To be or not..? 2003 season

[Calli]

This winter there's been a lot of talk about the S7Nppl, X-Ball,
PSPNppl, Millenium and so forth, trying to follow all the threads
and all discussion how the different series is going to affect each
other, who's going to play what so forth is a true mindbender.

So I just want to ask a few questions mostly regarding the
millenium, that I hope someone could help me out with:

1: Have there been a desicion about prizes in the millenium? I
know there was discussion about cutting all cash prizes exept for
Pro teams and only gadgets and vouchers for am A and below.
I've looked thru the millenium webpage but no info exept dates
for 2003.

2: The new classes, Pro, Am A, Am B and Nov is this final? Looked
at the registration form for Mega and thoose are the ones
specified there.

3: How will US X-Ball affect the millenium? American teams with
an X-ball franchise is from what I've understood not allowed to
play anything else, this should mean that there will be a lot less
american Pro teams attending the millenium?

4: The Millenium organisation, do the make official statements?
How do they inform attending teams and sponsors the direction
they are taking? Their webpage is the only realiable source of
information and exept the dates of the 2003 venues and rules
there's not much of usefull information there.
For how long do we have to rely on word of mouth when it comes
to information about this season?


Personally this lack of real and official information makes me sick,
it's just another reason why you cant take this kind of sport
serious. Now is when you rearrange your sponsorship deals, you
make a team budget for the year and so on. Good luck with
getting better deals with you'r sponsors not knowing if you'r
playing the millenium or the S7 or both or neither!

I dont want to sound conservative and sour but in these times of
great change, official and reliable information is truly important
not only to comfort teams and players but also to straighten
things out and kill loose and untrue rumours.

Over and out,
-Karl

 

[Wadidiz]

Very good questions and points, Karl. I am just another observer who wants to be involved this year and I have also been frustrated by the lack of information.

I think what we have is a strange kind of poker game going on where the players are raising the stakes and nobody is ready to show their hands. It really is an interesting set of affairs if you think about all that has come together at the same time to create this funky stew that's simmering at the moment: the history of the NPPL and the PSP with associated bad blood, the success of the Millennium circuit which has raised expectations regarding quality of venues and judging, the exciting introduction of X-ball which has so much promise but adds further confusion concerning which direction the leagues and pro teams should take (and probably indirectly contributed to a lot of reffing problems at the WC) and all the business-political wrangling and manoeuvring on the part of the principals in all three big leagues.

I would guess that Millennium has had the toughest time because they have had to wait and see the cards the others were holding. Especially because X-ball is popular with some of the key people in Millennium, because of NPPL's desire to link up with Millennium and because of the significant impact of the pro American teams regarding their presence or absence on the Millennium circuit.

There are a lot of great people and brilliant minds in the PSP, NPPL, X-ball and Millennium. It's unfortunate that people are apart rather than together. But c'est la vie. A healthy dose of competition should do us all good.

2003 will be a watershed year to say the least.

Steve

 

[raehl]

Lack of Information

Is, unfortunately, an indemic problem in this industry. It's not that people arn't telling you information, it's that they just don't have the information to begin with. With World Cup ending at the end of October, and the first S7 event at the beginning of February, that only leaves you barely over 3 months to get everything going - and that simply just isn't a lot of time.

But try getting sponsors to think about the next year prior to World Cup - it just doesn't happen. Everyone is too busy with Cup stuff.

- Chris