5
Avalanche: No team has ever
assembled the level of individual talent that the original Avalanche team had when it formed
in 1999. This team featured players
like Ed Poorman, Chris LaSoya, Rocky
Cagnoni, Todd Martinez, Steve Rabackoff, Jon Richardson (“Jonny Paintball”),
Glenn Forester, Travis Lemanski, Todd
Hugo and Jeremy Salm. All in the
prime of their playing careers and all
of these players had either won major
events with other teams in the past
(with teams like Image, Lockout and
GBD) or players that would validate
their “star” status later by winning with
teams like Infamous and Dynasty. Right
from the jump Avalanche was dominant, winning NPPL Las Vegas and Dallas and three Millennium Series events
in their first year--as well as the NPPL
series title. For an encore they won
Nashville and Gettysburg NPPL in their
59
second year, finishing in second place
in the NPPL series Pro rankings. In all
Avalanche won 15 major professional
events in the U.S. and abroad in the
Millennium Series. Avalanche was a
powerhouse for two plus years til they
burned out quickly, falling out of the
top ten in the NPPL pro rankings by
2002. They had a bit of a bounce-back
year in 2004, finishing in 4th place in
the NPPL series rankings, but that was
the end of their run.
Other Avalanche notes of interest:
No team in the history of the game has
produced more “future” star players
than Avalanche. Virtually their entire
roster (the ones that didn’t retire when
the team disbanded) went on to win
Pro events with other teams (Dynasty,
Infamous, Philly Americans, Aftershock
and others).
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