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2500 Shades of Play ...

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2500 Shades of Play

Over the years, our industry has been shamelessly slow when responding to some of our sport’s more serious problems.
I’m not altogether sure why we are so slow to act but if my Mrs is to be believed, it’s because us men-folk are notorious when it comes to getting up off our fat ass and actually doing something.
I’m gonna wuss out and go ‘no comment’ on that one for fear of the wife dishing out yet another dollop of nag-pie served up for dinner.
That aside, if we cast our attention back a few years to the problems we had on the tourney circuit, more specifically in the pro divisions, with designer-gun cheating.
The markers that were being [mis]used back then had the firmware code in their markers cynically ‘adjusted’ to achieve not only greater rates of fire than was allowed, but in some cases, and far more dangerous, higher FPS than the 300 fps limit.
The previously hidden allen-key stashed upon your body somewhere had now been replaced by a computer as the chosen method of cheating … Such is the ingenuity of those who seek to win by any means.
If some poor soul had been injured with an illegally-configured marker during that time, I dread to think of the fall-out from such a catastrophe but thankfully, more by luck than judgement, we somehow managed to avoid that particular disaster..
The sickening thing was, our pro players were supposed to represent the best there was in our sport, they should have been players to look up to and respect but the message going out during that era was that winning by any means was acceptable …. but it seemed the appetite of the industry to resolve this problem was somewhat compromised by its own complicity, tacit or otherwise.
I can barely think of an era in our sport that has ventured so far into the murky depths of such blatant skulduggery.

And if any of those pros were confronted with their decision to embrace the dark side, which I did on several occasions, I was met with the oblique but somewhat predictable defence of :- …. ‘”Everyone else was doing it, we just followed suit’” …… Such excuses provided the mechanism to abandon all notions of fair play but eventually, sanity returned albeit uncomfortably late …. [/rantover]

This was a sorry chapter indeed but a far greater threat to our sport had been lurking in our backwaters - that of an acute decrease in players migrating across from the site and rec market over to playing tournaments.
This migration had always been the lifeblood of tournament play and as such, our industry had always taken it for granted but our sport was entering darker times, darker than most had anticipated.

There are always ups and downs in any trends related to paintball but this time, something was fundamentally wrong with the number of players being channelled through into tournament play, it was but a fraction of what we were once used to.
Leagues throughout the US and Europe were struggling to maintain any semblance of growth, worse still, some leagues and a lot of stores [particularly so in the US] had their armbands removed and were taking the long walk toward paintball’s final dead-box in the sky.

Turnovers were down across the board but more alarmingly, this slide was steepening; the sale of high-end markers, loaders and associated gear has always been the life force of our retail industry – but now, the future was ominously uncertain.
This problem was never gonna be a quick-fix because underwriting this decline was the slowdown in the general economy that Europe and the US were experiencing, and let’s face it, paintball ain’t the cheapest game to play at the best of times, especially tournament paintball.

Dark clouds amass in the distance .....

Our problem was alarmingly simple but the answer to it was somewhat more elusive.
We needed to stimulate regrowth in the retail market which basically translates out to needing more players being funnelled into playing tournaments.

And while our industry tried to figure out an appropriate strategy to jump-start the flow of players back into tournaments, the world paintball market overall contracted from approx. $550 million annually to about $300 million in the course of about three years - those figures are not precise by the way, they are ball-park but the order of magnitude is certainly close enough to make the point.
The solution to our problem wasn’t gonna be easy, we knew that - it had to be a multi-facetted approach but finally, one of the root causes is now being addressed, at least in part, and it is the European Millennium Series along with the NXL from the US that’s driving through some necessary changes in our sport.
And that ‘change’ is predicated upon making tournament play significantly cheaper for the tournament players – on the face of it, it sounds like a pretty good place to start.

Basically, it was just way too expensive to play tournaments in this new economic era. - Costs had to be reduced somehow otherwise we would continue to witness the decline in our tournament scene.
The two biggest tournament series in the world are the NXL in the US and the Millennium Series over here in Europe.
The two best-known figureheads of the Millennium are Steve Baldwin and Laurent Hamet.

The NXL interest is provided by Richmond Italia but more of him later because his involvement is critical to what’s happening now.…

So, the gang of three set about addressing the problems facing our sport.

