X-Factor puts the beat down on Impact

San Antonio X-Factor is playing both the NPPL and PSP paintball leagues this year. According to ProPaintball insiders, the team has signed with Valken for new paintball gear and will be wearing SLY Equipment (including sly profits, pads and other soft goods). X-Factor will be hosting tryouts this weekend and Billy Bernacchia of New England Avalanche is said to be mixing it up. Is he trying out, playing with friends for the weekend, or both?

Pro player Billy Bernacchia

For those of you scratching your heads about this New England Avalanche bit, here goes. Jeff Stein retired the New England Hurricanes and shortly after it was announced that St. Louis Avalanche and the Hurricanes were merged together. The combined team will be called New England Avalanche, and has relocated to the North East. If rumors hold true, Bernacchia, a long time Hurricane and Avalanche player, will be a big loss for the pro squad.

New paintball team by Vanguard?

New England Avalanche is in the midst of building a pro and divisional franchise program. According to ProPaintball insiders, Avalanche’s gun sponsor Vanguard is stepping it up for 2012 and merging in their teams. The Vanguard Division 2 team is said to be joining NPPL division 1, while the Vanguard D3 team will be joining NPPL Division 2. According to sources, no home field has been established for Avalanche as of yet. ProPaintball insiders note the team is setting up to maintain both a West and East Coast programs in order to create better brand recognition and increase the talent pool.

What are your thoughts on a cross country professional paintball program? Will it succeed, or encounter difficulty? Share your thoughts in the comments.

San Diego Dynasty, an Empire Paintball team, has won the NPPL 2011 Chicago Open paintball tournament. This is the 4th event in a row that Dynasty has won since the start of the 2011 paintball season. Paintball players and fans across the world have been discussing the return of Dynasty and the possibilities of a 4th Triple Crown Championship. During the 2010 off season, Dynasty manager Eric Crandall and Coach Mike Hinman augmented one of the top rosters in paintball with Dalton Vanderbyl, Alex Goldman, and Oliver Lang. The result has been a seemingly unstoppable team and a Triple Crown Championship appears to be a distinct possibility.

The Chicago Open pro division’s final four was notable in that it was the first time we have seen St. Louis Avalanche and Portland Uprising on the podium. St. Louis Avalanche started the year off on a somber note, finishing 11th place. Between HB and Chicago, the team saw AJ Trillet leave to Chicago Legend and Justin Schwarz joined Avalanche from Arsenal. The new kids on the block, Portland Uprising, finished the event in 3rd place. Uprising started the season at NPPL 2011 Surf City Open and finished in dead last. During the break between events Uprising brushed off the paint and decided to step up their game. The team picked up Cole Scott from Vancouver Vendetta and practiced like mad men to improve their lackluster performance at Event 1. In forth place was Edmonton Impact. Impact has a championship roster and many paintball fans expected to watch the team unseat Dynasty in the finals. No strangers to the podium, Impact posted a 3rd place finish at Event 1 and ProPaintball expects the team will be bringing the heat in the events to come.

The top results for each division are as follows:

Pro Paintball

1. San Diego Dynasty
2. St. Louis Avalanche
3. Portland Uprising
4. Edmonton Impact

Division 1 Paintball

1. Dynasty 2
2. Texas Storm
3. Impact Echo
4. Critical Wrecking Crew

Division 2 Paintball

1. 3CT
2. LSD Savage
3. Marine Team One
4. Top Gun Evolution

Division 3 Paintball

1. DBS Kidz 2
2. TKO Blackout
3. Boom II
4. Raiders

Division 4 Paintball

1. Cetermass Hawaii
2. Asylum Ballerz
3. Toxic
4. University of Michigan

Pump Paintball Division

1. Total Grief
2. Zero
3. Milwaukee Throwback
4. CPX Pro Stars

PRO Paintball player Billy Bernacchia of Dynasty and Avalanche is back to show us how to play paintball, again. This time Billy is back with some tip on moving around in the snake.

