NSPL 2007 - Info Thread

[Syd (NSPL)]

The NSPL web site, www.nspl.co.uk, will be updated with all the latest information about the 2007 series by the end of January. Registration for the league will also open then.

In the meantime, confirmed details will be posted in this thread to keep the P8ntballer community bang up to date with the league's plans.

NSPL 2007 Fixtures

All dates and venues are subject to change. The NSPL will provide plenty of notice should any changes have to be made.

Round 1: Sunday, March 11th - D7s
Round 2: Sunday, March 18th - SW
Round 3: Sunday, April 22nd - Reading
Round 4: Sunday, May 13th - SW
Round 5: Sunday, May 27th - D7s
Round 6: Sunday, June 23rd-24th - Bournemouth (Heaven's Gate)
Round 7: Sunday, 19th August - Reading
Round 8: Sunday, Sept 16th - Reading
Round 9: Sunday, Oct 21st - SW
Round 10: Sunday, Oct 28th - D7s

As you can see, we have reduced the number of events to 10, meaning three events in each regional area, three in Reading and HG5. There was a general concensus that the 2006 season was a little long and we would rather loose a couple of events to ensure the 2007 package is bang on the money for you guys than squeeze a couple extra in for the sake of it. This way, we will be focussing on quality rather than quantity.

Up to seven rounds will be classed as scoring for each team in the 2007 Rankings.

NSPL 2007 Division Structure

The structure of the NSPL division will change for 2007 in order to cater for more teams needs and ensure that the league is encouraging the development of teams/players from KotH level right up to entering Millenniums.

Div 1 - Locked to 11 Teams
==================
East Coast Irritant
Stealers Am
London Tigers Am
Taunton Snatch A
Bristol Loco
MH2 Llanfair PG
De Novo
South Coast Quake
South Coast Stealers
Outrage UK
Maidenhead Trauma

7-Man, Millennium Ramping format.

Teams not wanting their spot can trade, sell, give it to another team prior to the season starting, but must inform the NSPL of this arrangement. The overal winner of Div 1 2007 will receive a significant money prize equivalent to entrance fee for two Millennium Events in the division of their choice. This must be spent on entering Millennium Events. After much thought, this seems the best prize to be giving out to keep to the NSPL mission statement rather than simply giving out a cheque. The bottom two teams at the end of 2007 will be relegated to division two.

Division 1 teams may play division 1 and 2 teams at SW and SE fixtures.

Div 2 - Unlocked
===========
Existing NSPL teams must discuss moving up to this division with me prior to the start of the 2007 season if they haven't already qualified. They must get my agreement before being granted a place. New teams to the NSPL can choose to enter this division. This division will be locked at the end of 2007 and a significant prize for the winner of the 2008 season and beyond will be introduced.

7-Man, Millennium Ramping Format.

Division 2 teams may play division 1 and 2 teams at SW and SE fixtures.

Top 3 teams will be promoted to division 1.

Bottom 2 teams will be relegated to division 3.

Div 3 - Unlocked
===========
Any team can choose to enter this division.

7-Man, Millennium Ramping Format.

Division 3 teams will only play other division 3 teams.

Top 3 teams will be promoted to division 2.

Bottom 2 teams will be relegated to division 4.

Div 4 - Unlocked
===========
Any team can choose to enter this division.

5-Man, Capped Semi Only Format.

Division 4 teams will only play other division 4 teams.

Top 3 teams will be promoted to division 3.

NOTES ON GUN RULES
===============
Any gun shooting over 15.4bps will be illegal, regardless of division. Div 3 and 4 teams will be checked for Ramping during the pre-game chrono checks.

NSPL Entry Fees and Registration

Entry to all NSPL divisions will be £40 per player for all NSPL events in 2007 except Heaven's Gate. The entry for HG will be announced a little later in the year.

This means that Div 4 five-man teams will pay £200 and the other divisions seven-man teams will pay £280.

All Players Must be Registered to Play NSPL 2007

As with the 2006 season, all teams must register online in order to participate in the 2007 season, but this database will be expanded to include additional details on each team which will make up a mini-site on www.nspl.co.uk for each team playing in the league and will include a list of players assigned to each team.

For the purpose of administration, players will actually be registered to the team's division rather than the team itself and will be given colour coded silicon wrist bands with the division name embossed in to them as identification. There will be no ID cards. This will enable judges to check that the guesting rules are being adhered to by simply check the colours of each players wrist band.

