Inside VFTD

All is chaos. Sorta. More or less. Today it's more. I wanted this week to be a break from the serious biz of paintball and that got derailed almost immediately with the sudden canning of Eurick at KEE on Monday and it's all gone downhill from there. I know, I didn't have to do a Suicide Watch either but stuff happened--and keeps on happening--that's hard (for me) to ignore.

I'm waiting on a few pro*files but it would seem that, like the rest of you, the typical pro is a lazy slacker too. I can't post what I ain't got. While I'm at it let me, one more time, encourage y'all (pro players) to drop me a line and get involved. It isn't hard--look at some of the guys who have already done it--and while it may seem like you're crassly self-promoting, so what?--peeps are interested. Trust me. The Pro*files are popular and you can always say you were just helping me out.

I'm also waiting out technical difficulties to get the latest installment of Ask of Coach produced. Server issues this time supposedly, all that means is (again) I got nothing. Except a list of post subjects I'm interested in, most of which are fairly serious and all of which require some thought and effort. Two things I wanted to avoid this week.

There's also a new (big) interview in the works with a uniquely placed individual who covers the gamut of big time competitive paintball. Feel free to guess who it is but I ain't gonna tell you. It's gonna be a surprise.

I was also considering doing the third annual VFTD awards (for the first time) by asking you lot to contribute categories and nominees but I can see that getting out of hand very quickly and you'd be surprised what a poor sense of humor some of the folks involved in paintball have. However, if any of you want to contribute ideas, categories and/or nominees I'm willing to see how it goes. (Winners could receive the golden pod. "And the Poddy goes to..." A universally recognized symbol of excellence and achievement in a category yet to be determined.)

The Watch continues...

There are a couple of items that didn't make yesterday's regular Suicide Watch update I want to address as well as some very on point questions that came up in the comments to yesterday's post.
Beginning with the MS it's interesting that the event they cancel is the Sarsilmaz Cup in Turkey. Most reports from those who attended the Antalya event were very positive and rumor had it that the local support made it a very attractive venue for the league as well. (With last year's primary complaint of late, very late, notice being a non issue. On the flipside attendance was poor with locked division no-shows and moronic pre-lim brackets but all that was part and parcel to the late notice and resultant higher costs.) Yet, when the MS decide to reduce the season it seems that none of the owners was willing to give up their events. Looking at the Malaga team list so far there appears to be a dearth of German teams in particular. Should that continue does that make Bitburg, already the least well attended event, more or less attractive? [Bitburg may not be the least wll attended--certainly not last year compared to Turkey but still only had 47 non-locked division teams last season.] (And is the German teams absence related perhaps to the new national league that is in the works there?) Of course if the MAXS peeps give up the German event once does it establish a precedent they don't want to see repeated? Possibly. Does a homegrown Millennium event serve any practical function for the owners or is it mostly a matter of prestige? (There's been talk in years past of pulling the Campaign Cup because of the dismal turnout from UK teams.) Not a lot of answers, just lots of questions but maybe it's no real surprise the MS can't seem to get their act together because they really can't manage to get their act together--even when they pay a price.
Elsewhere it's been suggested the TonTons were performing a service by checking to make sure the field actually played okay. This is, of course, utter nonsense. Everybody understands how and why the TonTons got the field and not, say, Joy Division or Lisbon Benefica. Nor is it relevant that extra practice on the layout may not show up in the results. How to tell? What is relevant is the arrogance and unwillingness of elements of the MS to abide by the rules everyone else must live by. What is also relevant is the demonstration that the MS apparently has no qualms about acting in that fashion either. And aren't bright enough not to out themselves. Okay, that last bit is pretty funny, too.