But are these guys qualified to arrest this slide?
Yeah, they are capable, and also uniquely placed in our sport/industry .. it’s all well and good with people coming up with great ideas but if you haven’t got the ability or wherewithal to put them into practice, you might as well go and piss in the wind …

And for those of you who don’t know, Steve Baldwin’s CV is pretty unique in our sport - he’s proved to be a crucial element in our sport’s evolution, especially so in Europe.
He promoted his first event in the UK in 1989 and that’s where I got to know him when he banned my team during that first major event in the UK …. thankfully, he forgave my indiscretions and managed to hang on to his front teeth, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Steve’s partner in crime and fellow owner of the Millennium Series is Laurent Hamet, one of the few genuine visionaries of our sport - I realise he’s French but we can provisionally suspend our initial concerns all the time he’s taking our sport in the right direction, which I think he is doing so, along with Steve.

Back in 89, Steve created the Mayhem annual event which immediately became Europe’s premiere tournament and the aspiration for all of us players in Europe back in the early 90s.

During the 90s, Laurent had started to promote his own brand of annual event that was held in Toulouse and it soon became one of the best tournaments in the world with all the panache and style we are used to with the French.
The Yanks lapped it up, and the event attracted many US teams and players who crossed the pond just to compete with Europe’s finest but more poignantly, they wanted to experience a different type of tournament than they were used to … if you speak to anyone who’s been to one of those Toulouse events, they will always mention the event’s ‘atmosphere’ … it was like nothing else back then and set the tone for a different type of event that spawned the now famous NPPL’s inaugural event in 2003 at Huntington Beach.

It wasn’t long before Steve and Laurent began to realise their destiny was to take them both toward an integrated tournament series that was to hold 5 events across Europe per year, and was to be called The Millennium Series.
The backbone for that series was provided by the Mayhem and Toulouse events with the other 3 event locations varying from year to year across Europe…. A new era of European paintball had begun with Steve and Laurent setting the direction ….
Laurent went onto invent the Sup’ Air format in the late nineties and oversaw the international evolution of our sport as it gradually adopted the inflatable bunker fields that we now have.
On the other side of the pond in 2002, Richmond had introduced X-Ball onto the unsuspecting world of paintball, and it was this introduction that irrevocably changed the face of tournament paintball.
And so, Steve, Laurent and Richmond have each contributed to the foundations of our modern game albeit in such an uncoordinated fashion, it took time to coalesce.

However, we needed to consolidate our sport internationally, not just in the US and Europe which meant we needed to have one rule book and one playing format but before any proposed changes could be made, our sport/industry needed to agree on what to do, how to do it and when.
The industry and various national federations across the world of paintball were unable to come to an agreement and so the issue soon became a bit of a white elephant … which was revisited several times but none of them proved to be successful.

Of course, it was easier said than done – what we needed was a different approach under different circumstances …. Looking back, we lacked cohesion, direction and industry clout … and it wasn’t until recently [last year] that the ducks all lined up.
And then all that was needed was the right men in the right place, and pivotal to this was … Richmond Italia.
It had seemed as though our sport’s final consolidation was but a fool’s errand, however, fate was preparing to make a spectacular entrance that was about to overturn our industry’s status quo and landscape …. And as a consequence of that industry change, the ability to negotiate our sport/industry’s main problem was finally put into place.

Cometh the hour cometh the man …. or so they say !!

I think most people in our sport/industry realise that the US has the most important input into any major changes to our sport, and it was to be their league and industry involvement that would finally secure the consolidation we had all attempted in the past.
If you are not aware of what’s been happening in our industry in the past year or so, then I’ll give a brief synopsis :-

Most people know, or at least heard of Richmond Italia but here’s an attempt to detail his paintball CV..
Richmond started out as a paint distributor and indoor site owner in Canada but he really made his name when he hit the scene US scene back in the nineties.
He announced his entrance to the US industry scene with a company called Diablo, it primarily sold paint but later expanded its product portfolio to include markers, loaders etc etc …
The remarkable thing about those times was just how quickly Richmond and his Diablo paint had managed to grab such a significant market share in what felt like an unnaturally short period of time.
One minute he’s in the Canadian backwaters selling paint, next minute, he’s all over the frikkin’ place !!

Richmond’s business approach is unusual in the sense of just how he goes about the selling/promoting of his company’s products.
He’s not like you’d expect an owner of a multi-million dollar concern would be – he comes across as extremely personable and genuine with absolutely no pretentions other than being one of the guys.
He was obviously astute when it came to financial matters but that will only get you so far I’m afraid ….
For one reason or another, after a few years, Richmond eventually sold his company for a disgusting amount of dosh and went off to enjoy a well-earned sabbatical from our sport/industry …. Or so we thought !!

