Let me start off by congratulating Twizz and all the guys that went to Cup to compete against the US teams. Kudos to you guys and I hope that next year more teams will go out there to play - I am seriously considering putting myself on a training regiment to be able to do so.
However, I have to agree with Robbo, that even though it's good news to hear that UK/european teams are out there and battling it out with the Yanks, the general outlook is not so positive.
TonTons won D1, not semi-pro. D1! And a couple years ago they were competing with Dynasty, Ironmen and others on both sides of the Atlantic. And according to a true expert on US tournament paintball the D1 of today has nothing on D1 of yesterday - The teams of old would mop the floor with these upstarts.
As tournament paintball moved forward in terms of level of play, most european teams tried to keep up but failed. The result of that can be seen today.
London Relentless got 4th in D4, which in the current nomenclature is actually the 5th division of play in the PSP. I am certain they can and will do better next year and in the years to come.
But in order to make it easier / possible, there needs to be something in place that allows those players who need it, to learn the skills necessary - a Paintball Battle School, where individuals can learn how to play paintball to win. Question is, can the UK scene actually support something like that? From what I hear there have already been various attempts at putting something like that together and the response has been luke warm at best.
What is required for this to suceed - world's best coaches? world's best players as instructors?
There is a need for something like this not just in UK, but in european paintball. But is the demand for it there too? Because if there is, I am certain that there will be people & companies willing to support it's creation and existence.
So let me get this right .... a few years back, not old history at all, it was about 6 years ago in fact, we had Warren Maxwell, who still plays with Shockwave now, along with the rest of the Tigers guys going out to the US and competing against the top US teams in the PRO division of the NPPL ... that's about as good as you are gonna get.
You had the likes of Dynasty and Russian Legion to name but two of the big hitters in that league.. and the Tigers I think gained a position of around 8th or 9th, something like that, I can't remember exactly but the exact position is not important here.
What we are now seeing is a 4th place in the 5th division [XBall being first and therefore div 4 being the fifth] being held up as a vanguard for UK ball abroad ..... don't make me laugh!!!
And remember here, the present divisions of 2 thru 5 aren't as strong as they used to be which makes our position even worse ..
And just to make things clear again because some people seem to purposely ignore what I am saying here, I am not for one second criticising anybody for supporting their friends playing in the US, I am however questioning whether or not we compete.
Understand this and you understand where I am coming from ...
As to whether I am being pessimistic?
You bet ya I am .....
As to whether I am being unpatriotic?
You bet ya I ain't ....
As to what's to be done ...... I remember not so long ago when Twizz offered to do a free seminar, he advertised he was gonna do it and so nobody had an excuse not to turn up if they aspired to improve ... the response?
Jack sh!t .. that was the response he got.
You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink ......
And this is exactly the sort of dilemma that now faces the Federation ...... because in essence, they are both trying to do the right thing and that's reinvigorate UK ball, nothing more.
Twizz was willing to give up his time for it, the guys on the Fed are willing to give up theirs .... I'll let anybody reading this fill in the appropriate gaps.
I'll shut up now and stay outa this thread, I've made the points that need to be made.