Here we are again in deepest darkest Chesapeake City for the NPPL's relocated Northeast Open. Today it was in fact deepest and darkest as slow moving low flying rain-laden clouds proved to be the only spectators on site and if the volume of rain was any indication the weather is no fan of competitive paintball. At least not today. It finally got so bad the final three match sets of the afternoon were cancelled and rescheduled to begin early tomorrow morning. "Fortunately" we got in all 3 of our scheduled matches for the day. (And won all three.) The starts and the backfields at each end of the layout were mud and standing puddles from the get go. The paintball wasn't always pretty but it wasn't really the weather's fault. The rainy day didn't help of course but it often looked like the teams competing didn't know what they wanted to do or were *gasp* trying to emulate the slow play trend of the PSP pros.
There are 12 "Pro" teams here. Missing are Vendetta, Arsenal Crush & PB Gateway. Also missing from a team or two are some players who are probably practicing for the PSP Chicago Open with their regular teams. With two brackets of 6 teams we are playing 5 prelim matches--1 more than previously--yet still taking 8 teams thru to Sunday. 5 matches to eliminate the bottom third is ridiculous but what are you gonna do? (I know, stop playing NPPL.) We could forfeit tomorrow's matches and still make Sunday.
All told there are apparently fewer than 40 teams competing with no D2 at all. (Tippmann was legitimately signed up for D2 but bumped up instead of down when they proved to be the only D2 to pay their entry.)
Despite the weak turnout, general struggles and the inclement weather Shawn Walker announced on PBN the new NPPL was committed to finishing the season at very least--and the word on the street is that Valken (Gino P.) will help keep the league alive and if that's true the number of competing teams won't matter--for now.
Tonight we dry out the boards of our guns and wash & clean our pods. We will also wash and dry our gear (dry mostly) cross our fingers and hope for the best. Since it's still the NPPL we'll gladly settle for something less.
Friday, June 7, 2013
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10 comments:
29 teams.
Not true on the D2. There are two of us D2 teams. Orange County Flashpoint d2 and one of the OXCC teams... Can't remember their name. They mixed us in with D3 and d1 for games...so we didn't feel like we wasted our money and time ((hah....as if I didn't feel that way already) and on Sunday we play that other team I think 3 times...or maybe I heard from Shawn a possible Race2 formated game.
Thanks for the correction, Bryan.
Coach,
keep up the unfiltered/legit commentary, im tired of reading the armchair economists over at PBN. grade 9 economics has really changed since I was in H.S
Side note
1. Does Nppl have to die?
2. Should there be only one format?
Thx,
NewPro
In response to earlier. We will be playing Rampage 3 games. Best 2 out of 3.
Neither team will miss podium hahaha
NewPro
No, in fact I'm inclined to think something will/would replace the NPPL if it did die. Still, the NPPL is in serious trouble as the NEO turnout attests and I don't know if the carry over reputation and lack of local 7-man paintball are surmountable problems even if Walker and the new NPPL do eveything right.
I'm not convinced there needs to be a dominant format although I think Race To is about as dominant as a format is gonna get. It seems to me that the single format folks really mean a no complications "brand" of competitive paintball that will finally entice outside interest and support. In truth whatever gets called 'Pro Paintball' and delivered to a mass audience first defacto becomes pro paintball.
Just saw that Camp P raiders and avalanche are in the finals. Aren't those teams Shawn's and Franks, respectively?
Camp P and Avalanche take first & second, respectively.
Horrible optics.
And settle for something less you did indeed. From what I heard Raiders victory was legit over Dynasty, Raiders sat and Dynasty ran into their guns. Dynasty also practiced xball on saturday so maybe their game was thrown off.
Typical - there is always some a..holes - wanting to take the glory away from the kids that just won their first "major" :)
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