However, Richmond couldn’t keep his butt outa paintball and he returned a few years back and now owns the Gi stable of companies along with the NXL and a few other concerns besides.
Talk about jumping in at the deep end but maybe that’s what he thinks works best and I ain’t gonna argue coz I’m skint and he’s frikkin rolling in it, and on that basis, I know my place.

However, Richmond had a more serious quest in mind on his return to paintball, and nobody, and I mean NOBODY could have guessed what he was about to do this time around.
Not much surprises me after being in this sport/industry for coming up 30 years now …but after what happened last year and this, my head nearly fell off when I realised what was going on …

The first inkling came a couple of years back when rumours were beginning to circulate in our industry that Tippmann was up for sale, more precisely, it was being lined up for a buy-out.
For those of you who don’t know, Tippmann have been one of our industry’s longest serving and largest of companies in the US - I think it was valued at 150 million big-ass bucks at one time.
They were one of our industry’s most established companies who catered mainly for the site markets across the world with their range of site markers.

When the dust had settled on all the rumours concerning Tippmann, Richmond emerged from the clouds of speculation, and was standing there with a big-ass cheque in one hand and Tippmann lined up on his chopping block in the other.
His acquisition of Tippmann surprised a lot of people - as I saw it, it didn’t seem to be a good fit with his own company.

I’ve learned many valuable lessons in my 30 years in paintball and this is one of them, if someone like Richmond does something which doesn’t make sense, then the problem lies with my sense, not his. I was therefore at a loss as to the reasons underwriting his buyout of Tippmann.
When I ended up seeing him again, I asked him why he had bought Tippmann - his answer was as oblique as it was revealing.
He said, ‘Pete, I needed Tippmann because it allows me to go in a direction I want to go and I couldn’t go there without them’ …
At first, I thought he’d avoided my question with a somewhat ambiguous reply but Richmond ain’t the sort who bullsh!ts like that, if he doesn’t want to answer a specific question, he’ll tell you to your face and not indulge himself with a dollop of BS.
However, I’m now looking back with 20-20 hindsight and I can see exactly what he meant then but I’m no businessman and so the truth between the lines evaded me at that time.

But I have to say, I still couldn’t appreciate all the reasons for his Tippmann acquisition as a means to an end as he was suggesting …. But last year, the veil was lifted and the full extent of Richmond’s plan was revealed.

Our industry is always playing host to rumours and it was no different last year when a rumour began to drift around our industry that someone was interested in buying Kee.

Rumours are commonplace in our industry/sport and unless you can nail it down with an admission of guilt, you have to take them with a pinch of salt and so I’m gonna mix my metaphors and suggest, there was no smoke without fire.

And just to set the stage on this, over the last years or so, our industry’s thousand pound gorilla had been Kee, it was originally created as a combine company when an investment group bought out the two biggest industry concerns at that time, National Paintball Supply, owned by Gino Postorivo, and PMI, owned by Jeff Perlmutter.
Both of those guys are smart, real smart and the only reason they left paintball was because in true Mafioso style, they were made an offer they couldn’t refuse.
These two companies, and a few more besides were acquired and rolled up into one mahoosive concern, Kee Action Sports – it then stood aloft of all other companies and had been dominating our marketplace up until last year.

It should now come as little surprise as to who was interested in acquiring Kee … when I first heard the rumour, I dismissed it out of hand because it just seemed to be a step too far especially after Richmond had already added Tippmann to his stable of companies the year before.
I knew he had deep pockets but FFS, I didn’t think they were as deep as the Mariana Trench.
If Tippmann was valued at $150 million, I dread to think what Kee would have cost but it’s reasonable to assume it was a few bucks more than 150 mill.
Well, it just so happens, that at last year’s Millennium event in Basildon, I went out with Richmond, Steve Baldwin and co for dinner one night.

I don’t much like poncey, nouveau cuisine restaurants where you need a scanning electron microscope to see the food on your plate, and when the bill comes round, your bottom jaw hits the table like a rocket-propelled anvil.

Anyways, I put the fear of a massive dent in my wallet and asked Richmond if he’d closed the deal on Kee yet - he said he was a few days away but I kinda wondered what he was up to in acquiring Kee on top of the Gi stable of companies and Tippmann – it had to be something more than just basic acquisition.
Now, the reason I mention any of this is because now, Richmond’s sphere of control and influence in our industry has never been seen before.

