I got Robbo to type again. I am the King of the Web.
Let me set a few things straight.
The reffing at the World Cup was horrendous. I will agree to the 10th power. Too few refs. Too little effort. Too much inexperience. More than a few refs with motives other than being fair. But Manike, from a personal view, the reffing on the field farthest away from the vendors and farthest to the right at the Sweden event was the worst reffed field I have ever personally played on. I won games on that field. I lost games on that field. In each instance the refs were to blame. I also watched games before we played and then later into the tournament. I can honestly say that one good thing was consistency. They were consistently terrible.
2 side notes to this.
#1 - my experience has taught me that passing jusgement on the quality of reffing from a finite number of games is foolish. Even based on the fact that I watched 6-8 games on the field in question, and felt the reffing was bad in all but 1 of those games, I still understand that the refs probably reffed 100 games over the course of the tournament and I MAY have happened to be around the small number where they simply weren't on top of things.
#2 - my team was basicly eliminated from the event based on a refs decision. The refs decision, coupled with the ensuing penalty points, and a subsequesnt suspension, ended all hope of us advanceing to the next round. But, the ref was 100% correct in his call, as was the Ultimate in his decision to suspend. I don't cry foul simply because things don't go my way.
Robbo - You have seen the last 2 World Cups. These events are nearly twice as large as any other events on the planet. The World Cup is without a doubt the hardest event to run. I don't want to make excuses. Things could be, and should be better. But you seem to be basing the majority of your opinion on just these two events. I sincerely wish you could have been to the Chicago event, or Atlantic City. I do not believe any Millenium event has ever run BETTER than the 2002 Chicago event, and I believe that the 2002 AC event was on par with most Millenium events in terms of thr "running" of the event.
Prizes -- In the years that I have played, I have been very fortunate to play for many teams that consistently finish in the money. A quick guess would put the earnings at about $200,000 for the teams that I have played on. Of those earnings, I may have received $4000 dollars personally. Prizes are not even in the top 20 reasons that I chose to play tournament paintball. But the fact that about 90% of the complaining that I hear from U.S. Am/Novice/ Rookie teams involves prizes, I think that I am one of a kind in my view of prizes. My point about prizes is that the US team/player seems to be more concerned with making a profit from tournament paintball than from having fair competent refs and nicer venues. The Euro teams seem to be more interested in having a good show with great atmosphere than with what the pay out is. I wish the I thought the US scene would be grateful for a tournament that had good reffing and better venues at the expense of prizes. But at this point in time, I do not.
Gay pride Parades etc - Pete - The only way I knew about Brighton was that you told me. So, I woke up - got in the van and drove to the site - played paintball - came back to the room - ordered room service meals. I did this everyday of the tournament, except one. One day I went to the beach. Within 10 minutes I was approached 2 seperate times by people of questionable sexual persuasion and invited to attend "parties". Back to the room and more room service for me. The second Millenium Event/Gayness situation involved leaving the hotel lobby at 10:30am and walking right into the middle of 10,000 flaming sweeties marching and having a great time right down the middle of the street we were staying on. Back to the hotel, only this time I did watch in amazement from the safety of my 6th floor window. I don't like it. But I have always heard homophobia was based on ignorance. I figured I would try to learn a little about the culture by viewing the scene from afar. After spending an hour or so getting "unignorated" I amnow more informed AND completely horrified, where as I use to feel just a little uncomfortable I am now cowering in fear and looking out my windows as I write this. I am quite sure THEY know that I am writing this and may appear on my street with their tassles and hot pants at any moment.
All in all, I guess that I do wish the NPPL events were a bit more like the Millenium events. But, I still believe the NPPL gets more of the bad press because of the sheer size of the events. More people who don't come in first, second, or third - means more people looking to place blame for their shortcomings. Having events that are the biggest, and have been for years, makes the NPPL a target for people involved in other events.
One last thing - and again JTHM - this isn't meant personally but your quote serves a purpose
"But answer me this, why is it that when we played a PRO Euro team( nope won't say) we actually had a fighting chance, they walked away when shot, and when we play US AM-Pro they get ungodly breaks that leave us fustrated?"
I can only take this to mean that when you played Shockwave, you almost won and when you played the AA's your were beaten badly. You obviously believe the Shockwave players played fairly and it showed because you almost beat them. The AA's cheated and it showed because they beat you.
