BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)

BOP Blast is a New Zealand tournament paintball team from the Bay of Plenty. The team has previously competed under the names TPC Blast, Tempest and Tempest Blast. TPC referred to Tauranga Paintball Club, while BOP refers to Bay of Plenty.

The team's documented tournament history extends from 2010 to 2026, including appearances in the New Zealand Paintball Players League, South Auckland Paintball Club Race Series, New Zealand Local Series (NZLS), New Zealand Race Series and competitions at Arena Paintball.[1][2][6][13][19][21]

History

TPC Blast (2010–2012)

TPC Blast competed at the Christchurch Easter five-player tournament on 3–4 April 2010, finishing fifth among seven entries.[1]

At the June 2011 NZPPL Rotorua tournament, the team finished seventh in the opening standings with 397 points and subsequently finished second in the reported Plate competition behind Phoenix.[2]

Contemporary forum discussions connected TPC Blast with Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty Paintball Club.[3]

The team was included in a pre-event list for the 2011 NZPPL Nationals, although its final attendance has not been confirmed.[4]

At the first NZPPL Super 5-Man event of 2012, held at Lock N Load Paintball in Auckland on 7–8 April, TPC Blast was placed eighth in a participant-reported classification. An official final result sheet has not been recovered.[5]

Tempest and Tempest Blast (2014)

The team competed in all four documented events of the 2014 SAPC Open X-Ball Race Series under the names Tempest and Tempest Blast.[6]

As Tempest, the team finished third at the February opening event. Competing as Tempest Blast, it finished third in May and fifth in July. The team returned to the Tempest name for the September event, finishing third.[7][8][9][10]

PBLeagues identifies Tempest as a Tauranga team and records Tempest and Tempest Blast under the same historical team profile.[6]

A trophy inscribed "SAPC Open 3rd Place 2014" is also documented in the photographic collection shared by Vince Knipmeijer in 2026.[21]

BOP Blast (2015 onwards)

BOP Blast competed at the first two events of the 2015 SAPC Race Series, finishing seventh in January–February and fifth in April.[11][12]

Subsequent competition records and historical awards document the team's involvement in the New Zealand Local Series, Paintball Direct NZ competitions and tournaments at Arena Paintball.

A photographic collection published by Vince Knipmeijer in 2026 documents medals and trophies associated with BOP Blast and its predecessor names. The collection includes awards for individual NZLS events, season championships, divisional competition and regional tournaments.[21]

The awards dated 2015 onwards have been attributed to BOP Blast through contributor confirmation. While their inscriptions establish the event and placing, the team name is not engraved on every award.

The team's documented honours include a 2017 NZLS season championship medal, a 2019 NZLS season runner-up medal and several event victories.[21]

BOP Blast appeared in Arena Paintball competition draws during 2025 and 2026.[15][16][17][18]

An Arena Paintball standings update published on 12 July 2026 placed BOP Blast seventh in the series after two rounds, with 262 points.[19]

Tournament results

The following results combine published tournament records with awards photographed in the collection shared by Vince Knipmeijer. Results supported by the photographic collection are identified separately from published competition standings.

Year	Team name	Tournament	Division or stage	Result	Source
2010	TPC Blast	Christchurch Easter tournament	Open 5-man	5th of 7	[1]
2011	TPC Blast	NZPPL Rotorua tournament	Plate	2nd, participant-reported	[2]
2012	TPC Blast	NZPPL Super 5-Man Auckland Event 1	Overall	8th, participant-reported	[5]
2014	Tempest	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 1	Open X-Ball	3rd	[7]
2014	Tempest Blast	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 2	Open X-Ball	3rd	[8]
2014	Tempest Blast	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 3	Open X-Ball	5th	[9]
2014	Tempest	2014 SAPC Race Series Event 4	Open X-Ball	3rd	[10]
2015	BOP Blast	2015 SAPC Race Series Event 1	Open X-Ball	7th	[11]
2015	BOP Blast	2015 SAPC Race Series Event 2	Open X-Ball	5th	[12]
2015	BOP Blast	NZLS Whanganui Cup	Not confirmed	3rd, photographic record	[21]
2016	BOP Blast	NZLS Race Round 1, Rotorua Ballbusters	Not confirmed	1st, photographic record	[21]
2017	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 1, Aces High Paintball	Not confirmed	2nd, photographic record	[13][14][21]
2017	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 2	Not confirmed	3rd, photographic record	[21]
2017	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 3, Aces High Paintball	Not confirmed	1st, photographic record	[21]
2017	BOP Blast	NZLS Hawera, Paintball Direct NZ	Division II	1st, photographic record	[21]
2017	BOP Blast	NZLS season championship	Season standings	1st, photographic record	[21]
2018	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 2, Asylum	Not confirmed	3rd, photographic record	[21]
2018	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 4, Asylum	Not confirmed	2nd, photographic record	[21]
2019	BOP Blast	Paintball Direct NZ 5-Man Challenge, Hawera	Division I	1st, photographic record	[21]
2019	BOP Blast	NZLS Event 3, TECT Park	Not confirmed	2nd, photographic record	[21]
2019	BOP Blast	NZLS season championship	Season standings	2nd, photographic record	[21]
2021	BOP Blast	2021 Corkill Cup	Not confirmed	2nd, photographic record	[21]
2022	BOP Blast	Arena Cup, June	Not confirmed	1st, photographic record	[21]
2024	BOP Blast	Arena Labour Day	Plate	2nd, photographic record	[21]
2026	BOP Blast	Arena Matariki	Plate	1st, photographic record	[21]
2026	BOP Blast	Arena Paintball series, after Round 2	Series standings	7th, 262 points	[19]

Additional historical awards

The photographic collection also includes several awards with incomplete or obscured inscriptions.[21]

These include:

NZLS Event 4 at Lock N Load Paintball, Auckland, third place, year unconfirmed.
NZLS Event 6 at Lock N Load Paintball, Auckland, third place, year unconfirmed.
An ECPL (East Coast Paintball League) championship trophy.
Additional ECPL medals.
A BOP Paintball Triples trophy.
A Paintball Direct NZ Five Man Competition Challenge Cup.
An Arena Cup third-place trophy with no visible year.
A New Zealand Race Series medal dated 2020, without a confirmed placing.
An additional Corkill Cup second-place medal with a year that cannot be reliably established from the photograph.

These records require further identification before they can be entered as dated tournament results.

Team identity

The team has competed under several names:

TPC Blast – Tauranga Paintball Club Blast.
TCP Blast – a transposed spelling appearing in a 2010 tournament announcement.
Tempest – used during the 2014 SAPC Race Series.
Tempest Blast – used during the 2014 SAPC Race Series.
BOP Blast – Bay of Plenty Blast.

PBLeagues records Tempest and Tempest Blast under the same historical team identity.[6]

The continuity between TPC Blast, Tempest, Tempest Blast and BOP Blast is contributor-confirmed. Exact dates for the name changes have not been independently established.

A separate team called Blast competed at the 2008 Wellington Easter Tournament, finishing thirteenth. Its connection to BOP Blast has not been established.[20]

Documented people

Name	Documented involvement
Steve (surname unconfirmed)	A contributor using the username Armagedonmad identified himself as a Bay of Plenty Paintball Club member and listed TPC Blast as his team.[3]
Vince Knipmeijer	Identified BOP Blast and TPC Blast as the principal teams associated with his historical collection of tournament medals and trophies, published in 2026.[21]

References

External links