2009 Major League Paintball (MLP): Year In Review

This is a rather daunting project as it requires I remember what happened, mostly, during the '09 season and while I can recount--in minute (positively excruciating) detail--dozens and dozens of games played over the years there are (I'm sure) innumerable things that occur at events of which I'm blissfully unaware. Mostly 'cus I couldn't care less. For example I know I walked through a vendor village or three this past season--because the layout forced me to--but I can't, from clear memory, recount who was or wasn't present at any particular event because I don't pay any attention. It's not that vendor presence is unimportant in the grand scheme of things, just that it's unimportant to me in the moment. All that means is that the VFTD Year in Review will tend to be rather eclectic and necessarily incomplete. Otherwise I have no idea how this is gonna work out.

The review begins with the '08 off season and the moves made by the MLP leagues in preparation for the '09 season. Last December I knew enough (or thought I did) to begin speculating on how the '09 season would unfold. The month began with the New World Order and closed out with Dreamworld which nicely bookended the PSP/MS and the emerging USPL. VFTD introduced Major League Paintball Held Hostage Day 1 on January 2 to illustrate the plight of the tourney baller and competitive paintball generally. VFTD graded the initial announced changes to the PSP in PSP Under Fire and followed up throughout the month as info became available. As you might recall the big changes were ROF, revised penalties in the lower divisions and Race 2 and match time changes as well as some Classification changes and the introduction of the UCP. VFTD went on an extended, multi-post rant about the Classification system and was generally uneasy about the appearance of the PSP moving to a standard that more closely resembled the MS. (A concern retained to this day as the Eurotrash continue to promote the idea and the PSP, for whatever reasons, continues to move in that direction.) VFTD closed out the month with some more piling on of the Classification system. The big news was a growing certainty that the USPL would actually begin operations in '09 and begin their season with a Huntington Beach event. The other big news--besides the PSP's myriad of wholesale changes both big and small in the move to Race 2--was the MS touting a TV deal with Eurosport and introducing some restrictive sponsorship regs they claimed "protected" sponsors but did so after a fashion easily recognized by a Sicilian enforcer. Whereupon the PSP introduced a similar measure which failed miserably and was rescinded at World Cup.

2009 began with the MS trying to enforce use restrictions on non-sponsored products among players--in the upper divisions--(which could extend to the lower divisions this year?) even as they charged licensing fees for locked divisions teams (whose total numbers were reduced from 2007) using their TV deal as justification. The PSP made extensive rules and other game changes on the basis of economic necessity (teams & league) but also introduced the prior year's state-of-the-art WC webcast as a regular event feature. The USPL revived the 7-man national series (sorta) with the original 16 pro teams as equal share owners and proceeded to buy up some equipment and rights to the NPPL name & logos and announced a split schedule of national and regional events beginning at HB.

That's the set-up for everything that happened later. (For the six of you who noticed, yes, sadly I've left the The Grand Tour out the review because I don't know a lot of details and because, in the end, it wasn't so grand after all.) The continuing Review will be much more of a hodge-podge I suspect as VFTD begins breaking the leagues and events down--probably tomorrow--as I rate the venues.

Hey, if I left anything good (important) out feel free to give me grief in the comments.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

PSP World Cup looks to have come through the venue change and the inhospitable weather with nary a hitch and it seems fair to suggest this year's event was a major success. The largest group of vendors all year and what sounds like very good numbers rumored for the webcast. The PSP and competitive paintball in general have the realistic possibility of reaching more people; players, paintballers and the curious thru the webcast in one weekend than were actually present for all previous World Cups combined. Think big, PSP, & plan accordingly. The webcast is an unprecedented outreach tool.

NPPL 3.0 presents the USPL World Championships at the Riviera this coming weekend in Las Vegas and the final "official" numbers has 96 teams registered and paid for the event including 41 non-pro 7-man teams. While not a big turnout it's a respectable result and will bookend nicely with the HB event that kicked off the season. Clearly, despite the inauspicious timing the Vegas venue was a solid draw. Even so it remains to be seen how the pro owners evaluate this season and what changes if any may be forthcoming. And, realistically, how much debt the league will carry over. I am not sure the league is over the hump just yet but then I didn't really believe it was in a position to survive the first year.

Across the pond the countdown to the Sarsilmaz Cup is entering the final weeks with the event due in a little more than two weeks. Despite bolstered prize offerings D2 & M5 registrations continue to lag with fully half of the registered teams being local Turkish teams. There's time yet for the numbers to change but little reason to presume the original widespread unhappiness amongst likely MS participants has softened. I guess we'll find out.

The Grand Tour was downgraded last week to the Ordinary Tour and this week suffers another decline in the VFTD perception of viability as it is once more downgraded to the Marginal Tour. The season closing event in Greece has 15 teams registered in 3 divisions of play. Ouch.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

The crisis continues. What else is new? These updates are beginning to bore me. Beginning? Yeah, I know, you were bored with them ages ago but that's because of your short attention span. Which really isn't your fault. Mommy was day tripping and listening to Jefferson Airplane when you were a bun in the oven. You find channel surfing relaxing, don't you? Silly Season is almost upon us and right now all I want to do is take a nap.

It's home stretch time for the PSP with official registration closing in less than a week on the 28th. There are 364 teams registered--that total has been creeping up all along (a good sign)--but with only 165 teams paid as of this morning. I say only only because I'm a little nervous about the final numbers. Sure, tons of peeps don't pay until the last minute (and sometimes beyond) but with so many teams still in limbo it's impossible to predict how it will turn out though the bigger the registration number the better for the final attendance figures.

USPL / NPPL 3.0's deadline is two plus weeks out so they have a little more time to play with. As of this morning registration (not including the pros) stands at 78 with 24 teams paid between 7-man, 5-man and pump categories.

In Euroland the Grand Tour is limping home with what is being billed as the final event. No doubt they mean final event of the season but I'm wondering if it won't prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy instead. The Pros GT season is complete and the Thessaloniki Greece event scheduled for same weekend as the NPPL championship currently has 6 teams registered across 3 divisions.

