Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Major League Paintball on Suicide Watch

And the big winner this week is ... (drum roll please) the Millennium Series! Not altogether unexpected but the measure of their victory was. In the final week the league nearly doubled open division registration for Bitburg from 22 to 43 teams including 10 homegrown German teams. That result leaves the MS only 4 (open) teams behind last year's turnout when it looked like a very soft turnout was possible.
Matches begin Thursday for the CPL make-up event with SPL & D1 beginning make-ups on Friday morning and open divisions playing a normal schedule.
One aspect of this year' MS series schedule I hadn't accounted for yet is the move from 5 events down to 4 events. Thinking about it I suspect it helped the league in encouraging some teams to but up a division to help fill in the locked divisions what with lower season entry fees and rumors of jiggling the licensing fees in some instances. At the end of the day it appears whatever level of frustration and cynicism some of the Euros feel over Malagas past (et cetera) hasn't impacted the MS too harshly to date.
And perhaps we'll get the answer to what gat is Joy shooting in the next couple of days? And what caliber it is.

Coming in second place this week is the PSP with registered teams increasing at least 17 over last week. I say at least because during the past week the Pro division was separated from other Race 2-X teams forcing me to rely on incomplete notes and recollections to get the increase correct. (It could be two or three more.) At any rate both Race 2-2 and Race 2-X registrations went up with nearly half paid as the first entry increase deadline passed last week as well. While a definite positive it still leaves the PSP well short of traditional Race 2-2 numbers. On the plus side registrations have increased 22 teams in the last two weeks and if that were to continue final event numbers would likely look quite good. We shall see.
As I'm expecting no more than 5 semi-pro teams for Chicago I wonder if that leaves the option open for the league to reinstate our 4th prelim event? Hmmm.

Showing is the NPPL as their Chicago CPX event deadline rapidly approaches. They were +5 for the week bringing non-Pro registrations to 60 teams across all divisions of play and up to 73 when everyone is included. Of the 60 teams 9 are listed as not yet paid. On the cusp is the D3 5-man and D1 7-man divisions as each only have 3 paid teams each so no telling how that will shake out for the actual event.

Rounding out the list is the not so Grand Tour as they added only 1 team to their registration for the Lvov event. The total now stands at 17 teams but there's still time as the event takes place in the later part of June.

Otherwise it's quiet out there. Perhaps too quiet. So if you know something new or noteworthy don't hesitate to post it up in the comments or drop me a line. Till next week.

1 comment:

J-Bird said...

i've got another tourney series you should put on the suicide watch -- CFOA. numbers are down to ~23 teams an event for the 5 man division, but xball numbers are holding steady?