Moving on to the PSP here's the first of the comment questions: Is the decrease in teams at the PSP the results of the affiliate leagues? (WCPPL and CFPS last weekend, CFOA the weekend before and AZPPL a couple of weeks ago.)
I think it's reasonable to assume the affiliates have drawn off some teams that would otherwise have played the national event. The numbers, timing and divisions involved in a year to year comparison seem to support that idea. I also expected a continuing general decline. As I suggested before I think the Chicago numbers will go a long way to confirming the affiliate league hypothesis. There may also be something to it being the first event and the westernmost given that the reccession has been particulary hard on Cali and Arizona. And the HB event isn't not seeing any upsurge in 5-man team registrations either so the NPPL probably hasn't pulled significant numbers that would otherwise have played Phoenix.
If it is, is that bad for the PSP?
In the short term it isn't good. In the long term it's part of the plan. The difficulty is going to be the balancing act the PSP will be doing during the transitional period. They need enough participation to see them through from here to there but they also want to see the affiliates succeed.
Yes, less team, yes, less revenue from entry fees, but could it be compensated by 1 less field, therefore less refs and all the expenses that comes with it? I have hear we would have 6 or 7 fields in Phoenix, so my theory goes down on this one... but isn't it the thought behind that affiliate program? Smaller and more selective national events with a larger base to support it.
Yes, and in the longer run we may see that happen. However, there are some factors for Phoenix conspiring against an optimal event. One, the shorter duration event means the same x number of games need to be played in less time equals more fields and refs, not fewer. Two, the new rules. Their effect isn't known yet and the PSP needs to err on the side of caution until they have a clearer idea what the impact will be. Again, in the longer term, yes, the goal is smaller more selective national events and a more fully realized World Cup where championships are won--and lost.
I also wonder if the lack of clarity entering the season hasn't had an effect as well. There have been substantial changes and I'm sure that nobody knows how will play out. Teams dedicated to playing the series suck it up and play anyway--but teams, particularly in the lower divisions, that are far more likely to play one or two events are also more likely to be put off--and the availability of a ready, cheaper option in the affiliates could have also played a role.For example, at this point, right now, today, I have no idea what our post-prelim round(s) will look like and I would probably believe you if you told me it wasn't decided yet--and it does not make me a happy camper even though I believe in what the league is trying to do. Bottom line is most peeps just want to play some paintball.

Major League Paintball on Suicide Watch

Lots of news to cover today and time's a-wasting. No change over at the not so Grand Tour so I'ma skip them this week.

At NPPL 3.0 things continue apace. It's hard to know what the actual state of the league is but registration keeps growing. There are currently 109 registered teams, including 70 7-man teams. Registration has now surpassed last year's participation number of 103. And while I could'a sworn the league sent out an email blast about a full pump division at 16 teams it's no longer listed in the news and pump registration is up to 18. In the news a change to the field layout was announced today--seems a modest fix to the fifties was in order. (Perhaps they discovered the snake side snake was otherwise virtually unplayable.) 5-man registration remain soft with the majority being in the "new" D4 division. Finally, this week Kingman officially signed up as a major sponsor of the NPPL 3.0. In keeping with recent nomenclature changes around the leagues Kingman is not a gold, silver, platinum, etc. sponsor--they are a major sponsor. Kinda like the PSP's new generic master sponsor.

In the MS this week registration has increased by 10 teams over last week to bring the total number of registered teams across all divisions to 60. That's it. Despite the SPL additions of All Russians (who won D1 last season) and Manchester Method in their return to Millennium play. (You must read the announcement at MS website. It's on the home page. Are they models? Are they ballers?) In the face of dramatically reduced registration numbers the MS announced a reduced season schedule by pulling back to 4 events and canceling Turkey. The change reduced the cost to compete and saw Campaign and Mill Cup switch places on the schedule with Campaign playing over the 4th of July weekend and Mill Cup moved into early October. The MS has also updated their sponsors list for 2010 and the list of official sponsors is short and lonely. Stako and Kartel Prime are display sponsors, Paint Xtreme is a gold sponsor and Kingman Group, GI Milsim and Dark Sports are platinum sponsors and--that's it. This leaves a clear opening for somebody to jump in and scoop up the opportunity to place their logo on disposable trash bins.
On Feb 27th the TonTons released a video showing off their new private label NTs. In the background is the Malaga layout--which wasn't officially released until March 5th--and enquiring minds want to know how long the TonTons had access to the layout before everybody else. Oops.

