On Saturday, February 9th, the West Virginia University Paintball team went to All American Paintball Park in Greensburg, PA for the 2008 Frost Bowl. This tournament is the second largest tournament of the year hosting 25 colleges from the Northeast Region of the NCPA (National Collegiate Paintball Association). WVU, who went into the tournament ranked 39th, is a young team that plays here local at Mountain Valley Paintball Park just outside of Morgantown. Even though they are a very young team they have found ways to get school and private support from companies like Monster Energy drink (Mona Supply) and WVGameDay.com on the mileground.
The caliber of play at the Frost Bowl each year is very tough. The team decided to enter two 5-man teams into the pool of 25 giving them a little better chance to place as the day went on. With 25 teams, the event coordinators decided to have an eight team semi-final and then a four team final to determine the champion. Both WVU teams played very hard in the prelim and the Gold team finished with 6-2 record while the Blue team ended up with a 5-3 record. Based on points both teams made the semi-finals with the Gold team finishing 7th and the Blue team finishing 8th.
With the top eight teams left to duke it out in the semi-finals the competition was fierce and included the number one ranked team in the country, the Liberty University Flames. Both teams played very hard in the semis but the Blue team finished with a 1-2 record, only beating Liberty University. This kept them from making the finals but did land them 6th place which is the highest position they have ever finished.
The Gold team then entered the finals against Temple, Liberty, and Miami of Ohio. If there is ever a time you want to see a team come together it is now and that is exactly what the Gold team did. They played and won all three games in the finals and only lost two players in three games, which were amazing! With the third win the WVU Gold team took home first place and the first championship in the programs short three year history. With the win WVU jumped to number 9 in the country and will be heading to Miami of Ohio University for their next tournament in March. After that they will be in Orlando, FL playing in the NCPA Nationals and going for a shot at the National Championship.
One final note from the event, the WVU Blue team played and beat handedly the University of Michigan.
And thank you to WVGamday.com for believing in and sponsoring us long before we ever won our first tournament.
