How to: fix UK tournament ball

[onasilverbike]

we may be have to ask for help by asking the frogs and krauts or dare i say it ask the guys from joy what makes events click over there
but the end of the day we need to start again
yes we have teams that play the MS but we need to get away from this
we need to concentrate on building teams ,as they say the cream will always rise to the top
build the foundation then pick the cream ,that is why we need to keep the old guy s involved

The difference with the UK and other European markets is that, like most UK players, the game grew from the woods and rental sites to the tournament fields. In Germany, for instance, Tournament was the only real way to introduce paintball as the simulated militaristic aspect of woodsball was somewhat frowned upon (one of the leading German trade/industry members once said to me that the authorities considered the simulated militarism akin to Neo-Nazism) and only mor recently has the German paintball scene embraced scenario play. In Sweden the authorities take paintball much more seriously as a 'sport' and teams and clubs are given access to facilities (including indoor) at a much subsidised rate, and who in their right mind would want to play woodsball when the woods are neck deep in snow most of the year FFS!

Hope that helps.

 

[Tony Harrison]

Picking up Magued as a Coach would be a smart move.

I suggest we use the Nexus blueprint - a UK coaching squad, made up of Pete, Marcus & Ledz - holds trials in the North, Midlands & South.

They pick a playing roster of, say, 15 - that way, you have both major formats covered - train under their coaches for 6 months then go to the USA to compete.

Please note I say "compete". I could say "to start smashing teams".

All you need is a money guy outside of paintball to make this work.

 

[onasilverbike]

Maybe you should go on Bargain Hunt and see if you can find any brass lamps to rub!

 

[automag]

How about removing all the firing modes from the guns and only having semi. So one trigger pull one ball... The boards could still have the dwell etc functions.

Running on only semi would make players think and work instead of laying down copious amounts of balls to get that only hit. The paint company's would still see lots of boxes of paint being used and this may allow new teams to compete in tournaments.

Some people may say I can still do 10-15 balls a second on semi or even more, but over a game I would say that would drop a lot to 3-4 balls a second.

 

[Ainsley]

Whilst I agree that a couple of very good teams capable of competing in the US could well be manufactured, is it the answer to solve our problems? Surely at this time, we need to spread that knowledge and encourage more and more teams to flourish so that we have a strong "base" of players rather than just skipping straight to the roof........isolating those select players from the rest of the UK scene (to a degree) could do more harm than good. Whilst it might well give everyone a focus and a pinnacle, you're taking out those players that inspire and encourage on a personal level, and these "star" individuals often build teams around them.

For example, the Disruption guys to us have been our mentors over the past year, always willing to lend a hand and advise us on game day. We seriously wouldn't be where we are now without them. Cherry picking star players will surely only have a detrimental effect on the standard of grass roots paintball played on our domestic circuit. Maybe in time and if we have a strong enough base of players to support this then fair enough, but for now, I'd say concentrate on quantity over quality for the good of the sport.

 

[Robbo]

Picking up Magued as a Coach would be a smart move.

I suggest we use the Nexus blueprint - a UK coaching squad, made up of Pete, Marcus & Ledz - holds trials in the North, Midlands & South.

They pick a playing roster of, say, 15 - that way, you have both major formats covered - train under their coaches for 6 months then go to the USA to compete.

Please note I say "compete". I could say "to start smashing teams".

All you need is a money guy outside of paintball to make this work.

Definitely too many cooks; If you wanna create a winning pro team out of our player base then you need one man at the helm.
All of those you mention [except me] are more than capable of doing this but I would add two other names who could actually work together to put a winning team together.
I'm sorry for seemingly contradicting myself regrading 'one man at the helm' but if you got hold of Nicky T and Mark Toye, those two guys could do it as well.
I don't think Magued or Marcus would even consider it unless they were paid; now before people start jumping out the trees condemning such mercenary acts, ask yourself, why the hell should they be giving up their free time to head up this project????

If anybody suggests they should be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, then these people really need to get a dose of reality shoved up their ass.

I know it can be done because I have seen the players; I ain't talking about pros here either, I'm talking amateurs and novices .... we really do have these players, I've seen them !!!!!

...but, you need the will and the money .......

 

[Biscuit]

we all seem to be trying to run before we can walk
we need to aim at the growth of the player base not the guys that play the MS
we seem to be aiming everything at the MS guys WHY?
if we had somebody like NICKY T looking after and mentoring the koth divs
but as ROBBO said why should they
now this is were i upset a lot of people,the industry and promoters should
spend their money on woodland tournies
why you say,well were is the growth in paintball in the woods,just look at scenario paintball it,s growing
we need to tap into this growth

 

[Tony Harrison]

Biscuit, I agree with you.

However, where are the teams when a woodland event is put on? Bully's events folded because of lack of support.

Now, with Jerry Braun's woodland HCPL kicking off in the USA in 2012, I'm hopeful that might jump start something similar here.

Turning back to SupAir, the recent success of the British squad in the Nations Cup adds credence to the idea of picking a "superteam" to compete at a high level in the USA.

This would give us back a sense of National pride in competitive paintball, and give players something to aspire to - after all, who wouldn't want to play for the England squad?

If the paint companies force a merger between the PSP & NPPL, that would be a good thing for tournament ball. But I doubt that it will happen - too many cooks, as they say.

 

[onasilverbike]

Biscuit, I agree with you.

However, where are the teams when a woodland event is put on? Bully's events folded because of lack of support.

Now, with Jerry Braun's woodland HCPL kicking off in the USA in 2012, I'm hopeful that might jump start something similar here.

I think the problem here is that woodland tournaments appear to be neither fish nor foul to both scenario and tournament players, AFAIK there is a reasonably healthy scenario scene out there. Maybe, woodland tournaments would be better pitched as a progression from rental/walkon play, however; this would need the support of rental site owners, many of whom may regard it as detrimental to their income stream rather than anything else.

Turning back to SupAir, the recent success of the British squad in the Nations Cup adds credence to the idea of picking a "superteam" to compete at a high level in the USA.

This would give us back a sense of National pride in competitive paintball, and give players something to aspire to - after all, who wouldn't want to play for the England squad?

If the paint companies force a merger between the PSP & NPPL, that would be a good thing for tournament ball. But I doubt that it will happen - too many cooks, as they say.

As I see it, forming a "superteam" from the top-flight players in the UK is more likely to be disrupting and damaging to the teams they leave, and therefore the UK scene. surely, to 'fix' UK paintball you first need to encourage more players from entry level and establish a path for progression. Similar to the academy systems in other sports. Possibly one way of doing this is to involve the FED (now they have canned the poorly supported FED Cup) with supporting training camps, similar to those that were run by Joy, or Crash on the Coast and the Tontons Camps, either weekend or week-long affairs. Possibly there could be some paint sponsorships/discounts for these supported by the FED to be included in the entry price!

 

[Twizz ECI]

Turning back to SupAir, the recent success of the British squad in the Nations Cup adds credence to the idea of picking a "superteam" to compete at a high level in the USA.

This would give us back a sense of National pride in competitive paintball, and give players something to aspire to - after all, who wouldn't want to play for the England squad?

Like Pete said, to do this would break up a lot of teams so thats ne good.

I did think of trying to get the same players to play world cup, but I asked 3 of them and they can't afford to go or play, so once again like Robbo has said in the past that you need a lot of money to get a team like this in to playing events like world cup.

So no more UK Team untill the youth cup at the end of the month and then at the Millenium event next year.