Exactly. I hope you don't run into a team of dyslexics in the near future!
They're likely to kack the crip out of you.
Thoughts Please ...
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
They're likely to kack the crip out of you.
Look guys, beasting the cnut because he's dsylexic (or not) is a bit much!
(see what I did there)
Anyway, isn't all the talk of National Leagues etc just a bit like the US Govt $700bn bail out of financial markets? i.e. closing the door after the horse has bolted.
Paintball is a participation sport, the only way you are going to make people play more is by giving then an absolutely brilliant experience. Anything else is dicking around the outsides. Go back to when it was pure and fun, and work out what that was all about because no one has actually really answered that yet.
(see what I did there)
Anyway, isn't all the talk of National Leagues etc just a bit like the US Govt $700bn bail out of financial markets? i.e. closing the door after the horse has bolted.
Paintball is a participation sport, the only way you are going to make people play more is by giving then an absolutely brilliant experience. Anything else is dicking around the outsides. Go back to when it was pure and fun, and work out what that was all about because no one has actually really answered that yet.
I'd just like to stand up for Martyn (Bizzy) who isn't some spotty kid who ought to know better but a stand up member of the paintball community who is in it for the long run.
Now I don't know what his level of education is, but he's no dumbass! As to his being dyslexic or not, I don't know, when I was at school (long before dyslexia was handed out like free milk and worn as a badge of honour) I was about the most illiterate kid in the class, not stupid, just had trouble with reading and writing. After some tests etc. I was diagnosed as having a form of dislexia, with the help of some very dedicated tutors and top notch teachers I was helped to work through this. Even now, without the help of spell check and proof reading my prose, my posts wouldn't be half as readable as they are.
By collectivly beasting this particular forum user you have probably now ensured that somebody that has something positive to add to discussion on these forums never posts again.
Now I don't know what his level of education is, but he's no dumbass! As to his being dyslexic or not, I don't know, when I was at school (long before dyslexia was handed out like free milk and worn as a badge of honour) I was about the most illiterate kid in the class, not stupid, just had trouble with reading and writing. After some tests etc. I was diagnosed as having a form of dislexia, with the help of some very dedicated tutors and top notch teachers I was helped to work through this. Even now, without the help of spell check and proof reading my prose, my posts wouldn't be half as readable as they are.
By collectivly beasting this particular forum user you have probably now ensured that somebody that has something positive to add to discussion on these forums never posts again.
And I called time on it, in an obvious tongue & cheek manner. Thanks for the reinforcement.
Onasilver, I think you may be overreacting here or at the very least misinterpreting something.
Bizy opens up his initial post with the most ludicrous of intros, it was an insane start but that in itself wasn't the problem.
Anybody who posts, and yes even me, will get a virtual ass whooping, if and when they write something so plainly ridiculous.
This is merely light-hearted pi$$ taking, nothing more.
The reason it turned slightly is because of his knee jerk defence of dyslexia, which is so often used nowadays as an excuse, and a more insulting excuse you'd be hard pressed to find if dyslexia isn't the real problem.
There are certain things that give this deception away I'm afraid and was flagged up by some one who deals with dyslexics regularly.
This is not the first time we have seen this excuse on here and I can think of only one case where the dyslexia defence was used correctly.
If you post on this forum, any forum for that matter, it's a sensible approach to make some form of sense if you are expecting others to read what you write .....it is extremely difficult to respect what people write if their spelling is terrible coupled with infantile grammar.
In some of Biz's first post, it was basically unreadable, well, I could read it I suppose but it made no sense whatsoever.
I am not saying any one poster is any more important than any other but when you have a lot of people who have taken time and care about what they have written in a particular thread, if you add to that thread, then it would be sensible to make as sure as you can, you make lucid points.
As for Biz not posting anymore, I got no problem with that bearing in mind what I have already said, and for the life of me, I have little sympathy for him under those circumstances.
