Where Did Everybody Go?

Picking up on the themes of The Monday Poll I want to dig a little deeper in response to Mark's Monday Poll comment. His concern relates to field operators who rely, to one degree or another, on tourney teams practicing. It's a legit question. Unfortunately I don't think there is a definitive answer. But there are some things we can take a look at that might be helpful.
Is the current relationship between (mostly) the PSP--there aren't enough NPPL fields out there to matter--and the local practice field(s) a positive one? Yes and no. Is dependency on an outside agent that has its own agenda a good place to be? More teams are more likely to schedule practices proximate to when events will be held but in some respects the PSP hold practice fields hostage to their schedule right now. There was a time when fields were only released 3 weeks prior to an event and the result was the majority of competing teams fit all their practice into that 3 week period. Because all they were doing was scrimmaging the layout. When given the opportunity to prepare for a specific layout anything else is pointless. Even with layouts released within a week or so of the prior event the schedule of events still impacts local practice habits. The longer the time between events the more practice sessions will tend to be distributed closer to the event. This is a result of two factors; a team wants to be most prepared just before the event and because of some limitation on how often a team can afford to practice.
Does maintaining the status quo do anything other than to assure that everybody eventually goes down together? Or pass off responsibility for what happens next to an agency that has its own survival to think about? On the other hand we already know what happens when teams don't have the next event's layout, they practice anyway. And how they practice is up to them.

In order to free up local practice fields one needs to disassociate practice from specific events as much as possible and reduce the cost of practice. And if practice can be conducted at a lower cost it should yield two positive outcomes; dedicated teams on a budget should be able to practice more often and players and prospective teams will be more likely to reform old teams and/or start new ones because the bar to competing has been lowered.

In the last two or three years lots of theories have been offered for the decline in competitive paintball participation. Everything from blazing gats killing newbies to the economy stupid. And each theory has its own proponents because most of them sound reasonable in one way or another and each of them connect with our assorted biases. And chances are many of them have some degree of validity but sorting out the percentages is a near impossibility. Instead I want to show y'all some numbers and let you make of them what you will--and I'll tell you tomorrow what I make of them.
All these numbers are World Cup numbers in the Xball Era. The most teams ever at WC was in 2002, the last year before xball became a regular option, with well over 400 teams. 2005 was the first year xball was the stand alone headliner at Cup with only 77 xball teams & 247 5-man teams. 2006 saw 131 xball teams & 235 5-man teams participate. 2007 was the peak for xball teams at 160 with a 10% drop in 5-man teams to 212. 2008 had 138 xball teams & 195 5-man teams. 2009 saw xball decline to its second lowest stand alone total of 125 along with still shrinking 5-man total of 183. 2010 had 134 xball teams while 5-man fell off the table dropping to 118. Make of them what you will.

To put all this into a different context here's an alternative option. Given that the PSP has not hesitated in the past to change the format in an attempt to preserve (and/or grow) participation what if they followed the Amodea Plan of slightly enlarging the field and adding a couple of larger bunkers in the back to make it easier for the older more financially stable player to compete along with all the broke ass bunker monkeys. (I'm putting this out there because John suggested it in an X3 editorial a few months ago and because I disagreed with it at the time.) Is another format change either less threatening or more likely to succeed than simply no longer releasing the event layout in advance? And if it is how does it impact cost of participation? Or maybe you'd like to see both?

The Monday Poll

Why does a chicken coop only have two doors? Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan. (Badum-bum!)Hey, now that's comedy when you--actually I--include sound effects. (Or would have been except I can't get it to work.)

Keeping with the idea that the off season is the best time to talk about changes that might be worth considering The Monday Poll this week wants to know what you think about releasing tournament field layouts. Regulars will know VFTD has long supported the idea that not releasing field layouts in advance would restore an element of competition lost in recent years and would, more importantly, substantially reduce paint usage in practice prior to events. However, what may sound good on a blog and what you, your team or other teams you know would really want to see happen may be two different things. Is that much change too much? How many teams would have any idea how to practice if it wasn't based on scrimmaging points? There's potentially a lot of ways this could go so what could be a better barometer of what y'all are thinking than a Monday Poll? Well sure, a professional survey would probably be better. As would a professionally run poll targeting only competition ballers but this is what there is so we're gonna have to make do.
Vote early, vote often and influence the future of competitive paintball. (It could happen.)

