KSU’s club paintball team will host two tournaments at Nitro Paintball in Canton, Georgia, in preparation for college nationals.
“College paintball has two divisions, Class A and Class AA,” said team member Steven Torres. “We compete in Class A which is an invite only division. We are the only Class A team in Georgia.” KSU competes in the Class AA division as well as being invited to Class A.
The first tournament will be held on March 24, and will consist of teams that compete in the Class AA division, while the second tournament will be on March 31, and will consist of competition from the Class A division. The Owls are coming off a first place finish at their last Class AA event, going undefeated in the tournament.
“We are really excited about both tournaments,” said team captain and club president, Spencer Lloyd. “This will be our first time hosting the Class A event and we have been working hard to make a good showing since this is our last event and chance for preparation until nationals in April.”
At the Class A event, two big opponents that the Owls will face include Tennesee and Liberty.
“Tennessee won nationals last year and Liberty has consistently made top-four and always has a strong team,” Lloyd said. “We took Tennessee to overtime losses both matches that we played them this year and we are looking to change that to a win.”
The Owls have changed the ways they prepare for tournaments in order to compete and play to the best of their ability.
“This is the first year we have strictly stuck to workout program,” Lloyd said.
“There have been drastic positive results, as our team is getting significantly faster and our endurance has increased exponentially.” The drastic improvement in endurance and speed will help the Owls’ chances of playing hard in the two tournaments. Two different styles of the game will be played at each tournament, and each requires a different set of skills and understanding of the challenges they present. The Class AA division will compete in what is called “Five Man,” while the Class A division will play, “X Ball.”
“Five Man is a much slower game and it’s bracket based,” said team member Andrew Walker. “The tournament starts with preliminaries. After preliminaries are finals, which consist of three or fourr teams playing for top three. The games are in a Race 2 format, which means they are playing for best two out of three.”
“X Ball is the premier college league and is a very fast game,” Walker said. “There will be three teams and each team will play the other twice, resulting in KSU playing four games. Each game consists of two ten minute halves and points are played until the time runs out.”
The team will look to improve on the physical aspect of their game, as well as maintain a strong team bond and adapting to adversity.
“It is extremely important to have good chemistry. It is almost impossible to be successful without a good team bond,” Lloyd said. “There are so many variables that you have to try and adapt to as quickly as possible. You really have to focus on playing together as a team.”
The Owls will host the two tournaments before competing at nationals in April.
