MLP Held Hostage: Alert

I wish I knew how to add audio links 'cus I'd be playing the (really annoying) musical chairs music right about now. Offenbach Comin At Ya is now in the CPL. They finished the '08 SPL season just out of position for promotion but here they are anyway. That means one of the remaining unregistered CPL teams will be out. Who will it be? Is it the SP spot (Philly Dogs), Shockwave or Moscow Phoenix?

UPDATE: It's the Moscow Phoenix spot.

The Evolving VFTD

'For the Players By the Players' will be posted later today.

Lately I've been thinking about adding some structure to this site. On the order of stuff like the Tuesday MLP Held Hostage updates. I've decided, with some input from those of you who aren't always lazy slackers, to add one new monthly and one new bi-monthly feature. Anyway, as I'm sure this is both tedious and boring, let me get to the point. Beginning this month I'll start doing 2 How-To's for Race2; one each in week 1 & week 3. Field Design posts will become How To Play a particular field layout and I'll do one of those each month in week 2. (For purposes of identifying the week my week 1 will be the first full 7 day week each month. That will give me more time to fit those posts in and hopefully will be less confusing as the beginning and endings of the months don't coincide with the days of the week. That means we are currently in my week 2 so I'll do the HB layout on Saturday. And next week will have a Race2 How-To.)
The other monthly feature I'm considering is an interview; players, former players, movers, shakers, industry guys, Old Skool, New Skool and most things in between. I've got some ideas but I'm open to suggestions. And if you've got an opinion on the whole interview idea--don't be shy.

Also, a couple of quick notes on VFTD's audience. In my recent look at Google Analytics global breakdown of site visitors--which is very cool--I noticed a new first; visitors from Taiwan. Thanks for dropping by. Otherwise the breakdown has become pretty consistent with the majority of visitors from North America followed by Euroland and Asia has recently supplanted South America.

Finally, I would like to the turn the MLP Held Hostage weekly update into a more global review but in order to do that I need a little help. One level of help would aim me at websites and leagues that merit keeping an eye on or that would provide useful info from those parts of the world where I'm not--pretty much everywhere except the U.S.--and another level of help would be dropping me a line from time to time and filling me in on the goings on in your part of the paintball universe. So how bout the latest news from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brazil, South Africa, Europe--anywhere and everywhere serious competitive paintball is being played.

Small Change

I've changed the Reax options at the bottom of each post to be more paintball-centric. The new choices are Bloody welt, Left a mark or Bounced. In the process all the old data was lost so y'all got a clean slate to click on. The Reax options are just for fun and so simple and easy even you lazy slackers can do it. Who knows, you might get bored just clicking, and before you know it you've posted a semi-literate, almost comprehensible comment. And then the sky is the limit.

UPDATE: glad to see y'all taking advantage of the blank slate to get to clicking. As for you "bounced" clicking critics, you must be recballers. Not a criticism, just an observation. I gotta say though there is no 'surrender rule' in operation here.

Team USA

Doesn't mean what you think it means unless the sum of your thoughts have run their course with F-yeah!
Take a break from your jingoistic chanting and answer a couple of questions and all may become clearer. (Or not.)
Oh, in case you missed it Pro Paintball is reporting a combo of Dynabrats and Arsenalisti plus a player to be named later will be playing together in the Millennium Series as Team USA.
So whose spot will they be playing assuming it's in the CPL? Smart Parts owns a spot but has yet to register a team. If it's the SP spot why would they want a mixed squad when some of the non-brats are shooting the competition? If it's not the SP spot whose spot is it? (The only choices left belong to Moscow Phoenix or Shockwave.)
Try as I might I'm not seeing too many options here. If we assume it's SP's spot then the only conclusion that makes much sense is SP needed to subsidize that spot and the Brats aren't willing (or able) to do that. If it isn't SP's spot it belongs (or belonged) to one of the other two named teams. But why would Dynasty join with Arsenal to pick-up a spot to play the Euro version of Race2-5? More likely is the MS had a spot revert to them that they wanted to fill with U.S. Pros in order to appeal to their European player base. I expect it will all shake out before too long--and isn't it interesting that nobody ever talks about this stuff until forced to reveal what's happened?--my vote is with SP splitting their spot's roster in order to defray the expense of keeping the spot. But who knows? Oh, yeah, there are a few peeps who know.