Thoughts on Officiating

It's easy to find things to criticize when it comes to officiating--particularly as much of the routine complaints are generated by heat-of-the-moment reactions to disputed calls. VFTD tries to avoid discussing officiating in that context but it's impossible to be completely impartial. That's one reason to conduct these posts in the off season. Another reason is the timing would allow for change(s) prior to next season.
Since most officiating related posts are critical I thought it might be worthwhile to be reminded why reffing--and making improvements--continues to be problematic. This is about reffing at the MLP level but may apply (in parts) across the board. Even though league-certified refs have a day of special training that's really no more than a basic foundation, a framework within which to understand the role. There's nothing like experience. Additionally, being familiar with the rulebook is not the same thing as knowing the rulebook and too few refs know the rulebook. Then there is the issue of refs discretion that tends to creep into the process when either the original rule is poorly conceived or institutional control becomes lax--or both. Beyond that field design can play a role in making the officials job difficult as can some zone theories of coverage responsibility and just plain poor communications.
I know what you're thinking--if this is my idea of cutting the refs some slack you'd hate to be them when I'm giving them grief. Au contraire, mon slacker frere. My point is that there are lots of pieces to the puzzle and it's very easy for things to not go as planned--or, more to the point, it's hard to operate efficiently and consistently particularly when you take into account how little time these crews of officials work together. Even on the pro field when you consider what officials in other sports go through the actual preparation and development time is marginal at best.
I'm not suggesting they can't do a better job. I'm saying that we need to acknowledge the limitations that currently exist in our sport and focus on things we can do to improve the situation instead of focusing on the failures that do occur. If there are limits--and there are--perhaps the best that can be done in the near term is to focus on things that can be done to make the job easier. And if we can't instantly endow the refs with more experience or assure regular, consistent crews maybe the areas to focus on are the rulebook and consistent practices when implementing the rules.

Next time a few suggestions.

Latest Blog Changes

Aight, slackers. I am more or less done fooling around with VFTD. For now. There is now a link to my VFTD Facebook page down on the sidebar by the Twitter link and the Feedburner. While way too many of y'all are plugged into Facebook I know you're all still slackers. So for those of you who can't be bothered to join the Deadbox Puppet Army and haven't yet registered for Facebook if you like VFTD do me a favor and click--one time--might take two seconds (you got two seconds to spare, right? You know you do)--the "like" button on the sidebar right below About. What could it hurt? VFTD will not collect your personal information, sell it to any third party or harass you with spam. Go on, it's safe. Besides, you know you like VFTD. It's a guilty pleasure.

UPDATE: Almost forgot. There's a new picture on the sidebar below Baca's buisness card. In keeping with my ongoing one-sided feud with Catshack Reports I wanted everyone to know that VFTD is not Catshack approved. (It's also a link to the site.) and, yes, it's a silly joke. If you were a regular follower of VFTD on Twitter you would be used to the occasional litter joke--and worse. Paintball needs to be more fun so lighten up.

Its the End of the World as We Know It

and I feel slightly nauseous. Couple of reasons. I've got some good Off Season rumorology but am currently sworn to secrecy. I'm a sunshine laws and transparency kind of guy so staying silent sucks but I'm also a paintball realist (cynic) so I'm not sure I believe anything I've heard. Contributing the lion's share to my current queasiness is a decision to take the social media plunge with my Facebook page. Sure VFTD is already tweeting but VFTD doesn't follow anyone--okay, it's actually 6 but one of those was a pity follow. The end result of that is that Twitter hasn't really expanded VFTD's audience, it's just another avenue to inform regulars of what's been posted. (Although I do put original material up on Twitter occasionally and, no, it never has anything to do with the mundane activities of daily life.) From today forward VFTD will be making an attempt to use these so-called social media tools for my nefarious and self-serving purposes. There is one problem however. I still don't totally get how these things work--and I don't handle rejection well. What if somebody I don't know and doesn't know me doesn't want to be my friend? Will the rejection be devastating? I hope not otherwise I might soon be tweeting about how I cried myself to sleep--again.
If you're into the social media thing please drop by. You're even welcome to point and laugh about how I insisted I'd never do this. I deserve it--but I do have a plan. It's a cunning plan and if it works it will be worth the loss of dignity. If you're not now is the time to get started, while VFTD is the focus of mocking attention.
To get started I'm working on a couple of things. First, I've set-up a TBD group for team members only. So far Jason is the only one on board. Since I know some of the rest of you can (and do) read (this site) you need to get on board. It'll be an easy way to keep in touch--for me. (Btw, there's also a team page on Facebook.) The other thing I'm trying to figure out is how to do a unique poll--the sort of thing I don't do on VFTD but still paintball-related. (Which reminds me, there will be a new The Monday Poll coming out on Monday you won't want to miss.)
The Facebook page will have some unique content and be less structured than the blog. It will also be the primary contact as I (slowly) move forward with my assorted coach-for-hire schemes.
So there you have it. Let the slings & arrows begin.