Last weekend saw the Millennium Series host their annual Campaign Cup event in the England on a grassy patch somewhere near Basildon which is not too far away from London depending on your definition of not-too-far-away. While there appear to be mixed reviews from some of the participants it seems the event ran smoothly, on time and on a decent if not outstanding surface. And as VFTD noted before with the second largest team turnout of the season. That leaves the MS Kids with one remaining event about a month from now in Turkey. This venue has proved to be controversial from the first. So much so that the prize packages for the open divisions ( D2 & M5) have been increased to encourage participation. So far it doesn't seem to be working as there are only 4 teams listed as registered in the two open divisions. Still, there is more than enough time to fill out the divisions as the UK event blossomed late as well. Also of note rumor has it there are some locked division teams that will struggle to make this event or won't make this event which could leave their status with the MS in jeopardy. Something to keep an eye on.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

The PSP has 354 teams registered for World Cup not counting the pro teams so far unlisted, 4 or 5 so far, and no Joy Division yet either. The last reduced entry date has come and gone so the price is fixed until end of registration. It is a waiting game for the next two weeks--or so--to see what the final numbers will be. At present 148 teams are paid. A final paid number in the 270 - 285 range would be consistent with the general decline this year from last seen at previous events.

Over at the USPL presents the NPPL 3.0 registrations, not counting the pro team owners, is at 69 with 20 teams paid. Friends on Facebook are swell but they don't pay the bills, competing teams do.

One bright spot, depending on your point of view, is the strong showing of late in D2 & M5 registrations for Campaign as there are now 24 teams in D2 and 42 in M5 with a particularly large turnout of UK teams in M5. As of today this will be the second largest event of the season just behind Malaga.

The Grand Tour has announced the Pro results for the season. I don't know if that was the plan all along or the result of no pro teams registering for the upcoming Riga Latvia event. (The info could be on the website somewhere as I confess I didn't look very hard.) Registrations for Riga stand at 13 teams across 3 divisions of play.

The long and short this week is that the status of World Cup is still an unknown as is the outcome for the NPPL 3.0's Vegas event. Hanging in the balance are a successful season--one that doesn't lose money--and hard decisions about the future. In Euroland does Campaign turn the season around for the MS? And can the Grand Tour possibly carry over to next year after what must be seen as a very disappointing inaugural season? Time will tell.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

This is the home stretch, kids. In some respects the whole season hinges on what happens now. PSP needs a solid WC despite a venue change. The USPL needs an Act of God (or maybe Elvis) to demonstrate they are even a player in the major league game but Vegas is a great place to make a stand. The MS still has two events remaining and it appears that without locked divisions they would be hemorrhaging teams (as even SPL & D1 are down over last year and the MS imposed maximums of 32 teams per division.) And the Grand Tour is, so far, not so grand as they carry a pro division of mostly Eastern Euro teams and not much else. As we approach the off season (and another round of changes) you'd need a reliable crystal ball or Doc Brown's flux capacitor equipped Delorean to know how it's all gonna shake out.

Registration for the PSP's World Cup sits at 341 this morning while paid entries stands at 124. Today is an entry deadline with prices going up tomorrow until close of registration on September 26th.

Registration for the USPL's Vegas World Championships is currently at 46 not counting the pro teams with 5 teams paid. One month from today remains to register and pay for an opportunity to compete on The Strip in Las Vegas. There was some talk that Ron Kilbourne would return for the Vegas event with a Bushwackers squad but they are not currently listed among the pro teams.

Over in MillenniumLand there must be some subdued rejoicing as D2 & D3 (M5) have finally begun to show signs of life --or at least numbers with 16 teams registered in D2 and 34 teams in D3 (M5) up from 7 and 18 last week respectively. Hardly a landmark turnout but a huge improvement over just a week ago.

Still no registrations listed in D2 & M5 for Turkey yet though.

And the next Grand Tour stop, Riga Latvia, is separated from the Budapest event by less than a month. Perhaps as a consequence they have no pro registrations yet and only 10 registrations total across the other 3 divisions.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Gonna do a little reverse order action today and start with the Eurokids.

Grand Tour Budapest is this weekend and the final number participating looks to be around 31. If so that's down around 25% from the earlier numbers originally registered. Maybe if the GT decentralizes next year but tries to maintain their basic concept they could have two or three leagues operating in smaller territories with a centralized championship to close out their season. Don't know if that would be more appealing but I also don't know how they can continue on the meager turnouts they've scored.

Over in MillenniumLand it's beginning to look like the only thing holding the league together is the locked divisions and pre-payments. Campaign Cup is still nearly a month away but the unlocked divisional numbers aren't looking great--except in comparison to the Sarsilmaz Cup numbers which currently stand at zero according to the MS website. Campaign Cup has 7 D2 teams registered and 18 M5 teams signed up. Plenty of time to turn that around as the late crowd jump in last minute but I've got a feeling that isn't likely to happen this time around. Call it a hunch. Call it my natural pessimism. Call it what you like.
Is the fledgling UK Federation supporting Campaign or are they staying out of it and focusing on their primary interest; the (re)development of UK competitive paintball? Would it make any difference?

World Cup numbers stand at 318 registered not including any unregistered pro teams. Rumors abound about some pro teams missing Cup--er, not showing up--so I'm not counting anybody at this point not officially registered. (Though the word too is that Joy Division is set to replace at least one potential absentee.) Anyway, it's also about time to start keeping track of paid teams and that number is presently at 88. Let's see how that number does the next couple of weeks.

