The Penn State Paintball Association's varsity team is saying, "Goodbye, Happy Valley" and "Hello, Mickey Mouse" as it prepares for the National Collegiate Paintball Championship this weekend at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.

After clinching a No. 1 title in the National Collegiate Paintball Association's Class A Northeastern Conference, the club's 12-member varsity team is able to bypass the first two rounds of the Class A tournament tomorrow and begin Sunday at the semifinal level. "All those teams are going to have to battle it out to make it to the semifinals," Varsity Coach Rob Rivera (senior-English) said. "So that's nice because they'll be kinda worn out, and we'll be fresh."

Seven other collegiate teams from across the nation will compete in the single-elimination Class A tournament, but by the semifinals, only three teams besides Penn State will remain.

"We looked really tough this past weekend against two teams that'll be in our division," said club president and varsity team member Larry O'Donnell (junior-English), referring to a scrimmage last weekend against the University of Maryland and Drexel University. "We're on top of the ball here at the East Coast, but we'll just have to see how we stack up against teams from the West Coast, 'cause they're definitely ballers, too."

The varsity team is one level of the Penn State Paintball Team -- a university club of about 40 students, who also compete at the recreational and junior varsity level.

Although the varsity team has traveled to nationals for the past three years, club secretary and varsity team member Kate Renner (senior-media studies) said this year's competition is different, because it focuses on a newly developing style of paintball -- Class A, or X-Ball style.

In traditional paintball, Class AA, two 5-member teams play a single match that could be over in a few minutes. X-Ball's longer matches, quicker pace and standardized regulations were created with spectators and television in mind.

In fact, both mtvU and College Sports TV plan on airing this weekend's competition in mid-June.

"There are a lot of major industry players behind X-Ball," O'Donnell said. "And we want to be a part of that."

Although the team's main focus is Class A, it will also participate in the Class AA division of the tournament. Since the team is currently ranked sixth in that division, the players will start tomorrow in the preliminary round.

But Rivera said Class AA is not a concern and shouldn't affect their game Sunday. "It's really not as stressful on your body as Class A, so hopefully the stress and fatigue will be minimal," he said. "We'll be nice and warmed up I hope."

The club's ability to secure a major sponsor is what allows them to return to nationals, and especially participate in X-Ball, which has a higher entry fee, Varsity Captain Jamieson Lash (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.

With a combination of university funding and the group's sponsor, Smart Parts, a major paintball company based in Latrobe, O'Donnell said the club is able to get to do what they love at a cost reasonable for college students.

"[Nationals] is a relatively inexpensive way to play the sport we love, and at the same time, wearing a Nittany Lion on our chest," he said. "The collegiate league is all about making it accessible to college players, just because we're broke college students."