It's Alive: Merger Talk, that is

Is it April 1st on anybody's calendar? Already league merger rumors are floating about? Does that mean y'all are taking league survival for granted? Ok, so maybe reps of both leagues had a chat or two like they seem to enjoy doing every year around this time but so what? Years ago when both sides were losing money the closest they ever got was an agreement in principle hammered out the weekend before Pacific Paintball filed for bankruptcy. Back then the conventional wisdom was that the NPPL side brought promotional expertise and the ability to reach outside of paintball while the PSP brought the format and event skills to the table. And if the united it would allow each to focus on what they did best and PBIndustry to line up behind a united front.
That was then, this is now. The only element of the old formula that might apply is lining up industry behind a united front--and that isn't a given. In fact, the only way that works at all is because of the new old players in the game (Richmond at GI & Gino at Valken) plus the water ball kids from HydroTec. (I keep trying to tell anybody who will listen the old national level tournament premises are dead. I even try and help jump start the corpse 'cus I know nobody is paying attention.) The only reason any semblance of the old way still remains is because of inertia and a lack of innovation. Besides, industry could have picked a "winner" whenever they wanted except for the soap opera that is paintball behind corporate doors. (Another reason the league(s) need to step up and lead.
Is there a case to be made for a merger now? If there is I'm not seeing it. (For those keeping score at home I am, once again, beyond the Pale along with all the wild-eyed lunatics and Irishmen.) Both leagues are paddling hard and just keeping their head(s) above water. Or so says the word on the street. For starters, merger may or may not bring the others' liabilities along with it. For its efforts the PSP would get a Baker's Dozen or more new partners, a format dispute, the NPPL name and an instant replay of past grievances. For what? For its part the NPPL would take on some percentage of responsibility for PSP liabilities, collect a few seats at the decision-making table, hand over a defunct format along with the phone number of somebody at G4TV. I can see the NPPL kids buying into that but what does the PSP get--besides more headaches?
Enjoy the rumors. A MLP merger ain't gonna happen. (Unless some industry players move in--and why would they?)

Burning Question

Is Rich Telford's Wide World of Paintball (FaceFull) still publishing a dead tree magazine?

(I haven't seen one lately and even the online version is months behind. Just asking.)

Scurvy, Who's Who & the Art of Photography

The cure for scurvy--a disease that in western history typically affected sailors--was lost for a period of time between the time when the British Navy began issuing rations of citrus in the 18th century and the arctic expeditions of the early 20th century. By virtue of an incomplete understanding, irregular scientific practice and a few incidents that inspired wild medical conjecture a disease nearly eradicated among the English prior to the American Revolution was killing upper class English children in the Victorian Age. (To read more, look here.) Knowledge once acquired can be lost along with history unrecorded--which is why I want to recommend you check out the Who's Who? over at the Big Bullet. If you see yourself or anyone you know I encourage you to get involved. Knowledge of paintball's history and personalities isn't a matter of life and death but if we don't preserve it, it will be lost with no one to blame but ourselves. Besides, the photos currently posted are a real rogues gallery of freaks, weirdos and malcontents likely to make the most hapless dweeb swell with new-found confidence. Preserving paintball's history is a project bigger than a Who's Who but it's a great start. Check it out. Offer suggestions. Contribute. Get involved.

