.S. pro paintball team, will be representing GI Sports and Dye Precision abroad this year. This will be damage’s European debut and it should be interesting to see how they cross over into the Millennium format.
Special thanks to Nick B. for his contributions to this article.
The European paintball series, known officially as “The Millennium Series”, has just released their first official field layout for 2012. Event 1 of the 2012 Millennium Series will be held in St Tropez-Cannes, France from 23 of March to 25 of March. In case you haven’t had a chance to visit, St. Tropez-Cannes is a super trendy vacation/destination and everyone that attends will have a blast!
Paintball field over view: Grid Layout of French Riviera Cup 2012
As many of you will recall, Sup’Air released a field upgrade kit for 2012 for both the Millennium and PSP paintball leagues. The new Millennium Paintball field layout (seen below) features all new paintball bunkers for the snake side.
Paintball field over view: French Riviera Cup 2012
ProPaintball insiders expect to see alot of good competition in the Millennium series. During the 2011 off season, several teams and players made adjustments. The results of these changes will be exciting to witness first hand in St. Tropez-Cannes, France. The French Riviera Cup will be an opportunity to see what kind of changes the bunkers will do to the snake side. We are curious to see how or if the paintball games will change.
Paintball field side view: French Riviera Cup 2012
Many team will also be training at the fields the day before the event. According to sources, teams like Syndicate, Amsterdam Heat, Art Chaos, and the Ton Tons will be preparing early for the event and the practice schedule for the fields are nearly full.
Jani Leskinen from Finland sent across this paintball video of Team Urho and Paintball Sissos. The footage features the new paintball snake by Sup’Air that we broke the news on (photos here). The field is setup in a Millennium Series style layout and features small pins as breaks between the beams. “Real sized” paintball players attempt to play the snake and everything is documented for your viewing pleasure.
There are a ton of questions about the new snake and the playability. Does this video relieve or justify your feelings about the new paintball bunkers kit from Sup’Air?
French pro paintball team Marseille ICON has unveiled their new paintball documentary. In 2011, ICON experienced a series of up’s and downs and the video footage documents all of the action. Check out over 26 minutes of professional paintball and tour the European pro series with one of one of the top teams.
Large crowds flock to the Millennium Series Paintball Events
The Millennium Series has unveiled a paintball video highlighting a ton of awesome paintball action from the 2011 season. Set up as a trailer, this action packed paintball video promotes the upcoming St Tropez Millennium Series opener.
Be sure to check the Millennium French Rivera Cup Paintball event out on March 23-25th in St Tropez, France.
The Millennium Paintball Series has released a preliminary schedule for the 2012 paintball season. Read on for the official announcement, dates and locations for 2012 paintball league play.
Ton Ton's from France win the Intercontinental Cup
The Millennium Series is pleased to announce its preliminary schedule for 2012. Although we are waiting on some contractual completion in order to confirm some details, we are confident that we can release the following schedule to you so as to facilitate early planning for all: 2012 Millennium Paintball Series Event Calendar (as of 19.11.2011)
March 23rd, 24th, 25th – The Millennium French Riviera Cup (St. Tropez-Cannes), France
May 25th, 26th, 27th – Bitburg, Germany
June 29th, 30th, July 1st – London, UK
October 12th, 13th, 14th – Millennium World Cup hosted at Disney Paris, France
The Millennium, as in 2011, will keep the Series to 4 events as we feel the prevailing economic situation in Europe does not warrant a return to 5 events next year. We will re-evaluate the situation once more at the end of the 2012 season.
Following a very successful 2011 Series which saw attendance grow against a backdrop of economic turmoil, The Millennium Series is determined to continue this trend throughout 2012 and to work closely with teams and traders to promote paintball and to encourage the sport and industry further still.
In 2012 we will introduce another new and exciting location and venue and following on from the 2011 success, will (in collaboration with the EPBF) once again give national teams the opportunity to compete for their country in EPBF International Cup competitions. Further information will be available in the coming weeks via The Millennium, EPBF and your National Federations.