With registration officially closed last Friday today's number for Phoenix is 109, 79 of which are playing some variant of xball lite while 30 teams, mostly D4, will be competing in a Race 2-2 format. That's 13 fewer xball teams and 21 fewer 5-man teams that last year's total of 143. That's approximately a 24% decline over last year in total numbers with the bulk being a 40% drop off in 5-man. Not good news. No telling the impact yet as Chicago will either begin to balance out a weak Phoenix or set a pattern of further decline.
The PSP is still without a 2010 rule book and it's beginning to show as are some of the complications that arise with significant change. Over at PBN this thread highlights a potential problem. Given the new classification rules the PSP (via APPA) intend to seed teams based on some cumulative player ranking formula--which doesn't sound unreasonable. Instead of attaching a ranking value to a team it is possible to do a more precise seeding using player classification values. Unless a team purposefully delays identifying who will be on their roster. (Or unintentionally alters their seed number by adding or removing players at the last minute.) In either case the seeding is skewed. I don't know how aggressively this issue might be manipulated or to what outcome but what I do know is if someone thinks they can gain an advantage by manipulating their seeding place they will try to do it.

Mr. Curious

Mr. Curious just got hit by a brick coming through his living room window. He's got a large knot on his melon but that isn't what's got his head spinning. It seems the anonymous note was a copy of an email announcing the sudden departure of George Eurick as Prez & CEO of KEE. It's not clear according to Mr. C whether he was cut from the roster or quit--but cut is getting all the betting action. It's also rumored that a guy named Robinson will be replacing Eurick. Robinson's got a paintball past as he was (apparently) the guy at the helm who ran the K2 paintball division into the ground. So exactly what the overlords of KEE have in mind is beyond Mr. C's ability to guess.

UPDATE: the latest rumorology suggests that Mr. Robinson has some supporters inside JT and that opinions on his past performance vary considerably.

UP-UPDATE: clairvoyant or just dizzy? Mr. C hears that more heads may be on the block and as long as the axman is in town... Guess we'll see when we see. Mr. C also hears that Gino over at Valken got word of the KEE goings on within minutes of the ax falling.

On Sponsorship

I was asked yesterday what I thought of an opinion piece posted on the website over at Rich Telford's Wide World of Paintball. (Title is the link.) You may know it better as Facefull. The comments were made by, who else, Rich Telford. It is after all his wide world of paintball. And instead of simply answering the question it seemed blog worthy.
If you're hoping for fireworks you're going to have to set off your own or settle for disappointment. I was asked if I'd seen the piece and if so, what did I think? I have now read it. And it's hard to argue with. Most of it sounds like stuff I've been saying. It offers a suggested path. What's to criticize?
What I will do is piggyback on a couple of points. (I'm also assuming you've read Rich's comments so don't be a lazy slacker and take a minute to check them out.) There are 3 items I want to riff off of here. 1--Rich generously passes responsibility for the current state of the game around and while it's certainly true the facts is that some are more responsible than others. 2--Rich suggests the players need to support the members of the industry that support the pro teams and ignore those that don't. Some might read that as advocating a boycott of sorts--which is how I read it--and while I am agnostic on the utility I'm not shocked by the idea. Collective action in the collective interest (where it can be ascertained) is perfectly reasonable. (But is that in the collective interest?) 3--And finally Rich suggests if times are tough for the pros, and they surely are, it's also no picnic for the lower divisions. Which is true too, as far as it goes.

1--the current state of the game is the responsibility of an industry and major league promoters who have, at times, largely been one and the same. Did some high profile players have input at times? Sure, did their vote count for anything at all at crunch time? When the nature and direction of the game were on the line? Not so much. Without some control there isn't any real responsibility. The only responsibility teams and players bear is the result of an unwillingness to become embroiled in the politics of the game, either individually or collectively. In the present that's neither here nor there, I just want to be clear.

2--if the players and teams have proved incapable in the past of acting in concert in their own self-interest--and they have--I doubt much of anything will convince them to act individually for the collective good--even if they buy into the boycott idea. And then there's the disconnect between the pro teams and the not pro teams. Does the average player see a connection? Other than that's where some of them hope to one day be. It's not that I oppose a boycott or something like it, it's more that I've never seen any evidence to suggest it could be organized, formally or informally.
One reason the needed dollars aren't there is because they can't be justified. Budget cuts don't necessarily dictate which parts of the budget the cuts come from. When sponsorship dollars are targeted it means the value received from those sponsorship dollars is less certain than dollars spent elsewhere. Perhaps one thing teams need to do is figure out a better way to make their case. (Ironically, not unlike what Rich and XSV have been working toward for years. So who would know better what is possible in this environment and what isn't?) One good question for teams is how do we go about building value in our team? And an equally good question for sponsors is what do we lose if we fail to support the pro teams?