Basically, he’s now in a position that enables him to pretty much nudge this sport wherever he wants to …
Richmond has always had pretty strong links with Steve Baldwin’s concerns over the years, one of which is obviously the Millennium along with the stable of companies under the Gi banner.
And it is this relationship that now ties up the Millennium with the US NXL, joint-owned by Richmond that proves pivotal in all this.

The Three Musketeers ….
And so, we now home in on one of the changes that needs to happen if we are to arrest the slide of tournament paintball and this change is predicated on the not unreasonable opinion that playing tournaments is too expensive, and if we address this, it can only be good for stimulating the flow of players over to tournament play.
That’s not a bad premise but how do we bring about re-establishing the previous flow of players into the tournament scene ?
The Millennium Series has decided to come up with a new game format this year, and with it, the hopes and aspirations of Steve, Laurent and Richmond will play out in this overhauled Millennium Series along with the NXL in the US.

There’ll now be a standardisation of rules, formats and administrative hierarchy across the paintball world under the WPBO umbrella, and hopefully, this infrastructure will become the bedrock for our sport’s long- awaited consolidation.
The WPBO is a recently formed federation to act as the focal point for all national federations that provides the necessary incorporation across the board that our sport has needed for a long time.
Ironically, our sport’s evolution has proved to be counter-productive in the sense that a lot of the adaptions we’ve undergone in the last fifteen or so years, things like, faster markers, smaller fields, faster loaders, shorter games etc, have conspired to make the tournament player experience pretty damned expensive, and on occasion, absurdly condensed when you consider what you’ve paid for …

Adaptive evolution is supposed to end up benefiting any host but I’m afraid paintball proves to be a complex animal and doesn’t respond in conventional ways to evolutionary imperatives hence our present predicament.
And so, any proposed solution had to address the cost for players and at the same time somehow increase game time without compromising the competitive elements our game pivots upon.
Let’s face it, how the hell can anyone suggest there’s bang for your buck in a game that can last less than a minute?

Evolution not revolution …

The Millennium guy’s proposed format change is to be rolled out this year as most of you guys now know …. The games will be’ paint limited’ and it is hoped this will decrease the ultimate cost for players because let’s face it guys, if you play the Millennium Series, after you’ve paid for flights, hotels, car rentals etc … the last thing you need is a fat-ass paint bill to explain to the Mrs – this normally ends up with a deal involving the wife that involves shoes, chocolate and a romcom film traded for one of the five Millennium events, such is the marital cost of continuing to self-administer the drug we know as paintball.
It seems a virtual no-brainer to decrease costs in some way; the trick was though, to do so in a way that still managed to maintain sufficient revenue to keep the leagues financially viable.
I know some people might want to argue with me on this next point but the guys who run the Millennium Series do not earn fantastic wedges of cash – I know what they turnover and trust me, you wouldn’t want that sort of financial responsibility in running the Millennium series across Europe for the rewards those owners take out.
Fact is, the vast majority of any monies earned goes straight back in the Millennium pot, that is, if there is any monies earned in any particular year.
The reason they do it isn’t for any cash reward though I’m not suggesting any money made is unwanted but it’s not the Millennium’s core motive – the directors all see it as a necessary investment that eventually pays its dividends by keeping the tournament scene and associated businesses afloat.
Both Steve and Laurent have vested interests in keeping tournament paintball alive and well in the form of the millennium series – they both have companies that feed off the tournament format and so I’m not for one second suggesting they support the Millennium series for purely philanthropic reasons.
They keep the Millennium alive for several reasons and so it’s not just a case of basic profiteering and screwing as much dosh as they can from the players.
Tournament paintball, and in a wider sense, the retail industry, lives or dies on whether or not the competitive side of paintball is represented by a professionally ran international tournament series.

If we didn’t have it, it would be like football [soccer to you Yanks] not having the World and European Cups, or the US football not having the NFL – that focus of aspiration has the trickle-down effect of encouraging people to play and more importantly, to compete.
The Millennium and the NXL provide that theatre of play.

Steve and Laurent’s plan to reconfigure the Millennium’s playing format is to introduce a paint limit whereby each team is allowed 2500 balls per game.
Numerically, it suggests that each player is able to take out 500 balls each but the rules do not disallow how much paint each player gets, it merely says that the team is allocated 2500 per game
And if you think about it, to make the 2500 balls available to the five players in whatever ratios you deem critical is quite smart – however this makes me wonder who actually came up with the idea because when I see the word ‘smart’ and ‘Steve Baldwin’ inhabiting the same sentence, it kinda makes me suspicious.
But it seems he’s proved me wrong because in limiting the paint to 2500 per team per game, this then, for the first time, in my opinion, facilitates a more strategic approach to playing these paint-limited-games.