As with the last couple of years we have been very careful when choosing venues to ensure the best possible value for teams, trying to keep additional costs to a minimum. Although this year we have spread slightly further afield with the addition of “The French Riviera”, there will be superb and very reasonably priced accommodation for all available, (details to follow shortly), making this a very cost effective event to attend with an atmosphere second to none. This event promises to be an all time classic.
In order to fine tune and improve the playing experience at Millennium events, we will shortly be sending out a questionnaire to all teams participating in 2011 to gain a good understanding of our customer needs and requirements and act on them accordingly.
We look forward to welcoming you to the 2012 Series! Further event information, including 2012 entry fees for open divisions will be available shortly.
The announcement of the 2012 Millennium Series dates is very helpful for teams and players that are looking to plan ahead for next year. The mention that the league intends to stay with 4 events in light of economic uncertainty is interesting as it is counter to what several of the United States based leagues are doing.
What do you think of the move to stay with 4 events for the 2012 paintball season? Do you think the Millennium Series made a wise move?
HyBrid Foto, a marketing and photography company from Sweden covered the Millennium Series World Cup in Paris Disney. We really enjoyed every second of the 7 minute video.
Mats Helge and Torje Dreng put together a great film with great music by Carpark North, Blackmill, and Devil Sold His Soul. It has a little something in it for everybody. This video makes me want to buy a ticket to Europe and compete in the Millennium Series next year.
Be sure to check out their page on Facebook for more information.
ProPaintball spotted a new paintball manufacture at the Millennium Paris season championship. The company goes by the name of “Safer” and is a tank manufacturer. According to sources, Safer manufactures tanks for paintball, scuba diving and compressed air dependent operations. The new paintball tanks from Safer has a long history of tank manufacturing and development.
New Safer Paintball Air Tank
According to Safer representatives at Millennium Paris, the living age of up to 15 years, but still has to go thro rehydro like other tanks every 5 years. The tanks are made of Carbon fiber and composite materials.
These tanks are very light weight with their 1.2 Liter tank weighing only at 1.52 pounds making the new Safer paintball tank one of the lightest on the market. The tanks come in a variety of sizes including 1.2/1.5/2.0/3.0 liters. For reference, 1.2 Liters is about the size of a 68cu tank.
These tanks are manufactured in Poland/Europe and will have PI certification. As of now their is no info if the tanks will have US certification and will be allowed to the US market. According to ProPaintball insiders, Safer has invested considerable time and money into development of these new bottles and the certification process so its highly possible that they will have United States certification.
No price is known to date, but its said to be around 170 dollars/120 Euros.
The team at GoBeyond has just published a new issue of their free paintball magazine with a very sarcastic title, “This is not a sport”. GoBeyond does not make a traditional magazine, instead, each issue is about the photography and crazy action packed shots. The photos featured in the magazine are a collection of the best several different photographers in the Millennium series.
In this issue, pro paintball teams such as San Diego Dynasty, London Nexus, Marseille Icon and others are featured in all of their glory. So if your looking to see what some of europe’s best photographers can do, be sure to check it out.
Check out the full issue here, or click the cover below for the free paintball mag.
Millenniums final event is about one week away, and is being held at Euro Disney in Paris. This year the Millennium series has tested out a few fun and new formats such as the Nations Cup where teams from each country battle for 1st. Another new offering is Ladys Cup, where every team consists of women and girls from different countries.
This year a “Youth Cup” will be held, where kids born between 1992 to 1995 will qualify to compete to be the best kids team in Europe. All the teams will represent their home country and compete in a race to 4 format with a roster of 10 on each team.
Here are the drawings for the youth cup in Paris.
What do you think about the NPPL and PSP hosting a Youth Cup or a Lady’s Cup? Would you as a player be interested in competing in an 15 and under division?
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