3--which kinda leads me to a comparo between the pro teams and the divisional teams. There are a couple of relevant differences. What passes for sponsorship in most divisional situations is really differing sorts of discounts. Are the basis for these discounts tied to pro sponsorship, or the lack thereof? Not so much. Any company that has a product line targeting the competitive part of the game probably offers some sort of discount options to teams, either directly or through retail stores and field shops. Are players really going to ignore those options in order to encourage other parts of the industry to give stuff to pros? Again, not so much, it seems to me. One place (among many) where the pros and divisional players share a common cause is in the costs both incur in order to compete. As divisional players move up ranks the costs of being competitive increase as well so for those players with dreams of playing pro must begin to confront the reality of what it takes off the field as well as on it.
Lastly, while decisions made by industry and promoters have brought us here I'm not pointing fingers and insisting on placing blame--the point is to accurately assess what is so we can all hopefully make wiser decisions as we move forward.

Monday Poll in Review

Last week's question (Where do you get the most satisfactory competitive paintball experience for the money?) garnered some not unexpected but nonetheless interesting responses when taken as a whole. The same percentage voted local as voted national (29% v. 28%) while nearly 40% voted regional. The part I found most interesting was the strong preference at the local and regional level to compete in a series. And that the trend did not continue at the national level with a majority voting event instead of series. This suggests a couple of things to me. Competition players are competitive (d'oh!) and the option that provides the greatest challenge is the preferred choice except... Except when? Except, for example, when the cost becomes prohibitive; ie: the national level. (Or, the level of competition is deemed to be to good?) (Are there D2 teams that won't play national level events regardless of resources because it might be "too hard?") I want to say competition players play to the level they can attain based on the resources they can muster--but I'm not altogether convinced that's true.
So, as usual the Monday Poll is intriguing but inconclusive, being unscientific and all, but don't let that put you off. We learn daily that much of what is called science these days isn't particularly scientific either.

Greetings from NorCal

Just a quick update, kids. We's been in Sacramento at Capitol Edge and flying out at the crack of dawn in the morning. We thought our flights sucked--we left Thursday evening at 6:30 pm and arrived at our hotel 10 hours later. The Russians got in around noon on Friday after around 27 hours on various planes and stop overs. Ouch! You'd have to pay me the big money too just to put up with the travel. Weather was great. Better than expected or forecast. The paintball is always good. Otherwise practice went well but it does interfere with my blogging schedule.

PSP registration for Phoenix has closed. Final numbers aren't confirmed yet but could be off 20% from last year. What's going on? More on Tuesday's Suicide Watch. The Millennium has also made some sudden and unexpected moves in the last few days. What's up with that? A temporary flash of common sense or is it every day garden variety fear? Is the NPPL 3.0 holding its own in a shrinking major league paintball universe? (I'm still curious as to what the paint dealio is gonna be.) I don't know about y'all but I need a break from all this seriousness so expect a couple of posts this coming week on the lighter side--like a new animated Ask the Coach.

Pro*file: Daniel Holliday

Name: Holliday
Age: 26
Hometown: Dirty Tampa
Occupation: I'm not exactly sure of what my title is but I work in sales currently
Family: 2 kids, one girlfriend, 2 brothers.
General interests other than paintball: I love to look up lavish things on the internet, be it: cars, homes or watches and just imagine that I actually have the ability to purchase such items. I'll click " add to cart" go all the way to the final process and then cancel the transaction, that is typically when the depression kicks in. It’s a vicious cycle.

1. What was your first paintball experience and who introduced you to the game?
My first paintball experience was on easter day, I'm not very religious and my buddy jared had always played paintball so I suggested we should try it out, we went out on easter morning, I borrowed a Vm-68 and me and about 8 other guys all went out to the woods field, I dont think I shot anyone but it was really fun

2. What team do you play for now?
TAMPA BAY DAMAGE! And the Republicans

3. What teams have you played for in the past?
Strange, Jax Raiders

4 . What role do you play on your current team?
Publicist, player, activist. I have many roles in the 2010 season

5. Who are your favorite paintball players?
Favorite players to watch are Chad Busiere, Kirill, Alex Spence, and, of course, CJ Botsolas the best kept gem in Pro paintball.

