The Monday Poll

Everybody enjoys predicting winners so it should come as no surprise that VFTD does too. However since predicting the winners among the competing teams is already a commonplace this will be your opportunity to pick a different sort of winner. While at first blush this may look a lot like Another Cynical VFTD Game on deeper reflection you will see that it is, perhaps, just a wee bit more than that. (So yes, it is Another--type of--Cynical VFTD Game but one with potentially serious ramifications.) This week's Monday Poll will be predicting World Cup Winners and in two weeks the follow up poll will be identifying World Cup Losers and between the two we will at least have an idea of how the (literate) paintballin' public views this year's premier competitive event. Btw, with missing week in between feel free to offer suggestions for the Losers options prior to the official poll. Sound like fun? Vote anyway.

UPDATE: You may pick more than one winner in the poll.

If you are unfamiliar with Another Cynical VFTD Game do a site search for past games. As you might predict participation was not overwhelming--which may be why you haven't heard of them before.

Monday Poll in Review
If you are easily stunned (amazed) (or dumbfounded) you might want to sit down before proceeding. Though odds are you are seated already. No, not at the result of last week's poll. That is readily apparent and we already know you can read, if not the the writing on the wall, the digitized characters on this blog. Rather, at my view of those results.
Given the scenario in which you were a pro team owner you were asked to vote for the league you would participate in based on what you believed best served your team and ownership interests. 77% voted PSP and 22% voted NPPL and 1% got lost in the unregistered fractions. Even so the disparity was nearly 4 to 1 in favor of the PSP and frankly I am (and was) stunned by that result.

Mostly I chalked it up to ignorance. Not the sort of "ignorant" one might interchange descriptively with say, "moron" for example but the sort of ignorant that is, well, ignorant. Unaware. Insufficiently informed to make considered or rational judgments perhaps. If you're wondering where this effort to avoid being too insulting is going I'm about to advocate on behalf of the NPPL. (And it isn't a place I expected to find myself.)

And I'm going to do it on the basis of one thing and one thing alone; self-determination. Factory team costs can be justified (rationalized), independents can't. In the past a generous sponsorship system gave hard-working teams the hope that their efforts would be rewarded and would remove many of the financial burdens of competing. That is less and less true even as the cost of competing at the upper echelons has increased. The bill for the pro dream has always been footed by somebody. Today's independents play the game and compete for largely the same reasons every other tournament team plays the game. The only difference is the price tag--and at some point that price tag overwhelms the desire to play, to compete, to win and the team owner(s) comes to his senses. Now you may say that's more or less the way things have always been and I won't disagree with you but take a look at where it's brought us. If you want to know the fate of the pro division look at D1.

Conceptually it's a no-brainer. Ask yourself a simple question: Is my team better off if I'm an owner or a customer?

Or put it another way. Is my commitment to the league matched by the league's commitment to my team? (Btw, I'm not arguing the merits in particular. I'm not saying this NPPL is hands down better than this PSP. In lots of important ways it isn't but at the same time what sort of future does the PSP offer a pro team owner? Other than an opportunity to play at their [the PSP's] discretion and by their seemingly ever-changing rules & format.)