MLP on Suicide Watch: Millennium Update

Missed all the stirring and suspenseful action of the live CPL draw for Malaga--somehow it slipped my mind--but there is the odd interesting bit as a result. It seems Lisbon Benfica is now on board--having moved up from the SPL--and Rammstein Instinct is expected to finalize their CPL spot as both were included in the results of the draw. That brings the CPL back up to its original count of 16. It's all mildly disappointing as I was hoping for some phantom team inclusions like at Antalya last autumn but life goes on. Why don't they place teams by seed? Prior CPL teams from last year's results and new CPL teams prioritized by their previous ranking? It's almost as if the MS was searching for ways to screw up.

Also of some note it appears that no one is or will be a diamond sponsor this year as the category has been removed from the league's website. This amid persistent rumors the league cut various deals with both sponsors & teams to swell their ranks in recent days and weeks. (If you made a deal with the MS drop me a line. I promise not to tell anyone about it. Besides, who would I tell?)
There is even a rumor that Ulrich is going to produce something akin to an updated set of rules--but I find that one to be totally lacking in credibility--so I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

UPDATING THE UPDATE: Rammstein Instinct is a definite. One explanation is that they simply didn't get the online registration done. However, that fails to explain how a team registered in a locked division has a spot but isn't registered--especially when the policy requires a pre-payment schedule. Either the organization is a wreck or some teams are simply ignoring the policy and arranging their spots independent of policy. (Which is where some of the rumors reported come from.) I suspect the CPL teams are afforded some unofficial leeway--that's been a commonplace across all the major leagues at one time or another--but doesn't serve to explain any of the late arrivals in the other locked divisions.

NCPA National Layout

I am not going to critique the layout--which is really pretty interesting--except to comment on a couple of things. The orange square highlights what I think is poor placement of the CK as it makes it an irrelevant and nearly pointless bunker. The pink square highlights the snake side MT for a couple of reasons. Check your angles and see who can apply pressure to that position. (The answer is almost nobody including the Dorito 50.) The other characteristic of that MT is that it does very little to contain or contest a snake player and functions as little more than easy access to the snake--despite the fact you will likely have to battle a mirror.

Instead of identifying otb lanes from Home I thought I'd make it clear where you can't lane somebody off the break. (All those grey areas. Bars of grey indicate partially obstructed areas.) On the D-side the distance between the corner and D1/D2 will keep a laner guessing at the required elevation and will make one or the other spot relatively easy to take. [Hint: if you are going to play guns up, go short, or delay a rotation on the snake side breakout always lane for a dorito runner (D2) on the Dorito side because that's the position that will do you the most harm.] As can be plainly seen Home shooters will have limited effectiveness particularly if the opponent chooses to use the "blind" spaces around the pins to edge Home. [In order to get a good lane on a snake runner take a position a few feet behind Home. That would make the snake side shooter the back position in a typical two shooter stack formation. (Instead of two shooter fighting for cover side-by-side they position themselves like a two man bobsled team, one in front tight on the bunker, the other behind.)

The snake is the dominate feature of this field because of the brick placed in the 50 and the relative ease of access to the snake. While the snake 50 position doesn't dominate all or even most of the cross field shots it is also not at great risk except from a bunkering move. Only two routinely playable positions contest the snake; Home (which does it rather poorly) and D2 [in a blue circle] which does it from across the field. These factors will tend to result in slower play as it's nothing more than exchanging one gun battle--up & down the field--for another, from side to side. In addition, the green circled TCK provides better control over the D-wire than any bunker on the snake side controls the snake wire except the high risk Can. As a consequence I would expect to see the D-wire dominate only in situations where the numbers are unbalanced and even then its easier for marginal players to play defense than it is for them to attack.

I further expect most teams will leave a Home player in position. This has value but only up to a point. On this field it offers some defense against the snake and it allows a team to fill a body to a needed area but that flexibility is only partially (and often unsuccessfully) utilised if it is always used for defensive purposes. For example, corner runner is shot off the break. Home player recognizes the loss and rotates out to corner. If this happens early in point it's fine. The later in the point it happens the greater the likelihood that rotation is being made under pressure as the opponent holds superior positions on the field and is being made in an attempt to hold the opponent at bay. Can you win a point under those circumstances? Yes. Are you likely to? No. Much better to commit that player earlier in a proactive way. For example, if the snake has been hotly contested all match one high value tactical objective is to be the last man standing in the snake and/or to control that 50. Let's say your teammate bunkers out the opponent's 50 snake player and your snake side support immediately dives into the snake looking to take advantage and gain control of the 50. The Home player must commit to preserving the gain in the snake and shift to a position that reinforces that control or positions him to be the next in line to push the snake. Too many lower division teams do not have team objectives when they play and consequently you end up in shouting matches later on over who should have done what when because team goals are left to individual decisions.