I apologize if i have upset you, that was never my intention, nor was it to indulge any bullying aspirations but I couldn't ignore what I (and others) judged to be a pretty irresponsible way of defending the way he had written his post.
Bizy opens up his initial post with the most ludicrous of intros, it was an insane start but that in itself wasn't the problem.
Anybody who posts, and yes even me, will get a virtual ass whooping, if and when they write something so plainly ridiculous.
This is merely light-hearted pi$$ taking, nothing more.
The reason it turned slightly is because of his knee jerk defence of dyslexia, which is so often used nowadays as an excuse, and a more insulting excuse you'd be hard pressed to find if dyslexia isn't the real problem.
There are certain things that give this deception away I'm afraid and was flagged up by some one who deals with dyslexics regularly.
This is not the first time we have seen this excuse on here and I can think of only one case where the dyslexia defence was used correctly.
If you post on this forum, any forum for that matter, it's a sensible approach to make some form of sense if you are expecting others to read what you write .....it is extremely difficult to respect what people write if their spelling is terrible coupled with infantile grammar.
In some of Biz's first post, it was basically unreadable, well, I could read it I suppose but it made no sense whatsoever.
I am not saying any one poster is any more important than any other but when you have a lot of people who have taken time and care about what they have written in a particular thread, if you add to that thread, then it would be sensible to make as sure as you can, you make lucid points.
As for Biz not posting anymore, I got no problem with that bearing in mind what I have already said, and for the life of me, I have little sympathy for him under those circumstances.
I apologize if i have upset you, that was never my intention, nor was it to indulge any bullying aspirations but I couldn't ignore what I (and others) judged to be a pretty irresponsible way of defending the way he had written his post.
Hi all,
as I am sure you’re aware I don’t normally enter forums at all but I do keep an eye on them its very interesting sometimes. And as robbo has asked so nicely how could I refuse.
So here goes sorry if I jump about a bit but I tend to type as I think.
For those of you who don’t know me I have been in paintball since 1986 ,I have fields ,I run a distribution company and have run uk events in the past and a one time so called proplayer for the mayhem tigers way back when in the good old days. And have somehow ended up as a partner and CEO of the millennium.
For a number of years now I have watched as the uk tourney scene has steadily declined while in contrast the uk field market has continued to grow steadily and healthily and is now without doubt the most professional and successful in the world bar none ( relative of course to the uk population).
so why the decline in the sport side , well my thoughts are that the return on investment for the fields, who after all are now proper business providing a living for hundreds if not thousands of employees in the uk , just cannot justify the re-sources that are required to go into the tourney side of paintball ,so lack of support from field owners ( and I count myself in on this) who used to be big ballers who supported and subsidised teams are now concentrating on their companies and the responsibilities that come with that.
Next I think that as the uk was the pinnacle of the sport in Europe it became a little arrogant and didn’t move on as the rest of Europe did and before they new it we were not top dogs anymore.
And thirdly for some reason sponsorship in the UK was far too prolific compared with any where else including the USA. I know some will say rubbish but for sure only the top teams in the USA got anything the vast majority paid. So when the industry realised its errors and could no longer justify the support and withdrew to a more realistic level a lot of teams folded and the whole scene went into decline.
So that’s why I think were where we are, so what is the medicine? I can tell you that I have just spent 2 days in a stuffy French hotel at a millennium planning meeting and this was one major topic for debate. Do we (the millennium) hold and event in the UK? costs are high uk team turnout low ,so hard to justify, but its traditional and I believe a step backwards to not hold one in the uk , but we do have to look at costs or we will die as well. In discussion it is apparent that while the UK is very ill some other countries are feeling a little sick too, but for very different reasons, what medicine is required for the UK is very different to say France or Germany. So we are looking at each area separately.
