Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Monday Poll

Did you read the review portion first? No. I've a feeling this week's poll may make last week's poll look like a real hot topic. Yeah. That's right. Not so good but that has never stopped VFTD before and it ain't gonna stop me now. You know coming up with 52 ideas for Monday Polls every year is not that easy. Go on, give it a try. See?
What, am I gonna ask you to name your favorite CXBL team? I don't think so--but it does give me another idea. So here's what I've got from the recent competitive paintball news. Will Frank Connell retire more times than Brett Favre? If the Ultimate Ref really thinks Ollie head-butted Frank it explains a lot, doesn't it? Is the NPPL moving in the right direction? Will the recent buy out of PBN have any impact, either positive or negative, on the paintball community?
I admit it isn't a particularly exciting or thought-provoking list of possibilities but you owe me. A vote. A simple, easy-to-perform vote. It's painless. Mostly harmless. One click of your mouse. Don't be a bandwagon fan of VFTD. Vote even when the poll sucks.

Monday Poll in Review
Okay. Learn something new every day. Or week in this case. Y'all ain't that interested in the new PSP Tactical Race 2 divisions. That's cool. I see how it is. You play D3 so what do you care what those no game newbs in D4 are doing. I should'a known. But, since VFTD went with the poll I'ma at least gonna see where it all went. That and I've got a couple things to say about the Tactical (limited paint) idea. (If you've been paying any attention at all you knew that was coming.)
Those of you who bothered to participate figured this was a good opportunity to test out the concept with 46% of the vote. Tied at number was money-making gimmick (14%) and the (cynical) it's gonna flop big time (14%). A close third was Gonna help transition teams into national level competition (13%). Another cynical option was fourth (9%) in Looking to pump up event turnout. Closing out the poll with (2%) was Likely to pull teams from regular D4 divisions.
A quick look at the current PSP Chicago registration numbers puts everything into perspective--and also gives us a good idea how this experiment is likely to turn out. Nobody is signed up for Tactical Race 2-4. One team is signed up for Tactical Race 2-2. That team would be the NCPA No-Stars which isn't particularly surprising given that limited paint has long been championed by Raehl. Apparently paintball teams are finding this option about as exciting as you did when you decided to skip voting in this poll.
Apart from the near universal lack of interest I have a concern or two regarding limited paint anyway. It's probably a relatively harmless idea for new to tourney players and the lowest levels of competition. It's a terrible idea for upper division competition. In fact I will go further and state that without other serious game mods limited paint alone won't play. It will only work for inexperienced and beginning players. As a local option it could have some merit. As a national level option it looks like the majority perceive Tactical as a second class competition. For more details on limited paint check this out.

2 comments:

Reiner Schafer said...

This new division/format was announced 12 days ago, well into the current paintball season. There are no teams registered for this new format/style of competition 12 days after the announcement. Surprise! Surprise! Who would have guessed that might be the case?

As far as I know, these are brand new divisions/formats, meaning these are not replacing any eliminated or changed divisions. Basically nothing has changed at the PSP other than they have widened their product line and introduced brand new formats that no one has played or practiced for. How much marketing has the PSP done to promote this brand new product? Is it a "if you build it, they will come" scenario? Maybe. But maybe it takes a little longer than 12 days (or even 30 or 60 days) for them to get there.

Mid season, those that are playing or were planning to play at least some of the events have more than likely made their commitment to that plan. Also, those that are currently playing PSP events are playing PSP events because they like the format. The newly introduced formats, although viable at the lower levels of play in my opinion, will not be anything like the current formats. That means that the new formats are going to need to attract brand new players, which is what I assume they are intended to do, and the reason they were introduced. In my opinion, this should have been announced for a start up at the beginning of next season. With a mid season introduction, you are almost assured of failure. There will most likely be lacklustre participation and even those teams that might consider this seriously are going to look at the next few events, see that no one is taking part, and decide there is no point in playing something there is no interest in.

raehl said...

I don't think there's really any good time to announce something new, although certainly a month earlier would have been better. PSP added D4 RaceTo-4 at Chicago Open one season, only had 4 teams play it, but it's a legitimate division now. More important than Chicago is how well the divisions do at World Cup.

But, I've decided to make things interesting: I'll pay $1k to whoever wins Tactical RaceTo-2 in Chicago. Call it the shoot raehl bonus.