Major League Paintball on Suicide Watch

This is a shortened version of the intended post as Blogger ate the original and I didn't have the patience (or time) to do the whole thing all over again.

Over at the not so very Grand Tour the modest momentum of the last couple of weeks--not big mo, just little mo--has not realized a significant influx of new registrations. Unfortunately. Total numbers are up slightly. Bullitproof Monkey (a photo/media company, I think) will be on site covering the event so maybe they will inspire a few teams to take the plunge.

All is relatively quiet on the PSP front as the league regroups and prepares to move forward with the season. A direct comparison to HB may leave the PSP unexpectedly playing catch-up if the numbers available over at the NPPL 3.0 website are accurate but a direct comparison isn't very useful. (More in the NPPL section.)
The most interesting thing currently is the state of the affiliates given that the vitality of the affiliates will have a bearing on the state of the PSP. The new field layout releases are interesting as well and I'll get around to posting on them soon--along with the NCPA field layout recently released.

Back across the pond in MillenniumLand something close to final numbers are in. (I couldn't find a closing date for registration but given that HB has already closed and the events are the same weekend it must be soon.) As registrations stand today the league is off nearly 30% compared to last year at the same time for the same venue--which is a larger decline in real numbers and percentage than Phoenix for the PSP. Of note too is the state of German participation. (Those little nationality flags are a great quick reference.) There are presently 2, count them, two, German teams registered--both in the CPL. And that's it. (And last year only 17 German teams played an MS event.) It would seem the abundance of national leagues has given the German teams a suitable alternative to the MS. More importantly perhaps half the German losses are in higher division teams. The same is true of Belgium, for example. 10 teams last year with 5 teams D1 or higher and this year only 1 SPL team from Belgium.
Tomorrow is the CPL draw live on Spirit of Paint. I'm curious to see if the MS does what they did for Turkey and just pretend they have full brackets and go with 4 groups of 4 as in previous seasons. Fingers crossed--I think there's a real possibility.

NPPLmania is coming to HB and if the numbers posted on the league website are accurate the turnout should up better than 10% over last year. That would also mean more teams than the PSP had in Phoenix. And logistically HB ought to be easier & cheaper with fewer fields, less staff and refs in comparison to Phoenix. Balancing that out will be the unique set of costs HB incur with things like overtime for the police, etc. The other concern even with an improving HB is the fact the league's marquee venue is a loss leader and always has been. In the past the big splash HB made drew in big numbers for follow-up events. Last year that didn't happen for NPPL 3.0 and seems unlikely to happen this year. (As decline set in years before.) While paintball teams aren't a zero sum game and the potential exists for more than enough to support two big leagues present reality suggests it's unlikely to happen in the near term. While the PSP is working with its affiliates to build new teams and a new way to conceive of national level play the NPPL remains reliant on past practices. Will the simple existence of the league inspire enough new 7-man teams to make the league a viable operation?
Chicago will tell--at least better than HB. Just as the PSP fortunes for the season may rest on the Chicago turnout so too will Chicago NPPL give us a much better indication of the health of the NPPL than HB will.
Last year the NPPL had 16 pro teams/owners. The league lost 6 and have gained back 3. Are the new entries owners too? Are the past owners no longer putting teams in still owners? What will pro prelims look like with only 13 teams? Stay tuned.

Mr. Curious

Is bored. With the start of the season the rumor mill has slowed to a near standstill. Previous rumors of the TEPC (The Enormous Paintball Company, otherwise known as KEE) planning additional expansion by gobbling up (distressed?) paint maker, Procaps, has been put on the back burner for the time being. Could be management changes have stalled the plan but Mr. C hears talks are ongoing but are no longer urgent or immediate.