The millennium has believe it or not always tried to stay out of national issues but we now feel that we should now try and see what assistance we can give to national or regional leagues. We see the millennium as the top of the pyramid in Europe and the local regional, national leagues are the foundation , we all no what happens to a building if the foundations collapse so its in our own best interest to try and help and shore up the foundations.
I have recently been in many a conversation with uk organisers and we are working on a way to try and help and hopefully in Paris I will have all interested parties round the table to try and get a plan in place, with the additional help of Robbo and Ledz (sorry ledz I know you don’t know yet but I am sure you will lend your weight so to speak).
What is the millennium going to do? well not a lot in hands on terms at all, but offer assistance, logistical support, unified rules, format, field layouts to organisers ahead of our events, maybe link the uk event so that points can be scored to apply to the local or national league, set up so we can have a ranking system to rank all uk teams so teams can see a point to competing and drive some interest back. If the UK leg of the millennium is full like Paris, then the trade are happy if the trade are happy they will put more back into the grass routes of paintball as they can see a financial justification for doing so.
I believe one of the major success of particularly the French and German leagues is they have adopted the millennium rules and format and did not try to do something different and use other formats that the teams that play the Millennium don’t want to play. They view it as it should be a progression or pathway to the top , you don’t get other sports playing a myriad of different rules from country to country or even region to region and event to event . Even the big 3 NPPL, PSP and Millennium can see this and are slowly moving towards unified rules and formats and cooperate and communicate with each other for the common good . For some reason best explained by themselves there was with some a do anything but anything to do with the Millennium. Just for the record none of this the Millennium charge for .
Now if I go away from the millennium for a minute and wear my Phoenix hat, then I believe that there has to be more cooperation between organisers on their events and they may have to swallow a bitter pill or two help make their own long term existence more fruitful. Basically there are too many events spread to thinly, this results in poor attendance at all, less money for the promoter and it’s a vicious circle down. Companies like mine, LIPS etc cannot justify the cost to go to an event with 20 teams in so we don’t go or support anymore, if there was 45 teams or more then that’s different the trade will support the organiser, the organiser earns more money who should then be able to raise the level of the events, the teams get better level of competition, they improve the standard of play and then hopefully we end with a few more semi pro / pro teams at the top and a whole load more teams at the lower end as it should be . We have to reverse the downward spiral and get it going up.
From reading the threads I am encouraged by most of you that you seem to realise that action is required and seem open to change which can only be good all round.
So there’s my jumbled thoughts ,hope they give you all some more to debate , sorry I wont be able to join any more as I leave for Paris to ensure our last event of the season lives up to expectations.
Barry
as I am sure you’re aware I don’t normally enter forums at all but I do keep an eye on them its very interesting sometimes. And as robbo has asked so nicely how could I refuse.
So here goes sorry if I jump about a bit but I tend to type as I think.
For those of you who don’t know me I have been in paintball since 1986 ,I have fields ,I run a distribution company and have run uk events in the past and a one time so called proplayer for the mayhem tigers way back when in the good old days. And have somehow ended up as a partner and CEO of the millennium.
For a number of years now I have watched as the uk tourney scene has steadily declined while in contrast the uk field market has continued to grow steadily and healthily and is now without doubt the most professional and successful in the world bar none ( relative of course to the uk population).
so why the decline in the sport side , well my thoughts are that the return on investment for the fields, who after all are now proper business providing a living for hundreds if not thousands of employees in the uk , just cannot justify the re-sources that are required to go into the tourney side of paintball ,so lack of support from field owners ( and I count myself in on this) who used to be big ballers who supported and subsidised teams are now concentrating on their companies and the responsibilities that come with that.
Next I think that as the uk was the pinnacle of the sport in Europe it became a little arrogant and didn’t move on as the rest of Europe did and before they new it we were not top dogs anymore.
And thirdly for some reason sponsorship in the UK was far too prolific compared with any where else including the USA. I know some will say rubbish but for sure only the top teams in the USA got anything the vast majority paid. So when the industry realised its errors and could no longer justify the support and withdrew to a more realistic level a lot of teams folded and the whole scene went into decline.
