Editing 2026 Arena Paintball Labour Day Cup

'''2026 Arena Paintball Labour Day Cup''' was a five-player [[paintball]] tournament held on 24–25 October 2026 at [[Arena Paintball]] in Feilding, New Zealand. It was the third event in the venue's 2026 race-format tournament series.[1]

[[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 1]] won the Cup, defeating [[Manawatu Titans (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Manawatu Titans]] 3–2 in the final. [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]] won the Plate with a 5–1 victory over [[BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)|BOP Blast]].[8][9]

== Venue and format ==

The tournament took place at Arena Paintball, 558 Kimbolton Road, Feilding.

The advertised format used ten-minute matches with a four-point mercy rule. Players were limited to a hopper and four additional pods per game, and teams could register up to eight players.[1]

The programme provided for round-robin play followed by semi-finals and finals, with separate Cup and Plate competitions.[1]

The published draw contained 11 entries representing ten teams, with Ballistics Unit entering two squads. It listed 44 fixtures arranged in 22 sets.[2]

== Final results ==

The final Cup and Plate placings were reported by [[Ralph Tsing]] in a Facebook comment on a post published by Phoenix Tahiti Paintball following the tournament. The organiser's day-two livestream records additional match results.[5][8][9][10][11][12]

=== Cup ===

{| class="wikitable"
! Position
! Team
|-
| 1
| '''[[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 1]]'''
|-
| 2
| [[Manawatu Titans (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Manawatu Titans]]
|-
| 3
| CULT
|-
| 4
| Reavers
|}

Source: reported final placings.[5]

Tsing's report identifies the winning squad as ''Ballistic Unit 1'' and the runner-up as ''Titans''.[5]

Ballistics Unit 1 defeated CULT 4–0 in its semifinal, reaching the four-point mercy margin with 2:17 remaining.[11]

In the Cup final, Ballistics Unit 1 defeated Manawatu Titans 3–2. The livestream's closing scoreboard shows the score with the game clock at 00:00.[8]

CULT defeated Reavers 4–0 in the third-place match, reaching the mercy margin with 3:32 remaining.[10]

=== Plate ===

{| class="wikitable"
! Position
! Team
|-
| 1
| '''[[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]'''
|-
| 2
| [[BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)|BOP Blast]]
|-
| 3
| [[Surge (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Surge]]
|-
| 4
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 2]]
|}

Source: reported final placings.[5]

Expendables defeated Surge 4–0 in its semifinal, reaching the four-point mercy margin with 1:53 remaining.[12]

Expendables subsequently defeated BOP Blast 5–1 in the Plate final, reaching the mercy margin with 32 seconds remaining.[9]

Team Lycan Paintball South Waikato corroborated Blast's second-place finish in a report published on 25 October 2026, identifying the team with Bay of Plenty Paintball Club.[7]

A photograph supplied by Ralph Tsing documents a first-place trophy engraved ''Arena Plate Labour Day 2026''. The reported results and livestream identify Expendables as the Plate winner.[5][6][9]

The results above represent separate Cup and Plate classifications, rather than a single overall ranking of all eleven entries.

=== Recorded knockout match scores ===

{| class="wikitable"
! Competition
! Stage
! Winner
! Score
! Opponent
! Source
|-
| Cup
| Semifinal
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 1]]
| 4–0
| CULT
| [11]
|-
| Cup
| Third-place match
| CULT
| 4–0
| Reavers
| [10]
|-
| Cup
| Final
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 1]]
| 3–2
| [[Manawatu Titans (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Manawatu Titans]]
| [8]
|-
| Plate
| Semifinal
| [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]
| 4–0
| [[Surge (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Surge]]
| [12]
|-
| Plate
| Final
| [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]
| 5–1
| [[BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)|BOP Blast]]
| [9]
|}

== Day-one standings ==

The organiser published the following standings after play on 24 October 2026. These are interim scores, not final tournament placings.[3]

A subsequent clarification instructed readers to disregard the spreadsheet's ''Games To Be Played'' column, which is omitted here.[4]

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Team
! Recorded score
! Games played
|-
| CULT
| 5.5
| 6
|-
| [[Manawatu Titans (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Manawatu Titans]]
| 4
| 5
|-
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 2]]
| 4
| 5
|-
| [[Expendables (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Expendables]]
| 3.5
| 5
|-
| Reavers
| 3.5
| 5
|-
| [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Ballistics Unit 1]]
| 2.5
| 5
|-
| [[BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Blast]]
| 2
| 4
|-
| [[Surge (New Zealand Paintball Team)|Surge]]
| 2
| 6
|-
| Sharks
| 1
| 5
|-
| Chaos
| 0
| 6
|-
| Misfits
| 0
| 4
|}