There's a thread in the PSP WC forum regarding an incident (of sorts) in which the thread starter chides the league for its parochial behavior with respect to some anonymous highly credentialed fellow photographer. Normally this would elicit a yawn--at best--but I'm bored--nothing much else is going on--and criticizing the PSP (or the NPPL) is kinda my turf and while I'm willing to share there are standards to follow.
I'm going to post the majority of the original post sentence by sentence [uncorrected] and suggest you read the post in its entirety at PBN if you give a rodent's posterior. At that point I will entertain myself at this fellow's expense (and enlighten the knee jerk crowd while I'm at it.)

"One thing that I think you guys should highly consider not doing again is denying the President of the National Press Photographers Association and Professional NFL photographer,(who has the contacts with people at Fox sports) of getting a Pro fields pass when he has shot the past events with no problem."
Here is the NPPA. The other two relevant points are A) nobody was denied anything and B) the anonymous photographer has shot PSP events in the past. So he should known the process in advance.

"He was working on a story for his friend who is the Fox Radio Announcer at the Fox HQ."
And this is meaningful how? A paintball story? A PSP story? To appear when and in what market?

"He tried contacting you guys weeks before the event but no reply, when he arrived at WC he was told he couldn't have a Pro Media pass, and If he wanted one he'd have to BUY one!"
Is the suggestion here that since he's a bigtime credentialed photographer that he--and his pal (the post writer)--should receive special treatment that other photographers don't get? Or that it's somehow in the league's interest to give this guy the VIP treatment? Based on what? From everything stated so far all we know is this guy has shown up before, had his fun, but where is any evidence it has contributed in any way, shape or form to the betterment of paintball or the PSP?

"PSP please think over this again if you want to try to get the sport of paintball to grow."
Yeah PSP, grant special favors to my friend, and me, that other photographers don't get.

"This is not good for our sport, when a rep for a highly respected press photographer association and representative comes looking to help out but you reject it."
What help exactly was on offer?

"He finally got a pro media pass on Sunday, when our friend Kirill from RL had him added to the team roster under their team media."
Interesting given that NPPA has a fairly strict code of ethics and #8 reads: Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

"I will end this rant now, when we finally got the passes all was well! The event was great and we had a blast!"
[Emphasis added] Looks to me like the real issue was the expectation of special treatment whether monetary or procedural. Since when does membership in a professional association confer unique privileges? And why aren't the other photographers who paid for their privileges up in arms over this abuse? And what, if anything, has the post writer or his credentialed pal ever done for paintball or the PSP?

What a joke. A tiny little passive aggressive joke.

Discretion has another name

And it's not Oscar Meyer.

I watched some opening night hoops the other day as the NBA season got underway. My interest didn't last very long. Just long enough to see that what passes for basketball in the NBA remains, sadly, an ugly, boring game to watch. That and the league in its definitely finite wisdom has seen fit to crack down on player expressions of frustration with the officiating by making any word or gesture that could be construed as an expression of frustration an offense punishable with a technical foul call. In the few minutes I watched there were 5 technical foul calls.
This was noteworthy on a couple of counts. As the latest move in the ongoing effort to spruce up the league's image and as exactly the wrong thing to do in the longer run because all it effectively does is add another dimension of discretion. Not too many years ago the NBA managed to (mostly) sweep under the rug a gambling scandal that saw one referee sent to prison along with the unproven allegations that others were also involved. This struck at the core of the league's legitimacy because if the officiating isn't fair and impartial the game stops being sport and morphs into spectacle or entertainment only. In response the league has largely tried to pretend there never was a problem and never will be. Which is probably the point of the new rule. Whatever residual lack of trust the public may have (or not have) in the officials is reinforced (or undermined) by public displays from the players. The practical result will be lots of silly technical foul calls for a few weeks which will slowly peter out until the calls are only made occasionally. This will happen because all those calls are annoying, break the flow of the game and continue to draw attention to the fact players sometimes think the refs missed a call (or three or ten.) The goal isn't to make the call, it's to reduce the incidence of player expressions. Eventually the technical fouls will be called purely at the ref's discretion (despite how the rule may read.)

I know what your thinking; when did VFTD drop paintball and switch to basketball? Have no fear, that ain't ever going to happen. It's just that the situation reminded me of a paintball counterpart and I thought it might help me make my point if I did it with an indirect example. Even though it's the 'Off Season' there's never a good time to talk about officiating or the referees it seems. (This is where your intrepid blogger--that would be me--throws caution to the wind and carries on regardless.)

