Round 5 comment

[Balls Out Promotions]

I thought that I would spend some time to write a post with my thoughts, feedback and apologies for round 5.

Firstly, I would like to apologise to the teams who suffered at the end of mistakes made by us. I am not going to go through the whys and wherefores as that always seems like excuse making and I don't want to make excuses.

I spent most of the day going round and talking to teams to gather their feedback on the event and, I hope, provided an ear to grievances, and although I was unable to satisfy everyone I do genuinely appreciate your comments and will do my best to address the issues raised.

Trust me when I say that we do appreciate how frustrating and annoying it is to be at the wrong end of a bad call and that you work hard for the money that you pay us and we have a responsibility to fix things and we will work as hard to do this.

That being said, there are ways to raise issues in a productive way and there are ways which frankly I can't tolerate. Today, I have seen players intentionally intimidating junior refs with the intent to influence decisions in their favour, swearing at refs etc etc. Put simply, and I am not sure how yet, we need to make sure that this does not happen. I discussed a few ideas with some people today which I will mull over and then float on here for feedback

If anyone wants to raise anything or follow up on the conversations we have had today, please do feel free to message me.

I would also like to ask teams to try and familiarise themselves with the rules of the game as it very frustrating having to explain (and being asked to justify!) simple rules.

Finally, I would like to thanks those captains who attended the captains briefing for following my 2 minute simmer request!

Thanks

Mark

 

[Lump]

I think today went alot better than previous events. The gaps in between reseeding was only half an hour. And we didn't have a reff issue all day. Good job

 

[rob_evanson]

Rich, no complaints here pal. Event went well, calls were fair, game turn around was prompt and I like the inclusion of the top teams in m5 conference getting 3 extra games adding more trigger time for our entry fee. Cheers matey.

 

[KU Jim]

Mega Mega props to Nick and the guys running fields four n' five!! I don't think I've ever been to a tourney where the fields ran ahead of schedule. We ended up actually having to waste time with flag hangs rather than "buzzers" to even things out. Was very impressed and really helped the day along.

That said was not happy with some of the Marshalling on those fields. Particularly the JT field where some of the refs missed big obvious things that they shouldn't have. I get that it's not easy and you can't watch everyone at the same time but, for example, we lost our first game because one of my players ran the field and shot the opposing back right. This player then placed his hand on his head and was rewarded by not being shot any more. He then decided that in fact he wasn't dead and shot our two remaining players (followed by hanging the flag). The ref in that corner missed the whole thing. No one could figure out what had happened as with only one player on his side of the field he had nothing else to be watching. Given that this was one of the first games of the day I couldn't even really put this down to tiredness.

I hate complaining about things like this but that was an unforgivable error. We might well have been re-seeded a group higher if we'd won that game and therefore it could have seriously affected our position in the rankings.

That being said, call this praise by exception. No complaints what so ever about anything else all.

 

[Lovetone]

I thought today was run exceptionally well and wasnt aware of any issues so that was kept queit

Only 1 issue that lead to us losing a point but there was no real drama at all (more from the player I shot), and the game was won 2-1 regardless, so I guess "bov'd" but the ref and I discussed pretty calmly and I thank him for apologising for the mistake at the end of the match. Class shown, and the way it should be done.

That was on Field 1 so thanks Im sure they know who they were.

I thought the "waiting times" were pretty short as mentioned and games seemed to run well to time and the event was great. IF anyone is intimidating refs I think perhaps the refs need to make examples and ban players for a 2 or 5 mins (like the old penalty point sin bins in Xball)

Again I wasnt party or witness to any of the problems, but I get the impression its in the lower divs perhaps (could be way off, but I do know that there is pretty much zero tolerance for "discussion" with the refs in the elite segment).

Could be wrong.
My 2p. Thoughts my own not representative of any team.

 

[Biscuit]

for me was a good day in the championship,the playing of more games in the morning before reseeding worked better and the gaps between games was spot on
as fore decisions by refs thought they did well,what people have too realise is they are only human and it don`t help when players try too stretch the rules.
saw more players play on after being hit than before.
plus as mark has said players also knowing the rules,one of our guys today shot a guy and he didn,t put his hand on his head and clear the field,so he shot him again and again same result,so then he shot him again this time he left the field and has he came towards our player ,he called him a f***ing idiot and that he could clearly see that he was out yet the guy never put his hand up and he was still stood behind his bunker
so guys we need too get our own houses in order before we start having a go at the refs.
i`m not on about major things but simple things like knowing the rules,
not playing on when you know you have been shot,especially hopper shots the amount of people i saw rubbing their hoppers on bunkers etc etc today was unreal,
but if we all took things like this out of our game then maybe there wouldn`t be as many complaints over decisions yes play hard but play fair

ps for rich and mark maybe you could post a summary of the main rules and penalties and have it stickied then there could be no arguments that a player didn`t know

 

[uther313]

I just thought i would add a few of my thoughts on the event and agree with biscuit on a few points. i thought the scheduling was much much better this time around and thought that playing more games before the reshuffel seemed to work out well.

would have to agree with the above posts while i know the refs are unable to spot everything i do feel some hits while i was watching on the side line should have been spotted that said and while we can complain about bad decissions as much as we like (even if its only a bad decission when its not gone your way), the amount of playing on and people hiding hits really seemed to have increased and while this might be easy to spot from the side lines where we have the luxuary of 20-30 pairs of eyes watching the game sometimes its not that clear to see to a ref. i feel there were some decissions or lack of that shoudl have been spoted but we all know people make mistakes miss things and its hard to take sometimes but it does happen, we all know the refs are there to spot hits and try to stop pepople doing palying on but the fact is its people who are doing it that only make thier jobs and our days harder and less fun.

i give credit to the refs for thier continued support at these events and while i have my own disputes with some decissions and dissagree with others as we all do and is the nature of our sport i hope every player tries to make the refs day and ours better by playing to the rules(which i think should be posted up as a sticky)

 

[Thorpe]

Really enjoyed today, another quality event, and no complaints really from me reffing wise from fields 1 & 2 in the AM.