While the USPL morphs into NPPL 3.0 or perhaps turns into the NPPL presents the USPL or something else altogether the early numbers for Vegas are impossible to judge. There are 35 teams registered, not including any pro teams, and five weeks until registration closes leading up to the event. Nobody has put an event on the strip before. It is a fantasy venue but will that be enough? The next three or four weeks will tell us. (Among other things the Vegas venue will cost the league more in terms of infrastructure--bringing in the fields, netting, etc. set-up and take down and so on--so it's a gamble of sorts but ain't that what Vegas is all about?)
I have a lot of thoughts regarding this league and I will be doing the year in review sometime shortly after the season is over.
Until then I do have a bone to toss y'all. Word is the Naughty Dogs are set to buy in and join the league next season.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Let's begin with NPPL 3.0 and the DC Challenge coming up this weekend. APPA's (official?) numbers are 57 teams total, registered and paid. Given there were at least 90 teams registered with a couple of weeks left earlier in the month this is a disappointing outcome. Particularly as Chuck, Camille and the crew made a big push to offer added value and lots of extras. None of the modest turnouts is the result of poor planning or a failure to put in the time and effort. The Cali kids are working their butts off. Inevitably, or so it seems to me, the lack of greater success has to be the format. The ranks of loyal 7-man adherents just isn't there anymore. What other sensible conclusion is there?
If you're in the neighborhood come on out to Pev's place this weekend and check it out. You'll get a free pass to come back and play another and a paintball weekend is always a good weekend.
(Btw, there was a rumor going around a couple of weeks ago that at least one NPPL 3.0 owner had spent well into 6 figures this year. Just where all that supposed cash had gone was just part of the speculation largely because the number was so large it seemed inconceivable it was spent exclusively on his team. Anyway, I've no idea if there's any credence to the rumor--I hit the vaca trail right after hearing about it--but it's interesting nonetheless 'cus it leads to questions like is the league being propped up with cash infusions and if so, what does that mean for the owners group? How long can it last?
It reminds me of that old joke--How do you make a small fortune in paintball? Start with a big one.)

By my count PSP World Cup registration sits at 304 with 11 of the Pro teams not included and I can imagine a little nail biting going on. While there's still time for additional registrations (and there will likely be some) we're close to the point where it becomes a question of what percentage of registrants pay their entries. I've no idea what the norm is as that's a number I've never looked into but it needs to be high. If 75% of registrants paid it would mean a turnout around 225. 90% gets you 270 teams. So, realistically WC isn't out of the woods just yet and we haven't touched on vendor turnout at all. (Tomorrow's post will be PB Extravaganza vs. World Cup.) Of course the bottom line here is the bottom line and I'm not overly concerned about WC as a stand alone event. The issue is how much red ink does WC have to account for from prior events this season and is the webcast on the PSP books or is it being handled separately? Hey, we could ask Lane!
Regarding the foreign team count and where they are playing I think perhaps I jumped the gun a bit on our Euro friends. One, there aren't as many currently signed up as I first thought and Two, most of them aren't taking grossly unfair advantage. Interestingly in my cursory examination I found around two dozen non-North American teams registered and nearly half of them are from Central and South America. I do think Icon and Tontons ought to be playing semi-pro and not D1. (And that about half the currently registered semi-pro ought to be given the boot but ...) I don't really have a problem with any of the others playing out of division beyond the dissonance created between the supposed future goal and the current reality.

Over in Euroland the MS's Campaign Cup is less than a month away and in the unlocked divisions, D2 & D3, there are 7 and 19 teams registered, respectively. Not exactly storming the barricades to get a chance to play Millennium ball are they? In recent years it seems there's always post-Campaign talk about moving the event because the UK teams don't turn out in big numbers to compete and support the series. If anything like these numbers hold it's more than that this time around. Could it be peeps are finally voting with their checkbooks? Or is it perhaps a combination of the usual UK torpor mixed with continuing economic hardship that is keeping the more recreationally oriented players an teams away?

Further east the Grand Tour has 36 teams signed up for the Budapest event. Or is that the Buda or the Pest event? The event is less than two weeks out and will include a one-on-one challenge as well for those who wish to sign up.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Dog days of summer, kids. Dog days of summer and nothing too exciting is going on so I'ma keep this one brief.

You may breath a sigh of relief as the WC finals and divisional field layout has been released. And for you snake fetishists, hey, it looks like a snake! But c'mon, PSP, where's the first round field layout for the pro field? It's discriminatory, I tell ya and I want it yesterday.
Registrations are up fairly substantially over last week hitting 226 this morning. The same again this coming week and the numbers would start to look promising (keeping in mind the target number is around 300 or so) although the PSP of course would love to see a final number as close to last year's 330+ as possible.
PSP appears to have raised the limit in the semi-pro bracket to 15 teams. Making room for a few more lower ranked thrill seekers or expecting a few "new" teams to compete? So far only a handful of international teams have registered. D4 & D3 xball are populating nicely but D2 looks a bit thin for a WC turnout.

Over at the USPL--or is it the NPPL 3.0?--(the NPPL logo holds pride of place on the USPL's front page) the kids are gearing up for the DC Challenge. Registration totals aren't up but those registered are beginning to get their entries in for the end of August event.
More hints of info are also being put up on the website with regards the 4th event of the season and championship finale. We knew it was looking like Vegas but there is now info narrowing it down to the Riviera hotel & casino--right in the heart of the action on the Strip. Apparently an announcement was planned for the Saturday of the WCO but hasn't yet happened that will hopefully round out the details. The sooner the league can make peeps aware of the prime venue the sooner they can start building those registrations which, realistically, is likely to be another challenge for the league as it appears to be scheduled for the weekend immediately following World Cup.

No changes to report in Millenniumland with unlocked division registrations the same as last week. But it's early days yet. It is nice to see the league responding to concerns from participating teams and players over the potential expense of the Turkey event by making camping available on the cheap for Campaign Cup. Just the sort of thing that keeps happy teams coming back again and again. Well, that and licensing fees, pre-payments and contractual obligations.

The Grand Tour has hit its mid-season Open pro event with the Moscow event this coming weekend but apparently somebody forgot to tell the pro teams and/or those who wanted to vie for the cash prizes as nobody is registered in the pro division for this event according to the Grand Tour website. I guess the MS got it right--if you want them to come make it compulsory. Looking at the rest of the registrations there are only 4 non-Russian teams currently registered as part of a season low field of 22 teams. My money (a couple of zlotys) is on Minsk United. Is that an awesome team name or what?

