EPS 2018 (Malaysia)

Our Eclipse Paintball Series, kindly sponsored and supported by Planet Eclipse is cheerfully known as the EPS 2018 Series and begins in early March. This is normally because of the festivities associated with Chinese New Year in February. Our opening season’s event which had nearly 30 teams across 3 divisions, Open, Amateur and Novice playing a Race format to 3 points and 2 points, had most teams looking forward to a great paintball tournament and thats’ what they got. Paintball in Malaysia was in the doldrums with the onset of paintball markers licensing since the end 2013 but we have now started to rise from the depths to the see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For our 1st leg of EPS 2018, we have players and teams from Indonesia - Medan Smokers, Brunei - Leakside Jokers and players from Singapore and Thailand as well trying it out with the local teams. The local Eclipse sponsored top teams, Nemesis Legion, Raskal, Mambang DiAwan (2017 Amateur Division Overall Champions), gave everyone a good run for their money. Team Medan Smoker and Leakside Jokers both jumped into the deep end for the Open Division and gave their best shot which was a good as the other top teams. Many teams were more adventurous this year, moving up a division of play to improve the games and to gain more experience.

We have seen teams improving tremendously since last season with continuous training especially in the Amateur Division and many more teams moving up from the Novice Divisions. Teams are now more focused to improving their skills and battling it out with the local big names. One such team is Unikorn Legacy, a top Novice team shooting their sponsored Eclipse Gtek 160R and was the Overall Champions for the Novice Division 2017, taking the next level up to Amateur Division this season. The most exciting division to watch is the Amateurs with newer and younger teams, new spirit and enthusiasm. All this is refreshing to see that the steady recovery and growth of paintball is gathering momentum.

We also have 2 teams that were sponsored to play our EPS events from their respective Polytechnics, Polytechnic Kota Bahru - PKB and Polytechnic Sultan Azlan Shah - PSAS. Team PKB finished 3rd and team PSAS finished 4th place in the Novice Division shooting the Eclipse Etek 5 markers borrowed from the EPS organisers.

 

Imagine, a team without markers and shooting the Etek 5 for the first time and finishing on the podium. This is why EPS 2018 is working and developing its paintball events and programs jointly with secondary and tertiary education establishments to further expose newer and grassroots players for the future of the paintball industry. This is with the ultimate aim of sending a U16 school squad to play at NXL Paris this year, funded by the local and international paintball industry.

Team Raskal and Team Nemesis are still dominating the top spots in the Open Divisions with their Planet Eclipse markers and are now recruiting younger players to their squad. Team Raskal is busy rebuilding its team with nearly half of the previous squad retired. The new blood injected has proven to be a good and solid move as team Raskal are still continuously being able to maintain the top spots. 

Paintball and paintball tournaments are coming back to Malaysia with gusto and we welcome teams to participate in our tournament. EPS 2018 is the best for Value for money with good and awesomely priced paint, registration fees, great facilities coupled with well experienced Refs. We have the latest WPBO 2018 bunkers and Scoring systems and software. Gives us a try and team Nemesis and Raskal, together with Mambang DiAwan shall be waiting to give you a shoot out in the Open while in the Amateur Division, the up and coming teams to watch, El Mohad, OSB, EJPC and Lockdown, 1st to 4th respectively shall give you good games. Novice will see Anarki Legion, the 1st leg Champs, Rampage and the 2 Polytechnic teams fight for the podium spots again in our next leg of our EPS 2018.

Thanks to Wan Mad Photography and AXMedia for the pictures..