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

This week's update is a little thin on everything except numbers but I'm doing a little digging--or, more accurately, I've asked some peeps I know to dig a little for me--otherwise, it would be like work and that's out of the question. I'm mostly interested in the MS, their locked divisions and how sponsorships deals will really shake out this year.

Over in Euroland Joy has finally appeared on the CPL list putting the top division at 13 teams, 3 short of capacity. But why worry, or ask questions, the event is still 10 days away. (Got a separate post on Team USA coming today related to this.) If any of VFTD's Swedish readers--and at last count there are quite a few--would be willing to give me some more background on the Joy situation I would be eternally grateful, and uh, well, that's about it. The SPL and D1 remain at 26 teams out of a division max of 32. As noted last week, not ideal for structuring the prelim brackets. At this point I will go out on a limb and suggest whoever shows up at this late date worked some kind of deal with the league, and that includes Joy and maybe some prior registrants. Can I prove it? Not at the moment and of course everyone will deny it so you'll just have to trust me. Or not. But back room dealing is hardly unknown on either side of the Atlantic. Just saying.

The PSP has 166 teams registered for the MAO with 78 paid, including 7 pros. (I still don't understand how any of the pros can appear as registered but unpaid when they were all supposed to have ponied up for the year in advance. This is something the raehl faction actually knows--but will he talk?) Semi-pro has 8 registered though I find DB's Ironmen to be suspect and kinda expect 7 teams will pay and play. D1 is stuck at 10 and again, I'm not convinced all will pay and the league will be back where it's been with a sadly deficient D1 despite their effort to pump D2 teams into the division. As Yogi Berra was reputed to have said, It's deja vu all over again. Time continues to trickle away as the clock runs out on registration and the paid team numbers hover in the danger zone. With a season reduced to 4 events are the teams that might have played the fourth event gonna jump in someplace else or skip it altogether?

Registration for the USPL's first conference event, the DC Challenge, is at 22 teams, including 4 of the conference's 8 Pro teams, with 0 paid. 1 5-man team and 17 7-man teams across three divisions have registered. The event is approximately one month away given it's scheduled for the weekend of the 15th - 18th of May. Realistically the league has around two weeks at the very latest to see things turn around before they have to make final decisions and spend money.

Paintball Stuff

It's Monday and that means there's a new post at Baca's Blog over at the Big Bullet. This week's post is called 'The First Time' (get your mind out of the gutter) and refers to a first time experience of the game of paintball. I doubt my story is particularly unusual, at least for an Old Skooler but I'm also encouraging peeps to post their stories up in comments and it might be really interesting if a whole bunch of youse include your story. Or not. (I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here.)

Here at VFTD I'm taking today off but decided to take a couple of minutes to provide a certain-to-be-disregarded schedule of some upcoming posts. The posts identified will be posted--eventually. As the regulars know it's just that it frequently takes longer than the schedule projects. Personally, I blame management.

Tuesday is the day for the Major League Paintball Held Hostage Update and Friday is for Enlistments of the Week. In between and sometime after Friday, in no particular order, the posts currently in the queue are: 2 Paintball Sucks! posts, The Unseen Game, Poverty or Parity and They're Back!!! I'm also considering do a Field Design post or two on the HB layout if anyone is interested. If not I probably won't. I'm also thinking about doing some how-to posts on xball or Race2, if you prefer. (Though I don't see them as quite the same thing.) Again, if you are interested, let me know, because posts like that require actual *shudder* work.

The Paintball Sucks! posts will be about "journalists" being sponsored by the industry and about the whole "for the players by the players" mantra.
The Unseen Game is about the undercurrent of gamesmanship that goes on at the level of rumor and innuendo.
Poverty or Parity is another piece about the pro game.
And They're Back!!! is about the return to paintball of Gino (NPS) and Jeff (PMI).

Happy Easter Visigoths

I figured a little culture wouldn't kill ya. Besides, it's only a fraction of the whole piece, St. Matthew's Passion, by J.S. Bach

For the Good of the Game

This is a continuation of the Paintball Sucks! post on PBIndustry sponsors of tournaments and the naive notions some ballers have. The original post decried the ignorance or self-absorption of ballers who blame the tournaments for failing to line up enough sponsors/vendors when most of those same ballers have little or no intention of buying anything anyway.
The Big Picture point was that the model of sponsors/vendors paying the league in order to sell their products at an event is a model that is no longer working. (And, in fact, hasn't been working for longer than the current economic malaise.)