So that’s why I think were where we are, so what is the medicine? I can tell you that I have just spent 2 days in a stuffy French hotel at a millennium planning meeting and this was one major topic for debate. Do we (the millennium) hold and event in the UK? costs are high uk team turnout low ,so hard to justify, but its traditional and I believe a step backwards to not hold one in the uk , but we do have to look at costs or we will die as well. In discussion it is apparent that while the UK is very ill some other countries are feeling a little sick too, but for very different reasons, what medicine is required for the UK is very different to say France or Germany. So we are looking at each area separately.
The millennium has believe it or not always tried to stay out of national issues but we now feel that we should now try and see what assistance we can give to national or regional leagues. We see the millennium as the top of the pyramid in Europe and the local regional, national leagues are the foundation , we all no what happens to a building if the foundations collapse so its in our own best interest to try and help and shore up the foundations.
I have recently been in many a conversation with uk organisers and we are working on a way to try and help and hopefully in Paris I will have all interested parties round the table to try and get a plan in place, with the additional help of Robbo and Ledz (sorry ledz I know you don’t know yet but I am sure you will lend your weight so to speak).
What is the millennium going to do? well not a lot in hands on terms at all, but offer assistance, logistical support, unified rules, format, field layouts to organisers ahead of our events, maybe link the uk event so that points can be scored to apply to the local or national league, set up so we can have a ranking system to rank all uk teams so teams can see a point to competing and drive some interest back. If the UK leg of the millennium is full like Paris, then the trade are happy if the trade are happy they will put more back into the grass routes of paintball as they can see a financial justification for doing so.
I believe one of the major success of particularly the French and German leagues is they have adopted the millennium rules and format and did not try to do something different and use other formats that the teams that play the Millennium don’t want to play. They view it as it should be a progression or pathway to the top , you don’t get other sports playing a myriad of different rules from country to country or even region to region and event to event . Even the big 3 NPPL, PSP and Millennium can see this and are slowly moving towards unified rules and formats and cooperate and communicate with each other for the common good . For some reason best explained by themselves there was with some a do anything but anything to do with the Millennium. Just for the record none of this the Millennium charge for .
Now if I go away from the millennium for a minute and wear my Phoenix hat, then I believe that there has to be more cooperation between organisers on their events and they may have to swallow a bitter pill or two help make their own long term existence more fruitful. Basically there are too many events spread to thinly, this results in poor attendance at all, less money for the promoter and it’s a vicious circle down. Companies like mine, LIPS etc cannot justify the cost to go to an event with 20 teams in so we don’t go or support anymore, if there was 45 teams or more then that’s different the trade will support the organiser, the organiser earns more money who should then be able to raise the level of the events, the teams get better level of competition, they improve the standard of play and then hopefully we end with a few more semi pro / pro teams at the top and a whole load more teams at the lower end as it should be . We have to reverse the downward spiral and get it going up.
From reading the threads I am encouraged by most of you that you seem to realise that action is required and seem open to change which can only be good all round.
So there’s my jumbled thoughts ,hope they give you all some more to debate , sorry I wont be able to join any more as I leave for Paris to ensure our last event of the season lives up to expectations.
Barry
I just wanna say 'thanks' to Barry for taking a time out here coz I know he is working hard to get things ready for Paris next week as well as running his own Phoenix business, and that post took some time to compose.
As Barry intimated, I think there will be some talks in Paris with a few people and I've been asked to get involved and so let's hope something can get started.
The trick is gonna be, to reconcile promoter's financial requirements with the interests of UK paintball because essentially they are not always running parallel.
As Barry intimated, I think there will be some talks in Paris with a few people and I've been asked to get involved and so let's hope something can get started.
The trick is gonna be, to reconcile promoter's financial requirements with the interests of UK paintball because essentially they are not always running parallel.