I could say the same thing but in a bit of reverse. We played a US pro team and won in 2 minutes while losing just one player. Every person that I thought I shot stood immediately and left the field. We played a Novice US team and lost. I felt very sure that I shot two players, one of them on two seperate occassions. They never left, they were not checked, and they proceeded to shoot 4 or 5 of my players including me. In the same game, a ref left one sideline and went completely across the field to pull one of my players from the other side of the field. This player had just made an undetected move to our opponents side of the fields and was in a great spot to close the game. The ref went and pulled him because someone on my team was looking around the edge of the deadbox. That player looking was me. And I was not only looking, I was talking. I was telling a ref that another ref was trying to get his attention to check one of my players.
My effort to get a ref to check and possibly pull my own player resulted in another ref (50 yards away) deciding to go across the field (ignoring a player 5 feet away from him) and pull the a player who was the one chance we had at winning. This is the same ref who would not go check the players that I felt sure were hit and shot up my team after the fact.
That is 100% honestly what I saw happen in our last game. Sounds like a certain head ref has it in for US pro teams and used his power to get a bit of vengeance.
I could go on every web board and write about how we were screwed and how someone like myself who has done lots of things to help tournament paintball gets screwed because others are jealous of the success, etc
But I chose to try to look at it from the refs view point. And I tried to be open minded to the fact that my view during competition could be skewed.
The ref saw a pro player "yelling" at a judge. He saw the judge tell the pro player to get back behind the dead box. He saw the pro player yell back to the judge. He decided to make the pro player pay for the arrogance. He went and pulled the single player that would penalize the team the most. From his perspective, I understand what he was thinking. I still believe it was a mistake. he proved a point to a player and a team who at least in this instance didn't deserve it. And in proving the point, he eliminated us from the World Cup.
I took time to congratulate the kids on Stange B (the team that beat us). I also took that time to casually look at the two players that I KNEW I had shot. No paint. No spray. No smears. No rubs. No nothing. Looked clean as a whistle to me. I guess I was wrong. Or at least I accept that I could be wrong. I accept that it is very possible that I missed and they didn't. Maybe a judge didn't go check them because he saw that I din't hit them. He is BTW standing and watching while I am snapping and crouching behind a snake.
I wish more people would take the time to think about how they could be wrong in their perception. I wish more people would try to find the good in others and only attack when they have exhausted all efforts in trying to find how the other guy wasn't wrong, and cannot. That's what I try to do. But I guess that isn't normal human nature, and certainly shouldn't be expected from a paintball player. Then again, I have always known that I wasn't a normal human or paintball player. I am a pro player from the US who doesn't cheat. I work for PSP and no one hates me. I have played well over 2000 games of paintball and only think I was cheated 3 or 4 times. I play tournament paintball and don't hate Jerry Braun. I am an old school player who actually thinks Fred Schultz, Robbo, and Dave Youngblood were good players. I'm different. What can I say?
We are all involved in a great game. We all obviously love paintball. Why can't we all just look for the good and stop placing blame without having a remedies? Why can't we quit making excuses? Why can't we work on making ourselves better instead of tearing others down?
Paintball is small. It can grow. It will grow. But we have to learn to respect everyone within our group before we will ever be respected by those on the outside.
Judging could be better, no doubt. How do we make it better? I don't know. The guns, the game, the players are evolving so fast, the refs are being left behind. I have reffed many many times. Sometimes I did a good job. Sometimes I made mistakes. Sometimes when I felt 100% sure that I made the right call, I had someone in my face that I could tell was equally as sure that I made the wrong call.
The prizes suck some say. I say get a job. If you can't afford to play the tournament scene, stay home. But stop all the bitching. If we work together, someday players may make a living playing this game. It may be your little brother, or cousin, or son.
The venues suck. Stop trashing the place. Pick up after yourselves. Don't shoot road signs on the way to the field. Maybe we would be more acceppted as a sport and be able to secure better venues without paying $45,000 per day. Maybe someday paintball will be big enough that the bigger venues will come to us and WANT us there.
Politics are out of control. Yeah, and they will be forever. It is the way of the world. Don't let it bother you. Don't complain. Pick your battles. Fighting to rid anything of politics is futile. Politics have been, are, and always will be a thorn in the side of those not invited to the poitical meetings. In paintball. In construction. In dog breeding. In religion. In life.
As always, just my way of looking at things.