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Today we begin with the USPL. First and foremost congrats to Arsenal for another solid victory. There seems little doubt they are the world's best 7-man team at the moment. Next up is home turf for the Arsenalisti with the DC Challenge coming the end of August. Registrations are running about the same as before, 86 teams, with paid totalling (including the pros) 22 teams. Now is the time for those registrations to begin shifting into the paid column as there is approx. a 3 week window left before registration closes.
According to the website last week there was supposed to be an announcement last Saturday at the WCO--which apparently, didn't happen. I'm guessing it was about the fourth event which is rumored to be headed for Vegas though there have been concerns about date availability and proximity to World Cup.
And finally a quick word about the vendors at WCO--there were a lot more there than the team numbers justified, even if they were all Cali-based (and I think they were) and I hope they did a decent business and might have gotten a spike from some of the rec players, if they knew the vendors were there.

The Grand Tour's next event stop is slated to be Moscow the weekend of August 8,9. Pro will be an Open division in Moscow with cash prizes for the top three finishers. While the other Grand Tour events have seen a consistent group of 9 teams competing in the pro bracket Moscow is presently at 0 registrants for the Open bracket. And total registration is a meager 11 teams. Is this what would have happened to the MS in Paris without locked divisions and compulsory play?

The MS Campaign Cup is coming to Engerland in September. (I'll have an OTB edition of the field layout up sometime this week.) Nobody seems to be in a hurry to register--at least among those who have that choice--as D2 only has 1 team listed while M5 has 5 teams listed. Home grown team registrations have been weak-ish in recent years for Campaign. It will be interesting to see if that continues or if there is a bit of a turnaround this time. Rumors about an unofficial boycott of Turkey are making the rounds but I doubt there's any traction there.

In the PSP registration for WC stands at 198 (from around noon EST) with the first payment deadline still weeks away. While an impressive number I'm wondering if that is a soft 198. There will be teams that jump on last minute--as there always are--but for an event that has frequently topped the 300 team mark in recent years I'm a little concerned. If registration reaches 250 prior to the first deadline the final total will probably fall within the projected range. On a related subject there is also some speculation that Paintball Extravaganza in September is gonna pull away some percentage of the vendors who would normally go to World Cup. Nobody seems to know for sure but the grapevine hints that for those who would be in an either one or the other but not both situation that Extravaganza may have the edge.

It's a waiting game now.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

In order to spice things up a bit here's a link to the Erin Andrew's peephole video. What, it's not working? What do you mean there is no link? Wow! Those Google guys are fast.

Okay, how 'bout we do things in reverse order instead? That should be pretty exciting, right?

The Grand Tour held their Graz Austria event last weekend and were rewarded with a torrential downpour on Saturday for their trouble. The rains left standing water inches deep everywhere. The organizers are claiming victory over the weather--unlike the MS in Malaga--but no scores are posted so I don't know if they managed to complete the event or not. I was told the organizers responded quickly and made alternative arrangements and seemingly did everything they possibly could. But forget the tournament, did the rains wash out the beach party?
I'm reminded of the typical German tourist in Florida. You can spot one a mile away. Close-cropped haircut, sunburned ears, expensive jewelry including big watches worn to the beach, skin tight T-shirts, short shorts (by American standards) and dress socks with sandals. Not that I'm passing judgment. It's just amusing.

Things are quiet in Millennium land as there is no event until the end of September and there is very nearly no registrations yet in the unlocked divisions. There is a team-based effort underway to push the MS to find a fair alternative to their having given reffing points to D1 teams for an open event that nobody else in the division could "score" series points in. Good luck to them but I'm not holding my breath. The largest reason the MS can operate so cavalierly at times is because there is a history of teams and players refusing to stand up for themselves.

The USPL's West Coast Open will be held this weekend. This is the league's second event of the season. The numbers and turnout have to be considered disappointing after such a long lead-in period and a Cali venue but depending on the number of vendors present and the deal the league made with SC Village it is conceivable they may come out of it a modest net plus. That is the happiest face I can put on it using speculative numbers. It also appears, looking at registrations, that the "success" of the WCO is holding the DC Challenge hostage as well. there are a decent number of teams signed up but few have paid and it looks like everyone is waiting to see what happens.

The PSP is gearing up for World Cup and making a big effort to make the transition from Disney to Fantasy of Flight as seamless and easy as possible for the few (if our VFTD poll was representative) who were put out by the change. So far there are 177 teams registered with nearly a month to go before the first entry fee deadline.
Fields that rely on tourney players practice are already anxious to see the WC layout released as most of the teams won't come out until they have the field available to them.
In checking the registrations earlier I noticed the entry fee disparity between pro and semi-pro. (How I missed it before I don't know. Maybe it's the new bifocals.) There's a fat G's difference between the two divisions which seems to me pretty substantial considering semi-pro gets the same number of games and also plays Race2-7 on the same fields with the same refs (except Wednesday in Chicago) and also gets some webcast love. The obvious answer to this will be the prize packages. However the pro package continues to shrink and as a percentage of entries it isn't even close with S-P getting back over 50%. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating some equivalent formula. What I am suggesting is falling back on the prize package is just an excuse and not a very good one. You see, in the past the league always justified the entry fees the pros paid on all the added expenses of running a special field with more refs and a fancy scoreboard and so on. As if we were demanding all that stuff.
The other thing I found curious was the entry disparity in 5-man (Race2-2). D3 pays more (than the other divisions) no matter which days you play and D4 pays more to play their prelims on Saturday compared to playing them on Friday. At first glance this looks like a move to engineer registrations. I'll be addressing this in another way in tomorrow's follow-up post to 'A Measuring Stick.'

The Premath: West Coast Open

I figured if you could have an aftermath (the result or consequence of an event) why not have a premath (setting the table, as it were, for the coming event and eventual aftermath)? In the premath leading up to the USPL West Coast Open you may recall the kids at ProPaintball dropping the knowledge that Miami Rage was out (at least for this event and perhaps the season) and shortly thereafter that Aftermath would, with Art's blessing, fill the spot. Well, apparently that was one of those not so fast dealios until the owners group decided last night to go ahead as originally scheduled and allow Aftermath to play in the Miami spot without carrying over Miami's seed points. That will put Aftermath in the Saturday prelim section and keep the Pro total at 16 teams. The only remaining related issue is what the team will be called. Seems to me if they want to maintain continuity and call them Miami Rage they should leave the seed points in place because in essence what's happening is a wholesale roster change is being allowed. If they are to be acknowledged as Aftermath removing Miami's seed points is reasonable. Either way I'm not sure it's a huge deal but I'm glad the divisions remain intact.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Just a few odds and ends this week, kids.
Over in PSPland early registration is already at 129 teams and the first payment deadline is still more than a month away. That looks pretty good but if WC drops off as much as Chicago did (approximately) the total needs to be around 275 - 290 total teams. (I'm projecting a decline from last year based on the economic situation and turnout so far on the season. World Cup is however both the season ender and a unique event so who knows, it may show more resilience than expected.)
I wonder how many semi-pro teams the PSP could accommodate in a pinch? No reason, just curious.
Also, a bleg repeat--if you've played a divisional xball event this year or reffed one how refs per field this season? Anybody?

