Galveston D2, part 2

Here is part 2 of Mike McGowan's report on D2 divisional play in Galveston.

I will say that there is a HUGE difference between Race-To-5 points and Race-To-4 points. Game 3-2 is match point in D3. Just getting to the meat of the match in D2. The ebb and flow of the game starts to become a factor. Several teams would go up 2-0, only to lose the match. Whether CEP D2 vs. Vipers in the Prelims or Prime vs. Boom in the Quarters. I'd say, and many agreed, that this was the most fun a layout that has been created. Allowing for not only attack, but on all three sections of the field.
As familiar as the undesirable weather was for a paintball tournament, the D2 division did get to experience something unprecedented. Playing Quarters to Finals on the PSP Pro field with Pro officials. All on Paintball Access Webcast vision. The difference in officiating is dramatic. They are less forgiving. There are more of them. They are scary. I will also say that they are highly professional and all of them were very polite and explanatory. They would also just as politely throw a major or minor flag, which by comparison at the divisional level, might appear to be a lessor infraction. I can say that Boom and Prime may have paved the way with 3 Majors and 4 minor penalties. Presumably, these guys are professional refs with long-ago playing experience. The refs in D2 are decent refs with recent player backgrounds. They seem more forgiving for hits on the loader and pack. If you're still rolling that gun in PSP Pro, you've got confetti coming your way. All the majors I saw in the Boom vs. Prime match were indeed justified. Just as your margin for error playing-wise undoubtedly decreases at the Pro level, so it does with the Pro officials.
I'll also say there is a fundamental disconnect between those that understand the Professional division and the Divisional. The announcers could not figure out how penalties were assessed. Minor penalty is one plus one. Major is one plus two. If there are not enough bodies left, then they are pulled off the box for the following point. So, if one man plays with an obvious hit and there is no one else, 3 will be left on the box for the ensuing point. Perhaps, us divisional teams are to blame by not lasting long enough. Teams only being known if they are a Pro feeder team. Some day I hope it'll be like MMA, only instead of being out of "Black House", or the Miletich camp, or American Top Team, they'll say, "Revo out of PAP", or NJJ 2 under New Jersey Jesters program.
The Quarters saw PB Vipers, PR1ME, and Zone quickly scraped from the field. PR1ME got up early but were clearly mentally unprepared for the match, gaining lots of penalties. Boom capitalized. According to Mike Hinman, Revo "outclassed" Vipers, while Todd Martinez questioned the "discipline" and "competitive" nature of the Vipers as well. For how young a team they are, I'd expect them to be a top-four force some time this season. There is a also a perfectly captured pod paint-throw on footage. Hilarious. Zone looked athletic, but earned early penalties as well. They'd be trounced by Elevation. The only close Quarters game was Coaltion edging out Siege 3-2 playing patient paintball. This is the only game I saw Coaltion play on the webcast. They zoned up, crossed up, and laned up. Occasionally taking corners off the break, but more often doubling back bunkers and allowing teams to run into their guns. Siege almost tied it up with 3 secs remaining. By their scores, this appears to be how Coalition played the whole tournament. Most of their games being narrow wins to time. This trend continued against Boom, 4-3, in the semis.
For the one and two spot, I'd be curious to watch the Coalition vs. Revo match. Revo was ambitious on the snake side all tournament and willing to hold. Revo dominated every team, with a combined tournament 25-10 point margin with one 2-3 loss in the prelims. Perhaps guys from Maryland came in unprepared for a slow grind after so many easy wins. But it came to be a 3-1 victory for the team from New Mexico. They've won D4 PSP 5-man and a pair of D4X, one in AZPL, the other in the WCPPL. They didn't lose a single match the entire Texas tournament. Apparently there was a miscommunication or lack of time and the consolation game between Boom and Elevation for 3rd place was never played. Both teams listed as "Forfeiting" the match-up. By hearsay they were each given 3rd place prize and 3rd place points for the event. That might be unprecedented. The fog of war against the elements I suppose. Maybe the elements assisted Coalition's patient play (by slowing down their opponents as well). But a zero-loss tournament speaks for itself. Congrats Coalition, you gloriously bamboozled the preseason alignments.
It was a miracle the event was finished at all, not just the D2 Division, which had the first fields to be ripped up from the winds. Despite the majority of the field coming from East of the Rockies, several teams from the West side of the nation found success in D1 (Pirates) and D2 (Coalition). The WCPPL birds haven't ceased their chirping on ProPaintball.com And why not. They took down two top finishes. But I'm not sure anyone was really provoking them to begin with anyway.
Mission accomplished for the PSP, but everyone is hoping for normalcy in Phoenix. We'll see if that alters the results for the D2 Division.

