The 1999 NPPL Chicago Open was held at Badlandz Paintball Field about 25 miles from downtown Chicago. This was the largest NPPL event ever with the exception of the Orlando World Cup. The event was Judged by Aftershock and Avalanche and ran very smoothly. The NPPL's new zero-tolerance-for-bad-language rule was strictly enforced with players getting yanked early and often for using the short list of bad words.

There were 42 five-man and 62 ten-man teams present. The competition was tough, especially in the ten-man portion of the event where many big name teams did not advance to the semi-final rounds. Some of those teams included OBR, Farside, All A's II, Paraplegic Turtles, and the Diggers, all in the amateur "A" division. In the pro division there were ten teams with all moving on except for Constant Pursuit and Fury (yes I said Fury).

The All Americans, Lockout, and Bob Long's Ironmen dominated the pro ten-man preliminary rounds with scores of 586, 579, and 577 respectively. This out of a possible 600 preliminary round score. The amateur "A" division saw Jax Warriors and Fusion lead the pack with scores of 487 and 434 in their first six games. The amateur "A" cut was 388 (Fatal Swoop). G-Force and Team Strange lead the way in the amateur "B" division at 492 and 445 points.

The Semi-Finals

In the pro ten-man semi-finals Ground Zero in division II maxed the All Americans, Bob Long's Ironmen, and Bad Company to move ahead to the finals. BL's Ironmen then maxed Bad Company and the All Americans to join GZ in the finals. In division I Rage and Image took two of three to advance to the final rounds. Jax Warriors and Shockwave each took two of their semi-final round games in division I of the amateur "A" bracket, while Fusion and Ground Zero Gold won their division rounding out the final round foursome. Team Strange, Aces Wild, Landslide, and the X-Men each won their amateur "B" divisions to move into the finals.

The Finals

The pro ten-man finals were a very low scoring affair with no team maxing two games. Team Image did manage to max one and get a flag pull to win the event with 154 points. They were followed by Rage (116), Bob Long's Ironmen (100), and Ground Zero with just 26 points. Jax Warriors continued to dominate the amateur "A" division maxing all of their final-round games for the win. Jax were followed by Ground Zero junior (186), Fusion (100), and Shockwave (46). In the amateur "B" division Team Strange max their three game to take the first place trophy. Aces Wild (180), Landslide (115), and X-Men (26) rounded out the amateur "B" finals.

Final Thoughts

The overall feelings we got from talking to both players and spectators was that this was a very well Reffed and run event that will go a long was to restoring some of the NPPL's credibility. Until this point, the past two to three years have been somewhat disappointing in terms of team attendance at the events. In fact the only real thriving/growing yearly NPPL to this point has been the World Cup. Hopefully the 1999 NPPL Chicago Open will restore some confidence in the players and teams that the NPPL is on its way back.

Special thanks to WARPIG for providing some scores we were missing.