15 teams came to battle for a podium finish at the 3rd event of the 2012 SARPL 5-man series, but they got more than they bargained for as they also had to battle the elements on the day.

A cold front had hit South Africa earlier that week and it had decided to stay for the event, which meant the players got to the field early in the morning with close to freezing temperatures.

Event 3 also saw the first SARPL AGM (Annual General Meeting) that was held before the first game started at Paintball City. Paul Grobler worked through a presentation about the league and it’s growth over the past year as well as a quick breakdown of the finances in the league and also look at the road forward.

Paul Grobler also announced the start of the SANPA (South African National Paintball Association), a body that would support and grow the sport of paintball in South Africa by working with Government affiliates and all stake holders in local paintball.

Paul Grobler also announced the start of the NSUPL (National Schools and University League) which will see 3-man teams from schools and universities competing in their own divisions. This event will be open to 3 players from the same school or same university competing in their respective categories. More information will be available shortly, but we are looking forward to see this grow across South Africa.

The first games started straight after the meeting and the horrid weather rained havoc on the players gear and paint, causing a lot of teams to call timeouts due to the fact that there gear needed cleaning.

But rising out of the ashes was team All Stars making a serious comeback and winning all their prelim games which secured them a place in the finals.

Dynamix and Reaper battled it out in the semi finals, which saw Reaper grabbed the opportunity to play in the finals with a 2-1 victory over new comer power house team Dynamix.

Finals in D3 saw the old boys of All Stars take on the Reaper machine, but it did not go their way and ended with a 2-0 win for Reaper.

D3 Final Standings

1st Reaper
2nd All Stars
3rd Dynamix

The semi finals in D4 was played between teams M.E.S and Pandemonium. M.E.S decided they weren’t going down without a fight and won 2-0 against Pandemonium, giving them a ticket to the finals.

Up next was a great battle between FreeRunners and Dark Legends. Dark Legends was determined to go for gold, but FreeRunners stopped them in their tracks after beating them 2-1 and securing them a place in the finals.

Dark Legends then played Pandemonium for third and fourth, but at the end Dark Legends took it 2-1 to secure them the third place spot on the podium.

The finals saw FreeRunners take on  M.E.S as early sunset started creeping around the corner. FreeRunners took the first point and then the second, winning with a clean 2-0 against M.E.S.

D4 Final Standings

1st FreeRunners
2nd M.E.S
3rd Dark Legends
4th Pandemonium

Congratulations to all the teams who played and for the great attitudes shown by all players and teams.

Current Season Rankings for the SARPL 2012

The SARPL would like to thank Paintball City for the great venue and also all the kiosk staff for their great service keeping the players warm and fed.

A Big thank you to Marco and his team for marshalling on the day, as well as the players from FreeRunners and Demon Crushers that assisted.

In general, marshalling is probably not the greatest job to do at an event and I for one am glad it is not my job. I do take my hat off for the marshalls that were on the field the whole day in the extreme cold having to make those calls.

A big thank you also to Paintballshop Centurion (Hardie and Elaine) for all their help and prizes sponsored for the day from Gelkaps (Ignite) Planet Eclipse and Valken.

Thank you also to the Paintball City Pro Shop (Nick and Chris) for the prizes sponsored from RPS (Premium), DYE Paintball and Bad Company.

We would also like to thank HK Army for all the great prizes they sponsored for the event and the players are definitely impressed with the prizes that they won.

From this event onwards,  the team that takes first at the event in their division gets FREE entry into the next 5-man event and second and third place each gets a HALF PRICE ENTRY for the next 5-man event.

A Thank you also to Gaston Roulstone from Switch Multimedia, coming all the way from Cape Town, taking on the cold and shots from the players to get some greats shots of his own to make players, teams and the league look great. As always we are looking forward to seeing those amazing pictures on Facebook and www.paintballphotography.com soon.

Other Prizes:

Sportsmanships – Courtney Stroebel for the way she handled herself on and off the field.

Move of the day – Nathan Brown for taking on the snake and diving into the centre.

Most Improved Team – Demon Crushers for taking on some of the best teams in the country and showing great potential.

Team of the event – All Stars for rising out of the ashes and showing young and old that they are not done yet.

Fastest Game Time – Pandemonium with 50 seconds in their game against Redemption.

Random Draw Prizes – Various prizes to players that was on the roster and at the prize giving.

Upcoming Events

We looking forward to seeing you at our next upcoming events:

28/29 June 2012 – SARPL 3-man Event 6 at Paintball City

12 Aug 2012 – SARPL 5-man Event 4 at the Xtreme Field, Muldersdrift

For now the SARPL is heading out to Port Elizabeth this weekend for the first SARPL EC 3-man Event 1 happening on Sunday 22 July 2012 at Planet Paintball.

SARPL
The Future of Paintball