Registration officially closes for the USPL's West Coast Open tomorrow but if you suddenly decided you needed to play I expect Camille could make it happen. It's Old Skool (SC Village), it's New Skool (no, not Nicky Cuba, fresh, flat turf surface). What could be better? Some mid-summer paintball at a venue with legit paintball history.

The MS is doing its usual dumb and mum routine after the ban of Notorious announcement last week and I suspect they are simply hoping that and the D1 ref points problem will simply blow over as the Euro teams are too disorganized or spineless to insist the league operate like it believes in its own sporting pretensions and rules.
Otherwise there's a bit of a breather before the next event which is London despite the fact most of the current talk is about the late announcement of a Turkish venue season finale. London is scheduled for late September with the Turkey event following in late October. So far 4 non-locked teams have registered for London. Even though most of the recent issues in the MS relate primarily to the locked divisions it will be interesting to see if there continues to be weakness in D2 and M% registrations. Paris registrations suggest it may be trending that way but the event's Open status means we really need to see London before drawing a conclusions. Still ...

Fun, fun, fun over on The Grand Tour with the Graz beach party! Seems as a late attempt to entice a few more teams in The Grand Tour will have a lakeside party with DJs after tournament play has concluded Saturday. (That would be this Saturday as the event will be held this weekend.) In a curious turnaround registration numbers are down over last week from 46 to 40 (which may have inspired the beach party but it's probably too late for that to matter much.) I would love to know what the DJs are gonna be spinning and I'm guessing whatever it will be it would make my ears bleed. (What can I say? I have sensitive ears.)

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

The PSP's Chicago Open concluded over the past weekend and World Cup registration hasn't opened yet. (Which isn't a great surprise given the event is 3 plus months away.) However, the WC venue and dates have been announced. The location will be Fantasy of Flight in (or near) Polk City, Florida, from Oct. 7 - 11. Does anyone else find the name of the venue ironic given the efforts in past years to "launch" tournament paintball? (Okay, maybe it's just me.) I also find some of the internet squealing about the loss of Disney rather amusing as well as if the WC had always been at Disney. Hey kids, how would you feel about parking two miles away and being shuttle bussed to the Wide World of Sports site every day with your gear? (That was going to be a condition of going back this year.) And on the plus side Kissimmee isn't all that far off. Anyone who wants to hang out in the old haunts needn't be more than a half hour ride away. Even better, Polk County puts the "Cracker" into traditional Florida Cracker culture. (If you're wondering if VFTD has slipped into crude racial commentary, it ain't so. It's part of Florida's unique heritage, not unlike West Virginia genealogies that have no branches.)

News out of the USPL remains much the same but we're now into the final week(s) countdown to the West Coast Open. Now is the time hop on board to get your 7-man on. There's some serious local promotion going on as Giovanni pulls out all the stops and in case you missed it, you can bring your own paint or purchase from KEE on site. Not sure how you can go wrong on that count. And Camille dropped me a note hinting at some big news for the league hopefully coming soon. As I've said before, if 7-man is your deal (or if you haven't tried it but aren't excited by xball) now is the time to check it out. West Coast Open is in July and the DC Challenge will be held in August. Heck, even if you're a regular xball player there's nothing for you until World Cup so why not come out and play some 7-man?

Over in Euroland the MS is mere hours from the beginning of the Paris Open event. What I presume are final numbers (or mighty close to it) puts the D2 contingent at 16 teams which means the MS came up 9 teams short of filling all the spots for the Millennium Cup. In the separate M5 event there are 36 D3 teams registered which is better than Bitberg but fewer than Malaga. I imagine the numbers have to be a little disappointing and I wonder if this be the end of the "open" event experiment.
In the better late than never category the MS has finally announced the finals schedule for the Malaga event in the locked divisions. The games will be played Friday morning in Paris. Way to build suspense, Millennium.
For those interested in a preview of the upcoming CPL action one of VFTD's Eurofriends sent this link along the other day. Seems a number of the CPL teams will be getting in some last minute practice on the July 1 & 2. And if your Francaise isn't so good try looking here. (You will need to be a registered Facebook user though to access the page.)

Next on the Grand Tour schedule is the Graz, Austria event which looks like it may get the largest turnout of the season so far with 39 teams already registered. The event will take place toward the end of July.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

PSP staff were putting the finishing touches on field setup and the like today. Despite the brutal heat back home Chicagoland isn't a pleasant alternative. In fact, it's unpleasantly familiar--but that's too close to whining for comfort so I'll knock it off. They have moved things around quite a bit this year--or so it seemed in wandering around looking for our field. None of the area close to the houses at the back of the property is in use this year (I've heard it's been raining a lot lately and that it's kinda swampy over there but I didn't check.) Anyway, for regular reports and probably some pics check with our friends over at ProPaintball for the daily gossip and on scene info.
Final team totals for the Chicago Open are 195 paid (not including the Young Guns) so the numbers are actually down slightly over what it looked like last week. Must have been a few dropouts because I know there were also a few late registrations and payments.. Those numbers put the drop from last year at something above 15%.
On second thought I may take a closer look around the venue for signs of economizing. Also, there will be some new camera angles on the webcast as they were setting up to be able to shoot some closer action shots that should provide visible streams of paint and sight lines between opposing players, particularly on the snake side. (That isn't the word from Pat or Matty, just my interpretation of what will be in some of the shots given the new camera positions.) One other thing you'll see is the Doritos logo and trademark on the dorito bunkers on the Pro field. I don't know if we're seeing the first sign of an outside industry sponsor or if the league is using the Doritos tie-in to help sell the concept. I'll ask and let y'all know.

