CFOA Rocky Top Classic

June 18-19 2005

The CFOA, presented by National Paintball Supply, returned to Kingsport, Tennessee June 18 and 19 to promote the fifth event of their 2005 schedule, the Rocky Top Classic. Hosted by Adam Hogston and Team Thrash, the event was held on the lush, beautiful grass of a driving range providing the players with the best playing surface yet seen in the season. Approximately ninety, five-man rookie, novice and amateur teams made the trip to the most northwesterly event on the CFOA calendar to compete for cash, prizes and valuable seed points towards the 2005 title race.

Several of the CFOA's sponsors also headed to the mountains to vend at the Rocky Top Classic, including Reactive Paintball, Der Der Productions, Custom Products (CP), Paintball Central, the Matrix Center, Boost Custom Paintball, Barrel Buffer, Paintball Kingdom and Planet Eclipse. In addition to vending, DerDer Productions' Rob Astamendi and Matt Hurdle were in-attendance and on the fields throughout the competition, filming for an upcoming DVD release. Three official, forty-piece XBall fields, provided by Sup Air Ball, were used in competition and were found to be quite large by the players, as the fields were as wide and as long as a regulation NXL field. Thanks to the perfect grass, players were able to dive and slide into bunkers without fear of injury, and nearly every player took advantage of this at least once throughout the competition.


Saturday's Redz rookie competition saw surprising results, as many of the usual suspects to be found competing for podium places failed to make semifinal or final round cuts. Of the sixteen teams to advance to the semifinals in the Redz rookie division, Atlanta Storm, the Animosity Kids, the Panic Kids and Bad Mojo made it through to the final round of play. The Animosity Kids proceeded to win the event, ahead of Atlanta Storm, Bad Mojo and the Panic Kids.

On Sunday, the amateur and novice teams spent the morning slugging it out with one-another in their mixed preliminary bracket, before splitting into novice and amateur semifinals that both took eight teams. As Gang Related was missing their back center player, team owner Steve "Tater Digger" Wyatt stepped back from his usual spot on Runnin' Wild to augment Related's lineup. The move worked, as he helped Gang Related to a finals appearance alongside sister team and series points leaders Runnin' Wild, who won their second straight CFOA Amateur division title and $2,000 cash (plus prizes). Two squads of Gridlock joined Runnin' Wild and Gang Related in the finals, forcing league president Larry Motes to order the two sets of sister teams to play one-another first, ensuring that no team could throw a game for their sister squad. Final standings in the amateur division saw Runnin' Wild on top with one Gridlock squad in second, Gang Related in third and the other Gridlock team in fourth overall.

History was made in the novice bracket at the Rocky Top Classic as team Authority, playing out of Adventure Beach Paintball, won their third consecutive CFOA title, becoming the first team in the history of the CFOA to three-peat. Anger Management brought up second place with a consistently strong Fracture squad taking third ahead of NewGen. The CFOA will take its show to Adventure Beach Paintball near North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in July. For more information about the CFOA, presented by National Paintball Supply, visit the official league website at www.thecfoa.com