Canadian Xtreme Paintball League
The Canadian Xtreme Paintball League was the top professional X-Ball league in Canada. It contains three conferences but is adding a minor conference in Atlantic Canada:
- Eastern which consists of Quebec, and the Maritimes
- Central which consists of just Ontario
- Western which consists of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
Players are not required to live within these boundaries to play in a conference, but generally all events for each conference are held in those boundaries.
There are four divisions of play in the Canadian Xtreme Paintball League: CXBL Elite, MXL, RXL, RT5 and CX5. Each year, the top team in each division (with the exception of CX5) is promoted to the higher division, and the bottom-placed team is relegated to the division below (again, with the exception of CX5).
The CXBL was founded in 2005. At that time it consisted of just two divisions, the Ontario Xball League (OXBL) and the Quebec Xball League (QXBL). After the first year, the league expanded to include a Western Conference, and the OXBL and QXBL were renamed the Central and Eastern Conferences, respectively. The Western and Atlantic Conferences were later folded after the 2011 and 2012 season, respectively. Each year, the CXBL has expanded to include new divisions. MXL was added in 2006, CX4 (now named CX5) was added in 2007, RXL was added in 2008, and RT5, which uses the RaceTo5 format with 10bps ramping, was added for the 2013 season. This has allowed a greater number of franchised teams to compete in the league, and has greatly increased the league's exposure in global paintball media outlets.
The league prides itself in being the sole league in the world to still utilize the "original Xball format". CXBL games still utilize two 25-minute halves, 15 balls-per-second ramping, or semi auto, and full 2:00 and 5:00 penalties.
Teams
The CXBL was a "closed division" league. Meaning the number of teams in a division doesn't change during the season as teams commit to playing an entire season, and compete for a place in the NAX Cup Finals to determine a series winner. Teams from the previous season have first dibs on the teams for the following season, similar to a franchise system.
The NAX Cup Championship Finals
Every year the top teams in each conference enter into the NAX Cup Championship. The Cup itself is honorarily called the Richmond Cup, after the creator of XBall Richmond Italia.
Past Champions
- 2015 - Toronto Rockstar
- 2014 - London Vicious
- 2013 - Windsor Lockdown
- 2012 - Tremblant Cowboys
- 2011 - Windsor Lockdown
- 2010 - Kingsey Falls Kamikaze
- 2009 - Edmonton Prevail
- 2008 - Edmonton Impact
- 2007 - Edmonton Impact
- 2006 - Edmonton Impact
- 2005 - Montreal Shock