Tuesday, February 22, 2011

NPPL 2011 Rulebook Reviewed

The good news is the basic rules are pretty standard and for purposes of playing games in a competition format should prove sufficient most of the time--assuming the league continues to treat markers and potential marker violations as they have in the past.
The less than good news is no real progress has been made with respect to gun rules (and their enforcement) nor any substantive thought given to player classification.

Beginning with player classification the relevant section of the rules is 4.07 - 4.10. Basically a player retains the rank they played under last season unless their team won the NPPL divisional series in which case that roster is bumped up one division except for D1. [And pump, which is Open class play, though the rules are a little fuzzy on specifics.]
A "pro" player is defined as a player who has held a pro or semi-pro rank in either the NPPL or other national or international (series/league) within the last 10 years--though for practical purposes it really only goes back to 2003. [Because that is the year the NPPL 1.0 database was launched and the first season PSP info is available from APPA (not including the NXL.)]
The practical problems begin to arise because numerous contingencies aren't covered [except in the catch-all petition to get reclassified for $50 (4.08)] For example, since divisional teams are allowed to amend their rosters at will over the season what happens to players who may have made only one roster appearance to a series winning team? In the short term it is unlikely to matter much except that classifying players according to their own claims or current team roster isn't particularly rigorous and will probably not inhibit determined sandbagging. It also does I think a terrible disservice to past pro and semi-pro ranked players. Nor do the current rules provide a sufficient foundation for a comprehensive classification system.

Of more immediate impact are the gun rules (7.0 - 7.12) which are, far as I can tell, no real improvement over the old gun rules except there is an extra stage (or two) that allow for verbal warnings before the hammer (potentially) drops--but the process still remains largely arbitrary. And of course they've added the 15 bps cap. Unfortunately the cap is not accompanied by any explanation for how the league intends to enforce a 15 bps limit. There are plenty of penalty options but, as was the case before, their application is frequently subjective. In part because there is also no description(s) or procedure(s) for determining the legality or illegality of a given marker except use of a chronograph (checking velocity) or official's examination.
The problems begin in (7.01, 7.02) which contradict one another with regards ROF for a start though one assumes the cap supercedes other statements. Also in the same sections is the same old semi-auto, one trigger pull and release equals one shot definition that does not accurately describe the working of any electropneumatic marker yet is supposed to be the operating standard by which all competing markers are judged. (Wishing doesn't make it so.) 7.03 is an effort neutralize some of the simple and obvious ways marker performance can be altered. 7.04 - 7.05 relate to surrender and inspection of a suspect marker but these are purely procedural and penalties may still be handed out on the subjective determination of the inspecting referee. 7.06 restates velocity and ROF limitations and notes the relevant penalty sections. (Still nothing about how a ROF violation is to be determined.) Velocity is checked via chronograph as is the norm.
The next relevant section is Eliminations & Penalties. (22) And Suspensions, Disqualifications & Fines. (23) These 2 sections define the consequences assigned to various hot gun situations and gun "bounce" situations and the dreaded "illegal marker." There are no specific mentions ROF or other shot adding infractions or means of detection which leaves the league in essentially the enforcement position it has been in all along. With a ROF cap the league just added another rule it can't fairly enforce.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

NPPL makes grand stand backed up by superficial effort? Say it ain't so!

Anonymous said...

the could enforce the new ROF cap with........(wait for it).....................RAMPING. i don't see the reason behind a ROF cap without ramping. restricting the ROF on semi goes against it's own rules of 1 trigger pull 1 shot, because if someone is pulling the trigger more than 15 times a sec. then the pulls over 15 do not register. just seems weird to try and enforce a ROF cap with no means of universal shooting platform like ramping. i'm not trying to start an argument against semi vs. ramping but i just don't see the need for a ROF cap in a semi only tourney. (which can we really call it true semi if it has a cap to begin with?)

Baca Loco said...

Anon #2
You could call it strawberry shortcake and that would be about as meaningful as true semi-auto when we're talking about electropneumatic markers.
The ROF cap is just a tacit admission that the rules can't control the guns so if the ROF is capped it limits the extremes. Except there's no given way to check that the ROF cap is actually in place a on a particular gun.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to problem solving, NPPL edition.

NPPL1: "We've been claiming we do something, but it doesn't work. We could fix it, but we've spent the past 5 years convincing everyone our way was better than the way PSP does it!"

NPPL2: "That's OK. Let's send out a press release announcing a brand new way we won't do it, and everyone will be happy for at least another year!"

Anonymous said...

Think RFID

Baca Loco said...

Hi Anon
I'm aware of RFID--it's neither new or working in practice except perhaps on a limited scale nor has a particular plan or conception been released for it's application in this scenario--but since you brought it up I can't be accused of leaking any secrets. ;-)

Nor does thinking about what might be at some future point in time replace what is here and now.

Anonymous said...

What's RFID?

Baca Loco said...

Geez, Anon. Ever heard of Google?
On the plus side you are the official VFTD Lazy Slacker of the Week.

RFID is radio frequency identification. Currently used most commonly in retail stores to track tagged items it has numerous other potential applications.
In paintball the basic idea is to transmit gun data in real time to a central source.

Anonymous said...

ROF can be checked with most standard paintball chronos by shooting cross it in a sweeping motion. Why is it so hard to check?