X-ball/NPPL Super 7/Millennium - where do we stand ?

[Buddha 3]

Or...

Originally posted by raehl

I'll go back to something I said before: I don't think it's going to come down to whether S7 of PSP is better. I think they'll both offer something that's of value to different groups of customers.


- Chris

Well, normally a little competition doesn't hurt. If Chuck lives up to his promises, PSP will have to up the ante as well. So in the end it should mean that both series should become better. I certainly hope so.
But now it just seems that PSP is going "oh crap" and, once again, chooses the easy way out, and just dumps X-ball in our faces.
Let's be honest, those teams that will enter will only get their asses handed to them by the 'proper' X-ball teams. So will it be that interesting to enter? Maybe, I don't know.
But if I were the owner of one of the potential franchises, this would seriously make me rethink things. Exclusiveness is gone. I thought the whole pont was to have the real pros play nothing but the real pros. Seems like things change every week, and always in a way that might just draw a few more teams to PSP.

Could be the way you see it, but I'm very cynical on this. As we say in Holland: Een kat in een hoek maakt rare sprongen (A cornered cat makes strange lunges.)

 

[raehl]

Re: Or...

Originally posted by Buddha 3
Seems like things change every week, and always in a way that might just draw a few more teams to PSP.

Things changing every week is new to paintball how? Actually, this is another VERY large reason paintball doesn't get out-of-industry participation: We can't get our **** together early enough. We need to be scheduling stuff and commiting to that schedule and location a YEAR in advance. When you're just scheduling events 3 months off, you make it VERY difficult to have out-of-industry sponsors or TV coverage. "Hey, sponsor my league. We'll have the event, really!" Maybe we in paintball buy that because we're used to it, but in the "real world", that looks kinda fishy. For example, I think College Football has the 2005 regular season schedule out already (at LEAST the 2004 one). And we're not even done with 2002.

Could be the way you see it, but I'm very cynical on this.

I'm a little less cynical, partly I think because I see other reasons for doing what they're doing. There's an intermediate stage here, and if X Ball doesn't survive that, it doesn't really matter what the long-term vision is. Just nice to see folks paying attention to the long term at all for a change.


- Chris

 

[Mark/Static]

Re: Or...

Originally posted by Buddha 3
Let's be honest, those teams that will enter will only get their asses handed to them by the 'proper' X-ball teams. So will it be that interesting to enter? Maybe, I don't know.
But if I were the owner of one of the potential franchises, this would seriously make me rethink things. Exclusiveness is gone. I thought the whole pont was to have the real pros play nothing but the real pros.

I think each division will just play against themselves. No inter-divisional play.

 

[Buddha 3]

Re: Re: Or...

Originally posted by Mark/Static
I think each division will just play against themselves. No inter-divisional play.

That would make more sense.
But do the 'walk on' teams (for lack of a better term) have to pay a tremendous entry fee, or will the brunt of it be carried by the franchises?

Still far from convinced from any good and noble long term intentions....

 

[raehl]

I believe....

X Ball entry fee will be the same as 10-man.


- Chris

 

[paintpimp]

xball for the the am and nov teams costs the same as normal 10man entry.

Back to the cost issue once again though regarding 10man PSP v Xball. Costs are the same. Playing time is different. 10man, 8 games, at 15 minutes each max. Xball, time format hasn't been settled yet, and you'll probally see the mercy rule in effect again, maybe even the race to 8 or something similar. Xball you're putting 5 players on a field at once, even though you're rotating the chances of you playing the max time is almost nil, unless you have a heart which is "Strong like bull", and you or your teamates don't commit infractions.

Prizes at PSP suck, but they exist. Xball won't see any prizes. End of season? Maybe, who knows at the moment.

As for the new non-pro divisions of Xball. PSP just lost its top 10man teams. A few, and I'll stress a few teams will attempt to field an Xball and 10man team, but few will succeed or be able to carry on through a whole season doing so. In New England here I know the Hurricanes and Eclipse are going Xball. Eclipse was talking of fielding a Millenium team and possibly an S7 team as well. In PSP 10man terms that's 2 of the top 10 Nov teams gone from 10man, a few are bumping up. Luckily 10man Nov is huge, but in the Am ranks if they take 10 teams to Xball, a few jump to NPPL, and we've seen at least 3 move to pro, what's that leave in terms of 10man?
The 10man ranks are going to be depleted. And if Richmond is smart, like I believe he is, and only uses PSP for a year or two to increase the exposure and grab talent for Xball, then leaves, where does that leave PSP? Rookie class is gone in 2k3, you're looking at 3 divisions again, 2 of which are going to be very small, possibly in single digits each event, and Novice is going to be very depleted due to Xball, NPPL, bump ups, and teams breaking up, even with the old Rookie class being merged into the division it's still gonna be small.


Chris

 

[raehl]

Rookie division will be carried forward into 2k3, there's no doubt about that. If anything, Pro 10-man will go away, which makes sense, since all the Pro teams are gone.

10-man teams moving up to X Ball is probably also a good thing in the grand scheme of things.

I think the way people have to llok at the change is this:

We have Pro X Ball, "Minor League" X Ball, them "Amateur" 10-man paintball, Am, Nov and rookie. Getting rid of the top teams just makes more room in rookie for REAL rookie teams. Some Novs now play Am. There's nothing wrong with this, and it was inevitable if you ever expected paintball to be a real pro sport.

- Chris

 

[TJ Lambini]

X Ball seems to be getting sooooo

dilluted, and with tha NPPL seemingly getting its **** together, I wouldn't be surprised if PSP has a rethink and just goes back to straight forward 5 and 10-man, leaving a straight fight with tha NPPL on a format/venue/prize package basis...maybe it's still too early for X-Ball to work, leastwise the way things seem to be shaping up.

Let's face it, tha money ain't there for it to happen in Europe - and can it even pay its own way in tha States without undermining PSP's own events?