New Hampshire's “Head Count “Takes First in HPP 3 Man
Nothing pulls paintball players off their couches faster than cool weather and cash prizes! The newly opened Hillsboro paintball park kicked off their late season tournaments with a bang as some highly skilled teams showed up to vie for Cash prizes in this 3 man format tourney. The day was clear and cool and Hillsboro's brand new Airball and X-ball fields made and impressive sight with the twenty foot red and blue X marking the 50 yard-line.
The tournament consisted of a good mix of teams with first time tourney players, two junior teams looking to get some tournament practice and some teams hoping to advance into the NEPL next year. No one was out of their league as one of the junior teams maxed NorEaster who placed third and local father-daughter team dysfunction topped GSP inferno who placed second.
One of the best games of the day was the first game of the second round where the first place Head Count Team from Frontline Paintball and Granite State Paintball Inferno Black faced off for the second time of the day. Head count had only dropped 10 points in the whole first round and was looking to continue on this rampage while the boys from GSP Inferno Black were trying to get a bit of revenge for an earlier 95-5 loss.
Both teams made great breaks without losing a player. Headcount put a player back right, home and left standup in front of the snake. GSP was a little more aggressive getting a player in snake, home and left 30 standup. Once everyone had made their initial breaks the gunfights began and they were fast and tough! "Crazy" Eddie Austin of GSP Inferno, pushed up snake side and really put pressure on Head count from cross field while his teammates held their lines to keep him from getting pinned down.
Losing Matt "Tank" Laflamme from home, Eddie and Taylor "Waterboy" Coyne held the 2 on 3 quite well until finally Eddie eliminated Rob Scuzarell "Scuz" who was keeping him from further advancing down the snake. But Headcount didn't get through the first round in first place by luck, and immediately Henry Poitras saw the dilemma and broke to the back corner X and Swept Eddie out of the snake. Except as soon as he turned back inside to watch the angle, the Waterboy popped him from across the field.
Two Players left, the two players who had been gun battling back and forth all game. This is the sudden death overtime of paintball and it doesn't get more exciting than this!
Waterboy made a diagonal move across field heading towards the snake as Troy Webster moved up to the juice-box. Seeking to improve their positions and chances at winning, both players repeatedly leaving the safety of their bunkers to try and push for the win... Circling on the field, Taylor from GSP actually ended up in the back corner X of the Headcount side where 30 seconds before he had eliminated Henry. Troy swung around in front to take position at the nearest snake bunker and the battle began again. Finally culminating as Taylor shot a well placed snapshot in Henry's hopper ending this struggle and secured the win for GSP Inferno Black.
While GSP was happy to have won the battle, Headcount indeed won the war. Sweeping soundly into a first place victory and winning the lion's share of the cash prize through teamwork and tight play. Headcount is from Frontline Paintball in Winchester NH (www.gofrontlinepaintball.com) GSP Inferno Black from Granite State Paintball in Litchfield NH (www.granitestatepaintball.com) took second and received the middle portion. The local Hillsboro Paintball team NorEaster took third rounding out the winners of the day.
In any tournament situation things can get crazy fast, especially in a tournament with cash prizes. The Knightmare Saints paintball team from Whaleback (www.knightmaresaints.com) really kept everyone in check for the day as well as keeping games moving. One of the main reasons the day was so enjoyable was specifically the effort that the Saints put into keeping things safe and fair.
Hillsboro paintball did an excellent job hosting their first tournament. The snack shack was making delicious treats and facilities were in excellent condition. There were giveaways at the half way point and everyone had tons of fun. Hillsboro paintball (www.hillsboropaintball.com) is a great place for all skill levels of paintball players, providing a safe and fun environment to promote the fastest growing extreme sport in the world!
Granite State Paintball Inferno: Black had a great showing at the Hillsboro 3 man Tournament on 9/30/07 where we were in a constant battle for first place but fell just short. We maxed out 6 of our matches on the day and recorded the fastest ever victory in only 58 seconds! We would like to thank Jason and everyone from Granite State Paintball in Litchfield NH (www.granitestatepaintball.com) without your support we could never have reached that second place finish. Your help over the past months has helped us raise our level of competition and maintain a superior level of sportsmanship. We are proud to be ambassadors of the sport and your field.
We would like to thank Paintball news for picking us up as a sponsor and helping us get the word out about the great sport of paintball. We would also like to take this opportunity to personally thank Dangerous Power paintball, whose superior customer service was able to fix and ship my fusion back to me very quickly. It provided the backup for Matt when his proto went down and even though it was untested, performed perfectly all day long.