Wrist band will be provided free of charge at the start of the season and when new teams join the league will then cost £2.50 for new players and replacements as the season goes on.

These wrist bands can potentially be used to increase security at events as an additional bonus, but our plans for this have not been finalised and I'm not promissing anything at this stage.

In order to register, players will need to provide all of their personal details, will need to have read and said to have understood our guidelines on using compressed air, will need to have read and said to have understood our rules, and will then be assigned to the division of the team they have registered to for the entire season. Personal details will not be used for anything other than administrating this system and sending out email updates from the league's sponsors (email updates can be turned off).

Players will be able to move up divisions throughout the season, but not move down. The guesting rules will be finalised before the start of the 2007 season.

The wrist band system will be a honour based identification system and anyone found abusing it will face an automatic 12-Month ban from the NSPL from the date that the abuse is identified.

Those teams without access to the Internet will be able to use a paper-based registration system.

Registration will open as soon as our web site is updated - end of January at the latest.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Live Web Cast of all NSPL Events

Here is another valuable piece of information about the upcoming NSPL Season to wet your appetite...

Each and every NSPL fixture in 2007 will have its very own web cast. We are really excited about this development in our promotional plans as we expect the Web Cast feature to attract even more attention to the league from the general paintballing community and add further value for the league sponsors.

The Web Cast will be FREE OF CHARGE to view and will include...

- Live Event Scoring as it happens.
- Live Rankings Updates throughout each event.
- Photographs of the action.
- Written commentary of the action.
- List of attending teams, team logos and team details.

Not only will this new feature to the league give the events added exposure, but it will also ensure that the attending teams are given the promotion they deserve.

The other bonus is that scores and rankings will be updated as soon the event has been finished, and each web cast will be archived as a review of each event for your viewing pleasure.

We are not planning to include streamed video just yet, but this is bound to follow at some point in the future.

Personally, I am really excited about this development as it shows the NSPLs continuing drive for innovation and improvement to the UK domestic scene. This is just one of many changes for 2007 that are really going to give you guys the season you have all been waiting for!

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Tentative Dates Warning

Due to the Millennium Series having firm dates for only their first two events in 2007 at the moment, I must issue a warning that the proposed NSPL dates published at the end of 2006 may change.

You should consider all dates from June onwards as tentative, particularly Heaven's Gate and those events around it. I am working hard to try and resolve this matter as soon as possible, but it is difficult without confirmed dates from the Millennium.

I realise the importance of having a fixed date for our Heaven's Gate event and hope to have this event (at least) confirmed 100% before the end of this week.

My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, but I hope you can appreciated that the circumstances are completely out of my control.

As soon as I have more details I will let you all know.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

NSPL 2007 Goes LIVE!

I am happy to announce the launch of this new version of the NSPL web site which has had a complete overhaul including a much simpler, easier, sexier, and informative design and layout. We have given www.nspl.co.uk a complete make-over from top-to-bottom to ensure that it reflects upon our drive to deliver the most professional, exciting and rewarding NSPL season to date.

Rather than try to list all the changes here, I ask you to simply visit www.nspl.co.uk right now to find out for yourself.

Team and Player Registration Open

Included in the new web site is a brand new database that allows you all to register your teams and your team's players on-line. In addition, this new database will tie-in our new Web Cast feature and will enable us to do some really funky stuff that will be revealed as the season goes on - let's just say that we're doing all we can to help you guys promote your teams and get the best possible experience from www.nspl.co.uk and there's no other event web site like it!

To register your team now, simply visit the "Teams" area of the new web site and follow the links and instructions. Help and tips are provided so hopefully it will be a nice simple process.

You can also start registering your players at this point, though we recommend that you give your team password out to all your players and they register themselves by visiting the "Teams" area of the web site and clicking on "Edit" next to your team name (once you've registered the team of course).

The reason for this is that ALL players must be registered and must read and accept our Rules, Waiver and Air Policies/Guidelines at the point of registration. Team captains can register the players themselves, but will then need to print these documents off as handouts for their players.

Trust me, team captain's, save yourselves some work and get those lazy players to register themselves.

If anyone needs help with the registration process, you are more than welcome to contact me.

If any teams do not have Internet access, I will provide them with all the paperwork needed to register and then enter them on to the web site myself.