In that post's comments I was apparently being mean and dictatorial (see for yourself) for suggesting a more useful dialogue would result if commenters didn't ignore the original position and cherry-pick their objections. Anyway, this post is my effort to try a new tack--and respond to the self-appointed PSP flack, raehl faction, on my terms instead of his.

Around this point in comments the raehl faction jumped in to insist the new PSP policy is intended to protect local stores and fields from the predations of the swarm-of-locusts traditional trade show & camp followers. Does he address, even in passing, the idea that the sponsor/league model is in trouble? Does he think the premise is mistaken? Why or why not? Does he think players are as actively purchasing paintball stuff at events as was once plainly the case? Or soon will again? Does he put the PSP policy into any context other than to make patently absurd claims about it? Well, no, he doesn't. (This is approximately where I began suggesting the comments might be more productive if they actually, you know, had at least something to do with the point of the original post.)

On the subject of sponsor protectionism I've previously posted some thoughts here, here, here and here.

The raehl faction claim: the new restrictive sponsorship policy of the PSP is intended to protect local stores and fields. It's frankly an outrageous claim on its face because it doesn't do anything of the sort except perhaps incidentally at the margins.
Imagine a town with two or three lemonade stands. Once a year when the circus comes to town a few mobile lemonade stands follow along and park beside the circus, by the entry. Most of them offer extra large cups at regular prices while a couple of others sell more expensive premium lemonade. This arrangement worked as long as the circus attracted all sorts of people. All the traveling lemonade stands were happy but after a while it seemed more and more people bought the cheap lemonade and ignored the premium lemonade. The purveyors of premium lemonade were unhappy because it was more expensive for them to provide premium lemonade. Now the circus charged the traveling lemonade vendors for the opportunity to use the circus's popularity to sell lemonade and the premium vendors had bigger trucks and paid the circus more so when the premium vendors became unhappy the circus told all the small vendors of cheap lemonade they were no longer welcome.
The raehl faction version insists the circus did it to spare the local lemonade stands when the circus came to town--but aren't the premium lemonade vendors still trying to sell their lemonade? And if the locals suffer less harm is it because the circus gave a rodent's posterior about the locals' lemonade sales or is it because they were trying to satisfy the premium lemonade vendors who pay the big money to follow the circus?
Odd too that this new policy was only conceived after the big industry players started complaining about losing sales to the smaller retailers. I'm just saying the timing is oddly coincidental.
The reality is it's a policy intended to protect manufacturers from themselves and prop up an operating model that is no longer working--and keep some of that sponsor money coming in. (There is, of course, a rational explanation to be made for following this course of action but the raehl faction fantasy sounds so much more altruistic and nobody seems to believe you, the tournament consumer, can handle the truth. Except me. And I'm an oppressive hatemonger. Go figure.)

Enlistments for the Week

VFTD is pleased to announce the latest batch of recruits for the Deadbox Puppet Army. (What is the DPA?) This happy little blog would like to thank you for taking the time and making the effort. I would also encourage y'all to drop me a line or post up some added info in the comments. I'm always interested in what parts of paintball the recruits come from.

First up this week is webvideoklip (which when typed correctly capitalizes assorted letters in non-grammatical ways.) No disrespect intended, I'm just too lazy to get it right. Web-V joins the DPA from Malaysia.

Next up is sdawg who sports a conventional ballers avatar but has an esoteric sense of humor (or else an unhealthy attraction to pandas.) As always, VFTD doesn't judge but welcomes the newest recruits.

Stay thirsty, my friends

Field Design–Phoenix 3

I know, it's about time but it's not like my mailbox has been full of irate demands to get this one posted. I'm just saying.
Without further ado and after the fashion of the UFC's Bruce Buffoon, er, Buffer "It's time!" for the review of the snake side of the field. (Try to picture me spinning on my heels to the left and dramatically pointing from the hip like a pompous--and shaved--Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.)

First, the snake side played okay in combination with the D-side. The play balance across the field was fairly good despite pace of the game issues across the field.

What is pace of the game? What I mean is the time it takes to press an aggressive attack up one side of the field. And I divide the field in half for this calculation because with the odd body count most breakouts will result in a strong side (more players) and weak side (less players) mid-point result. Ideally, to my way of thinking, each half of the design should play out at approximately the same pace because that offers the nearest thing to a neutral playing field and allows the players and tactics to dictate opportunity, or advantage/disadvantage of position. Of course, actual results will vary as the complex of variables like execution, skill and luck all play a part.