Cheers Barry I hope the decision was to keep the Campaign Cup, I think it would be a big negative impact for the UK scene if that went. My team are all going to be playing the Campaign Cup next year and we hope to do one other event such as Malaga or maybe Paris. (And worst case scenario that we can't actually play we'll definitely be coming and spending lots of cash like we did this year.)
As for rules and layouts....I though the Millennium rulebook was the defacto standard for UK leagues through choice. (Saves time and effort by copying the top European leagues hehe)
Im sure you guys will sort something out
I hope the decision was to keep the Campaign Cup, I think it would be a big negative impact for the UK scene if that went. My team are all going to be playing the Campaign Cup next year and we hope to do one other event such as Malaga or maybe Paris. (And worst case scenario that we can't actually play we'll definitely be coming and spending lots of cash like we did this year.) As for rules and layouts....I though the Millennium rulebook was the defacto standard for UK leagues through choice. (Saves time and effort by copying the top European leagues hehe)
Im sure you guys will sort something out
I have read thru this thread a few times to make sure I have a good understanding of people's ideas concerning the demise of our tournament scene.
I'm not saying I am gonna come up with the definitive answer but I will do my best to dovetail your ideas with what's practical.
I use the word 'practical' because there is absolutely no point in me coming up with a plan to put things right and then nobody does fcuk all about it ... think about it, how many times have we seen great ideas fall by the wayside because people just can't be arsed ?
The Millennium player's union for one !
And so, my job here is to make sure any answers I come up with is ‘doable’ in terms of getting people to work on it ....
It is obvious, we need more tourney players, and we need a better organized event series but the first emphasis has to be on identifying one of two possibilities; do we have a reduced transition from rec to tourney or ....do we have a healthy transition but once those guys have sampled tourney ball, they don't hang around?
I have made this point before but I will focus on it because it's fundamental.
My guess would be, it’s the latter - maybe there is a lower transition rate but I think its effect is relatively less important.
Firstly, we need to tidy up our act with regard to tournaments and already, some people are looking toward creating a series that is aligned in some way with the Millennium...talks are already underway...
In theory, this is good because it gives our domestic tournament scene a much needed focus and there will also be a trickle down effect from the Millennium toward these events.
Millennium events are ran well, they have a comprehensive and professional rule book and their standards / protocols of operation are excellent.
That said, any domestic event series that looks to feed into the Millennium MUST abide by similar protocols and standards.
I'm not talking about bells and whistles here, I am talking about judging, rules, health and safety, Hpac air and so on....
This is the trickle-down principle of operation ....in operation !!!
OK, I am gonna assume here we have the people to provide these leagues and I would be thinking of people like Jim Frensham, Wendy, Chris Pelling, Big Sid, Bully, Rich Harris and Gill (Just Paintball) need to get to grips with this in some way.
I really don’t care how they go about it but these are the sort of people who need to put it together..and I would also appoint Ledz as head consultant.
He’s a busy man but any input from him would prove invaluable and if he can give advice, then that group of promoters should follow it, religiously.
I don't give a flying sh!t about politics, brands, company affiliations or anything else that might get in the way here because there are much bigger fish to fry than petty attempts to feather your own nest ...
But there is only one way we can achieve adherence to the goal in question and I will come to that later.
Now before I venture forward, I need to make something clear here, our history of our leagues working together is about as successful as Scotland is at football (sorry Sid), we are useless when it comes to co-operation, absolutely fackin useless, we are like a bunch of kids looking after our sweets in the playground.
I think somebody told me that two years ago, a meeting was set up between promoters in the UK where they all agreed a standardised format and co-operation ...they all left the meeting and nothing was ever done .....our history sucks !!
And I'm afraid the only way we can get these promoters working together is by asking these people to join a board of some description, then electing someone who is able to control proceedings and is seen as an independent and has no bias one way or the other, (Ledz would be a great candidate but I doubt he would have the time but if he did, then we would be onto a winner.)
