English
The XSERIES – Let's start with what is probably the DPL's most well-known competitor. The XSeries, which once emerged from the XPSL, has lost a lot of feathers in recent years, but is still at home in the German paintball tournament scene. With the exception of the junior series Xseries NOVICE, the XSeries will only be held in Millenium Park Gera in the 2020 season. Here you can fight for points in the amateur (semi-pro) and challenger (pro) divisions on five match days a year. With Biggensee and Trisching, there are also two other locations available for the Novice Division. The Leese location, which was the starting point for numerous teams here in the north, is obviously no longer on the list this year. However, the XSeries remains a good alternative for players in the East in particular, because unfortunately the DPL is structurally a little weaker there. The XSeries also offers the proven SPO (Sponsered Paint Only) principle in the coming season, which allows teams to bring their own paintballs. However, these must come from one of the XSeries sponsors. – These are Tomahawk, Possessed and Fotai Paintballs this season. In the DPL you only enjoy the privilege of SPO Paint, for example, from the regional league onwards. Regular tournament sport for a whole year is also clearly required here. The XSeries is an optimal introduction to tournament sports and can also be a springboard for the later change to the DPL or NXL Europe.
The ROOTS tournament in Hahn has been one of the most lucrative paintball tournaments in the scene for several years. The manufacturer Dye organizes one of the largest 2-day events in Germany with the Roots Event and in cooperation with Paintball Altlay in Hahn. Again, there are several divisions for beginners and pro teams. The game mode is designed for two days, so that even beginner teams can enjoy a taste of real tournament air, because that includes spending the night on the field, or at least close to it, and just a whole weekend of paintball with your team to experience. The facility in Hahn is also one of the most beautiful in Germany. As a participant in the Roots tournament, two fully equipped tournament fields with pit boxes and spectator stands await you in a great atmosphere.
One of the most interesting points of this tournament is the winnings. As the main sponsor, Dye is no slouch and hands out non-cash prizes with a total value of several thousand euros at every event. One of the tournaments in recent years even had a prize pool of more than 10,000 euros. This is unique in German tournament paintball.
The ICS – Independent Club Series – takes place year after year in the Sundaysclub Berlin. This field in Flatow, a suburb of Berlin, is one of the most popular in the scene for tournament paintballers from the Berlin area, along with the DPL location in Garzau. The operating team around the boys from Bundesliga club Kingsize Berlin have been running their small field for years with great dedication and a lot of fun. Anyone who has ever been there knows that Berlin paintball is something very special, just like the teams and players there. The same applies to the ICS. The independent tournament series started a few years ago as a pilot project by the Berliners and has now become a fixture in the annual paintball tournament calendar. The special thing here is that the ICS is also available as a winter series. This will then be held in the Paintball World Berlin-Spandau and is currently the largest winter series in Germany with 28 participating teams.
The CPS – or Championship Paintball Series is the second series of tournaments in Europe. It is practically the (very) small NXL Europe. You don't get the big stage here and there are significantly fewer teams, but it also costs less. If you want to get a taste of international tournament air as a small or medium-sized team, you are offered an inexpensive entry opportunity here. The CPS is also held in four countries across Europe. There are three different levels of play per event.
If you really want to go full throttle, you have the opportunity to be somewhere else on the field every weekend during the season and either play a tournament or prepare for the tournament on the following weekend. The tournaments are certainly very different and difficult to compare with one another, but each one definitely has its appeal.
