English
In addition to the well-known tournament series and leagues in Germany, there are also individual tournaments and events. One of these is the Niedersachsen Open 2024, which was held in mid-March under the direction of Ballistics Göttingen at Paintball Battlefields Hildesheim. The games were played over two days with a total of 22 teams in the 3-man and 5-man divisions. We were of course there to report for you.
Most leagues and tournament series don't start until April or May. But since many players can hardly wait to get back on the field and compete against other teams after the long winter break, well-organized individual tournaments are held in many places, where players and teams can gain their first experience for the upcoming season. One of the biggest tournaments in northern Germany is the Niedersachsen Open . As the name "Open" suggests, the tournament is a more open tournament format in which any interested team can register. Tournaments of this type are therefore not as performance-oriented as the higher leagues, but even ambitious young teams have the opportunity to compete against one or two stronger teams that they would otherwise not get in front of the marker either in training or in the league. Some well-known names from the German paintball tournament scene also competed in the Niedersachsen Open. With Braindead Emsdetten, BALLERN. Dortmund and the Wildhogs Berlin, three teams from last year's first Bundesliga were on the field. An interesting opportunity for the region's junior teams to get up close and personal with these heavyweights and to receive real feedback on where exactly they currently stand compared to the top German teams.
But of course there were not only Bundesliga teams there. The starting field was a colorful mix of regional and national teams as well as teams of varying strengths. The juniors were also well catered for at the Lower Saxony Open. The match day on Saturday was completely dominated by the 3-man format, in which three against three played on the field in "Hit the Base". "Hit the Base" means that the game ends as soon as a player has reached the opponent's starting base without being hit. Unlike the 5-man X-Ball format, only one point is played per match. The 3-man format is therefore significantly lower in terms of playing level than the 5-man format in this tournament and is therefore ideally suited for ambitious junior teams to gain experience in a professional environment.
After a very hard-fought match day, the Degan team from the Stadthagen area became Lower Saxony's champion in the 3-man format. Closely followed by the Oldschool Warriors in second place and the Little Knights in third place.
On Sunday, the 5-man X-Ball tournament took place. The preliminary round was held in three divisions with four teams. In each division, each of the four teams played against each other once. This meant that each team played three games. The best three teams in each division went into the knockout final. Here, it was important to have achieved a good position in your division beforehand, because the group winner from Group A, for example, played against the group third from Group B. The knockout phase of the tournament lasted three rounds and started with the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals and the grand final with the match for places 1 – 4. You had to win three times in a row in the knockout phase to end up at the top of the winners' podium.
In the end, the Braindead Emsdetten team managed to do this, with a really solid performance and only giving up a single match point over the entire tournament day. This means that Braindead has once again underlined its claim to be one of the best and strongest paintball tournament teams in Germany. We can definitely expect a lot from the guys this year. As far as we know, they will be competing in the ICS Pro again and will try to defend their two-time championship title of the last few years for the third year in a row.
But we don't want to keep the other successful teams from you either. In second and third place we find the teams Wildhogs Berlin 1 and BALLERN. Dortmund.
We would like to congratulate all the winning teams on their success and hope that all the other participating teams also had a good, exciting and entertaining tournament day. Good luck to the upcoming season!