The appointed head then oversees the direction these group of promoters need to take, and tries to dovetail all the disparate interests of league promoters and keep the board on track.
Of course we can always let the promoters sort it out between themselves but I'm afraid they ain’t been all that successful in that department and maybe it's time to try another way ....getting the promoters to all agree to this structure will be difficult but they have little choice if they are serious about wanting to do anything to help Britball.
For the time being, these promoters have to think about the long dollar and not get too hung up if they ain’t making loads of money in the short term.
Once this has been initiated, we then have to address other issues and one of those is cost ...there have been many ideas concerning fixed paint events, lowering BPS and so on.
One of the ways we can achieve this is I think, the lowering of BPS and I reckon 10 maybe 12 bps at a push is a pretty good start because it does two things:-
a) It cuts costs.
b) It opens up the game whereby reducing the avalanche of paint players have to face when they consider a move and therefore promotes aggressive (more attractive) games
These two initiatives are positive moves in terms of keeping transition players in tourney ball because of the two benefits mentioned.
I am sure there are more benefits but those two alone should be enough.
As to any derision from players who squeal, 'nooo, i want my marker to fire at 20 balls a second' or whatever, I say, 'fcuk 'em', I don't give a sh!t what they squeal, we need to get serious here and this is a positive step in the right direction.
We need to take our game back from an industry seemingly drunk on the sales pitch of ever increasing firing rates ...it's a false dawn here and one doomed to fail ...look where it's got us ....and whilst some 16 yr old wannabee pro can boast his marker shoots more BPS than his pal's, our sport is becoming sedentary, boring to watch and obsessed with quantity and not quality.
We need to grab our sport back from this lunacy and place it back in the hands of skilled players .. and not leave it in the hands of industry marketing machines, 16 yr old wannabees and the rest having to follow like sheep ....
To back track a little, if we subsequently find out the real problem isn’t with tourney ball being unable to sustain interest from transitional players, and the real problem is the number coming from rec ball has severely decreased, then we need to address this problem and open up talks with site owners but that’s hopefully not needed but we need a plan B just in case.
I don’t think this is the case but of course, we can all be wrong.
As for format ?
This is easy, 7-man is dead or dying with the 5-man format being the dominant choice, and so it should be.
And so, we have hopefully identified the problem and with the help of the tourney organisers mentioned will provide parachute events for any new players to attend that won’t immediately have them scurrying back to the woods or leaving paintball altogether.
The softening of firing rates and the resultant softening of the game will also play its part here and consequently head off the possibility of these new players coming ‘face to face’ with all that is bad about our tourney scene now.
One of the problems I flagged up a few years back was, we had the wrong demographic playing in our tournament scene for us to create good teams and it may be worthwhile explaining again what I meant.
We have very few walk-on sites now, and as a consequence of this, it forces players who do not want to continue playing in the woods toward our tourney scene who would otherwise just play walk-ons.
We are all assuming players who leave punter-ball in the woods and head toward Sup’ Air can automatically be described as tourney players.
Unfortunately, this is not the case ..... a lot of Sup’Air players play for fun and are not competitively minded.
And so, instead of having a competitive demographic our tourney scene used to have, it is now a mixture of the competitively minded and displaced walk-ons who have nowhere else to go.
This isn’t a healthy demographic if we are to compete in an international sense but it also means our tourney scene is probably even worse off than a first glance might suggest.
This problem will tend to iron itself out as more players end up staying in our revamped events ...hopefully.
As I said before, we have a varied mix of influences all being bought to bear on our tourney scene but we need to start somewhere and I believe what I have suggested will give us a start.
I have reduced the problem to a few different areas even though I realise there are several more problems, I have done this because we need to focus our attention and introducing too many initiatives just means nothing gets done.
I think something is being arranged at the up and coming Paris event next week and I’ve been asked to join in; let’s hope we can get something going.
