2011 NCPA Webcast

The live feed began this morning and was still going strong a few minutes ago as the Tennessee Volunteers were pillaging the badly mismatched East Tennessee State Buccaneers. If it was Little League or Pee Wee soccer somebody would have invoked the mercy rule by now. But no, they's playing a man's game--or at least trying to play a man's game. The field at CFP in Lakeland, FL looks good--and looks to be holding up pretty well so far--they haven't been letting anyone play on it for a while to get it ready for this championship weekend. The mostly elevated camera views of the field are generally pretty good. (I think there are four cameras in action; one above the commentators' booth, one at the southern end of the field, one at the opposite snake side corner and a roving man on the ground. Make that five 'cus there's one, probably fixed position, focused on the commentators too.) Taking turns working the booth have been Mr. Paintball Matty Marshall, the ever youthful Chris 'Pony' LaSoya, Ollie Lang & 'Catfish' Arcilla with all of them doing a solid job adding color and commentary to the action. The rough edges in their presentations are my favorite parts. Catfish making a joke that leaves Chris speechless and the guys shuffling through pages of notes and information trying to keep up with the players on the field as they give shout outs to both good and poor play. It's good stuff. In fact it's better than the paintball. No, wait a second, I take that back. It's better than the visual coverage of the paintball. The only real weakness of the broadcast has been the too frequent disconnect between what we're seeing and what the commentators are talking about when it comes to the action on field. The difficulty is with the director and the switching of camera angles. It's too late most of the time if it happens at all and the result is we hear how a point played out but we don't necessarily see more than a few disconnected details. They'd do better to stick with wider framed shots and only close in on things like tight action in the snake or the bigger moves on the D-wire or up the middle. Otherwise the broadcast quality is quite good.

On a separate note this is the third year in a row I've seen some college championship paintball--we usually have practice at CFP over the NCPA weekend--but not this year--and the level of play is, I think, improving. It's not brilliant paintball and there's still enough fundamental mistakes to make you cringe at times--make me cringe anyway--but across the board it's better and I saw a few standout individual players today. In addition the Army team (lost a tight match to Long Beach) was the most tactically sophisticated breakout team I've seen short of the pros. They were outstanding and if their individual play approaches that level they will be a very good team.

As a follow-up to the NPPL broadcast on ESPN3 it's almost as if competitive paintball is picking up some momentum, making some real progress. Or maybe an old cynic is just going soft.

Saturday Update: I'ma assume somebody is reading VFTD and paying attention 'cus the camera work and choice of shots and frames today is a big improvement over yesterday. The guys in the booth are getting more comfortable as well and doing a better job of introducing the players involved in the game action along with solid commentary and paintball conversation. Kudos to Chris and the rest of the NCPA & Fox crews.

2011 NCPA Championship Layout

I expect this weekend's competitors to enjoy playing this layout as it delivers all the virtues of "traditional" xball style play. This time around VFTD will focus on diversifying your breakouts and finding creative ways of responding to your opponents OTB.

Beginning with the (orange) OTB lanes from Home it appears at first glance that lots of potentially effective options exist. On the D-wire they do not and it may be worse depending on the relative position(s) of the 40 Can & the Pin closest to the A given that the best OTB lane for denying the corner or the wire has only a narrow window between the Pin and the Can. The other wide lane controls the bump to the 40 SD. The interior lanes are less useful unless your opponent is consistently trying to camp in one of the (green) zones and contest the Home shooter or a mirror opponent. And focusing on the wide lane OTB concedes the first MD and the upfield MT. Complicating the Home laning decision is the spacing between D1 (wire MD) & the corner Temple. (See blue rectangle.) The upfield distance between the 2 bunkers forces the Home shooter to choose an elevation aimed at shooting either a corner runner or a D1 runner but not both. The result offers enough options on the D-wire breakout to keep the laners guessing; the majority will try to contain movement wide and most of the breakouts on the D-wire will play short early.