Despite the league's intentions and efforts in recent seasons to standardize top to bottom there remain a few idiosyncrasies in the pro division when it comes to rules. The one I have in mind is the no talking, no gesturing rule. (Has a light gone on yet?) There have been rules against communicating after you're eliminated forever. That's not what I'm talking about--an neither is the rule in question. The rule addresses what was once a grey area. Sure, you can't communicate anything about the ongoing game after you're eliminated (and there's even an exception to that) but that never really considered things like questioning the call, expressions of frustrations or cursing under your breath as you walk off the field, etc. The league decided there was too much player expression going on after elimination so they made it an infraction punishable as a minor. Since the real purpose was to minimize the incidence of player outbursts enforcement was near universal initially and has since trickled down to referee's discretion.

Discretion sounds neutral. Even reasoned. Thoughtful perhaps. But it has synonyms, at least in a sports context. What do you call referee's discretion when the penalty is called one time in three infractions? Or twice as often against one team as another? Let's say you are a member of team A. If only members of your team are penalized for violating the no talking, no gesturing rule despite obvious infractions from the other team is that purely the referee's discretion? Or that some players don't get called for the same violations that others do? Are you likely to describe those calls as something other than discretion? Favoritism? Bias?

Part of the problem is the point of the rule was intended to control player behavior--not call every infraction despite how the rule reads--but when the officials don't call every infraction they are using discretion which may or may not be honestly intended but cannot be other than bias or favoritism in action. See how that works? (Or doesn't?)

Formula One & Major League Paintball

This is gonna make perfect sense. No, really. It will. What do major league paintball and Formula One racing have in common? (The answer is not untold millions of dollars or enormous contracts for the leading figures. And it's not a chance to travel the world to compete though I will grant you a fortunate few can make the claim. Still, there remains a big difference from living the high life in Monte Carlo and driving a Monte Carlo.)

In football every game ball is as identical as the official manufacturer can manage to make them. In baseball every ball is, again, identical and produced by one manufacturer. Basketball, yeah, you guessed it. Identical. In most legit sports a conspicuous effort is made to assure that the equipment used doesn't confer any advantage to the competitors--particularly where a diversity of suppliers is allowed. Like golf or auto racing. But even where the technical rulebook looks like the Chicago white pages and a platoon of inspectors will practically tear apart the winning car to assure rules compliance the equipment varies. Perhaps most noticeably in Formula One where the latest engine management wizardry or chassis magic gives one team or another an obvious advantage that may last a season or more. Don't take my word for it though. Try this stat out. Of the 51 Constructor's championships awarded (since 1958) the same team also shared the Driver's title 40 times. Superior cars make good drivers better. Much better. This, of course, doesn't mean that great drivers can't succeed, only that it's an uphill battle when the competitive environment isn't equal.

At this point you're beginning to think you know what's coming next. You don't. (Unless you remember when I promoted this idea some many moons ago.) Sure, I could focus on the negatives--and have--just not this time.

The thing that makes the upper echelon of racing different is that the competition functions at a number of levels. It isn't exclusively about the drivers. Largely by necessity, as much of the money and motivation comes from the competition between various manufacturers (brands, chassis, motors, tires, etc.) vying for the right to claim they are the best, too. (Although it is somewhat ironic that F1 finally decided to go with a single tire manufacturer just a few years ago.) Given that competitive paintball finds itself in a similar circumstance--one unlikely to change anytime soon--it's time to make the best of it and improve the game at the same time. (When first suggested I want to say it was the then Pure Promotions version of the NPPL that briefly attempted to make it work but soon lost interest. My original column for PGi is in the Dead Tree Archive, somewhere, but I'm not sure which one it is. Yes, I looked but I couldn't find it. On the other hand I did enjoy revisiting some damn fine columns. Man, I used to be good.)

What the major leagues need to do is follow Formula One's lead. Expand the competition. Incorporate necessity and make it pay dividends. Increase the value of sponsorship. Take control. Encourage sponsorship diversity. Differentiate between competitors and vendors. Formalize the manufacturers pre-existing competition(s) by awarding event points and crowning season-ending series titles for manufacturers with the imprimatur of the greatest paintball league(s) in the world. For example, the PSP's 2011 Goggle of the Year. Categories could include guns, goggles, hoppers, packs & paint. Distinguish between Pro & Am.