Mr. C also heard some time ago that the effort to reanimate SP was rejected by banks and tangible assets were sold off. Mr. C expected to hear more (and get confirmation) but that hasn't happened. Mr. C only mentioned it in relation to a couple of other related items; recent rumorology has it that SP--before the fall--was sweetening the pot trying to encourage gun manufacturers to make 50 cal conversion kits by offering reduced licensing fees for those who complied. (If so it didn't seem to have much impact or perhaps simply didn't last long enough to incentivize the industry.) More interesting is latest rumor that suggests nobody has come a knocking to collect licensing fees owed on SP's patents for a number of months. Mr. C doesn't know if that is correct across the board or not as gun makers are not unreasonably reluctant to discuss it.

The Monday Poll

It's time, once again, for me to climb up on my soapbox and lay the smack down on the whole paintball as war that is commonplace in much of scenario paintball. I was reminded by this post over at The Catshack Reports for the annual Oklahoma D-Day event.

I don't like it much but I don't want to ban it. I don't think it's wrong in any moral sense, it's pretend after all, but I personally find it disrespectful and I find myself concerned that it trivializes reality. (But so does Call of Duty and most people, even teenaged boys, still understand the difference even if they have no experience that drives that difference home in a meaningful way.) I also think there are degrees involved. For instance, if some promoter wants to reenact Agincourt or Thermopylae I'm fine with that. D-Day and the Tet Offensive, not so much. So maybe I'm inconsistent but even the promoters can't argue it doesn't matter. Ever seen the folks in Oklahoma (or the northern plains) try to run a game based on the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Or the folks in Texas play act the Mexican-American War or even the Alamo?

I also gotta say that ten years ago competitive paintball (and the industry) were busy trying to pretend that combat paintball was the crazy but harmless uncle living in the basement. Today industry considers competitive paintball the One Percenters while they market look-a-like AK's--so go figure. The industry will do whatever turns a buck and that shouldn't surprise anybody.

What's your take? Is the scenario or Big Game tied to actual historical military (combat) events different somehow? Is it a concern? A problem? No big deal? Vote early, vote often. (No, you only get to vote once. This isn't Chicago.)

Grassroots

Maybe it's working. You know, the whole ad-hoc campaign to take a friend to play paintball gimmick.

I've been doing my own one man anecdotal paintball field survey for the last 3 months or so. Mostly that just means I've been asking around (locally and when I'm on the road) how business has been at different fields around the country. There have been some tough stretches with bad weather a number of places around the country but decent weather has seen decent--and frequently better than decent--player turnout at most fields when I've enquired. It's not universally true but the overall result has been surprisingly positive. Of course it might be that it couldn't hardly be worse and allow local fields to continue to survive but the raw numbers reported from lots of places is better than survival numbers. And given the gloom and doom of the last couple years any ray of sunshine is blindingly bright but still... It leaves me wondering what's going on. Are the grassroots, the front lines of paintball recovering? Or, has paintball lost so many local fields and stores already that those who survived are receiving the benefit of tossing a wider net, even unintentionally? (Fewer options results in better numbers all around for those who remain. Maybe.)

Even if it's true it doesn't seem to be translating into sales--though the data wouldn't (won't) show up immediately anyway--but there haven't (to the best of my limited knowledge) been any prior indications or quiet optimism coming from any of the big industry players. Yet.

Over at P8ntballer Robbo has an interview with Billy Ceranski that touches on the topic if you want to give it a listen (and make fun of Robbo's marginal ability to function in the 21st century.) (And, yes, I'm not even going there--the whole video interview thing--so feel free to mock me as well.) Anyway, the upshot is my interest in this general topic has been piqued (again) and it will come up in the upcoming mystery interview and I'm also going to (finally) get around to interviewing Rob Staudinger (in the near future) in his capacity with the PSTA to see how he and the industry approach reviving paintball's grassroots.

Pro*file: Johnny Thompson

Name: Johnny Thompson

Age: 20

Hometown: Chilliwack, its a small town so everyone has dirt on everyone.

Occupation: Trying to find a way to live the dream, and if that doesn't work then a 5 to 9 crab in the bucket forever.

Family: my younger brother Tommy, two dogs.

General interests other than paintball: going to the gym with my bro Tyler. He's a personal trainer; his knowledge and intensity has inspired me to stay in shape so I can keep improving as a player. Kicking it with friends, video games, drinking beers & the UFC. Long walks on the riverside, chasing good girls.

1. What was your first paintball experience and who introduced you to the game?

When I was 13 my friend Tyler invited me to his birthday party at Snipers Paintball. After bunkering someone for the first time i was hooked.