I don't mind helping out, I don't stand to gain one damned thing in sorting this out whilst everybody else will benefit and this reason alone dictates my patience has limits.
I will have no time for people constantly trying to 'arrange' things because it suits them and if I come up against the sort of resistance we have met soo many times before, I am outa there like a whippet with its balls alight.
It's time to get serious and actualy DO something!
What I have written doesn’t pretend to be the definitive answer and we still need to hear people’s input .....I think it’s our first step maybes and of course, any idea is gonna be organic in that it will evolve as we go along ....but we need to start somewhere guys.
I'm not saying I am gonna come up with the definitive answer but I will do my best to dovetail your ideas with what's practical.
I use the word 'practical' because there is absolutely no point in me coming up with a plan to put things right and then nobody does fcuk all about it ... think about it, how many times have we seen great ideas fall by the wayside because people just can't be arsed ?
The Millennium player's union for one !
And so, my job here is to make sure any answers I come up with is ‘doable’ in terms of getting people to work on it ....
It is obvious, we need more tourney players, and we need a better organized event series but the first emphasis has to be on identifying one of two possibilities; do we have a reduced transition from rec to tourney or ....do we have a healthy transition but once those guys have sampled tourney ball, they don't hang around?
I have made this point before but I will focus on it because it's fundamental.
My guess would be, it’s the latter - maybe there is a lower transition rate but I think its effect is relatively less important.
Firstly, we need to tidy up our act with regard to tournaments and already, some people are looking toward creating a series that is aligned in some way with the Millennium...talks are already underway...
In theory, this is good because it gives our domestic tournament scene a much needed focus and there will also be a trickle down effect from the Millennium toward these events.
Millennium events are ran well, they have a comprehensive and professional rule book and their standards / protocols of operation are excellent.
That said, any domestic event series that looks to feed into the Millennium MUST abide by similar protocols and standards.
I'm not talking about bells and whistles here, I am talking about judging, rules, health and safety, Hpac air and so on....
This is the trickle-down principle of operation ....in operation !!!
OK, I am gonna assume here we have the people to provide these leagues and I would be thinking of people like Jim Frensham, Wendy, Chris Pelling, Big Sid, Bully, Rich Harris and Gill (Just Paintball) need to get to grips with this in some way.
I really don’t care how they go about it but these are the sort of people who need to put it together..and I would also appoint Ledz as head consultant.
He’s a busy man but any input from him would prove invaluable and if he can give advice, then that group of promoters should follow it, religiously.
I don't give a flying sh!t about politics, brands, company affiliations or anything else that might get in the way here because there are much bigger fish to fry than petty attempts to feather your own nest ...
But there is only one way we can achieve adherence to the goal in question and I will come to that later.
Now before I venture forward, I need to make something clear here, our history of our leagues working together is about as successful as Scotland is at football (sorry Sid), we are useless when it comes to co-operation, absolutely fackin useless, we are like a bunch of kids looking after our sweets in the playground.
I think somebody told me that two years ago, a meeting was set up between promoters in the UK where they all agreed a standardised format and co-operation ...they all left the meeting and nothing was ever done .....our history sucks !!
And I'm afraid the only way we can get these promoters working together is by asking these people to join a board of some description, then electing someone who is able to control proceedings and is seen as an independent and has no bias one way or the other, (Ledz would be a great candidate but I doubt he would have the time but if he did, then we would be onto a winner.)
The appointed head then oversees the direction these group of promoters need to take, and tries to dovetail all the disparate interests of league promoters and keep the board on track.
Of course we can always let the promoters sort it out between themselves but I'm afraid they ain’t been all that successful in that department and maybe it's time to try another way ....getting the promoters to all agree to this structure will be difficult but they have little choice if they are serious about wanting to do anything to help Britball.
For the time being, these promoters have to think about the long dollar and not get too hung up if they ain’t making loads of money in the short term.
