PSP in Charlotte was a tuff one for us. We where still fairly new to the NXL, and weren't quite used to the format yet.  We came out a little flat-footed against Tampa Bay Damage.  After that we really started playing as a team and we where working together more than we had been. The next 4 games where all very close, we lost to the Ironmen and Philly by 1 point and then beat Avalanche and Infamous. Unfortunately we beat infamous in overtime not in regulation play, giving them 1 point for a tie, because of this they went on to Sunday instead of us.

Malaga Spain would start the first leg of the Millennium, this event would be comparable to the Huntington Beach NPPL set up with beautiful scenery and a great venue.  Anthony, Josh and I would be the first to set our wings abroad and it would be a trip to remember on and off the field.  Josh Ouimet would set the pace playing with the Copenhagen Ducks Division 1 team by winning all of his prelim games with the team and making short work of advisarys.  They would breeze through the semis pushing there way into the finals.  In the final round they would have a bit more of a fight but would succeed with a win and would take the first tournament victorious.  Anthony and I would follow a similar path, we would take all of our prelim games only to move on and face Oliver and Pete U who where playing for the Bullets in the semi's.  The game would go back and forth for the first couple of points, once Anthony started to "Do Work" as we'd say he could not be stopped on either the Dorrito or the Snake side helping push for the win 5-3.  The final game we'd face the ever difficult Stockholm Joy Division, this game would start and finish quickly with Joy mopping the floor with our butts, final score 5-0 Joy.  All in all an impressive showing for the Canadian/Danish mix, it shall be an interesting year across the pond.  For all the off the field antics check out the Facebook group Thunder Dome.

-Josh

Last year was a interesting and incredible season for the new Pro team Edmonton Impact, this year would start off difficult but would provide a necessary wake up call to the always learning team.  The NPPL put on yet another incredible event with over 200 teams and a incredible showing by vendors from in the paintball industry and out.  Huntington Beach has always provide a exciting venue with everything California has to offer all in one spot.  On the playing side of things this would be a frustrating tournament for the Impact boys, they would win there first game handily but would only win a couple more games to send them home early on Saturday and would be the first time in almost two years that they've missed the Sunday club.

It all starts off in the barren desert of Phoenix Arizona where the first PSP of the year would take place.  This would be the first NXL tournament for the newly franchised Edmonton Impact.  Impact would start off with a hugh win over the favored Dynasty.  Impact would win 3 out of 5 of their preliminary games and move onto Sunday, the first match they would face the always-difficult Russian Legion.  Impact would put up an impressive game only to lose the match 7-5, there next advisory would present the Ironmen who are fresh off there 2007 NXL series championship and proved they where the best NXL team of 2007.  The match would start off point for point but with some early penalties for both teams Impact would take advantage and upset the fan favorites Ironmen 7-4.  The Russian Legion would progress on to face Oakland Infamous in the finals and Impact would be left with a 4th place finish.

Impact is spreading its wings across the pond.  It was a long flight but it paid off, Denmark was a chilly but nice +5C which was much nicer than the -20C in Canada. 

 The clinic took place in Copenhagen at the wonderful Copenhagen Paintball Arena. 
This was a 10 day private training clinic that worked on everything from physical training, speed training, paintball skills and drills, paintball game theory and scrimmages.  At this clinic I trained players from both the CPL and Div 1 Copenhagen Ducks teams, towards the end of it they were defiantly worn out. 

Next season Edmonton Impact is collaborating with the Copenhagen Ducks and will have some of our Pro Team members playing with the Ducks in the Pro division of the Millennium series.  These players will include;

Josh Davey

Anthony Fiaizza

Josh Ouimet

Zack Yachimec

Zane Yachimec

Justin Cornell

If you are interested in private team training or clinics by members of Edmonton Impact please E-mail or phone.

josh@edmontonimpact.com

Work -1(780)490-5269

Impact stumbles in world cup but finishes off the year on a good note.  Impact started off the prelims on the right foot winning 3 out of 4 of there games only losing to Avalanche X who would go on and win the event.  In the quarter finals Impact would play Gridlock and move through this game quickly thumping Gridlock 9-2. 
Semis would provide a much tougher match with Impacts nemesis Aftermath who has got the better half of Impact all year; Aftermath would defeat Impact 9-3.  Impact would move into the finals to play for third and forth alongside Team Speed.  This game would be a struggle back and forth the entire game only to have the game move into over time.  Both teams would break out with five alive, the overtime point would dwindle down to the three minute mark slowly Speed would pick off the Impact players to win the overtime point.  Impact would still retain there overall standing for the season with a impressive 2^nd overall finish.

2007 Overall Open Class Standings

Aftermath                                 475

Impact                                      417

Avalanche X                             410

Tampa Bay Damage                 317

Edmonton Impact prevails taking the CXBL Championships one more time.  The western finals for Impact would be a battle.  Impact would face Parkland Youngguns who had acquired Darcy Schlichenmayer to help lead the team throughout the season and also add Chris Lasoya and two other Aftershock players for the finals.  Parkland would have troubles in the first match; weather took a beating on the players and equipment with a chilly -1C.  Impact would win the first match 10-4.  The second match would prove more difficult, Impact would take the lead in the first half 7-1, Parkland would turn up the heat in the second half with Chris Lasoya putting tons of pressure up the middle.  Impact would hold onto the win, in the end with the final score 11-8.   The Central and Eastern conference winners would not be able to keep up with the pace of Impact, Impact would first defeat Mirabel 17-3, and go on to beat Ottawa 14-2.  This would be the second CXBL Championship win for Edmonton Impact. 
A special shout out to the Ottawa Mavericks for only playing with 7 players the entire weekend and making it to the finals, Young Guns paintball for hosting the event, and the CXBL for putting on another great event.

