Can You Be a Professional Paintball Player?

Are you good enough at paintball to get to the biggoverns Paintball tournaments and play. The USPL in
show? Chances are if you have all the mostconjunction with the Pro Team Association hosts
expensive equipment and spend all your waking hoursyearly events in the U.S. where Paintball teams
either thinking about or playing paintball, you are acompete and are awarded points in four divisions
candidate for the U.S. Paintball League ((Professional, Division I, Division II and Division III) to
Sixteen Professional Teams put up their own moneydetermine an overall Paintball champion in each division.
to form the US Paintball League (USPL), nowThe USPL is committed to setting rules, standards and
headquartered in Huntington Beach, California. The USguidelines for safe, competitive, fair Paintball
Paintball League has purchased all the trade markscompetitions worldwide.
and rights to the National Professional Paintball LeagueThis year's remaining events include the West Coast
(NPPL) Super 7 World Series, recognized as one ofOpen in Corona, California July 24-26, The D.C.
the world's best paintball leagues. The redesignedChallenge in Aldie, Virginia August 28-30, and The
player-owned league under the USPL banner isWorld Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada October
dedicated to growing the sport of paintball across the16-18. Competitions are sometimes aired on ESPN2, so
United States by offering 7-man play from Division 3if you make it on a team you might make it on TV, too.
to the Professional level in addition to a division ofThe USPL has some serious sponsors, but you will still
5-man play.have to pay to register a team if you want to get a
The following teams will be competing in the 2009 Proshot at making it to the professional ranks.
Division:Prices range from $1,100 for a Division 3 5-man entry
• Chicago Legendto $2,350 for a Division 1 7-man entry. Early bird
• D.C. Arsenalspecials are available up to June every year, so if the
• Edmonton Impactfees are a problem you might want to think about
• Indianapolis Mutinyregistering for next year when those early bird rates
• Los Angeles Infamouscome around again. You can save up to $350 if you
• Miami Rageplan ahead. Professional players are added to teams
• Oakland Blastby invite only, so you will have to prove yourself first.
• O.C. BushwackersThe Eastern and Western Conference titles for every
• Phoenix Uniteddivision will be determined by each team's top three
• Sacramento XSVscores (The DC Challenge in August must be included
• San Antonio X-Factorto win the Eastern Conference and the West Coast
• San Diego DynastyOpen must be included to win the Western
• San Jose ExplicitConference). All 16 Professional teams will be
• Scottsdale Elevationcompeting in each event this season. The top three
• St. Louis Avalanchepro teams going into the West Coast Open are: DC
• Tampa Bay DamageArsenal (21 points), Dynasty (19 points), and Oakland
U.S. Paintball League is a player run organization thatBlast (17 points).