Back on My Hobby Horse

Remember Galveston? And VFTD's predictions regarding how the PSP's annual-we-must-make-changes-in-order-to-save-paintball would turn out? Yeah, well, I'm not satisfied with being right once because frankly it hasn't made (enough of) a difference so I'ma do what I always do--continue to bludgeon ignorance into submission with the Baca stick. In the case of the PSP it's my stubborn determination to help the PSP be the best it can be. Sometimes despite itself. Really. (Love you, Lane. No homo.)
Anyway, the plan is simple. VFTD will be charting all matches played in the multi-point format once known as (watered down) xball. (At Galveston more than half of all matches went to time despite the fact the great majority were Race 2-4.) After taking a look at the Chicago layout I see no reason to suspect there will be a different outcome this time around. (Why, btw, was it released on a Wednesday when the oft-stated pre-season change-to-save-paintball was that official field releases would occur on the Thursday prior to the event? I know, it's just a day but how hard is it to consistently do what you say you're gonna do?)
For those outta the loop here's the deal. The longer field matters, in part, because the number of props hasn't changed. Bigger props were supposed to be close to Home to help out the bigger, slower, fatter player the league was trying to entice back into the game and the upshot of the collective changes was supposed to be a more inviting game to a wider pool of potential players. (While I understand conceptually it was never going to work that way in practice.) As a practical matter it was only going to slow matches, extend points, use more paint & generally be less exciting. To make that point after the fact VFTD charted match results.
To sum up: early release & (apparently) those bigger, fatter, slower players are no longer of interest. Even so, it won't change the outcome at all. Results posted after the event--maybe even during. Watch the webcast and enjoy the pro matches. (Trust me, some of those won't be pretty either.)