As soon as this is understood, it opens up a whole slew of tactical possibilities that weren’t available in the previous ‘race-to’ formats.

However, it’s all well and good coming up with these new formats but there’s an inherent risk involved and the last thing Steve and Laurent want to do is to undermine their own Millennium series.
If it turns out to be an unmitigated disaster then an embarrassing climb down will ensue and the subsequent search for a format that does reduce costs but at the same time actually works as a competitive format for the teams playing in it.
To try and offset any potential disaster, Steve and Laurent oversaw a number of trial events to try to determine if the new format does in fact reduce paint usage and uphold the character of our game, thankfully, usage was significantly down with no discernible compromise being made to the competitive element.
It seems the old format sometimes created a war of attrition whereby the sheer volume of paint from both teams acted as an active deterrent to aggressive play consequently racking up the paint bill as the game was stretched by a volume orientated stand-off.
The best way I can frame the comparison between the ‘race to’ format we’ve had as against the new format that’s proposed by Steve and Laurent is by likening the old format to playing draughts [Checkers to you Yanks] and the proposed limited paint format, to playing chess.

The new format requires a more measured approach and as any chess player will know, the more thought-out your moves are, the greater your degree of control you have over your opponent.
Of course, people can still adopt the ‘wham-bam thank-you mam’ style of play we’re used to in the ‘race-to’ format but to do so would place too much emphasis on things going exactly to plan with very little room to manoeuvre should things go awry.

Another important introduction is a time limit on games which can only benefit this new format and so the prospect of a dwindling paint supply of a team coupled with the need to win the game and its associated temporal pressures will undoubtedly affect the flow and direction of many games under this new format.

The allocation of paint prior to the game will now be inextricably linked to whatever tactical strategy you plan to adopt.
You can set up your back players with the lion’s share of the paint leaving the middle and front guys to follow the plan with the back-guys suppressing the way for the front men depending upon which way you’ve set up and whatever game plan you’ve adopted.

The pro division starts out with a 15 minute limit with a mercy call being levied if either team reaches five points within the game time.
After all, if you go five-zero down with thirty seconds to play, a mercy call is imposed and the torment is relieved.
The game time is scaled down as you move from the semi divisions through to the open divisions such that the semi division gets a 10 minute time limit with a 4 point mercy call …. And so on down to the open divisions whereby game times are 8 minutes with a two point mercy intervention.

Those who really understand our game will be able to negotiate the challenges this new format presents but it will come as a welcome change to people’s wallets and a style of play that possesses a greater reliance on tactical preparation.

Will this new format achieve the aspirations of Steve, Laurent and Richmond in ultimately encouraging a greater flow of players into tournaments?
I think anything that enables our tournaments to be played with a reduced price-tag has to be good for our sport.

The time-frame for seeing a greater inflow of players into tournaments due to a reduced cost will be measured in years I’m afraid but at least it’s a positive first step in the right direction.
It’s much better we settle for the right format now and allow market forces to influence the flow of players into our side of paintball rather than maintain a format that we already know is injurious to our sport’s best interest.
As an aside, field designs will be released one month prior to the event.
There are of course consequences to this, one of which, it provides teams with an opportunity to practice the field designs at their local fields.
This then has a knock-on effect of generating income for local fields which on the face of it seems a philanthropic consequence but it makes sense to keep all aspects of tournament play turning over, and that includes local fields across Europe.

The top pro teams tend to be those who have the greater degree of industry support in the form of sponsorship which means they can practice more on the fields before the event but there is always gonna be this inequality amongst teams and so it’s nothing new.

The End-Game

I really hope this new initiative works for many reasons not least of which it breathes new possibilities into our sport and let’s face it guys, paintball needs tournament play – it is undoubtedly the more serious side of our sport and with no disrespect to the rec-scenario people, tournament paintball is the pinnacle of our sport and unless we provide the conditions that enable us to thrive, paintball would then be defined in terms of weekend Rambos, and our tournament scene is so much more than that.

Steve, Laurent and Richmond have now changed the tournament landscape in the hope of provoking more players being channelled through to tournament play and I for one believe it’s a step in the right direction.
It remains to be seen if this change has the desired effect but I know this much, the old format would have sentenced our tournament scene to a protracted demise.
Such cautionary insight is what’s needed but at least these guys have done something in an attempt to put things right – let’s hope providence lends a hand and we can get back to where we once were.

Robbo ...
 