2. What team do you play for now?

Edmonton Impact

3. What teams have you played for in the past?

Little Snipers, Insanity, Reflex, Vancouver Shock

4. What role do you play on your current team?

I play the snake because Justin Cornell said I could!

5. Who are your favorite paintball players?

Justin Cornell, Josh Davey, Chad Busiere, Dan Holiday, Ryan Moorhead.

6. What’s your best paintball experience or memory?

PSP LA Open '07 semi pro because it was my first event with Impact. I was on the bench at the start but one of the guys got hurt during the first match, long story short I got to play the whole time after that and we won the gold in overtime.

7. What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done in order to play paintball?

I missed my graduation but no regrets, I rather make a lil money and travel for free.

8. What is the single most important lesson the up and comer needs to learn?

I think we all know practice makes perfect but aside from that never forget where you came from and the people who helped you along the way, always show respect because it takes you a long way. I've made mistakes just like anybody else, just better yourself from it. Most of all be a solider out there and never give up, remember it's a team sport so never let your friends down, just keep persevering.

9. What keeps you playing paintball?

I love everything about it from diving to gun fighting, shooting people and hearing the crowds reaction, traveling with the team. But the best part is winning and seeing the smiles and just knowing you won because you believed in yourself and your boys.

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 always listen to Eminem before I play. Thanks, Paul. And I would like to thank my sponsors; Ecplise, RPS, MRpaintball.ca, Paintball Assassin, Exalt, PBNation, NXE & Paintball Action Games.

Mr. Curious

Picked up a tiny morsel of rumorology recently and while it isn't big & juicy it's interesting. At least to a certain set 0f VFTD readers. It seems GI Milsim will be manufacturing their own paint beginning in July. The timing is said to coincide with the expiration of a non-compete.

Fanarchy

Today was supposed to be a Pro*file but I wanted to do this instead--sorry, Johnny. (One more day, buddy.) I'm thinking (hoping) this one might hit a nerve or two. That's not why I'm doing it but I wouldn't mind if it went that way.

I'm curious as to what makes a person a fan. I don't mean the usual stuff; schools, alma maters, hometowns, city or state pride or family tradition. I get all those. And I'm not talking about the Johnny-Come-Lately fanboys or the bandwagon jumpers. Not just any kind of fan. More specifically a fan of a paintball team. What makes a person a fan of a paintball team?

I sorta understand idolizing certain players. When they play for successful teams or their names appear (appeared) routinely in all the magazines and are featured in gear catalogs or advertisements it's easy to see that name recognition alone plays a role. Then there's word of mouth and those featured on paintball DVDs. And I suppose the same applies to teams at least in some measure but liking a player is different from favoring a team. (Don't argue with me, it is. It just is.)

But here's where I get lost. Most paintball fans seldom if ever actually see their "favorites" actually play and compete. How can you be a fan under those circumstances? And when rosters routinely change you're no longer, necessarily, a fan of the same players even if the team name goes on. How does a paintball team merit fans? I'm seriously interested in how y'all might explain paintball fandom. The one thing I know it isn't about is good paintball. (Which holds true in other sports as well.) The reason is most fans, dare I say most players, have--at best--only a passing acquaintance with the qualities of performance excellence. What I mean is most fans don't know good when they see it. They know flashy. They only see the highlight reel. How does the self-identified fan choose one team over another when they have so little to go on? How does that work?

What is the strange alchemy that creates the paintball fan?

Small Ball Chat

Had a brief conversation about small ball with somebody who knows while sitting under the refs tent at Phoenix waiting for our semi-final match on Sunday. (See? I'm getting better. I can type the word "Phoenix" today. Who knows what's in store for tomorrow.) I brought up the subject of small ball.
There were two elements to the conversation I found interesting. I enquired about release of product to the North American market and was told things were going so well in Euroland it was gobbling up everything the GI Milsim peeps can produce--but that the American market wasn't being forsaken.
I was aware that product was moving in Europe--if you mean being ordered and filling shelf and warehouse space. What I have yet to see is much indication of actual retail sales. Of course there could be more of that than I'm aware but the sales end of the equation doesn't seem to be going great guns, product or otherwise.
Of greater interest to me were comments regarding the U.S. market. I asked if there would be a presence at HB and the answer was no, certainly nothing big and showy. Tourney paintball wasn't the primary market. (Now that comment may only reflect a retrenchment or recognition of present resistence but I was pleased to hear it.) The big efforts will target some of the biggest of the Big Games looking to connect with a different (and more appropriate?) demographic where they play. If so I suspect small ball proponents will not be confronted with the same intensity and negativity they have been even prior to release of sample guns and paint at World Cup '09.