6. What’s your best paintball experience or memory?
Recently it was when we won Chicago, but thats played out so much, Im ready for some more though. Im tired of everyone talking about the chicago win, it was over a year ago we need to make some serious moves in 2010.

7. What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done in order to play paintball?
Paid a hundred and twenty five dollars for a case, lost jobs, ruined myself financially.

8. What is the single most important lesson the up and comer needs to learn?
Just that reality isn't father knows best anymore, it's a kick in the face on a Saturday night with a steel toe grip kodiak work boot and a trip to the hospital bloodied and bashed. or that consolidating all your credit bills into one bill is much easier to manage, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

9. What keeps you playing paintball?
The fact that I'm still getting better and better as the years go by, haven't really hit a plateau yet.

10. Do you (or any of your teammates) have any superstitions related to playing paintball? If not could you make up something that sounds good?
I really don’t believe in superstitions or even luck for that matter but I'll make something up.
Before any big day of paintball.. When im in the hotel room bathroom,for about 7 minutes I remove my boxer briefs multiple times in front of the mirror while listening to "return to innonence" by Enigma. I repeat this ritual until I feel the fit is just right.

After Action Report: PBLive

If you watched you know Guy Fawkes made an appearance. A minor miscommunication meant I ended up wearing the damn thing the whole segment but at least Guy is a much jollier fellow than I. And think of it in terms of the mystery. Who was that masked man? Everyone will be talking. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Besides, I confess there's a little anarchy in my heart, too.

I'm told the program will be up on YouTube soon and I'll post a link for the masochists among you as soon as I have it. I'd like to thank host Ryan MacDonald who was terrific. I thought my Steven Wright delivery was an intriguing counterpoint to his lively style. Beyond that I wouldn't hold the PBLive guys responsible for anything other than being duped. Of course, if they bring me back that one is on them.

I enjoyed it other than the mask part--which after about 5 minutes was hot and claustrophobic--but I'll own that one. It sounded like a clever gimmick until I spent a half hour breathing my own stale breath and resisting the urge to rob a 7-11.

If you listened in, thanks, I hope you enjoyed it. And if you catch the show later on YouTube I make no promises. What I can say is when that cabal of owners was busting their piggy banks for NXL franchises this is probably not the TV they had in mind.

Suicide Watch: Special Update

In Tuesday's regular weekly update I questioned whether or not the new affiliates, AZPPL & WCPPL, might have an impact on PSP Phoenix participation given that registrations in the Race2-2 divisions is down compared to last year while the registrations for the format-formerly-known-as-xball is closer to last year's numbers.
First thing to take note of is very little crossover, a handful of teams are playing both, and most of those are out of the AZPPL (unsurprisingly.)
Also, the WCPPL has a very solid D2 Race2-5 division set to play the weekend of March 6,7 and 52 Race2-2 teams in D3 & D4. That's a lot of something where there was nothing before.
The timing and the numbers and the lack of crossover might suggest the PSP "lost" some teams to the affiliates but even if it cost the PSP a few teams this time around growth like that exhibited in the WCPPL certainly portends a better future.

Euroland Seminar Concept

Aight, this one's mostly for the Eurokids and I could use your help. No, you don't have to do anything--much. What I'm looking for is feedback, info and opinions.
I'm looking into the possibility of organizing a seminar (or two) for experienced teams and players designed around teaching the European player secrets of the aggressive American style of play. Most clinics focus on making the individual a better player. (Which is a good and necessary thing.) The purpose of these seminars would be to help equip team captains, coaches and whole teams with the knowledge and means to optimize their training, learn how to function more effectively as a team while at the same time learning the practical drills and procedures that will give teams the confidence and know-how to play the aggressive game.
Nothing is set at this point though I have a few ideas. I'm looking at the last couple of weeks of August in terms of a time frame. And I'm thinking 2 seminars back-to-back. The first might be a Monday thru Thursday and focus on bringing in teams (or at least a representative sample) who would also receive the benefit of actively participating in the team building and training activities. The second seminar might then be Fri - Sunday aimed more for team captains, coaches and trainers as the level and amount of actual on field training activities would likely be reduced. Alternatively it could be back-to-back weekends instead. The first weekend a Fri thru Sunday for mostly individual team leaders and the following weekend Thursday thru Sun targeting more team participation.
That's the rough concept, a possible time frame and the target participants. No prices yet but one possible venue would eastern France, proximate to Germany, which would be reasonably accessible to large number of Euro teams. The team seminar would have to limit participation while the team leaders seminar would be more flexible.
Any and all comments, particularly from Euro players, is greatly appreciated.

