A technical issue with new rules at the College Paintball National Championships denied the K-State paintball team a first-place trophy once again.

Out of a field of 25 teams in Dallas for the tournament, K-State and Eastern Illinois battled their way into the championship game Sunday. The fight for first came down to a best two-out-of-three game scenario between the two squads.

All three games ended in a stalemate with the five-minute clock expiring each time without a definitive winner at the end.

Darran McEuen, senior in electrical engineering and the team's public relations representative, said after the final whistle sounded, there was a lot of confusion. Both teams, along with the referees, talked at length trying to figure out exactly who won.

There were a few ways in which the match could have been decided. One of those would have gone in favor of K-State.

"We had more points than them over all three games, so if they had gone by points, we would be national champions," McEuen said.

After 30 minutes, the referees came back with their decision. A rule new to this year's Nationals sealed the fate for K-State. The rule stated out of the three games, the squad that had more people remaining, which was Eastern Illinois, in at least two out of the three matches would be crowned champion.

"Honestly, I would rather have them just beat us in games so we can say, 'Hey, we're second because we lost,' instead of saying, 'Hey, we're second because of a technical tie-breaker rule'," McEuen said.