NPPL Rules 2010

The post title is the link. I've only had a few minutes to look it over and I've only got a few minutes before it's off to the airport for a flight to Phoenix, but--
I didn't get this post done last week. Obviously. Otherwise, nothing's changed. I've seen Part 2 of the interview with the cast of NPPL characters over at ProPaintball. I didn't see anything that offered any clarification with respect to the rules but did enjoy Chuck's ongoing delusions of grandeur. Now that's entertainment!

Having read through the rules a couple of times I have a couple of questions and a comment or two. (Go figure.) Beginning at the beginning and working through the rules first up is rule 4.06 (1) which deals with roster changes. My interest pertains to Pro rosters in particular. Divisional teams are allowed unlimited roster changes but Pro teams are only allowed 2 changes per event. I don't understand the distinction. If a team is playing great are they likely to make big changes? If they suck then isn't the potential of greater parity a positive? Why the limitation? Mostly I'm curious. I don't think it's a huge deal. If the concern is related to raiding team rosters this probably isn't the best way to handle it.

Rule 4.08 Changes to Player Status allows players to request reclassification. Which they have to do because it's not addressed in the rules. It's really just a $50.00 shakedown which must be paid prior to adjudication of the request.

Rule 7.02. (I confess I looked for this one first--along with other "semi-auto" related rules--as I was particularly curious to see if the latest Rules Committee had made any real progress. The short answer is no.) This rule pertains to triggers, what constitutes a trigger pull and what the result (one pull and release, one shot) ought to be. It also clearly states that initiation of a switch does not constitute a trigger pull. By this definition virtually every gun in the event will be illegal because virtually every gun will cycle more shots than there will be trigger pulls and releases as defined by the rule. Later in the rules "bounce" is mentioned (in quotation marks) because (apparently) the committee doesn't know what it is nor is it anywhere in the rules defined but you can still be suspended for 6 games (or worse) for employing "bounce", whatever it is. Can you say subjective, boys and girls?

In rule 7.12 markers (guns to y'all) may only be exposed--sounds naughty--within the players paddock or on the field (presumably). That means, I think, all guns must be put away in gear bags or gun cases etc. at all times except when you're in the paddock or playing. I'm not objecting to the this rule, btw, only incredulous that it was written and very interested to see it enforced. I can see it now. Team entering tourney area lugging gear and guns receive suspensions prior to entering paddock or playing a game. Thanks, NPPL 3.0, I'll be back for sure. Just saying. (Fortunately it appears there is a provision for a discretionary warning first, as there is for guns that might be in violation of other rules, though how the league will keep track of who has been warned and who hasn't wasn't explained.)

Rule 11.05 describes what constitutes a valid hit when making a paint check. Rule 19 (Marked by Paint) confirms what constitutes an eliminating hit. A paintball must have broken on "--and marked a player." Now I'm cool with this rule if that's really what they mean but odds are it isn't. Because what is written means a ball can break and leave no mark and NOT be a valid hit. You and I both know this happens. But you and I also both know that's not how it will be called. And rule 19 (4) appears to obligate refs to wipe off players marked by paint that isn't a valid hit. I'll be watching to see how that works out.

Rule 11.09 attempts to deal with the idea of official bias, by the refs that is, by suggesting there is some recourse should a ref be deemed to be biased. Does anyone see that happening during the course of competition in such a way that everyone (anyone) walks away satisfied? Me either. What is bias? Does everyone know it when they see it? I appreciate the sentiment but as formulated it's a can of worms waiting to be opened.

Rule 11.10 Disputing Referee's Call. Is pointless and a waste of time even if you're correct. And everybody knows it. It's Kabuki. The rule is procedural. In light of 22.07, Finality of Calls, the chances of any "resolution" are virtually nil. Always have been, always will be. The rule should be called when you think you've been screwed this is how we pretend to make it all better.