Practice? We Talkin' 'Bout Practice?

Since it came up in the Monday Poll comments (tangentially) and since I've suggested this to the PSP a few times (and given how much I enjoy repeating myself) I thought I'd mention it again. Mention what exactly?
Only the most obvious means of saving teams playing the format-formerly-known-as-xball some potentially serious green. Do you remember when the league used to release the field layout a few weeks ahead of each event? They thought they were kinda splitting the difference between the haves and the have nots by limiting the amount of time everyone had to prep the next event layout. Turns out all they were really doing was turning local practice fields around the country into ghost towns when the layouts weren't available. Once that was realized the league went looking for an alternative. And as should be expected by now I didn't wait for an invitation but offered a couple of suggestions; either release the next layout immediately after the prior event or don't release it all. (I'm sure I wasn't the only one who made those suggestions but since this is my blog we're ignoring them for purposes of this post.)
Given that the league's concern at that time was how their decisions impacted some tourney-oriented local fields they went with immediate release--which usually means nowadays within a week or two. Where before all the tourney teams were swamping their local practice fields when the layout was available they are now able to schedule practices over a more extended period. What hasn't changed is the nature of that practice. It is almost universally scrim grind scrim which eats paint at the same voracious rates as actual event play.
However, the other suggestion--don't release the layout at all--would have (and still could) perform a couple of very valuable functions. The same window of opportunity to practice would exist as with the early release and the nature of that practice would (eventually) change dramatically. Practice would be forced to become about learning how to play and not about how to play a given field. Teams would be forced to train the mental side of the game again and that doesn't require skids of paint. Team preparation would change. The nature of the events would change as divergent styles clashed in early round matches and teams began to learn how to adjust and change from match to match. It would also add a new dimension of excitement to the play as you would be far less likely to rote play--at least in the higher divisions.
None of this would happen overnight and it's probably too big a risk to take in such uncertain times as I have no doubt lots of teams would squeal but it would save smart teams real money and begin to see a resurgence in the mental side of the game.

Major League Paintball on Suicide Watch

Nothing much new to report for the not so Grand Tour. A couple more teams have registered for the Venice event but no "pro" teams yet. And no 3-man xball yet either. No field layout--probably because they are waiting for the MS to release a Malaga layout which they will also use. Nothing else is new. I'm hoping this event actually works for the GT as I can't get over the venue--Grand Tour & Grand Canal--together again for the very first time. It's spectacular. Now if they can only put on a successful event.

Right after last week's Suicide Watch report the MS released the names of all the registered locked division teams for the first time this season. So far the CPL has 8 (16), the SPL 14 (28) & D1 7 (27). And in the case of the SPL and D1 the original division size was 32 teams and the 28 & 27 numbers indicate last year's max. The 3 unlocked divisions share 20 registrants between them to date. That puts total event registration to date at 49 (+1).
For a related but different perspective if you follow the league's team registration procedures you will get to a page that allows you to look at previous locked division teams on a pull down menu to see who was once a locked division team. First identify the division and then click on the separate team list.
On the plus side a few empty spots has allowed Boost Air to jump right into the SPL. Boost Air's claim to fame is they will be shooting 50 cal and are principally sponsored by GI Milsim & Paintball Distribution (the French distributor for GI Milsim.) The news is on the Millennium website's home (news) page. No word on whether or not Boost paid the licensing fee for a locked division spot or whose spot they're taking. Lucky for their sponsors the team didn't have to work its way up the ranks.
And, as noted in the GT section, the MS has not released a field layout for Malaga yet.

