Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekend Special

Dateline Antalya Turkey. Site of the Sarsilmaz Cup, the fifth and final leg of this year's Millennium Series.

In the lead up to this event there was more talk of not attending--from locked divisions teams--than there was earlier in the season when it became clear the Paris event scores wouldn't count for the series title. In some cases league roster rules may have contributed to the no shows. The majority however seem to have been based on economic realities despite reports from the site of an excellent venue and economically yet exemplary accommodations. One important question is: Were the no shows legitimately unable to attend or was that more of a convenient and understandable excuse? If the former it may portend another round of reductions in total team participation next year and if the later it should serve as a wake-up call to the MS to act quickly to shore up a faltering commitment--and, no, increasing the locked division licensing fees won't do that.

From on the scene reports and a close review of the scoreboards it appears to VFTD that 7 of 28 teams in the SPL are no-shows and that 10 of 27 teams in D1 are no-shows although that number could be higher depending on D1 team reffing participation. (3 D1 teams per event ref instead of play so only 24 D1 teams are listed on the scoreboard.) Even with the large number of (apparent) no-shows the MS maintained their normal seeding and scheduling which left nearly every bracket a team or two short (and in one instance it appears there's a bracket with only one team in it attending the event.) This of course means that everyone is penalized with less paintball in the prelims--and for some, that's all the paintball they're gonna get.

In D2 only 3 of the top 8 seeds showed with only 12 teams altogether competing in the division. Which suggests the weakness displayed in the locked divisions (other than CPL which appears to be intact) is a league wide concern. If the no-show numbers are correct it means that total team attendance is only 81 teams.