The snake side alone was less successful as a design than the D-side. It clearly followed the conceptual pattern established on the D-side of having two lanes of upfield movement–which was good--but the actual utility of some of the props as playable positions was inconsistent. The midfield stand-ups (2 MTs & 2 cans) were primarily lane blocking bunkers even though the rockets could be played effectively in certain situations. The pin (pillar) (tree) placements were very good because of the offset which offered risky but very playable positions that matched up well with the cake as positions that could feed upfield or to the wire. And also created additional lane options to shoot off the break
The principle weakness of the snake side was the lack of countering positions. And here what I mean is positions capable of containing snake movement. Ideally a design should try to avoid both dominate offensive and defensive positions. If, for example, the home bunker only offers decent off the break lanes but no or few good opportunities to hold up snake side upfield movement it forces a defender to make a decision and in a sense "rewards" the success of the offensive player in ways other than eliminations. Different positions then offer diverse but limited offensive and defensive options.
As it turned out this deficiency was counterbalanced by the relative ineffectiveness of the snake. A player could easily reach snake 50 in short order and be largely ineffective. In both instances those effects were largely the responsibility of the lane blocking bunkers placement. (The MTs and the Cans could easily have been repositioned and still served to block the same lanes yet open up access to the snake.)

The other factor impacted by the weaknesses of the snake side was the side-to-side balance. Side-to-side balance is the capacity to eliminate players cross field with relatively equal facility based on similar upfield positions. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways in the design but in this case favored the D-side.

Okay, that was less about Phoenix as a specific design than about the concepts at work in my evaluation but hopefully this will prove helpful for future field design posts as well and, as usual, if anyone has any specific questions I'd be happy to tackle them. Recap: Key Concepts. pace of the game, side-to-side balance and offense/defense neutrality in the placement of the bunkers.

Paintball Sucks!

This is the first post of a new feature, you know, like Rule of the Game or MLP Held Hostage and Mr. Curious or even Another Cynical VFTD Game. This one is called, unsurprisingly, Paintball Sucks! and will offer rants on various and sundry stupid stuff going on in the big, fat world of competitive paintball. Extensive topic, I know.

And just so we're clear I'm gonna provide two rants and explain why one is and the other isn't a Paintball Sucks! rant.

For example, if I were to accuse y'all of being a pack of lazy (good for nothing) slackers either unwilling, unable or just plain a-skeered to anonymously post some skreeling scrawl that might, just might, betray any of your itty bitty thoughts--well, it's too horrifying to contemplate.
Of course, I'm referring to your collective disdain of my suggestion you entertain yourselves last weekend by contributing, ever so slightly, to our happy little blog and in the process quite possibly helping to assist in making VFTD even more to your liking. I realize comments doesn't include a spell check function and you have to type on a keyboard instead of using those nice, pretty colored crayons you prefer and I even understand about feeling all self-conscious but sometimes you just have to buckle down and be a man. Even if you're a girl.
That was NOT a Paintball Sucks! rant for the obvious reason it wasn't about paintball--except tangentially. It was a You Suck! rant because it was about you.
Enough. Wipe that tear from your eye and buck up, Little Soldier, that's what I like to call, tough love. Now carry on.

If you were to read any of the post-event threads on the USPL event at Huntington Beach--but why would any sane person do such a thing?--you would discover a mind-numbing, life-draining inducement to both homicidal and suicidal fantasies. (Or maybe that's just me.) The particular "line of reasoning" I had trouble with was the nearly incessant whining about the lack of vendors present. And the sometimes stated, other times implied, suggestion the USPL should have had more vendors. As if they could snap their fingers and vendors of paintball crap would magically appear. What is it these peeps think is going on? A conspiracy to deprive them of the opportunity to spend money on paintball stuff? Seriously, don't they know the leagues have always depended on sponsor dollars and that in recent years sponsors who do show frequently do so at a loss? And really, who is actually spending money on stuff at tournaments? That's right. Next to nobody. Gawking at some new gat doesn't pay the bills. Spending some down time wandering around the vendors window shopping doesn't pay the bills. Nobody has the cash right now to spend it on what typically amounts to promotion and keeping the brand front and center. Are most players so disconnected and self-absorbed they are this clueless? Apparently.