Galveston D2, part 1

Given the length of the submission I am dividing it into 2 parts with minimal editing. I hope to see some robust comments rating, praising and even critiquing the report so that Mike (and others, myself included) have a better idea next time what y'all would like to read about in divisional coverage. Both the pre-season D2 rankings and this report are by Michael McGowan of Prime.

We all knew the weather was coming. It rained and gusts blew. No surprise. From the looks of the things the weather was actually better than predicted. Many believe the paintball gods are simply merciless, or powerless, when it comes to controlling the weather. Others have waxed and waned on the PSP's inability to select solid venues. Already talks have begun to change the venue for next season. Historically, March is by far one of Galveston's driest months, close behind February or April. It rained zero to negligible amounts in the same dates in years prior. Last season saw no rain. However, according to the Almanac, scattered thunderstorms and high winds (the most recent being abnormally high) are almost always predicted.
Improvements were made from last season. The parking situation was rationalized. Fields leveled, especially the Pro field. The ant situation much more taken care of. Though, after the rain, fire ants were finding their way into my Exalt pants. Sub-aquatic fire ants were lighting fire to my calf with their teeth under water. I couldn't believe it. But let's not forget why this venue was also chosen for paintball reasons. Texas has numerous teams in the PSP and would be next in line for paintball population density with the other venues. Most teams are from the east coast. Not the west. Which makes the results at Galveston all the more interesting.
The D2 Division in Galveston unfolded rather similar to the VFTD pre-season rankings. Save for some glaring surprises of the undefeated Coalition victory and the letdown of Greg Pauley's ac402.com. GP admitted via ProPB Smackbox to enjoying the event, having fun playing again, and looking positively on the future of the team's less experienced players. Many presumed Boom would struggle more than they did with their team being gutted by Aftershock. I can tell you from playing opposite them that this was not the case. I will say however that I did not experience a big jump from D3 to D2. Well, there aren't any "bad" teams. Essentially, with 18 teams you go to where the Ocho cuts were last season in D3. There are no "trap" games. Everyone is pretty solid and there to win. Teams hold their lanes better. You have to create your gaps more than simply wait for them. If you don't hold your gaps, people will inevitably take advantage. So the margin for error goes down. But I don't believe anyone saw another team on the field and said, "Whoa, these guys are on a D1 level."
The D2 division was made up of eighteen teams split into three brackets. I'd argue the first bracket, made of Boom, PR1ME, Elevation, was the most competitive. Three teams making it to the Quarterfinals with lower margins of victory. The "soldiers" award certainly goes to the third bracket. They played all 4 of their prelim games on Saturday. At night. From 7:30PM to well past 11:00PM. Lights were brought in. Conventional wisdom is that at night, difficulties (or even unethical play) increases. Laning goes down. Nighttime with mud? Those lanes simply disappear. I'm not convinced it mattered. The teams that attacked won the day in the third bracket. Both Revo and Vipers were flooding the snake side. Vipers being a younger team, this is no surprise. With youth and less experience, they played to their strengths of speed and relentless attack. Getting up the field quickly. CEP, notorious as a program for their patience, may have gotten hurt from the elements. But I saw some wicked fast players on their squad as well. They would go on to garner the uncoveted "first place in the cut" award with 9th place. Last Call may have struggled regardless, but perhaps the elements furthered them to a dismal 4-20 point performance for dead last. They should be given the opportunity to play D3 Race-To if they so request.