Fleshing this out a little more the manufacturers competition is separate from vending. Pro teams may not use equipment of non-competing manufacturers. Manufacturers have always used the top tier of the sport to promote their products indirectly--which they can still do by supporting the top teams--but now have the option to also do so directly. Each event the latest numbers will be revealed to see where the manufacturers stand. The advantage to the league is they control the competition the same way they do the tournaments played under their aegis. The manufacturers competition is a value added for the manufacturers. The scoring system can protect & promote sponsorship relations between teams and manufacturers. Now is the ideal time to institute a manufacturers competition because of the influx of new paint producers looking to separate themselves from their comeptition and grab market share. A likely added bonus related to paint is greater consistency in the quality provided event to event. This should have happened a long time ago. It should happen now. Should either major league be interested in greater practical detail you know where to find me.

PS--manufacturer's awards wasn't my idea. I credited the source I got it from in the magazine column--which is why I was looking for it--but don't remember anymore. Anyway, it was a clever Brit and if any of y'all recall (or find the column) he deserves the credit.
UPDATE: It was Steve Bull. The column was "Brave New Paintball World" from 2004 reprinted on the blog in 2008--and found by Kine (who posted in comments.)

The (tuesday) Monday Poll in Review

Mea culpa. I confess. I had an ulterior motive in posting last week's (tuesday) Monday Poll. Oh sure, I was (and am) legitimately curious about what y'all think about best means to begin building up paintball's grassroots again, but ...
But I was also interested in how quickly and/or easily an idea turns into the conventional wisdom and how much staying power it has.
In response to the question: What is the best way to sell paintball to the public? The answers were rather predictable and, of course, Reiner was correct in the comments when he suggested the alternative 'All of the Above' as it isn't really an either or situation. I also confess I'm undecided about what the number one answer really means. A full 50% voted 'Take a friend to play.' Is that because it's been a popular (and oft-repeated) rallying cry or is it because it's something any individual baller can do? It's probably popular because it's something anyone can do--unlike, say, get paintball on TV or produce a webcast. But I am very curious as to what the real numbers would look like. Call me cynical but I'd be amazed if 50% of those giving that answer had actually made the effort to follow thru. I also found it fascinating that magazines, internet & videos didn't score as high, collectively, as did social media. As no fan of social media I find that something akin to a sign of the apocalypse and I wonder if there is any real way to collect usable data that would either confirm or deny social media's utility. It's certainly all the rage. Webcasts garnered 9% which is probably unrealistically high although I do think webcast has the potential to get the competition crowd fired up. 15% still believe in the power of TV--and rightly so, I think, although what is really needed is a "Making the Team" kind of reality show not unlike "The Ultimate Fighter" show(s) on Spike which have done a remarkable job expanding the base of interest in MMA. Finally, in an ironic twist only 1% voted video game(s) whereas once upon a time the whole industry and media were overwhelmed with excitement over the potential for the first Greg Hastings offering to be the paintball equivalent of a free crack sample, just a taste, to get new players hooked. Just as the newest version of the game is being released nobody believes it has that power anymore.

Nows the time to offer future poll suggestions as we are headed for the off season and I is tired. Regardless The Monday Poll (s) will return when there's an interesting topic for the majority of you lazy slackers to ignore.

World Cup Sunday

Given the clarity about how the tie-breaking system works I thought I'd go thru the Sunday seeding as well. ('Cus it's kinda unusual.) With six teams moving on to Sunday the top 2 seeds get a bye directly to the semi-finals. This time it was Legion (1) and 'Shock (2); one from each bracket. The rest of the seeds are determined across brackets with the 3 seed facing the 6 seed and 4 versus 5. So far so good. The league puts the 4/5 game under the one seed and the 3/6 game under the two seed. The real question becomes why are the quarterfinal elimination games attached to a one or two seed prior to the games being played? 'Cus they are--which sorta defeats the purpose of seeding the match-ups if the end result doesn't (necessarily) favor the top seed(s). The result is the quarterfinal elimination winner faces the higher seed in their Sunday bracket even if the match-up isn't the one that favors the top seed. This, btw, is nothing new. It's just another league curiosity that demonstrates when it comes to being a sport there remains room for improvement.

