Paintball Magazine May 2017 Paintball.Media | Page 43

up to the pro CPL division. Amsterdam Heat, Ronholt Blast, FiveStar Lleida, Ramstein Instinct and Vienna United also moved up to the CPL. While it’s great to see teams moving up a division this number of SPL teams migrating to the CPL definitely dilutes the level of play a bit at the highest level. And again the CPL finals featured two of the world’s best paintball teams—Toulouse TonTons and Edmonton Impact. As is often the case Edmonton Impact got off to a fast start against the TonTons, opening up a big lead early. But you may remember last year’s Basildon event where Impact held a 5-1 lead over the TonTons in the finals and were on the verge of mercy-ruling The four teams making it to the semifinals in them. But it didn’t happen. The TonTons came the SPL were Lucky 15s Staffordshire, Cologne storming back for a 7-6 win. Hurricanes, Expendables Feilding and Birmingham Disruption. And neither game was Could history repeat itself? Not this time. Impact close. Lucky 15s Staffordshire shutout Cologne held their foot on the gas and cruised to a 6-1 Hurricanes 4-0 and Expendables Feilding did win. the same to Birmingham Disruption. SPL (SEMI PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE) The SPL final match didn’t disappoint. The back and forth affair was slow moving for the most Last year’s top two SPL teams, the Russian part but in the end it was Expendables Feilding, Legion and Red Storm Moscow have moved to all the way from New Zealand with the 3-2 victory www.paintball.media 043