Millennium Misstep?

Too good to be true and yet, it is. Seems the MS kids have taken to calling the season ending event in Turkey the Sarsilmaz Cup. (You know, the event where the league gets hooked up and some proportion of the teams get jacked up.) A forum poster at the French paintball website Spirit of Paint sounded the alert and it certainly raises some interesting questions. (S-O-P has a translation option that will help all you lingual peeps who ain't lingual in Francais get up to speed.)

You remember the paintball ban that recently threatened Germany. don't you? And the politicians rationale that paintball simulated violence thus somehow, sorta, maybe encouraging the weak-minded and psychologically unstable? Even all the recent lawsuits mostly instigated by Heckler & Koch against various paintball, airsoft and arms manufacturers?

Here's where the Sarsilmaz hits the fan. Sarsilmaz is the number one small arms manufacturer in Turkey. And that's it. No alternative explanation. Other meaning. Or whatever. So while it isn't clear just how the Millennium and Sarsilmaz are associated the MS saw fit to treat them like a major sponsor by naming the event after them. Hey, that's better than an ordinary sponsor. How many Eclipse Cups have there been? Or Estratego Cups? (Hope that one doesn't turn out to be a bad example. ;-) )

To recap: Right after a serious scare (predicated on an assumed relationship between paintball and real violence) that could have set back European paintball enormously the premier tourney series promoter in Europe decides to align itself in some fashion with a large, well-known small arms manufacturers.

For what? Can't wait to hear how this gets spun.

Pre-post UPDATE: Mr. Barry Fuggle of the MS board has responded by saying that the Turkish Paintball Federation named the event. And the reason they chose to "reward" Sarsilmaz is because the Turkish Paintball Federation operates under the umbrella of the the Turkish Shooting & Hunting Federation and Sarsilmaz is a high profile federation supporter. Which is one way of saying, or so it seems to me, that the buck stops someplace else. It's not our fault.

So will the MS "blame" the Turkish PB Federation and then ignore the issue or will they do something besides cross their fingers and stick their heads in the sand? Again.