Is Reunification still in the cards?

[Robbo]

Robbo- You can safely scratch SD off the list. I love the fact that you are bolloxed; I always enjoy inducing the use of a language nuance not commmonly found stateside. I may miss a few of the deepest circle discussions within the industry, but let's just say I can put enough pieces together to get the picture for all the things I don't hear or know directly. Thank you for calling me eloquent, intelligent and knowledgeable-you just may make me blush should you keep up such complements You may get a limitation of content, maybe, but never a limitation of style. Here's a tiny clue for you: I not well know, but I am known. Secondly, we've met once before, and were introduced by a man who supposedly fainted in your presence when confronted by you for misdeeds years ago, in the early days.
.

Hmmm, well there has only been one guy who has fainted when I confronted him for his 'misdeeds' and so I have his identity pretty much squared away..hmm mmmmm.. I think however that you must work for the same employer as he which surprisingly leaves me even more bolloxed

 

[SPHEREPOINT]

Robbo- There was a time that I walked those infamous halls daily, and I still maintain strong ties there, but I cannot say I am a current full-time employee. I figured that hint would get you into the ballpark Let's just say that I'm an active party trying to help paintball through its teething troubles through debate, at least.

Paul- Did you call me a woman? Wow, that is what a Michigan fan would say. OSU! Parking lot or not- it was at the NFL stadium- it is a known landmark if nothing else that emits a "professional sports vibe". ESPN knows how to find the NFL stadium, so do local CBS,ABC,NBC,FOX, etc.. affiliates. If nothing else-we can be found there.

Where were you last weekend?"
"Playing an international paintball tournament at Gillette Stadium."
"Awesome, dude. What was it like? Is the turf soft or hard or what?"
"Well. Actually we played in the parking lot."
"Oh."
"There's too many of us to fit inside, so they have us outside on the premises to fit us all"
"Doesn't the pavement hurt?"
"We have turf, plus we wear padding."
"Ohh, that's not bad then!"
It's the art of the persuasive argument, something we've been doing since at least the early 90's when we started telling people that we were a real sport, not some game in the woods. Every evolutionary step from there has been built from that. Parking lots are the next step in the Evolution, inside is next, recognition by "real" sports follows, then we can stand head and shoulders with many others. Paul, do you need a hug?

 

[Robbo]

Robbo- There was a time that I walked those infamous halls daily, and I still maintain strong ties there, but I cannot say I am a current full-time employee. I figured that hint would get you into the ballpark Let's just say that I'm an active party trying to help paintball through its teething troubles through debate, at least.

Paul- Did you call me a woman? Wow, that is what a Michigan fan would say. OSU! Parking lot or not- it was at the NFL stadium- it is a known landmark if nothing else that emits a "professional sports vibe". ESPN knows how to find the NFL stadium, so do local CBS,ABC,NBC,FOX, etc.. affiliates. If nothing else-we can be found there.

Where were you last weekend?"
"Playing an international paintball tournament at Gillette Stadium."
"Awesome, dude. What was it like? Is the turf soft or hard or what?"
"Well. Actually we played in the parking lot."
"Oh."
"There's too many of us to fit inside, so they have us outside on the premises to fit us all"
"Doesn't the pavement hurt?"
"We have turf, plus we wear padding."
"Ohh, that's not bad then!"
It's the art of the persuasive argument, something we've been doing since at least the early 90's when we started telling people that we were a real sport, not some game in the woods. Every evolutionary step from there has been built from that. Parking lots are the next step in the Evolution, inside is next, recognition by "real" sports follows, then we can stand head and shoulders with many others. Paul, do you need a hug?

If there's one thing in Paintball we don't seem to have is a shortage of 'persuasive arguments', what we do lack however is people in power who will listen but it is the nature of those people in power to trust their own counsel.
After all, that is exactly what got them into their position of power in the first place.
The problems our guys seem to have is outside their normal remit of responsibilities and experience because although all this cr@p can be described as evolution, it is a new area of development and needs new skills, new ideas and ironically new people to steer the correct course.

During my many hours of talks with Sergey, he always marveled at the apparent irrational decision making that went on across the Paintball board and whenever he came across an area of business that needed developing and wasn't up to speed in that area then he just hired the people who were.
Perhaps this most basic of business principles was overlooked

 

[SPHEREPOINT]

So we need to steal the people whotook NASCAR to backwoods redneck festivals to corporate national redenck festivals? Perhaps that the people in charge have those people around them, but have been listening to only themselves for so long, they have not chosen to ask their own hired counsel?

 

[Baca Loco]

Paul- Did you call me a woman?

Wow, that is what a Michigan fan would say. OSU!

