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Vote Here - The Choice is Yours !!!!!

Which Format for our Future ???

  • Remain with XBall and its Locked Leagues

    Votes: 46 22.1%
  • 7 Man Model of Open Leagues

    Votes: 73 35.1%
  • Formula 5

    Votes: 60 28.8%
  • Go Back to Woodland Paintball

    Votes: 29 13.9%

  • Total voters
    208

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
pete,

just a thought but if all event organisers had a chat together to arrange regional tourneys leading into a national league / division would surely strengthen the nations. Players being registered to teams would help to establish a player base, especially if only the national league was locked. I know i personally would love to see a 7 man format come back but i am under the impression if all organisers don't work together the uk game will not improve.

............. :)
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
robbo, could it not be as simple as people/players loving the pace and speed of xball ??

They may not be happy about the cost to trigger time, they may not be happy that teams are dropping like fly's but its the style they/we love to play hence the reason a lot are voting for it.

From my extremely limited point of view, i love training at/for this, i love the pace, adrenalin, athleticism.

I haven't yet played a tourney, but thats just because i think value for money is just beyond a joke and my wallet :( , its not that i haven't had chance, and no doubt the pressure will come and i will just have to concede and pay £80 odd quid for about 10-20 minutes of games time :O doesn't hit me with a smile.

But what can you do ??

I't s a rush for sure ... much like heroin is .....
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
It is pretty intense to play though when it does play well, coaching or no coaching. Thats why Id like if we kept some parts of xball if we ever went back to 7man. A 7man, race to 2, with no coaching would be the best I can think of.

Still think F5 is the dogs balls though. It needs, however, two top teams to play it, against each other to really see its full potential, and Im sure if those teams stepped forward, John Sos would cut them a deal for the first event. Pro teams at your tournie can only be a good thing!
Ad, I'm not advocating we ditch it forever mate, we just neeed to take a deep breath, tread water for a couple of years [play 7 man] thus stimulating growth and re-adopt XBall if times become more appropriate.
 

Kevin

MK Storm
Apr 12, 2002
568
1
43
Leeds
www.stormpaintballteam.co.uk
I voted for F5, it certainly gives you value for money and is good fun as well.
Not sure it is the finished article yet, it has come through changes already as it is played and Sosta gets feedback.

I do miss the old 7man days, but a big part of this is down to nostalgia. Back then I was younger and fitter, more full of the aspirations of turning pro!
Again Xball was great when we played that, but it is quite a cost and commitment involved.

In my opinion, F5 has come on leaps and bounds since the first event and it keeps getting stronger.
The more players that can get involved the bigger and better it'll become.
 

Johan

full contact
Feb 6, 2008
70
2
0
www.teamxistence.com
Why cant we have a 7 man a long side the Millennium X-ball?
Same as in the US. PSP and NPPL I dont see a problem!
Make a NPPL europe! One month 7 man the next X-ball....

I voted for 7 man! in the 25 years that i play i still like all paintball!
 
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Mario

Pigeon amongst the cats
Sep 25, 2002
6,044
40
133
Location, Location.
7 man games is a step backwards. I guarantee you you will all be complaining about/hating on it in a years time if PB goes back to a predominantly 7 man format.

Open the divisions up. Allow transfers up or on the same level throughout the season as many times as is wanted. Increase field sizes and limit the paint for each division. Lowest division gets the lowest allocation, keeping their costs low. Highest division who are supported or sponsored get the highest allocation because it costs them less to use lots of paint (as a generalisation) Design fields to suit all types of player, not just the athletic ones. Bring back big bunkers. Take the good points of the seven man game and apply them to the 5 man format.

But for God's sake don't go back to 7 man. Seriously. That's retarded.
 
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Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
Mario, whichever format you adopt will have people moaning, it's par for the course mate, this is paintball, but what 7-man will do is give a greater value for money and at the moment, this should be our prime directive.

We are being forced to choose the lesser of evils here, nobody is saying 7-man is perfect, far from it but it serves a greater purpose than the present format regardless of the potential to create just another batch of moaners, leastwise that's how I see it.
 

Mario

Pigeon amongst the cats
Sep 25, 2002
6,044
40
133
Location, Location.
Mario, whichever format you adopt will have people moaning, it's par for the course mate, this is paintball, but what 7-man will do is give a greater value for money and at the moment, this should be our prime directive.

We are being forced to choose the lesser of evils here, nobody is saying 7-man is perfect, far from it but it serves a greater purpose than the present format regardless of the potential to create just another batch of moaners, leastwise that's how I see it.
I guess it depends on how you quantify greater value for money Robbo.

7 man was what? 7, 8 games?! More if you made Sunday club? As an individual player you maybe got 15 minutes if you were lucky out of 4 days playing actual paintball. You paid hundreds to go abroad, hundreds to play and all for 15 minutes? Thats not value for money in my opinion.

I'm not advocating sticking with x ball. I'm advocating a considered change instead of yoyo'ing back and forth between two formats neither of which work. I guarantee that this time in say two years the talk will all be about a different format because 7 man isn't working. It's pointless. You and I have both watched this argument over the past decade. It's worse than fashion. At least that takes 25 years to come around...

Chossing the lesser of two evils is stupid. What you're at here is a crossroeads. 1 way you have x ball, 1 way you have sostas thingymabob, back the way you came from you have 7 man and then you have a path that is new. Paintball is at a point where is has no outside pressures (other than the promoters) to really change the game. A new format, not based upon that holy grail of TV, but based on the tourney players, and their enjoyment. A format which encompasses all types of player, offers value for money, is better than that which came previously, creates a stable and dynamic league structure and is something everyone wants to play.

But what right do i have to comment? I don't even play anymore.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
2,157
448
London
www.p8ntballer.com
You have every right to state an opinion because you have played and know this game very well and also, without proverbially blowing any smoke up yer ass, you got a real good brain in that head of yours.

You mention there is no pressure from the outside and you are right, the pressure we now feel is exclusively from the inside, the customer base, the one demographic that allegedly holds the most power.
Unfortunately, as we all know, this demographic only has power if it gets organized and thus far, we have had zero effect on the direction of our sport because we haven't organsied ourselves.

I think your comment of 'choosing the lesser of two evils' being 'stupid' isn't a correct one, far from it; sometimes it's the best strategy obviously dependent upon the circumstances at the time.
There are occasions when the only choice you have to move forward is to select the lesser of two evils but your statement basically completely ignores an opportunity to do so thus securing the one thing that could potentially destroy you by default... if you are in the sh!t, the one thing you need more than anything is options for escape and if one of those options is a lesser of evils then so be it .. it's not stupid at all, it's an appropriate course of action if the need be.
This of course is a general principle and it may well not be appropriate in this case as far as you are concerned but I don't think it shouldn't be written off so easily.

As for 'what is value for money', I think that can be distilled into thinking of it as 'trigger time' and whilst one can readily rattle off examples of teams getting bashed up and playing only minutes of ball at some 7-man events, the general outcome is somewhat different and in my opinion does provide a longer trigger time for players.

I could be wrong of course but I can only make an observation based upon on my experiences of the game I have watched for many years.

One of your crossroads options, the one you are advising we take, is an idealistic format that provides all of the main requirements which of course is gonna be a difficult talk to come up with let alone impose on people because of its newness.
7-man was advised because the transition back to it, although not seamless, would be less of a task than coming up with an entirely new format based upon the features you mention ... once again Mario, it's a lesser of evils choice I'm afraid mate .. which of course is what a crossroads really is, is it not?

Maybe me and you are just two sides of the coin ...
Take it easy mate.