Guest Post from Information Merchant

This came over the transom today. While VFTD does not endorse all the views contained in this open letter VFTD does find them worthy of discussion. After all, that is a big part of what VFTD is about.
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An 'Open Letter' from the Information Merchant:

In an ideal world there would be two national (US) paintball leagues and both would be able to support themselves and further the sport. That is an ideal world. Given the realities and constraints of this world, consolidation and unification is the only option for national-level paintball (the feasibility of a regionalized structure is out of bounds in this letter, as I hope we all want a platform for national competition). To that end, I would like to humbly ask you to ask yourself, “Is what I am doing really best for paintball?”

I don’t know if 7man will die without the USPL. I do know that the USPL isn’t saving it. The league is alienating the support base with sub-par events and is “proving” 7man to be unsustainable as a national circuit. I don’t know if that is a false-positive, but after the failures of Pure Promotions and Pacific Paintball, and now the USPL with the combined strengths of Chuck, Tom, Bart and all the other intelligent and/or experienced individuals putting their efforts towards that league, 7man's inability to be run successfully at the national level will be a given. The longer the USPL exists, the harder it will be for another 7man league to start up in the future. (And this ignores the rumblings that the USPL is moving to a match-based format of play, so even the saviors of 7man are going nontraditional to try to save their league. Put another way, the league formed to save 7man is rumored to be forsaking 7man in order to save the league).

It is irresponsible to suggest that it is our duty, as paintballers, to (blindly) support paintball in all its forms and formats. Supporting all of paintball, as it is today, is hurting the sport. It is dividing our (very limited) resources is bad for our sport. We have enough companies (i.e. sponsors) and enough teams interested in national competition to support one league. All we accomplish by splitting up is to create distraction, diffuse resources and prevent any one group from pulling itself up, not to mention the increasing likelihood, if not actually probability, that we will cause both leagues to fail.

I can’t help but think about what could have been done this year if we had unified under one banner and really supported the sport. The PSP probably lost $100,000 to $150,000 in entrance fees to the USPL and another $100,000 in sponsorship. Imagine what the PSP could have done with that;

• Right now $100,000 people are out of work and taking $50,000 jobs. The PSP could have hired a salesmen, a PR rep, to approach non-endemic sponsors, something the NPPL was having moderate success with (Army, Marines, video game industry, energy drinks, car companies…). There is no saying whether this would have borne any fruit. If not, it is $50,000 lost, but if so, it would have been that much more money and exposure coming into paintball, that much more mainstream attention coming into paintball.
• The PSP could have expanded their webcast. The PSP webcast is our best avenue for attracting new national players. with more cameras,more interviews, more content, more statistics, it would have been an even greater draw. The more people who watch, the more people who have an increased likelihood to play.
• The PSP could have put more effort into getting all the regional leagues around the country behind them, creating one unified structure. This could have involved getting pro teams to attend those events, to promote the PSP and X-Ball (and themselves). This effort may have involved donating entrance fees to the prize packages of the regional events. These activities would help the regional leagues attract more players (thereby making more money). It would get more local players into the sport, helping local stores and fields. And it would further increase the likelihood that some of those teams end up playing the PSP. We need to introduce the best regional teams to the PSP if we hope to continue to have a PSP. This is all part of the larger unification of paintball.

We could have had more teams and better events with better webcasts which would make paintball more attractive to sponsors, who could have been courted by a full time professional salesperson. We would have given back to the players, to the sponsors, to the regional leagues and to the sport. And we would have taken some steps towards unifying paintball across the country. And in so doing we would have helped local stores and fields and leagues and local players.

That is the opportunity cost of the USPL, right there. The damage that has been done may be irreversible (will Rockstar ever come back with a $90,000 sponsorship proposal?).

Sit back, all you owners of USPL pro teams, all you divisional teams supporting the format, all one tourist teams looking for a good time playing one national event per year, sit back and ask if what you are doing will lead us down the road where this all goes away?I believe it does. I believe it will. I hope you reconsider the blind support of paintball in all its glory and restrict yourself to only supporting paintball that helps support the sport.