Final

1^st Edmonton Impact

2^nd Ottawa Mavericks

3^rd Mirabel Impact

Chicago is always a great event for the PSP, it has a great venue lots of spectators and usually good weather.  The first game of the event would be a game for the books, Impact started the first half down by 5 points to Avalanche only to fight back and tie the game with 19sec left in the second half.  The game would push into over time only to have Impact beat a frustrated Avalanche the final score 9-8.  Impact would finish out the preliems with only one loss to PB Punishers, the semi's proved to be a breese with the win over Static 10-3.  It always seems that we meet up with these guys, SD Aftermath got the better half of us in Charollete and would do it again with the final score 10-5 for SD.

Back on the road again this time in Charlotte for the 2^nd event of the PSP.  After clinching the first event to Aftermath everyone was looking at Impact as the team to beat.  Impact would start of slow losing there first two matches, the first to Static 5-8 and the second to Team Speed 5-6.  Saturday Impact would pull up there socks sneaking the win 6-5 to Jax Warriors and putting a beating on Tampa Bay Damage 9-2.  Impact would miss the cut for the finals and would end up 5^th.  Here are the standings after two events;

Open X-Ball^TM:

Impact's very own Zack Yachimec and Josh Ouimet have joined there fellow teammate Josh Davey to help strengthen Dynasty's X-ball roster.  Congrats to Josh Ouimet and Zack Yachimec it goes to show what hard work and determination can do.

 "Balky" is Zack's new American name.

                                                                               "Larry" is Josh's new nickname.

2nd Place in HB"Incredible"

After a three day grueling practice the weekend prior with top teams such as, San Diego Dynasty, Los Angeles Infamous and San Diego Aftermath, the team was looking in top form for their first professional event. 
With a week of relaxation behind them the boys were ready to start their dominance on the competition,  the first game up was Chicago Evil and as soon as the game started it was already over with Edmonton Impact winning big.  This set the pace for the rest of the preliminaries with Impact battling their way to a strong 7^th place finish.  After the success of the first day the team knew what it took to advance to the finals, the team used the knowledge they learned in the prior day and fought their way to a 1^st place standing after the quarter-finals were done.  With 1^st place overall in their sights Edmonton Impact knew it would be a hard fought road to the finals as the team drew the uncontested best team in the world, San Diego Dynasty, winners of 5 straight NPPL “National Professional Paintball League” professional titles. 
The game was set to be a best two out of three with the winner advancing to the finals for the shot at the 25,000$ purse.  With them knowing what was on-line, they didn’t ever look back, taking it to the reigning world champion’s impact came out hard and won the first game in a very exciting match up.  This left San Diego Dynasty with elimination in their sights if they did not win the next game.  With an untimely penalty impact was not able to rebound back and lost the next game in the match, this left both teams tied at one win a piece going into a sudden death overtime, one game winner takes all scenario.  With Edmonton Impact refusing to give up, the boys fought their way to an amazing win to send the remaining champions home.  With their next adversaries already chosen, Oakland Blast, a team that has been atop the professional rankings for 11 years, the younger Impact team knew that this was no easy match-up, and had to use what they have learned in their short amount of time in the professional league to come out with a victory. 
With the crowd roaring in the background, Edmonton Impact took to the field.  Impact lost three players off the break due to a penalty and a team friendly fire making the decision in the game to tie the game up and waiting for the next game to be at full strength.  As game 2 came, Oakland Blast muscled their way up the field and beat Edmonton Impact in an experienced fashion with 4 players left alive at the end of the game.  This left Impact in a must-win situation, with the last game nearing, and impact needing a win to bring the match into overtime,   Fighting their way through the 3^rd game, with Impact being up until the last minute of the game, Oakland battled their way back to win the game with 2 players left alive.  With this being their first professional event, impact made history as being the only new profesional team ever to place in the top four in their first event.  Edmonton Impact earned the respect of the players and fans around the world with the success of their first event, and truly has earned the right to call themselves a professional paintball team.      

Impact wins big in L.A. 

In four short days Impact would muscle there way to the finals in the first event of the 2007 season.  Impact would breeze there way through the prelims laying the beat down on teams that stood in there way.  The prelims would go as follows 10-3, 9-4, 9-3, 9-4, this would give Impact a buy to the semi finals where they matched up against the Bushwackers, Impact stuggled in the beginning and snuck the win 6-5.  The finals would bring a even tougher rival SD Aftermath who had just finshed beat down Impact in the World Cup.  This time it was Impact's turn to take home the trophy.  The begining of the game was a stuggle starting down 4-1 in the begining, only to tie it up before the half was over.  The second half was a battle going point for point.  Impact would be down one point with only one minute to go.  With sensational playing up the middle and a couple of kills of the break Impact would tie it up and force it into a overtime point.  As they walked onto the feild you could tell the game was over, the confedence was remarkable.  Shooting two guys of the break Impact would clench the title in just over one minute.  Congarats to team Impact with the first win of the new season.