Over in the USPL (soon to be the NPPL) numbers for the West Coast Open remain sluggish with total registrations at 67 teams and just above half paid and ready to play. Even though I couldn't access DC Challenge registration thru the USPL website you can check it out (or register) thru APPA directly. DC has 70 teams registered for the end of August event. I know Camille and the gang are working hard but the USPL (NPPL) seems to still be in the same wait and see with fingers crossed position we've seen for a while now.

The Millennium Kids recently announced on their website that rosters for the open event in Paris would be unrestricted so I'm assuming anybody and everybody can beef up their team if they'd like to compete for the Cup without it impacting the regular series rosters or event results. By my count the MS still has 13 slots available in the open but they say it's only 11. That means at least 12 and perhaps 14 D2 teams have registered (though only 12 are listed on the website.) D3 (M5) registration is up to 27 and the MS announced they will playing Race 2-2 (if I read it correctly.)

If you Google 'Grand Tour' without including the modifier "paintball" you will get pages and pages of Grand Tours that aren't THE Grand Tour. That's probably unfair but I think I'd have a hard time justifying including the Grand Tour in the weekly update if they didn't have a Pro division. In fact I'm sure I wouldn't give it a second thought. The Lviv event took place last weekend and if you go to their site there are links to pictures. But no link to pblivescores even though that's where the scores and results can be seen.

Lastly I'd like to take a moment to recommend you check out the comments to the post, There Was No Paintball Bust, and read Houdini's second comment in particular. The whole major league paintball held hostage angle is (usually) at least partly tongue-in-cheek [meaning kinda unserious] but Houdini has a take from personal experience that I think is interesting, valid and worth paying heed to. So check it out.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

We have some interesting numbers this week though, as always, I'll leave it up to you to decide what they may mean. (Well, that's a bald-faced lie, isn't it? I don't always leave it up to you at all. But it sounded good.)

With PSP's Chicago Open about 10 days away official registration closed yesterday. Final registration numbers including the Young Guns (Play-for-free) totalled 230 teams. A solid number. Paid teams total 213 although it's probably a more accurate assessment to drop the Young Guns off both for a 216 - 199 comparison since the Young Guns are only paying for their PSP IDs. I expect a few more teams to end up on the final tally sheet so will guess actual paid participation will be around 205 - 210 which will amount to about a 15% drop from last year. If you look at the raw numbers the big drops seem to be in D2X & D3X but interestingly if you total participation from Pro thru D2 last year and this year the total difference is only 3 teams. (Which may or may not say something about how the classification rules have been working but puts the real problem area on a steep decline in D3X participation.
On the plus side the PSP's website remains the VFTD official major league website that blows the most!

USPL numbers continue to slowly tick up for the mid-July West Coast Open with total registration currently at 65 teams including the Pros and total paid registrations at 20 not including the Pros. Realistically, without a bunch of registrations coming after the Chicago event it looks like the USPL is in a battle for 7-man supremacy within the regional context of Cali and the left coast more than it is struggling to establish a national presence. Though perhaps one thing at a time.
It seems there's some rumor out there about Chuck H. being on the outs with the USPL. This may simply be a misunderstanding of his changed status with Kingman but in any case it isn't true. Chuck continues to work diligently on behalf of the USPL.

Over in Euroland the MS is gearing up for the Paris Open which will, in fact, be an Open with all the teams from the CPL thru D2 competing for the same tier of unique titles. I wonder if this, rather than the close proximity to Bitberg, is influencing the D2 teams. So far only 5 are registered and it may be they have concerns competing with 3 divisions of more accomplished teams. It would be interesting to poll the D2 teams that have played this year so far and see what they see. (If you're a member of a D2 team please comment on why or why not your team is or isn't playing Paris. Feel free to do so anonymously if you like.) D3 (M5) currently has 17 teams registered for the event which will take place the weekend of July 4.

This coming weekend will see the Lviv Ukraine stop on the Grand Tour and it appears final participation numbers are down over last week's registered team list as the 4 5-man teams registered apparently will not be playing. That leaves 31 teams competing in 3 divisions.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

With the "official" paid by deadline a week away--Monday the 15th--for the PSP's Chicago Open registration stands at 206 with 121 paid, not counting any of the Young Guns teams. There will be some last minute additions and a few teams pushing the limits on the deadline that will end up putting final registration numbers in the neighborhood of 220 but that ain't the same thing as paid and playing. While 121 teams paid looks pretty good in comparison to the prior two events if Chicago sees more than a 10%-12% decline it may put the PSP in a real spot. Every year World Cup is expected to cover for weaker events and make up for any earlier in the season losses but the added costs of the webcast plus low vendor turnout are reducing the already slim margins for maintaining some profitability. No prediction, no doom and gloom but realistically the numbers need to be there--and so far it's looking iffy. (I know I was more upbeat last week but this deadline has kinda crept up on me and the window is closing faster than it seemed just a week ago.)
We could also be close to the release of a WC location and date. No confirmation yet but indications favor a central Florida location at this time. Again, don't buy your tickets just yet. Just what I'm hearing from the voices in my head.

Over in USPL land the window remains wide open as the next event, the West Coast Open, isn't until late July but the predicament is similar. The numbers need to be there and so far things are going slowly. After postponing one event, tightening the season schedule and moving back to the left coast where it is believed 7-man is strongest the new league needs a success. (And by success I mean an event that makes a few bucks, not one everybody thought was swell but didn't attend.) Registration stands at 64 (including the 16 Pro teams) with only 17 non-Pro teams having paid their entry to date.
If you missed it check out the Monday Poll over on the sidebar as it addresses some of the concerns surrounding the 7-man format. And vote, you lazy slacker.

The Grand Tour's next stop in Lviv, Ukraine, is less than two weeks away with (paid?) registration standing at 35 total teams. This is down slightly on the recent Warsaw event and continues the trend of reduced turnout over past seasons when the Grand Tour was the Centurio and the ECS.