Ballistics Unit 1 subsequently won the Cup after appearing sixth in the published day-one table.[3][5]

== Historical records ==

The tournament is documented through the original event announcement, published fixture sheet, organiser's day-one standings, reported final placings and official livestreams.[1][2][3][5][8][9][10][11][12]

The final placings were supplied by Ralph Tsing in a comment on Phoenix Tahiti Paintball's Facebook post concerning the event. A photograph of the Plate first-place trophy was also supplied by Tsing.[5][6]

Team Lycan Paintball South Waikato's contemporary report provides an additional source for BOP Blast's Plate runner-up result.[7]

== See also ==

* [[Arena Paintball]]
* [[Ballistics Unit (New Zealand Paintball Team)]]
* [[Manawatu Titans (New Zealand Paintball Team)]]
* [[BOP Blast (New Zealand Paintball Team)]]
* [[Paintball in New Zealand]]

== References ==

# [https://www.paintballdirectnz.co.nz/2026-race-events/ Paintball Direct NZ – 2026 Race Events]. Tournament dates, venue, format, rules and advertised Cup and Plate competitions.
# ''Labour Day Draw 2026''. Event fixture sheet supplied to WikiPaintball by a contributor. Records eleven entries and 44 scheduled fixtures.
# Arena Paintball. "Scores end of day 1". Facebook, 24 October 2026. Photograph of the interim standings spreadsheet supplied to WikiPaintball by a contributor.
# Arena Paintball. "Please ignore games to be played column on previous post". Facebook, 24 October 2026. Organiser's clarification supplied to WikiPaintball by a contributor.
# [https://www.facebook.com/phoenixauthority/posts/sunday-podium-and-random-photos-arena-paintball-hk-army-mrh-what-a-crazy-weekend/1987915845476136/ Phoenix Tahiti Paintball – Sunday podium and photographs, Arena Paintball]. Facebook, October 2026. Comment by Ralph Tsing identifying the first four teams in the Cup and Plate finals.
# Ralph Tsing. Photograph of the Arena Plate Labour Day 2026 first-place trophy, supplied to WikiPaintball, October 2026.
# [https://www.facebook.com/61564720802176/posts/another-great-tournament-at-arena-paintball-congratulations-to-bay-of-plenty-pai/122223487766490693/ Team Lycan Paintball South Waikato – Arena tournament report]. Facebook, 25 October 2026. Identifies Blast with Bay of Plenty Paintball Club and confirms second place in the Plate.
# [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0&t=27714s Arena Paintball – Event 3 Labour Day Cup, Day 2: Cup final closing scoreboard]. YouTube livestream, 25 October 2026, 7:41:54. Ballistics Unit 1 defeats Titans 3–2 with the game clock at 00:00.
# [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0&t=25695s Arena Paintball – Event 3 Labour Day Cup, Day 2: Plate final closing scoreboard]. YouTube livestream, 25 October 2026, 7:08:15. Expendables defeats Blast 5–1 under the four-point mercy rule.
# [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0&t=25247s Arena Paintball – Event 3 Labour Day Cup, Day 2: Cup third-place closing scoreboard]. YouTube livestream, 25 October 2026, approximately 7:00:47. CULT defeats Reavers 4–0 under the four-point mercy rule, with 3:32 remaining.
# [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0&t=22733s Arena Paintball – Event 3 Labour Day Cup, Day 2: Ballistics Unit 1–CULT semifinal closing scoreboard]. YouTube livestream, 25 October 2026, 6:18:53. Ballistics Unit 1 wins 4–0 under the four-point mercy rule, with 2:17 remaining.
# [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0&t=21064s Arena Paintball – Event 3 Labour Day Cup, Day 2: Expendables–Surge semifinal closing scoreboard]. YouTube livestream, 25 October 2026, 5:51:04. Expendables wins 4–0 under the four-point mercy rule, with 1:53 remaining.

== External links ==

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn-RHKJl1cc Arena Paintball – Official day-one livestream]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTvq6Q8McP0 Arena Paintball – Official day-two livestream]
* [https://www.facebook.com/phoenixauthority/posts/sunday-podium-and-random-photos-arena-paintball-hk-army-mrh-what-a-crazy-weekend/1987915845476136/ Phoenix Tahiti Paintball – Tournament podium photographs and results discussion]

[[Category:Paintball tournaments in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Paintball tournament results]]