Meanwhile, the PSP and MS (if they haven't silently backed down) are operating in another league altogether. (Literally and figuratively.) (I know, but sometimes I can't help myself. It's sad and unfortunate for you as there is no one here to edit my excesses.) They've devised a clever policy of protecting a relative handful of sponsoring manufacturers--in the midst of the economic whirlwind--who will promise anything but would sooner confess pedophilia than part with a buck. I know, I know, when things turn around this will turn out to have been a stroke of pure genius. Every player who competes nationally can hardly wait for the chance to pay full retail and incidentally replace the gear they already have oh, at least twice a year. Please, Mr. Manufacturer, take my money. Judas H. Priest!

Major League Paintball Held Hostage: Weekly Update

Registration closes for the PSP's upcoming MAO in a couple of weeks. To date there are 152 teams registered with 64 paid. That total includes only 3 pro teams (which were supposed to have paid for their season in advance.) Hard to say at this point how the final numbers will look--Phoenix looked a bit thin until the last minute. Keep an eye on both D1 and Semi-pro; D1 is showing signs of falling off from a decent season opener, or maybe I'm being too pessimistic. And despite some new blood in semi- the division isn't exactly swamped with teams so far. Hey XSV, coming back to defend? Xball has gotta be looking pretty good right about now, yes?

Over in Euroland the days are also ticking down to the MS's season opener at Malaga Beach. While the registration numbers look solid and the locked divisions have seen some additional teams listed in the last couple of weeks it's still unclear if all the teams listed are paid and will be competing down in sunny Spain.
Looking at the CPL--which currently has 12 teams registered in a division locked at 16--it's interesting to compare who ought to be on the list and who is. The two teams promoted from the SPL are ready to play. The Tontons are back (Was that the spot Shockwave was playing in last year?) but so far Joy, the Smart Parts spot and the Moscows, Phoenix and Caste, are missing. It looks like musical chairs with possibly 5 teams but only 4 spots. Perhaps more importantly 3 of last season's top four aren't on the list--yet. Do gun sponsorships have anything to do with the missing teams? And, once again, I can't help noting that all the payment deadlines have passed.
In the SPL only 3 of the 4 teams promoted from D1 are on the list as are both demoted teams from the CPL. Otherwise at least 6, and probably two or three more, are missing from last year's SPL teams. Both SPL and D1 have 26 teams listed as of today but 26 is not a workable number given past prelim practice which required divisions divisible by four.

Yesterday I promised a bit more from the USPL's HB event and since registration for the DC Challenge hasn't opened yet I might as well include the follow-up here. But first--did you realize that the DC Challenge is 5 weeks and a couple of days away? It is ambitious scheduling and the USPL needs to get that ball rolling. (And they know it so I expect registration will open very soon.)
As I mentioned yesterday I thought the event was a solid players event but less successful as a public display of our game. Which is okay unless the new league is harboring some of the old NPPL's schemes and dreams. The fields were about as accessible to the public as the port-o-johns were to the players. And I'm confident the players were far more intent on reaching the port-o-johns than most of the passersby were to "experience" big time tourney ball. Still, my view is it's more important to get the tournament right than it is to provide a spectacle. The new scheduling, which was similar to the way the PSP works their prelim groups, was a significant improvement. The most common post-event complaints; refs, sand, limited vendors, paint distribution and distant port-o-johns are par for the course. I don't know what the reffing was like on the outer fields but, as usual, some of the complaints probably have some truth to them and others don't. I have yet to attend the mistake free event. Dragging heavy gear bags through the sand was probably a real drag (yes, I did that on purpose) especially when at least half the players were smaller than their gearbags. But that's the beach, isn't it? Complaints about limited vendors is a subjective complaint and, more than anything, demonstrates the cluelessness of the complainer. Trust me, the USPL worked hard to get every last vendor who attended. While we got our paint without any complications I heard there were some issues with the distribution despite the league's best effort. (Re: Frank Connell) All things considered it turned out to be not unlike many another NPPL event.
However, once again I can't let the gun issue go. The so-called semi-auto play remains a joke and also consistent with the old NPPL. Nobody cared to try and police the guns with any semblance of seriousness and nobody seemed to find it objectionable but then almost everyone had ridiculously fast guns. One other thing, now that I think of it, was the chrono policy. There was a standard radar chrono in the field access/ref tent but official chronographing was done by hand-helds on the field. The problem with that is the different types of chronos aren't consistent with one another. And never have been.
Unfortunately the ability of the USPL to actually put on a good tourney will not be the deciding factor in whether the league is a success or not.

