Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

The crisis continues. What else is new? These updates are beginning to bore me. Beginning? Yeah, I know, you were bored with them ages ago but that's because of your short attention span. Which really isn't your fault. Mommy was day tripping and listening to Jefferson Airplane when you were a bun in the oven. You find channel surfing relaxing, don't you? Silly Season is almost upon us and right now all I want to do is take a nap.

It's home stretch time for the PSP with official registration closing in less than a week on the 28th. There are 364 teams registered--that total has been creeping up all along (a good sign)--but with only 165 teams paid as of this morning. I say only only because I'm a little nervous about the final numbers. Sure, tons of peeps don't pay until the last minute (and sometimes beyond) but with so many teams still in limbo it's impossible to predict how it will turn out though the bigger the registration number the better for the final attendance figures.

USPL / NPPL 3.0's deadline is two plus weeks out so they have a little more time to play with. As of this morning registration (not including the pros) stands at 78 with 24 teams paid between 7-man, 5-man and pump categories.

In Euroland the Grand Tour is limping home with what is being billed as the final event. No doubt they mean final event of the season but I'm wondering if it won't prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy instead. The Pros GT season is complete and the Thessaloniki Greece event scheduled for same weekend as the NPPL championship currently has 6 teams registered across 3 divisions.

Last weekend saw the Millennium Series host their annual Campaign Cup event in the England on a grassy patch somewhere near Basildon which is not too far away from London depending on your definition of not-too-far-away. While there appear to be mixed reviews from some of the participants it seems the event ran smoothly, on time and on a decent if not outstanding surface. And as VFTD noted before with the second largest team turnout of the season. That leaves the MS Kids with one remaining event about a month from now in Turkey. This venue has proved to be controversial from the first. So much so that the prize packages for the open divisions ( D2 & M5) have been increased to encourage participation. So far it doesn't seem to be working as there are only 4 teams listed as registered in the two open divisions. Still, there is more than enough time to fill out the divisions as the UK event blossomed late as well. Also of note rumor has it there are some locked division teams that will struggle to make this event or won't make this event which could leave their status with the MS in jeopardy. Something to keep an eye on.

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