Once this has been initiated, we then have to address other issues and one of those is cost ...there have been many ideas concerning fixed paint events, lowering BPS and so on.
One of the ways we can achieve this is I think, the lowering of BPS and I reckon 10 maybe 12 bps at a push is a pretty good start because it does two things:-
a) It cuts costs.
b) It opens up the game whereby reducing the avalanche of paint players have to face when they consider a move and therefore promotes aggressive (more attractive) games
These two initiatives are positive moves in terms of keeping transition players in tourney ball because of the two benefits mentioned.
I am sure there are more benefits but those two alone should be enough.
As to any derision from players who squeal, 'nooo, i want my marker to fire at 20 balls a second' or whatever, I say, 'fcuk 'em', I don't give a sh!t what they squeal, we need to get serious here and this is a positive step in the right direction.
We need to take our game back from an industry seemingly drunk on the sales pitch of ever increasing firing rates ...it's a false dawn here and one doomed to fail ...look where it's got us ....and whilst some 16 yr old wannabee pro can boast his marker shoots more BPS than his pal's, our sport is becoming sedentary, boring to watch and obsessed with quantity and not quality.
We need to grab our sport back from this lunacy and place it back in the hands of skilled players .. and not leave it in the hands of industry marketing machines, 16 yr old wannabees and the rest having to follow like sheep ....
To back track a little, if we subsequently find out the real problem isn’t with tourney ball being unable to sustain interest from transitional players, and the real problem is the number coming from rec ball has severely decreased, then we need to address this problem and open up talks with site owners but that’s hopefully not needed but we need a plan B just in case.
I don’t think this is the case but of course, we can all be wrong.
As for format ?
This is easy, 7-man is dead or dying with the 5-man format being the dominant choice, and so it should be.
And so, we have hopefully identified the problem and with the help of the tourney organisers mentioned will provide parachute events for any new players to attend that won’t immediately have them scurrying back to the woods or leaving paintball altogether.
The softening of firing rates and the resultant softening of the game will also play its part here and consequently head off the possibility of these new players coming ‘face to face’ with all that is bad about our tourney scene now.
One of the problems I flagged up a few years back was, we had the wrong demographic playing in our tournament scene for us to create good teams and it may be worthwhile explaining again what I meant.
We have very few walk-on sites now, and as a consequence of this, it forces players who do not want to continue playing in the woods toward our tourney scene who would otherwise just play walk-ons.
We are all assuming players who leave punter-ball in the woods and head toward Sup’ Air can automatically be described as tourney players.
Unfortunately, this is not the case ..... a lot of Sup’Air players play for fun and are not competitively minded.
And so, instead of having a competitive demographic our tourney scene used to have, it is now a mixture of the competitively minded and displaced walk-ons who have nowhere else to go.
This isn’t a healthy demographic if we are to compete in an international sense but it also means our tourney scene is probably even worse off than a first glance might suggest.
This problem will tend to iron itself out as more players end up staying in our revamped events ...hopefully.
As I said before, we have a varied mix of influences all being bought to bear on our tourney scene but we need to start somewhere and I believe what I have suggested will give us a start.
I have reduced the problem to a few different areas even though I realise there are several more problems, I have done this because we need to focus our attention and introducing too many initiatives just means nothing gets done.
I think something is being arranged at the up and coming Paris event next week and I’ve been asked to join in; let’s hope we can get something going.
I don't mind helping out, I don't stand to gain one damned thing in sorting this out whilst everybody else will benefit and this reason alone dictates my patience has limits.
I will have no time for people constantly trying to 'arrange' things because it suits them and if I come up against the sort of resistance we have met soo many times before, I am outa there like a whippet with its balls alight.
It's time to get serious and actualy DO something!
What I have written doesn’t pretend to be the definitive answer and we still need to hear people’s input .....I think it’s our first step maybes and of course, any idea is gonna be organic in that it will evolve as we go along ....but we need to start somewhere guys.