The snake side lanes OTB are more numerous than the D-wire but present a similar choice. The best basic lane goes between the MT & the Brick and between the (same) MT & the corner TCK. This lane is also dependent on the placement of midfield bunkers. It is a higher value lane (See blue oval) because the MT & TCK are more closely related allowing a laner to shoot either a corner runner or a Snake or Brick runner with a well placed lane. The (blue) arrow indicates an alternate running lane to the Brick/Snake that will help "widen" the gap and potentially force the lane shooter to make a lane choice. (To enhance the width [distance] of the runners gap have corner runners run deep on the baseline as it forces a more severe elevation change from the laner and will increase the chances for all your snake side runners.)

Note the third shooter stacked at Home. I suspect many teams will fail to consistently try to suppress the Home shooters OTB and if that is the case there is no reason not to periodically keep an extra gun Home. This shooter can create numerical mismatches and/or double up on lanes by standing back behind the Home T in a stacked position. (Teams can make the mistake of getting those "extra" shooters trapped on occasion and the key to keeping them alive and effective is to focus on a specific lane and target. Once an opponent has moved thru the targeted lane it's time to get out of the Home bunker.)

Another opportunity OTB exists for teams (& players) who can execute it effectively and that is the guns up hesitation or delay using 'dead zones' or spots you know are blocked to other angles. OTB your primary concern is the Home shooter. The green & purple rectangles indicate general areas a player will be able to use. The idea is twofold. In one situation a player steps off the board and is looking to edge the Home shooter before making his/her primary move. In the second situation the delay is aimed at finding alternative lanes or gaps or zones through which the player might engage and eliminate and opponent on the move. If you can find a spot protected from the Home shooter that gives you an unobstructed lane on a corner runner for example. (It is also possible to use delay point like the ones diagrammed to shoot crossfield lanes but entails extra risk for the shooter.) The delay or hesitation also allows a player options in determining his/her follow up movement. If for example, the delay allows a player to shoot the opponents wide runner that may leave a different, better position immediately available to take as the follow up primary.

Finally the two colored rectangles up the middle of the field indicate there is potential value in playing the A or the CK (xbox) before it. On the D-wire it's possible to use an interior running lane to attempt an aggressive primary or X-side/xbox primary. Not as effective in terms of open lanes and clear angles most teams will play the D-wire as their weakside (2 players that way and three to the snake side) that an early elimination can be exploited.

Watching so you don't have to

I'm talking about the broadcast today (in some areas around the country) of the 2010 NCPA A Championship featuring Drexel vs. Long Beach State. You got the email, right? Did you DVR it? Are you curious? Do you feel like you sorta have to watch in order to be supportive of paintball? I feel your pain. Take a deep breath and relax. I watched it so you don't have to.

Here's the thing. It wasn't horrible. It even had some good qualities. It integrated some paintball education in bite-sized, easy to swallow nuggets. It provided enough basic information without being deadly boring to give non-ballers a framework for watching. It had big name stars like Matty (the voice of paintball) Marshall, Ollie, Pony and Florida's own Rocky Cagnoni behind the microphone(s) and in front of the cameras. It even had Patrick "Monkey with a Gun" Sporher doing his best to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. (The production didn't have the resources the PSP used to make the hopefully-only-on-hiatus webcast.) The problem wasn't the production values (slim as they were), it wasn't the talent, it wasn't lack of expertise, it wasn't a failure to put the pieces together. Good, smart, creative people did their best with the available resources. The problem was it was a paintball show and despite the best efforts of all those creative people presentations of tourney ball have yet to capture the intensity, grit & action of the game. The fundamental weakness remains the struggle to put the play of the game into a suspenseful and recognizable narrative that tells the story of a match, point by point. Even so, if you're a fan of past paintball programming this will not disappoint. It just doesn't advance the ball any (not that it was supposed to.)
Here's a suggestion for next time. One I don't think will add great expense but might help improve the game vibe. The sounds of the game. Loud. Let's hear some blazin' guns. Players screaming info across the field. Refs shouting for eliminated players to leave the field. Coaches on the sideline. I know, it's there now but it's mostly background noise. Not a part of the play of the gun.

End result: the show is a worthwhile primer of tourney ball for those already interested but inexperienced--and even then, the sooner they get on a field and play the game the better. Oh, and congrats to Drexel. NCPA A division champs for 2010. And runners-up Long Beach State who did it the hard way.