NPPLmania sweeps Huntington Beach! Not really, but, you know, it could happen. The NPPL also released their team registration list last week after the Suicide Watch report last Tuesday and, frankly (no pun intended) the numbers were surprising in a couple of ways. Not all the pro teams/owners were listed and there were 60+ teams listed. Today registration stands at 85 teams including 16 pump teams and 11 5-man teams. According to the list the majority have paid--something. It will be interesting to see what actual participation numbers end up being at the event. It would seem the league intends to go full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. HB is the most costly event of the season and last year the league was rumored to have taken a substantial loss at HB with 103 teams paid including 18 pump teams.
According to the live webcast the rules were supposed to have been released yesterday but I think a little leeway is due given that the PSP hasn't yet released their 2010 rule book either and the Phoenix event is less than 3 weeks away. Of more immediate interest is the paint situation for HB. No confirmation of prices yet or whether or not RPS will be the exclusive paint provider as has been rumored.
On the retro front Angel Heaven returns to an NPPL event and is likely the most anticipated Angel sighting in years. Angel owners get in free and if I were a betting man I'd be inclined to put the over/under close to 10.

Last official day to pay a Phoenix entry is this coming Friday, March 5th. There is a little leeway built into that deadline but not much. Registration numbers have been virtually static for a couple of weeks and all registered teams will need to participate in order for the 2010 season opener to equal last year's turnout. By this time next week we will have a final team list. What we won't have yet is more than a guess as to why if the numbers show any significant decline. As mentioned before one place to look is Race 2-2 participation in the AZPPL and WCPPL to see if the affiliates are pulling teams that might otherwise have played PSP. (With the current 5-man NPPL registrants it's clear the NPPL isn't pulling away PSP teams.)
We also still don't have the new set of rules. But there is a new classification for sponsors called master. I wonder how master equates to past practices. Perhaps they've pulled their new tiering order from the plumbing profession and we can look forward to journeyman and novice sponsors as well. (But probably not.)

The Monday Poll

The question I want to ask this week is: Where is the line that competitive paintball can't cross? The line between value and competition. When does it cost too much? Or when are you getting too little for what it does cost? Obviously there's no way to formulate that into a poll question but those are the questions I'm asking myself and those are the questions behind this week's Monday Poll.
The competitive game has been all over the map in recent years. A dozen years ago we paid around 2 grand for 6 prelim games of 10-man in the woods. Initially divisional xball teams played double elimination. 25% of a division only played 2 matches for their entry fee. 2 years ago the pro teams paid 5K (6K) for Race 2 - 9. In a couple of weeks it will be $2500 for a 3 match prelim Race 2 - 7. 7-man once had a 10 game prelim in Euroland. Many local events have entries in the low hundreds. Others charge seasonal fees. In some respects the price of competitive paintball is always changing.
What keeps teams and players coming back? What drives them away?
Since I can't figure out how to ask the question I want I'm going to pose a somewhat related question: Where do you get the most satisfactory competitive paintball experience for the money?
I'm not differentiating by format and I'm not giving you a price range. I want you to take into account your personal priorities, preferences and resources and vote accordingly. The distinction between "compulsory series" and "series" is in the former there is an upfront fee and commitment and in the latter just the intent to play a series.

Monday Poll in Review
Last week's poll wanted your opinion on the introduction of 50 cal to competitive paintball. A sizable majority viewed it in a negative light; a commercial flop (23%), demonstrate inferior performance (43%). That's 66% compared to the 4% who think it will revolutionize the game and the 14% who expect small ball to be a viable alternative to 68 cal. The remaining 14% didn't expect it to make any difference. The poll question was asked within the context of competitive paintball but I wonder how many of the voters took that limited context into account or if the poll tends to reflect the general opinion that is out there regarding 50 cal paintballs. No way of knowing of course but one thing is fairly clear--the backlash against small ball has connected with players across the paintball spectrum.

Brothers in Paint

Post title is the link to the 4 part video: Brothers in Paint. Produced by one of the players for Cyclone the piece won awards at the North American Association for Consumer Research 2009. Its now recut and subtitled so its more suitable for public viewing. The ideas presented may not be new to the thinking paintballer--all six of you--but the context is unique and offers some good insights into the world of competitive paintball. Check it out. (Thanks, Sam)