The Back from the Beach Edition of Paintball Stuff

It's Monday and that means a new entry for Baca's Blog over at the Big Bullet (68 Caliber) and this week's entry is a doozy but it isn't exactly hot off the presses. It's a slightly updated version of an old magazine piece--because it's Monday and I didn't take my laptop with me to the beach and I haven't slept since Saturday night. Caught the redeye out of LAX last night and had every intention of trying to sleep (planes and sleep don't typically work for me) except for the odd little man in the middle seat of my row. I'm sure he wasn't a regular flier and was probably claustrophobic because as soon as the lights were dimmed he started talking to himself and making peculiar noises. Nor could--or would--he sit still. He sat there in the dark grunting, squeaking and fidgeting for four hours and when I politely suggested he knock it off he turned off my air nozzle. As a fan of spy movies I considered snapping his spindly neck and putting a blanket over him but the cheap bastards at USAir don't offer complimentary pillows and blankets anymore. The post is called, So You Wanna Play a Big Game? and if it doesn't ring a bell take a look.

Met DPA legionary Don Saavedra at HB this past weekend and it's always cool to put faces to names. If you've read Don's posts at PaintballAgenda --and if you haven't what's wrong with you?--you know Don has an interest in the stories and history of the game. In pursuit of that interest he's begun working on a podcast project. Long story short I made a nuisance of myself until he pretended to do a short interview with me. In the longer term it will be interesting and exciting to see--and hear--how it turns out.

Another very cool project I heard about at HB should be going live online soon and I will fill y'all in as soon as it does just in case you somehow miss the big reveal. The brains and heart behind the project are two of the most creative guys in paintball. I don't want to steal any of their thunder so I'm just teasing y'all for right now but I'm really looking forward to it. It will be a must see.

Talked to Chris (Pony) LaSoya and the rumor of his playing xball (Race to Whatever) with the semi-pro Vipers is a possibility. From our conversation it didn't seem to be a done deal but he was excited about the prospect of getting back on the field. And it will be with a Dye team. I asked him the secret to his longevity and he started talking about some guy named Paul Mitchell. I don't know who that is and I'm not gonna judge so I nodded a couple of times and backed away slowly.

I missed the enlistments last week but I'll catch up this Friday.

And, yes, I know, I didn't post Field Design: Phoenix 3 because it just wasn't ready. It's close so it'll be soon. You know where to send your complaints. I will also get around to checking out comments soon.

Finally, a quick word or two on the first USPL event. It went off without an obvious hitch. The set-up offered some innovation and far as I could tell everything worked out well. I'll do a longer report tomorrow. For the players and those who were there for the paintball I'm confident it was a solid performance. On the showcase of paintball/Huntington Beach coolness factor I think a couple of things conspired against it. The weather wasn't great. It was south of the pier. The vendors were kinda interposed between the beach goers and the fields of play. And there was a surf comp as well as a big craft gimmick going on this past weekend. From my perspective I've never seen the kinda crowds or interest from the public that existed when the event was north of the pier. Of course, I'm not convinced that Paintball Meets the Public on the scale of one Cali beach community is all that relevant right now anyway. But what do I know.

Rule of the Game

Rule of the Game #14: most aftermarket parts are purely cosmetic. Those that aren't are still, more often than not, unnecessary. (Call me all the names you like but, please, no sticks and stones. I have sensitive skin and a soft head.)

Keep Yourselves Entertained

Yeah, that's right. I'm taking a few days off. I'm not taking the laptop to Cali and, yep, I know what I said before. Get a life.

I'm not gonna make y'all go cold turkey though. There will be a couple of items posted tomorrow. A Rule of the Game item and Field Design: Phoenix 3.

Otherwise feel free to treat the comments section of this post as an OT thread. In case you feel like being marginally productive post up any topic ideas you'd like to see on our happy little blog. (When I say "our" I mean our as in I do all the work, such as it is, and you lazy slackers just hang out.) To get you started I was thinking some interviews might be of interest though why you'd want to know what somebody else thinks when I'm here all the time is beyond me. I can promise to ask some questions unlike any you've seen before.

If somebody busts open their piggy bank to check out the HB webcast I'm curious what y'all thought of it--and how it compared (afterwards) with the PSP webcast. You can post that here, too.

Guess what? The raehl faction did the USPL schedule and even with my *hint* about Infamous and X-Factor being in the same bracket and between them having 10 X-Factor players their match-up isn't their first game. Whatever.

It's gonna be interesting to see how the "gun rules" work at HB. Of course that kinda assumes there actually will be gun rules and that they aren't simply flouted, like usual.