The MS announced some of the details for the Millennium Cup Pro and Am Open that will be the Paris event along with a D3 exclusive Millennium Trophy challenge. Having now seen the details I'm more frustrated than ever over the scheduling of this event. I'm not convinced a lot of U.S. Pro teams (or semi-pros) would have entered with friendlier scheduling but some surely would have. (Of course it could be that's not something the MS wanted. I don't know.) The main competition will have three tiers to success (the Millennium Cup, Plate & Shield) giving everybody who competes, regardless of division, a chance to win something.
Apparently the MS was unconcerned about carrying the semis & finals of Malaga over to Paris as they informed the teams in the locked divisions that they were always expected to compete in Paris regardless so no big deal really. (Hey, I'm just reading their own press release.)
With the event scheduled for the first weekend in July--less than one full month away--there are 2 D2 teams registered and 10 D3 (M5) teams registered for the event.
The open portion of the event will be limited to 96 teams with the three locked divisions comprising 71 (68) of those teams (don't know if 3 D1 teams are also expected to "volunteer" to ref) which leaves 25 (28) slots for D2 teams to fill. This layout doesn't do any of the lower division teams any favors (or those teams that are typically counterpunchers for that matter) as it will reward aggressive, effective guns up play and offers little in the way of initial shooting lanes or defensively-oriented control positions. (Post and diagram tomorrow on the Paris layout.)
Heard a rumor about the current but unconfirmed location for the final MS event. The word is the league continues to consider alternatives out of fear of player/team reaction. You gotta think though at some point if it takes too long nobody will be happy regardless. (Of course, tournament promoters are used to that.)

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

It's that time again. Where I bore you senseless (not always that long a trip) with the numbers as VFTD attempts to track the vitality of big league tourney competition.

But before I get started mark your calendars because I have a prediction for you. This is one you will not want to remember but will hope to be able to throw back in my face at a future date. Conflicted? It gets better. Or worse, depending. Warning: Do NOT read this prediction if you suffer from depression, occasional thoughts of suicide, drug-induced paranoia or if you listen to emo music.

Prediction: Next season, 2010, MLP will be at greater risk than it is/was this year, and I'm not convinced that surviving 2010 will get us over the hump either.

This week over at the PSP Chicago registration is up to 187 with 77 teams paid. That is a solid improvement over last week and, I think, a positive sign. The league continues to work the phones hard trying to drum up vendor participation but it remains an uphill struggle.
On the WC front it would appear that an Orlando venue may be close to being a done deal. This is just speculation on my part but I do know a couple of things that most of you probably don't. (I wonder if I'll get an irate phone call later today.) Do not, in any case, buy your plane tickets just yet.

The May deadline came and went for registration and early payment for the USPL's West Coast Open. Registered teams is up to 59 with 16 paid (not including the pro teams.) That means only a few teams took advantage of the largest possible discounts on their entry fees but lesser discounts remain available and it's hard to quantify where the savings versus the very early payment balances out given that the event isn't scheduled until mid-July. There is still plenty of time to get signed up but it's hard not to look at this as something of a referendum on the viability of 7-man as a major league format going into the future. Next week's Monday Poll will be about the 7-man format.

The Millennium Series staged their second event of the season at Bitburg, Germany last weekend with a total of 116 teams participating compared to the 151 teams at Malaga. Final results for Malaga in the locked upper divisions will not be complete until the Paris event in July. In the open divisions the numbers were down in Germany by 32 teams; 80 D2 & M5 combined in Malaga with only 48 combined in Bitburg. Curiously, there are 27 registered teams in D1 but in both Malaga and Bitburg only 24 D1 teams played. Does that mean, like last year, there are 3 teams each event reffing instead of playing? And how are they chosen? Do they still pay a licensing fee to get a D1 spot so they can ref?

The next Grand Tour event in the Central Conference is scheduled for the end of June in Lviv and there are currently 32 teams registered. That's up 2 over last week.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Registration for the PSP's Chicago Open is up to 136 with about a month to go. That looks pretty good but realistically another 80 or so teams need to sign up and play. I also hear the league is working hard to encourage small PBIndustry types to fill up the vendor's village but I don't think they have a prayer of making that happen. For the small guy it simply isn't cost effective (or even cost neutral) to attend anything but WC. In looking over the registered teams it appears that 4 of the 8 registered in Semi-pro are there by mistake. And the ranks of D1 teams continues to swell. Not. Last year Chicago had 8 D1 teams. Despite efforts by the PSP to pack the division like a Tammany Hall boss it ain't working and the net result is this year's crop of D1 ranked former players.
Keep an eye on the numbers as both Phoenix and MAO looked a little thin until the final week so I expect Chicago will pull it together too.

Registration for the USPL's West Coast Open is at 51 (including the 16 pro teams.) FYI--I make a distinction for the pro teams because they are all pre-confirmed and pre-paid as joint owners of the league and consequently shouldn't be counted the same as every other team signing up to play. That puts registration at 35 teams 3 paid. The May discount is available for a few more days and it will interesting to see how many teams take advantage of it. June payment will also offer a discount but not nearly as much. The event is scheduled for mid-July.

Registration in the unlocked divisions for this week's Millennium Series Bitburg event really did swell--perhaps on the good news regarding the German paintball ban (it ain't happening after all)--to 23 teams in M5 and 22 teams in D2 which nearly doubled each division over last week. Those may not be the kind of numbers the MS was hoping for but in light of all the recent troubles it doesn't look too bad.

Registration for next month's Eastern Conference Grand Tour event in Lviv, Ukraine, is at 30 teams. The recent Warsaw event saw 40 teams participate. VFTD recently was offered another explanation (besides poor promotion) for the fall off in competing teams. It was suggested by our regular correspondent that currency exchange rates had also caused, in effect, a steep price increase and that could very easily be putting teams off. I think there was more to it but I must have dozed off.