Jun 11, 2008
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I think this statement summarises a lot of players thoughts on tournament paintball and explains the return in popularity of woodsball

'faster markers, smaller fields, faster loaders, shorter games etc, have conspired to make the tournament player experience pretty damned expensive, and on occasion, absurdly condensed when you consider what you’ve paid for …'

That said, as the CPPS proves, if you can still recreate the atmosphere and passion that was prevalent about a decade ago.

Here's hoping the changes inspire a further growth in the sport.

JJ
 

Robbo

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I think what Ainsley is doing along with a little help from Ledzy [if indeed Ledz is still involved] is one of the best things that's happened to our domestic scene because it consolidates the teams and players within this competitive, and much needed new format.
It makes obvious sense for the CPPS to follow suit with these proposed changes by the Millennium and it would be nice to think that this new environment will produce a new breed of UK team and get us back to where we once were ... it may seem a long time ago but we really did lead Europe in terms of our top teams.
I think what's happening now can only be good for our sport and so let's hope it works out for everyone concerned especially our players ...
 

Missy-Q

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This reminds me of the Atlantic 6's LTD Paint Series that Ged ran at the NTF back in the early 90's.
I think a format like this is definitely what's needed. It's funny how things come around.
 

Robbo

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Missy - I think it's interesting how we [d]evolved over the past ten years or so .... it's not as if we couldn't see where we were going to end up but nobody really did anything about it.
I suppose people just thought it would sort itself out and maybe that's what's happened but I'd like to think we have a bit more control now and not so vulnerable to market forces when it compromises the very essence of what tournament paintball is all about.
 
Jun 11, 2008
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I think what Ainsley is doing along with a little help from Ledzy [if indeed Ledz is still involved] is one of the best things that's happened to our domestic scene because it consolidates the teams and players within this competitive, and much needed new format.
It makes obvious sense for the CPPS to follow suit with these proposed changes by the Millennium and it would be nice to think that this new environment will produce a new breed of UK team and get us back to where we once were ... it may seem a long time ago but we really did lead Europe in terms of our top teams.
I think what's happening now can only be good for our sport and so let's hope it works out for everyone concerned especially our players ...
Ledz is still involved Pete.

We played the last round with the new format and 'wall'. Can't say it felt any slower but the removal of coaching has allowed players to think and read the game more. Can only promote the flair that used to be present in the game.

I supported coaching but in hindsight it's added little to the game.
 

Robbo

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Ledz is still involved Pete.
We played the last round with the new format and 'wall'. Can't say it felt any slower but the removal of coaching has allowed players to think and read the game more. Can only promote the flair that used to be present in the game.
I supported coaching but in hindsight it's added little to the game.
I've never liked coaching because one of the only reasons it was introduced was because you couldn't police unregulated coaching from the sidelines.
It was therefore allowed in by default which is no good reason at all in my opinion.
And as you suggest, it added little to nothing - I'd go as far as saying it took away something rather than added anything ...
I'm glad Ledz is involved because it means the CPPS is in safe hands along with Ainsley ... things are looking good it seems, there's hope at last.
All we need to do now is get Ged more involved somehow, read Barnett his last rites [metaphorical of course] and UK paintball is on the up and up !!
 

shoaibaktar

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Jun 14, 2011
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These changes have thrown up some major changes and as always some have provided improvements ,some definitely not. The field changes have made plays more unpredictable and faster. But with the play to time ,the paint usage ,although down is varied .ie if a race2 game stays with a1 point difference you could end up playing 5 points in an 8 minute match . 2 of those and the whole tournie allocation could be shot! These changes make more sense to the people who want to grow paintball as a business ,to the detriment of it as a sport.The overall number of teams is up .The teams at the top are declining Tigers gone ,Nexus hanging on by their fingernails and Firm having 3 Americans on their roster. Sandbaggers provide a good yardstick ,as they are a constant in players/level of performance. They play the same and top teams fall away to leave them on top and they are a non Mills team .Yet the low end teams pay full retail ,their numbers are up .Top teams need maintenance to keep the grind and top level performance up.Why would businessmen care if the standard falls ? they are making more money ,no hobby player wants to grind ,more money more time. So if the Elite standard falls ,more teams have a chance for a smaller outlay .Commercially it's a winner.The chances of anyone from GB joining you ,Twizz as WC winners are a snowballs in hell. The top end players are leaving at a far far greater rate than replacements ,results back this assertion up.Paintball as a business may well upturn ,but not the standard .But since no one in a position to do anything about this cares it will not matter.