Rule 22.02 (8) I get the basic idea. No problem. But why add the bit about compressing the bunkers or altering their shapes? It's non-specific and easy to over-interpret. It could be argued it's something players do all the time without moving the bunkers, stepping on, climbing on or over or otherwise moving off their axes yadda yadda yadda. The wording seems like it's begging for an over zealous ref to start pulling peeps for pushing their guns into the props.

In a few places Over Shooting is mentioned and always includes the caveat "with intent to injure." The thing is nobody overshoots with the intent to injure. Could it happen? Sure. Does it? Seldom if ever. The problem is by the wording of these rules you can't call a player for over shooting (or excessive bonus balling) without claiming an intent to injure and that isn't why people do it. Of course this won't stop some ref making the call and when it's obvious the ref can't offer any real proof of intent to injure it makes a mockery of the rule, the ref and the league--all because of the way the rule is written.

Regarding general enforcement of so-called semi-auto this latest batch of rules is a rehash of the same old with a first round of arbitrary warnings thrown into the mix. I suppose the idea is that since enforcement remains largely subjective that a warning first allows a player (and/or team) to adjust the questionable gun but that adjustment, if made, doesn't guarantee a legal marker or one that won't be picked out again. And the warning mostly will make it safer for players to take risks with their setup as step one is only a warning. And, of course, "real" cheaters won't care about these rules (or fear them) anymore than they did in the past.

Mostly it's small potatoes. With the exception of the still ridiculous gun rules I doubt other potential problem areas will actually ever cause much of a real problem during an event. Past incarnations of the NPPL were always disinclined to enforce their more draconian rules--except in rare, usually ludicrously inappropriate circumstances--and I suspect the same will hold for NPPL 3.0. But watch out, there could be lots of warnings dished out.

Major League Paintball on Suicide Watch

There was some action this past week at the not so Grand Tour. (Could be somebody over there has been reading VFTD.) Seems they are making a big push to promote their newly promoted Pro teams; Ranger Warsaw, Kosmos Moscow & RL-Art Chaos. Also registered Pro are the Bullets and Warsaw United. Total registration is up to 17 teams including a couple of Consilium Dei teams. It's slow progress but it's still progress.
As regulars know I'm partial to this event because of the location so I'm kinda rooting for a successful event. And if anyone wants a pro coach I'm there for the price of a plane ticket and I can even kick in a tour of Venice--but only in English.

Still over in Euroland the MS is rumored to be working overtime trying to entice more teams and sponsors into supporting the league. Rumor also has it the league may be offering "incentives" to get that support. Of course that's just rumor but it's heated up a bit after last week's Suicide Watch report. From here it's hard to say but the numbers testify to their limited success.
Total registration for all divisions is at 93. It looks like most of the numbers bump that did occur has come lately from Spanish teams. It's curious they weren't in there earlier, isn't it?
I'd also like to clarify a suggestion from last week that promo & relegation were nearly irrelevant given the shrinking locked division numbers and fact that teams that hadn't earned promotion were getting it. In fact, the MS is (apparently) going down the list of last year's finishers until they get a taker. Which seems to be how Shock 2 got into D1. Everybody above them passed. Still, I don't see how it makes a whole lotta sense. Is the league still limiting "promotion" numbers? In undermanned divisions? What's the point?

NPPL 3.0 is counting down the days '24' style including hours, minutes and seconds. Registration and more importantly paying your entry remains open for 3 more days, give or take. I expect that deadline is negotiable but the clock runs out eventually. Registration is up to 121 teams but according to the league's data no more than 88 have paid in full. And the thing is even that may not be all that accurate because the Pro teams registered appear to have paid but in fact most of them hadn't as of the past weekend. I might be inclined to assume they will at some point but I'm afraid I ain't quite that naive anymore. (If anybody plays without paying I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to collect.)
I've looked over the rules and will have a separate post on them later in the week.
However registration and participation shakes out it looks like we'll be playing some paintball on the beach and since it's not my money that can't be a bad thing. But it is somebody's money whether it's cash in the bank or outstanding debt, mostly the later in the NPPL's case. And unlike the government the NPPL can't print money.

