Ichibang brings home the ichi-cash

While all the fields were full at the Oleai Sports Complex for the Saipan Little League Baseball Association, the greens and fairways of Laolao Bay Golf Resort were filled with duffers for the NMC Foundation Open, the table tops and whoops of the Cowtown Raceway were rocking with the Marianas Racing Association’s events, and the Hyatt Regency Saipan was hopping with the beach volleyball action during their farewell tournament on Sunday, five teams of thrill-seeking marksmen went toe-to-toe at Hard Corps Paintball in Gualo Rai for the 5-Man Gatorade Pro Jam.

Temperatures soared as the squads maneuvered through the course on a mission to eliminate the competition, but the fiercesome fivesome of Ichibang emerged from the pack to reel in the top prize of $500 and the first place trophy for smoking S.S. Ghost Company in the final shootout.

After the first two rounds, S.S. Ghost Company punched its ticket to the finals by amassing 682 points, and was joined by the young gunners of Ichibang who finished in second place with 542 points, but things changed quickly in the finals.

Ichibang jumped out to take the advantage early by eliminating all members of Ghost and hanging the flag unscathed in a little more than five and a half minutes for an 80-0 score, but they caught a break when Ghost was penalized a loss of 20 points for sideline coaching.

Down by 100 points, S.S. Ghost Company came out firing for a perfect score of 100 points to force a tiebreaker, but after wiping out the entire Ichibang gang they came just 43 seconds from their three-minute goal to lose out by an 80-70 score. For their efforts on the course, S.S. Ghost Company left their Gualo Rai haunts with a new BT4 Marker—a staple in the paintball world, and a second place trophy.

Though they missed out on the finals, Team Citius went home with three cases of paintballs and a trophy after compiling 485 points for third place, and the newest team on the circuit performed admirably as the crew from Mountain Dew bagged fourth place with 141 points.

Tournament director Rob Hazlett said that he was impressed with the Dew crew and that he expects great things the next they take the field.

“The debut of team Mountain Dew may not look good on the scorecard but I must say that, for the first time out, the youngsters have a lot of potential. The team captain is the father of one of the boys and also plays. The rest of the team are youngsters—a group of friends. I am excited about watching them grow as a team,” he said.

In addition to the Mountain Dew performance, Hazlett was also impressed by Team Recon as the Mallari Enterprises sponsored squad competed throughout the day with just three participants and still managed 114 points on the day.

For that Hazlett gave them gave them a chronograph in recognition of overcoming adversity and exuding the kind of sportsmanship typified by the Hard Corps family.