Just two queries from me. Not a big deal, but would it be possible to use a clearer system for the ultimates to start games on fields 1 & 2, particularly field 1 so close to the compressor it can be hard to hear if its running leading to false starts. To be fair to the ultimates, if there were false starts due to hearing "game on" from the elite field microphone, they let players get back to the gate.

Second, in one of the previous rounds, Race2 teams played their prelim games on one field, and then their seeded games on one field, leading to a fair amount of time between games. Today a couple of teams, ourselves included, found themselves coming off one field to find out the next team they are due to play are already on the other field waiting for them to be ready, partly testament to the schedule running so well.

On the whole though a quality day today.

 

[RICH HARRIS]

Well after having 12 hours to reflect on the weekend i have mixed feelings.

Ill start with the positives.
For the first time in 5 events the schedule seemed to work right.
The weather held off.

I wanna thank the staff and refs for there hard work. There were some errors and big boobo's but at the end of it all they where honest mistkes in general.

This kinda brings me into the negatives that are creepeing into the events.
I feel i must had that the following rant/dribble is a genralisation and also i must add it is a minority of our customer base and not the majority.

Ok, here we go.
For the last few events we have been struggling to get maximum numbers of refs on a field. Granted a few let us down last minute, or there are genuine emergency reasons at times but generally we are struggling.
So i asked myself and others why and came to the following conclusions.
Why the **** would anyone in there right mind give up a day off to stand in an arena and have the **** shout out of them, have 75% of there decisions questioned by those on field and sidelines and genrally be spoken to like a **** and at times abused or bullied for a a group of people who feel because they have handed over an entry fee, feel they have the right to treat others this way.
Its a hard enough comitment for teams to get up at the crack of dawn and drive to the event and play, let alone put up with the above.
Refs are human, so they will make mistakes........fact of life. Some errors are stupid and you ask ya self how or why it happened but people under pressure do strange things.
On the flip side there seems to be more and more players that in basic terms are just taking the piss and unfortunatlely the refs cannnot catch everything for the determined cheater.
It always amuses me how ill watch a game and see a player cheat, only later in the day to have that team complain about the reffing because they got cheated out of a game!
In every walk of life peole will push the boundries and i have no problem as i was a very good cheat in my time, but at least dont be hypocritcal about it!

All we can do is try and develop the refs and train them but the only way they get experience is by refiing.

To add to this we saw several instances of players trying to intimidate the younger refs, i even had one of the litter crews told to **** off by an adult when they were trying to clear up the **** and mess the team had strewn everywhere in there pits!

Question i ask is if i came to your house and started swearing and intimidating ya kids or family it would be righty deemed as unaceptable and quite possibly end up with me having a kickin, so how do these individuals feel it is aceptable to come to our site and abuse our staff!

As i said this is a minority, you know who you are and if the behaviour is not controled you will not be welcome at our events.

Otherwise, if we cannot get a regular body of refs we cannot train and develop them to the standard we need which means we will not be able to sustain the size of the event now, or allow it to grow. This means less investment which ultimately means the most progressive series in the UK will go backwards and once again tournament paintball will be in decline!

Sorry if this has offended the wrong people, it was meant to echo Mark's comments but also get across a view form someone who has to oversee and implement this. I ask for nothing out of the sport that gave me so much. All i hoped for was to develop a series that catered for all needs, devloped new teams, refs and helped things grow. But now, I do ask why i give up my time, money and effort to try and do the best we can when we have days like sunday.

Why do the minority always have such an influence on this kinda stuff????

As i said at the start, thanks to those who support us and have patience when things have hiccups.

On a note, moving forwards we will be looking to invest some resources into ref development clinics over the coming months but we also do wanna put some responsibility back onto the players.
By this i mean make sure you have the correct knowledge of the rules and application of them. Also the application of common sense wouldnt go amiss at times. Your customers not sheep. If you feel something is not right speak to the ultimate before the potential situation arise's as its easier to sort before rather than after.
Respect the referee's as if you dont they wont be there. No player or spectator should directly engage with a referee.
The Captain may speak to the Ultimate to address any concerns or issues, not the individual players!
The field Ultimate's decision is final!

Swearing/abuse at or directed at any of our staff will no longer be tolerated in any way.

We fully appreciate that paintball is an adrenaline fuelled aggresive game where tempers do occasionally boil over but there is an acepatble limit of the occasional finger point or tantrum to full blown screaming at refs and swearing.

I hope my rant hasn't bored or upset the wrong people. I just felt it was worth getting of my chest. There are other issues but i will be addressing these at a future date with how we will be improving things for 2012.

 

[RICH HARRIS]

I feel i must add as foot note that we take each and every complaint seriously and try address all issues.

So please dont feel the above is a "it is what it ios so piss off" kinda statement. Most issues can be resolved before they happen by communication, and in the aftermath we are happy to discuss concerns or issues with Captains and players in a rational sense.

I personally am always there to help and discuss where i can but i cannot guarantee ill please everyone, only give a rational and honnest reply or outcome.
And, any decsion i make is for the good of the sport on a whole.