PRO Paintball player Billy Bernacchia of San Diego Dynasty is featured in the new Planet Eclipse video teaching paintball players how to properly edge from your bunkers and get into the snake.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This year, Vancouver Vendetta and Newport Entourage will be making their pro paintball debut. Throughout the off season, teams like Edmonton Impact, Tampa Bay Damage, San Diego Dynasty, St. Louis Avalanche and Los Angeles Infamous have been stacking their rosters with national champions from years prior. As we go into the first event, everyone here at Pro Paintball is very excited and we are all placing bets as to which teams will be leading the pack.

With all of this in mind, we are proud to open this story for your NPPL HB team predictions. If you are lucky enough to predict the top 4 teams in the pro division we will award you with a prize. Our prizes include T-Shirts from Sly Equipment, San Francisco Explicit and Pro Paintball.com, barrel wraps from Paintball Photography and DLX Technologies, and headbands from PBheadbands.com. 

For extra credit, feel free to share your predictions for divisional paintball teams.

Read on for the official pro paintball team list and be sure to place your top 4 picks in the comments below.

NPPL 2010 Pro Paintball Team list (in alphabetical order):

• San Diego Dynasty

• St. Louis Avalanche

• Oakland Blast

• Chicago Legend

• San Francisco Explicit

• Sacramento XSV

• Indianapolis Mutiny

• Edmonton Impact

• Vancouver Vedetta

• LA Infamous

• Tampa Bay Damage

• Naughty Dogs

• Newport Entourage

If your interested in the players roster-ed for the event, be sure to check out the teams registration information here.

Please note that our predictions will be closed Friday morning at 7am and prizes will be doled at the discretion of our moderators. In order for your entrees to be considered you must enter a valid email. Offer valid while supplies last.

Good luck!

This year, pro paintball team St. Louis Avalanche has several returning players. They will be rocking Planet Eclipse markers with prophecy paintball loaders, empire goggles and jerseys, guerilla air tanks, NXE Paintball harness and NXE elevation series paintball pants, GXG Pods, and Violent triggers. They will be playing in the NPPL pro paintball 7 man series, check out their roster:

Frank Connell
Drew Templeton
Ian Martin
Brandon Mayo
Billy Bernachia
Thomas Mantoni
Glen Takemoto

Drew Templeton of pro paintball team Avalanche shared a few words with ProPaintball’s very own Brandon Mason:

We’re excited to have Glen and Brandon back on board with Avalanche.
HB should be a lot of fun and we are excited to get out there and see
what we can do. Big thanks to Kee and Eclipse for sponsoring us this
year as well!

Avalanche’s 2010 roster is packed with several top pro paintball players. We can only anticipate that the team will have an exceptionally strong 2010 paintball season. Best of luck guys!

• Frank “The Tank” Connell of St. Louis Avalanche is rumored to be playing with Tampa Bay Damage at PSP Phoenix. Our insiders were unable to confirm if Frank will be competing throughout the season at this point in time.

• Kevin “Kali” Rudulph has joined LA Infamous. Kali previously competed with Arsenal for 7-man and the New England Hurricanes in pro xball. Kali will be joining former Aftermath players Bobby Aviles & Marcello Margott and former Ironmen Nicky Cuba and John Richardson.

• Pro paintball insiders mentioned that Steven “Son” Dabilis of Chicago Aftershock may have joined the Army. Word has it that “Son” will be leaving for boot camp sometime during the summer of 2010.

• Rumor has it that former Ground Zero player Carmen Borgia has left Redz Comfort and now works for Valken. Carmen had served Redz Comfort since the companies inception and most recently held the title of Vice President.

The following is the first of hopefully many issues to come from Drew!

In this premiering issue, Drew introduces to us what The Grind means in his eyes, he gives the readers a more in-depth look into the Aftershock program and their practice styles in preparation for the road to World Cup, and finally the event itself.

It’s great to read articles actually written by the players themselves, not just those written by spectators photographers. Check out this issue of GRIND here, and stay tuned for the next issue in the 2010 season. Like what you saw? Leave your feedback below!