Parking lot or not- it was at the NFL stadium- it is a known landmark if nothing else that emits a "professional sports vibe".


"We have turf, plus we wear padding."

Paul, do you need a hug?

More that the argument on offer was representative of typical female logic.

Retaliation should be commensurate. That degree of escalation was uncalled for.

I'm thinking this is where you need to tag out and get a partner in here to take over.

Turf?! Do you really want to go there--again?! And about the padding--the relevant portions of the 2006 Rulebook are 4.03, 4.04 and particularly 5.02 which the league is over-ruling at parking lot events by allowing double layers of padding because of the "turf." Thank God for that sports vibe emission.

Depends on who is doing the hugging. In your case I'd prefer a good cigar.

 

[SPHEREPOINT]

I don't know- I'm a mean hugger. You have a point as to the NPPL's definition of turf. A real turf that actually has padding, like XL turf, is the real answer. Real grass is the only other true answer to the playing surface question. As for needing a partner to tag out- hardly. I am new here, and I am just warming up.

The NPPL should be improving the playing surface and allowing us more padding is not it- agreed. In/out carpet on blacktop is an awkward in between solution-hopefully heading towards things like Atomix or the Smart Parts (AAPP) indoor turf. The venue I still stand by- it's just the flooring that need an upgrade!

 

[Chicago]

See, this is where PSP really triumphs - World Cup is on a stadium parking lot *AND* it's grass.

 

[muskratjim]

I don't think 7-man XBall works because the fields are too big. It gets glossed over, but one of the big differences in play between X-Ball and 7-man is the field dimension. Compared to the number of players, there is a lot more lateral field space in XBall. If you scaled an XBall field to accomodate 7 players, you'd just be making it even harder to fit into venues. (I realize total area probably isn't much different, but the rectangular dimensions of the NPPL field makes it easier to lay out.)

The right compramise is semi-auto XBall.

but chicago don't scale the field for 7 just play with 7 the games moves real fast with the extra guns,( i know i tried it). and the semi auto xball sounds good but it has got to be capped so that it can been check with pac timers at least and with a 10 bps cap movement will become the key not how much paint you can throw.

 

[Chicago]

but chicago don't scale the field for 7 just play with 7 the games moves real fast with the extra guns,( i know i tried it). and the semi auto xball sounds good but it has got to be capped so that it can been check with pac timers at least and with a 10 bps cap movement will become the key not how much paint you can throw.

"Capped semi-auto" is just another name for ramping.

 

[dirtymik]

attempting to pick up where i left off now [haha, good luck self].
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chicago and myself may have some of the same ideas towards paintball. *cringing from missy*

filming a ten minute game down to four is a bad idea. might as well just make the games four minutes. or would that force a predominantly defensive style of paintball? only one way to see. ideally paintball would be shown as a live broadcast rather than recorded live, though that is taking a bite out of my gingerbread house.

You can almost guarantee that if you have not done your work to establish your sport 'the way it is' that the TV network can and will *******ize your format.

isn't that what the NPPL [with regionals like the XPSL and NEPL] and the PSP [with the CFOA] are trying to do? there is no point of an inter/national standard if that format isn't being played at the grassroots level. those actions by both leagues only serve to bolster the arguments on each side of the reunification debate.

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i like how muskrat thinks. 7/X [7man and xball] and you don't need reunification for it to happen either. the leagues can just pick what works from the other's rule set, apply it to their own league, and by extention their feeder affiliates. OR people like muskratjim can [at the local level] create their own hybrid and go from there. i have my own idea for a 7/X mish-mash because i'm cool and daydreamy like that.

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chicago, you can't knock a different version of speedball when it hardly exists, if at all. why not just keep the xball or 7man dimensions? or just somekind of new set-up? 7/X is the new brew of paintball baby! drink up!

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baca, any positive effect right now with the high profile venues are, you're gonna like this answer, intangible. [ok upon further reading spherepoint already hit it. good post.]

Sure, you ignore me in Connecticut. You blow me off in Boston. At least you're trying to soften the blow by lying to me and I appreciate that. No, really.

i'm sure you really do. especially when the best question i could think to ask either you or robbo would be "so... you like paintball?" haha. at mohegan i didn't know you were there and wouldn't know what you look like to even go up and say hi. at boston on saturday i was too busy dropping 2 out of 3 to talk to anyone. did get to meet matty marshall which was cool. meeting one out of four isn't bad right?

but while i have the opportunity i'd like to say that i really enjoy what yourself and robbo write in PGI. though after reading your articles baca, it sometimes makes me think you might be the dennis miller of paintball.

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just a fleeting thought here: how many posts does one need to have before you are considered to not be typing "thinly disguised rants by folk with a chip on their shoulders?"