PSP Phoenix went off with only minor hitches and generally the 3-day event seemed to work out okay. I don't know any of particulars of the logistical changes that may have been needed to shorten the event but I'll see what I can find out. The 2010 rules weren't released until the last minute. The 90 second rule seemed to hammer the refs harder than the players though it was a struggle for some to adjust. The Pro field did not adjust to what I thought was rule modification with respect to signaling a flag hang but everything mostly was one in a timely manner. And it seems the new scoreboard wasn't setup to handle pro field penalties and the old scoreboard couldn't handle the 90 second break between points so it was done by hand. In practice that meant the 90 second rule was close to 90 seconds one way or the other rule. Not perfect but not horrible either. I know there were a lot of changes and the league put out notices in as timely a manner as they could manage--there's only so many hours in the day and only so many peeps available to get stuff done--but it wouldn't hurt if the league put all the changes into a single brief and promoted it to the teams and players at least as aggressively as the latest new sponsored gear. Just a suggestion.

Monday Poll in Review

I know. I'm late, I'm late for a not all that important post. Whatever. Y'all are just spoiled and it's not like I didn't post anything at all yesterday so get off my back. No, I'm not angry or hostile. No more than usual anyway. Back off.

Last week's Monday Poll was a two-parter. It asked if the announced venue for PSP Chicago, the Badlandz, would influence your decision to participate. 15% said it would. (85% said nope, no big deal.) Part two asked you to identify the level of Race 2 you play. I wanted to see a couple of things. First I was curious to try and put the "influenced" percentage into some context. As it turned out 26% of respondents play Race 2-2; 28% play Race 2-4; 30% play Race 2-5 and 15% play Race 2-7. 85% of respondents play D1 or lower in about equal numbers. So what does it mean?
Wait a second. You're jumping the gun. We're missing a piece. The difference between those that answered the question, part one, and those who identified their level of play in part two. About 15% that answered part one didn't answer part two.
What it means is up for grabs really because as usual this ain't no scientific sampling but even so--it is interesting that the percentage that answered part one in the negative is the same percentage who apparently don't play Race 2. At least that's one interpretation. Another is that 15% of respondents don't play period and the rest is coincidental.

I wanted to see what sort of results this question got because of the Phoenix turnout. I wondered if the result might give a clue what to expect next--in Chicago--but they really don't. My guess is Chi-town won't be down nearly as much. It's gonna be in the summer. No school. Plenty of time to get ready, save money--but if not at least we's got some extra numbers to add to the confusion.

Burning Question

So when does the Valken versus KEE war go hot? It's gotta happen, right?

PSP Phoenix: Some Ruminations

In the last 36 hours or so, somewhere in there, I've had an hour or two of alcohol-induced something like sleep so I'm not up for a full recap of the event (maybe tomorrow or the next day) but a few random thoughts keep popping up.
One other thing before I get started. If there's any earth-shaking paintball news in the next few days forward me a source 'cus odds are I won't see it. I am intentionally avoiding the usual resources mostly because I want to forget about Phoenix for a few days at least. Exactly how that's gonna work for posting to this blog remains to be seen. (Naw, I got plenty of material.)

There is nothing in the world worse than second place when you know you didn't put forth your best effort. (Btw, no disrespect whatsoever to the winners. They did everything they needed to do and deserved to be the last team standing.) Just an observation. (Yep, I have edited the original post)

Thought the refs did a pretty good job on the Pro field. (That, btw, is high praise indeed 'cus I'm usually not impressed. And yes, I know it's a hard, thankless job, blah blah blah and we're all grateful somebody is willing to do it yah yah yah.) The way I look at it if they're out there I expect them to do the best most impartial job they can. Nothing less. Nothing more. Call me crazy.
I did notice there were no "inside" refs--and with a layout like Phoenix they would have been advantageous--and that the refs appeared to be working not only their zones but also looking inside and cross field trying to see hits that refs on the outside of the field often can't see. I don't know if that was programmatic or not. And I'm not sure if it was that it worked very well with refs well away from the action making calls from across the field. Even so, all in all it was a pretty good job.

With respect to the Pro field action and changes made in the off season things ran fairly smoothly with one exception. The new overtime scoring rule. Seems some of the teams potentially affected weren't aware of the change and it didn't come up until the actual circumstances occurred on field. More details in a later report.

Twitter updates of the action. Okay, this one is serious nit-picking but that's where I'm at so take it or leave it. Whoever is stuck tweeting the action needs a simple roster list of players and their numbers--because they didn't know who many of the players were. (It's in the rules. We have to have them. Even though there is no webcast. And no statistics.) Mostly I'd like to see players get their due--even on Twitter--and if the league is gonna make the effort then let's dial it up a notch and do it right. S'all I'm saying.

More on the event later this week.