On the cusp of the final event of the 2013 WCPPL season this weekend in Las Vegas, Social Paintball has learned that Mike Hinman’s West Coast Paintball Players League is planning on opening its doors to a professional division in 2014.
A source close to the league has provided us with the current details on the new WCPPL 2014 Pro/Open Division plan:
- WCPPL will hold a total of 4 events in 2014, 2 of which will consist of a Pro/Open Division.
- Several established PSP pro teams have already shown interest in playing the 2 pro events, pending no national event date conflicts.
- The Pro/Open Division will be a “bring your own paint” division, teams will not be forced to shoot non-sponsor paint.
- 1st Place prize money will be in the five digit range (i.e. $10,000 minimum).
- Open is the term being used in order to not mess up D1 teams/players hoping to step up and compete in the new division. With that said, it’s geared towards Pro teams.
League owner Mike Hinman has informed us that an official statement will be released in the coming weeks.
Which professional paintball teams do you anticipate playing in the two scheduled WCPPL Pro/Open events next season?
Photo: Stretch Baker/1904Photography.com
obviously ironmen. and im gonna guess xsv. cp raiders, royalty, maybe storm or dynasty….BAM!!!!
Good guesses, wait until you see the real list!
i’d rather not wait. just give me the list
So much yes! Bring back the affiliated and feeder regional leagues. California can still be a hot-bed for paintball if we promote it like we used to (anybody remember XPSL and the dream of moving up to NPPL?). I just hope WCPPL can work with PSP and not against.
WCPPL WILL NOT work against the PSP. They will schedule their events around PSP event dates, like they did this year.
Hinman won’t go against the Psp. He is friends with Lane and Dave. He has publicly said he would never go against them. This year the Wcppl didn’t hold an event for almost three months just so people on the west coast would play Riverside.
Agreed. He will just schedule his events around the PSP.
Makes sense. I don’t see this as taking from the PSP so much as hurting the APL/NPP by giving incentive to the up and coming D2/D1 teams on the verge a seat in the pro-circuit to stay with the APPA/PSP leagues instead of playing as a D1 team in APL/NPPL pro. Almost like an unsaid semi-pro division of PSP exclusive to west coast teams. The benefit to teams like Dynasty and Ironmen is they don’t have to go far. If the WCPPL can get this division going it will really hammer the APL before it starts leaving only East Coast/Midwest D2-D1 teams looking to go pro the want to play it.
DMG has their divisional squads playing. So I would assume the challenger/main squad to play with Dave Bains and Greg guesting
Old news mike posted a FB Comment on my page months ago about the new open division, after I bashed pro nppl teams complaining about how the nppl was opening up the pro division and letting anybody with the cash play pro division, because lets be real the teams that were complaining were only playing pro because the had the cash. Mike’s idea of calling it and open division is a great idea