Fixture Dates

I announced yesterday that due to the Millennium dates not being confirmed, the NSPL dates were tentative. Please refer to the www.nspl.co.uk for the dates we are running with. We have moved Heaven's Gate to the 23rd-24th June due to Campaign being scheduled for late July, and we have settled with a two day format because of the move and the reduced notice of dates. We have then moved the Reading event that was supposed to be on that weekend to August.

This gives us a very nicely spaced and enjoyable season, but I must stress that the Millennium dates still have not been confirmed and further changes are possible, though unlikely.

We hope you will agree that this is best solution possible for everyone.

Enjoy!

Well, that's it for now. The 2007 season is underway... all you guys need to do now is prep yourselves and enjoy it!

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

38 teams register in one week - that's fantastic. However, I know there are still teams out there who are playing this year, but have not registered yet.

Come on guys - get a move on please. The start of the season is just a couple of weeks away now.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

ID-Band Allocation Notice

The NSPL will be giving ID Wristbands out to registered players for free as you know. We are limiting the number of ID bands allocated for free to each team.

Div 1 - 3: Each team is allocated 7 free wrist bands.
Div 4: Each team is allocated 5 free wrist bands.

Additional wristbands are available at £2.50 as previously announced.

Players must be registered at the latest, one week prior to the event your team will be first participating in.

The free allocation is valid for rounds one, two and three only.

After that, all wristbands (including any replacements needed) will cost £2.50.

We have allocated as much of our budget as we can to providing these free, but must start charging to cover production and administration costs.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Team Logos

I would like to remind you all that it would be really great if we could have all NSPL teams with their own logo this year.

Your team mini-sites will include your logos, as well as all the details you entered during registration. We will also be allowing MySpace-style html bits and bobs in these mini-sites, so you can fully customise them.

With all teams having their own logo, this will make the team area of www.nspl.co.uk really appealing and interesting for peeps to look around.

In addition, the web casts will feature a list of participating teams with links to those team mini-sites. I want a team logo for each team in that list. It will add so much to the web cast image and to the image of all the teams competing in the league.

So do try to get a logo done before the start of the league please.

If you need somewhere to host your logo, I am happy to host the image upon the Southwest Paintball domain. Simply email the logo to me in JPEG or GIF format and I will upload it for you and reply with the URL location of the file.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Eclipse Max Flag Competition

With the increasingly professional image of the NSPL and ever increasing team numbers participating, we are attracting more and more interest from inside and outside the industry.

As a result, I would like to welcome Eclipse to our ever increasing list of supporters. Planet Eclipse are one of the biggest names in paintball, undoubtably one of the greatest success stories within the industry, and being a UK-based company, it is great to have them on board and taking an interest in what we are up to down here in the South of the UK.

The support from Eclipse comes in the form of a season-long competition that all NSPL teams can get involved in - and it wont cost you a penny! All our flags at NSPL events this season are being supplied by Eclipse and as the season goes on, teams will be given the chance to earn these flags by achieving a Max win. If you Max a game, you team gets to keep the flag that you hang in that game.

At the end of the season, the team with the most Eclipse flags will be awarded a casual wear package for 7 players worth well over £400:

7 x Eclipse 2007 Hoodies
7 x Eclipse 2007 Tees
7 x Eclipse 2007 Caps

This is another great little addition to what is sure to be an awesome season for the NSPL and having Eclipse on board goes to show that we are growing from strength to strength.

I will update this thread throughout the season so you can keep track of who is in the running to receive all that dapper Eclipse casual gear.

In the meantime, why not visit Planet Eclipse's web site at www.planeteclipse.com

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

Ref Training

We are holding Ref Training sessions for anyone interested on the saturday's before Rounds 1 and 2. That's the 10th March at D7s and 17th March at UCZ.

These sessions will be run by my right hand ref man, Pinki. Buy him cider and he'll be nice to you.

The training sessions will start at 12noon and finish around 4pm.

All refs are encouraged to attend. There is no cost and NSPL Refs jerseys will be available to buy for £25 at the end of the session. You do not have to buy one, but if you want your own, they are available in various sizes.

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

The league rankings after Rounds 1 and 2 have been updated.

We have decided to run with a system of adding the scores and ED points from each event together to give us a running total. After careful investigation, the Millennium ranking and seeding system is not suitable to be applied in the NSPL league structure and using it would be unfair on all you hard working teams.

You can check out the rankings by visiting www.nspl.co.uk