As it turned out the Sunday brackets reflected the prelim brackets as there was no cross bracket match-ups until the final. The first game up was Dynasty versus Damage, a rematch of a prelim game that saw Dynasty win 7-1 on Saturday. On Sunday in a series of drawn out long points Dynasty led 4-2 with less than 3 minutes remaining. Both teams conscious of the stakes played some atypical paintball perhaps too concerned about making a crucial error than in taking control of the match. (I hesitate to offer any explanation of how the two games were different given that some of VFTD's readers apparently don't understand the difference between facts and details and excuses but since I'm bold and fearless I'll give it a go anyway.) In the Saturday match there was only one point where both teams were 5-on-5 due to a trifecta of majors called on Damage beginning with the first point. Sunday's match included penalties as well including a late penalty against Dynasty that carried over into the overtime point. In the end Damage was able to close the gap and with the advantage of a 5-on-4 overtime breakout completed the comeback to take the quarterfinal elimination match and earn a second shot at the Russians.
In the second quarterfinal elimination game X-Factor took on Infamous and made a game of it. And despite the failure to make the semis it had to encourage Alex and the X-Factor guys who have been on the cusp of Sundays all season. Both semis ended in identical scores with Shock and the Russians duplicating their prelim results and moving on to the finals.
The pro field also saw a number of other matches played on it during the day including some xball divisional finals and the CXBL Old Skool xball format final. Over the course of the weekend there was a decent crowd both prelim days to watch the pro games and Sunday saw full stands catching all the finals action. On a side topic it seems some of our Eurotrash paintball kin are making a fairly big deal over their (somehow collective?) WC successes and while I don't begrudge anybody a reason to party I am unconvinced there's much there there. If you know what I mean. The issue is the competition. Big ups to DOW Warberg, a D2 Millennium team competing in, wait for it, D2. Now I haven't investigated the rosters involved to try and see who and how many players (or teams) of a Euro persuasion were playing down so let's just focus on TonTons. (And for those teams playing where they belonged--or ballpark--thumbs up to y'all as well.) Is there a U.S. pro team that would make a big deal over winning a D1 title? Seriously? Is it just me or isn't that an acknowledgment of inferiority prima fascia or at least a collective feeling of inferiority? And it's not like the mercs on Millennium rosters are pros from Fiji or South America.
The perhaps least well known title up for grabs on Sunday was the PSP Pro series championship that saw Impact, Damage & the Russians (in that order) vying for a first time distinction. Early NXL seasons played for WC seeding and the Cup was the be all and end all of pro success. When the NXL became PSP Pro that tradition was carried over and despite moves to event titles, etc. the season champ remained the Cup winner. This year the league began treating the pro division as the other divisions in that they kept a point total from event to event that thru the Cup results would also crown a series champion. When Impact got knocked out of Sunday play that left the series title up to the race between the Red Legion & Damage. Given the point spreads going into Cup and the number of teams competing Damage needed to finish third if the Russians won to take the series. Damage beat Infamous in the 3 versus 4 match-up. And it was perhaps the least exciting championship anyone has ever won. As time goes by I hope the players will take some pride in the accomplishment of winning both pro series championships in the same season but right now they don't care. The object of the competition is to win and despite what the trophy says the Russians are the best xball team in the world. (Well earned.) So we'll take the 7-man title and hope to defend it and we'll hopefully continue to grind with the goal of winning xball next year.

Pro Prelims: Day 2

"There's always a surprise or two it seems but nothing jumps out just yet." So suggested my favorite blogger. That was Friday. On Saturday things began jumping. In the morning X-Factor, which dropped both their matches on Friday. won both, including a hard fought one point win over Impact which eventually earned X-Factor an opportunity to play Sunday. And in the last match of the morning session Infamous edged Impact 6-5 which ended up knocking Impact out of a Sunday spot and the race for the series title. The first bracket saw Aftershock, Infamous & X-Factor move on.

In the afternoon session the Ironmen won both their matches, Dynasty and Vicious split (which included a fairly surprising Vicious win over Dynasty) and Damage dropped both their matches resulting in all four teams having 2-2 records. Given that the tie-breakers may seem a little convoluted I'ma try an explain how things worked in this situation to see Dynasty and Damage move on. First the teams were sorted by point differential to assign them positions. Then Dynasty and Ironmen were compared to see if head-to-head was relevant. It wasn't so Dynasty, with the highest point differential moved on. Then Ironmen and Damage were compared and Damage owned the head-to-head and head-to-head, if applicable always supersedes all other tie-breakers. As it turned out Damage held the head-to-head tie-breaker versus Vicious as well meaning the second bracket saw Red Legion, Dynasty & Damage thru to Sunday.