Lastly, I have made noises before about expanding the coverage of the weekly update and y'all have responded like the lazy slackers you are. But I now have something a little more specific to suggest so maybe it will help motivate a slacker or three. I would like to add regional series in the U.S. like the CFOA and AXBL (and I'm open to their suggestions). I would also like to add series from around the world that draw teams from multiple countries or are currently the largest series of events in their region or country. But saying that there's no way I can go hunting for all the info myself so here's the deal. If you want your league in the weekly update you need to send me relevant info about what's happening and websites where peeps can follow-up on the goings on of the various leagues around the world. Btw, I'm not holding my breath but do have my fingers crossed.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

There will be a poll--as you can see. But as I'm writing this I've no idea how it will look or format, only that it can be done. However, there is the serious business (yeah, right) of our regular weekly update first.

UPDATE: It appears on the stinking sidebar is what it does. Oh, well.

The PSP's Chicago Open registration is now (almost) open. The notices have been sent and the website updated but at this writing APPA doesn't have a Chicago Open option available yet. Won't be long, I'm sure. This event will be a big hurdle as the expectations are that much higher for a Chicago event. Last year's event topped 230.
This just in: The PSP's new website still sucks.

Over at the USPL there are 43 teams signed up (including the 16 pro teams) for the end of July West Coast Open. I'm assuming--a danger to you and me, I know, but what can I say? I'm a thrill seeker. I'm assuming the very early registrations are because of the offered discount for payments made in May. (12 days and counting so we'll soon see.) Either way it's decent numbers and if it encourages more teams to sign up could result in a very positive event for the league.

Across the pond the Millennium is gearing up for their Bitburg event in the wake of the Malaga mess. For whatever reason (fears of the German paintball ban) (repercussions from Malaga) open registration for Bitburg in D2 & M5 are lagging with 13 teams currently in each division. A smaller than expected (hoped for) (wanted) turnout in the open divisions will perhaps make scheduling easier as there is still no official word from the MS on how the Bitburg event will be scheduled in the absence of Malaga results in the locked divisions. Or how the make-up matches will be made up other than on Friday--and/or Thursday if you can make it.

In Warsaw last weekend there was a Grand Tour Central Conference event. With only 39 teams competing the event was held on 2 fields. Results are posted in the Masters and Amateur division but no Pro results are given. This appears to be a disappointing turnout. In other disappointing news the Southern Conference has been merged with the Central Conference when scheduled events in Turkey were dropped for "technical reasons." Given past turnouts for the EPL and Centurio I'm left wondering if the economic situation is to blame although others, closer at hand, point out the limited to poor promotion of events by the operators. Regardless, the Grand Tour is a little less grand with two conferences but hopefully consolidation will help future event turnouts.

Now to the good stuff. Rating the major league websites. I debated (with myself in an, at times, very heated discussion) the merits of offering opinions that might sway the vote and I finally decided I didn't care. Even so I am going to refrain and only suggest the various criteria you might use in considering your vote. Keep in mind these sites are the internet faces of world class competitive paintball. So appearance is important. How informative is the site? How easy is it to navigate to the information you want? How much cool stuff do they have, or, how effectively do they make competitive paintball look awesome? Just a few of the things to keep in mind as you consider--
Which major league website blows the most?

PSP
USPL
MS
Grand Tour

Sure, it sounds kinda negative but VFTD believes a good beatdown builds character and besides, there's always room for improvement. It also seems like a lot more fun than which major league website is the best. Boring.

Now get to clicking. Exercise your right to vote. I swear it will be as meaningful and relevant as any determination of public opinion overseen by the FEC or a U.N. Commission headed by Jimmy Carter. The poll will close Saturday at noon.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Welp, the PSP is going on hiatus--oops, jumped the gun on that one. The hiatus comes after Chitown. There were speculations early in the year that PSP was contemplating sanctioning (organizing?) some regional events in place of the fourth event and the open schedule from June to Cup added credence to the idea. But so far nary a hint or a whisper and if the league is actually gonna do some regional gimmick it needs to let everybody know pretty soon--otherwise who is gonna show up? I don't know about y'all but thanks, in part, to the exceedingly poor timing by the MS in declaring Paris an open event and then scheduling it less than a week after Chicago I'm going to Costa Rica during the PSP summer hiatus.
Meanwhile we's seven or so weeks out and registration for Chitown is -- not yet open. And in late breaking news the new PSP website still sucks.

The freshly restructured USPL (but we could be the NPPL if you'd like that better) is now counting on the West Coast Open in July to set their course for success. It's too early to look at numbers though there are 20-something teams signed up which (fingers crossed) I take as a positive sign. The league is also offering some serious discounts for early payment--pay in May. As always it will come down to who pays and in the next two months both the WCPPL and RPL will have run events that could cut into USPL turnout. At this point it's a waiting game.

Apparently the MS is telling the Eurokids don't worry, be happy as the pending German legislation to ban paintball will not affect the Bitburg (Germany) event come the end of May. And while you're at it come out in great numbers to show the politicians what a swell sport paintball really is--'cus right now nobody who doesn't have to be in Germany is signing up for our event. The MS website currently lists 7 registered teams in D2 & M5, the only unlocked divisions in Series play.
No word on whether the spectator unfriendly new inflatable field enclosure will be used at Bitburg. There is finally word though on how the unplayed matches and results from Malaga will be made up. Some of the missed matches will be played at Bitburg (come on down early, like Thursday, if you're in the neighborhood) and the rest, including the finals, will be played in Paris at the next event. This means, among other things, that roster restrictions will apparently be loosened and that scheduling will be based on the reading of tea leaves or tarot cards depending on your team's preference. (I made up that last bit. The important part is that schedules won't be based on results 'cus there are no results.) For a look at the latest statement issued to the teams by the MS go here.

Our weekly tour now concludes with the Grand Tour central conference event in Poland scheduled for this weekend. Looks like the event will have 40 teams. I don't know if this is good or bad but past events have apparently done considerably better. It also appears the current lack of interest from lower division teams in playing Bitburg didn't translate into extra numbers for Warsaw. Funny (ironic) how most of the concern going into this season was how U.S. top tourney ball would be affected but so far it seems to be Euroball taking the biggest hits.

UPDATE: Big stuff coming on Friday, slackers. The Ultimate Paintball Conspiracy. The plan to revive the industry.