In vendor news it seemed like there were quite a few vendors on site readily accessible without forcing participants into long, winding hikes dragging gear. Dye was up with both Dye and Proto tents loaded with new stuff including tactical gear. And there probably should have been a warning sign to keep open flames away from Dye's VIP tent as the waves of alcohol were visible in the air each time the door opened and shut. Across from Dye was the GI Sportz (Milsim?) set-up which appeared to be half tent, half collapsing WWII Quonset hut. (Cool but odd.) I also spotted Empire and lots of food vendors in a center court sorta area. I'm also sure PE was there as I talked with Jacko briefly on Sunday. Truth is I cringe a little when it comes to vendor and industry chatter because I wouldn't have seen what I did except we had to do a bunch of photos after the awards ceremony. So I didn't leave anyone out on purpose, I just didn't see anything else that registered with me.

Pro Prelims: Day 1

Picking up from yesterday's items of interest the pro field did get the blackout sheeting up between the pro field and the CXPL field and I have a (slightly) better idea what all the cameras are all about. Seems some guys paid the PSP event video fee and set-up their cameras with the idea of collecting all the footage of the whole pro event for editing as an experimental production. If they like what they get apparently the notion is to then see about working a deal with the league for the future. This time around however there is little or no sound; it will all be visual.

You want scores go to ProPaintball or direct to APPA. Mostly the expected teams are doing what was expected. There's always a surprise or two it seems but nothing jumps out just yet. As rumored Mike Hinman is working with Dynasty. In our bracket we and the Russians are currently 2-0. We meet in the final prelim match tomorrow at 4 pm. And by the math nobody is out of the running yet regardless of record.

Instead of talking about the pro numbers some more I want to talk about a D1 team, Mayhem. Prior to the event there was a fair amount of whining about the classifications of some of the rostered Mayhem players because of their past team affiliation(s)--along with nebulous complaints or charges (of something nefarious) aimed at the league or the APPA or both. As it turned out Mayhem finished 1-3. I'm not suggesting whatever was "wrong" with the player classifications didn't matter because they didn't win. I'm suggesting a couple other things instead. One, maybe the classifications really reflected appropriate classifications for the players rostered despite past history and Two, we--as a paintball community--wring our hands over all the players the sport is losing yet the second some whiner thinks he may have to compete in order to win he wants to disqualify anyone and everyone who might stand in the way.
A related truth is that pro players do not stay pro players in terms of their skills set unless they continue to play pro or near pro paintball. And while the years don't erode experience or knowledge they take a brutal toll on the actual capacity to compete at a very high level. Another truth is the very guys who comprised much of the Mayhem roster are exactly the guys the game needs to want to stay involved and help develop and transition the next generation of tourney players.

The Pro Field

The event layout is much more convenient for the divisional players this year as it's a more open and accessible layout without all the winding ways between, around and thru the vendors like last year. With lots of new stuff and easy access the vendors should see lots of positive foot traffic, checking things out of their own volition this time around. The pro field remains in the back past the vendors so you still have to walk through the vendors area to reach the pro field. (We just park all the way in the back and the PSP gives us a wink and a nod.) The field was still being prepared around 4 pm this afternoon. All the bunkers were in place but the dead boxes, scoreboards, etc. were still in process of being set-up and activated.
There were also a couple of items of interest. Ever notice the first 7 or 8 feet of netting from the ground up is also blacked out? (It's not so's you can't see the action unless you're in the grandstands.) It's because seeing through the netting, particularly if there's another field, is assumed to be a serious distraction. And I guess we're going to find out as the league hasn't blacked out the common wall the pro field shares with the CXPL field. Also, there are remote cameras up on many of the support poles about 6 feet off the ground all around the inside of the pro field. Nobody I spoke with knew what that was all about--or claimed they didn't anyway. (I just tried to call Lane but for some reason his phone went to voice mail and a familiar voice said, "Get the hell off my phone. I have all the aggravation I need already" or something similar. When I find out what that's all about I'll let you know.