Millennium Apathy !

[Ralph]

But the whole 'big fish in a small pond' argument only works if a team is a big fish within a series anyway.

The Big fish in the small pond dont want to be a small fish in a bigger pond.

If you take a team like mine, who have been playing for less than 2 years, started in KOTH at the masters and have just stepped up to Div 3. What is the point in playing at CC?

The point of playing CC and tournaments like it is to see how far you've progressed. By raising the bar you will become a better team by playing better teams

If money was no object, I'd go along, I'd love to play it just for the experience (of getting our arses kicked all day ). But, we can improve our game playing at the Masters, we have committed ourselves to playing the whole season and if anyone want's to criticise us for that, well, suit yourself.

No one is critical of teams commiting to a series. It makes good sense to get in regular tourny play. The critical point is that for all the millseries faults there is only one Major 'paintball event' held in the UK and it's CC and "British teams" are not bothering to attend.Money and getting your butt kicked all day aside.Someone has got to get the reason as to why ?.

 

[Robbo]

When people talk about 'atmosphere' at events and things like that, it's not easy to be definitive here when it applies to paintball events and in this sense, it might be seen as unfair to level any attack at the Millennium Board.

After all, having a pop at them when we can't even flesh out what we mean and then expect them to serve it up every time players and vendors hand over their hard earned money is perhaps a little unfair.

Whilst we may not be able to nail down every single facet of 'atmosphere' we sure know when it's absent.
The event a couple of years ago in Birmingham was a lackluster event made worse by the over-hyping, layout and location.
And herein lies a clue, a lot of the more successful events tend to be condensed and not spread out everywhere.
The classic 'U' shaped arrangement of vendors, and then fields arranged outside 'U' shape lend itself to a certain atmosphere and certainly help things along.
An adequate tannoy system and background music also help.
The tannoy should be used for advertising events that are planned during the tournament such as team signings and also the big matches that may be happening.
The background music is also quite important because this definitely gives a certain 'feel' and as long as the music selection is appropriate (not Frank Sinatra) then it can have an enormous effect on how things are experienced.
We should have promo events where certain vendors are encouraged to run competitions for prizes whereby it draws crowds and subsequently stimulates business and interest......us ballers are soo damn cheap that we'd have a couple of hundred people turn up for a competition that gave away a frikkin squeegee

Peripheral services such as tattooists, physios (massagers), bungee jumps and anything else you might wanna think of could be encouraged.

If Spike is working on getting more outside people to attend then we better make damned sure that once we get them though the door there is something to take their interest.
Coz if I think about Crystal Place and what was on offer for the outside spectator, well, it ain't gonna do much at all I'm afraid.

There should also be a player's party that is easy to get to where the top players are encouraged to turn up and thereby ensuring a lot of the other guys who may wanna meet them.
I know in previous years player's parties may not have been well attended but this has more to do with the location of those parties than the idea of them.
Player's parties work if you pick the right place and make sure you ain't gonna get raped for drink prices.

Now, none of this is rocket science guys and in my experience of tourneys these are some of the basic ingredients that go to make up a successful event where EVERYBODY comes away smiling.
I am also damned sure there are a lot more ideas out there from you guys who have ideas as to how to make these events better, I just wished people were listened to a bit more.

 

[Robbo]

I just got off the phone from Barry Fuggle who is one of the Millennium board's principle members.
After a fairly extensive talk it seems the Board are making a concerted effort to put on a good show with a lot of the things I suggested above being put into place.
I'm afraid I can't take any credit for that because all these things were put well into place long before I opened my gob but hey, who the fack cares?
I certainly don't because it means we might have a domestic tournament to be proud of.
From the sound of it, the chances look good.....

 

[mikey601]

I just got off the phone from Barry Fuggle who is one of the Millennium board's principle members.
After a fairly extensive talk it seems the Board are making a concerted effort to put on a good show with a lot of the things I suggested above being put into place.
I'm afraid I can't take any credit for that because all these things were put well into place long before I opened my gob but hey, who the fack cares?
I certainly don't because it means we might have a domestic tournament to be proud of.
From the sound of it, the chances look good.....

Robbo, with the idea's you have and altho i know you dont see eye-to-eye or even like some of the millenniums representatives, but have you not thought of being more of a spokesperson for the players? im not saying your not at the moment just maybe a bit more involvement, maybe jumping on board with the IPPU?

 

[KitsuneAndy]

The Big fish in the small pond dont want to be a small fish in a bigger pond.

Personally, I don't see the point staying put when you get to the point where you no longer face a challenge and my guys (and girl) are keen to move up to the next challenge as soon as we feel that we've conquered the last one. We started as a KOTH team last year, we're now playing Div 3 in the UK Masters 5 man.

The point of playing CC and tournaments like it is to see how far you've progressed. By raising the bar you will become a better team by playing better teams

Again, my point about teams like my own is that I can do that at the UK Masters. We're not in Div 1, we're in Div 3, there is still plenty to learn in our chosen arena.

No one is critical of teams commiting to a series. It makes good sense to get in regular tourny play. The critical point is that for all the millseries faults there is only one Major 'paintball event' held in the UK and it's CC and "British teams" are not bothering to attend.Money and getting your butt kicked all day aside.Someone has got to get the reason as to why ?.

If we could afford to play Campaign and still enter all of our events in the Masters, we would. Simple as that. Wouldn't care about getting our arses kicked, it would be worth it for the experience.

But, as a team we simply don't have the money to play a domestic event on the 15th of the month, CC the following weekend and then another round of the masters on the 19th of the next month.

 

[Robbo]

Robbo, with the idea's you have and altho i know you dont see eye-to-eye or even like some of the millenniums representatives, but have you not thought of being more of a spokesperson for the players? im not saying your not at the moment just maybe a bit more involvement, maybe jumping on board with the IPPU?

Mikey, it would work against the interests of the players believe me.
In the past, some of the guys on the Millennium have just reacted because it was me and they would say 'No' purely because of that, and having nothing whatsoever to do with what I was saying.

I might have eventually got what I was after but hey, I just can't be bothered especially when I'm not even directly involved anymore, at least before, I was doing it for my team or whatever.

Nah, not for me thanks !

 

[Ralph]

If we could afford to play Campaign and still enter all of our events in the Masters, we would. Simple as that. Wouldn't care about getting our arses kicked, it would be worth it for the experience. But, as a team we simply don't have the money to play a domestic event on the 15th of the month, CC the following weekend and then another round of the masters on the 19th of the next month.

I did say money aside but fair enough it is a basic ingredient of playing.
What i would say is this playing in a series and then not attenpting to play CC is like having a Premier Lge season ticket but not being able to afford to go to the cup final.

Each to their own

 

[Robbo]

Just a brief note of optimism here, I did mention in a previous post that the 'chemistry' of the Millennium Board is the thing seemingly at fault and I based this suggestion on the fact that, as individuals, most of the guys were sorta OK people ...sorta.... and maybe, just maybe, the introduction of Barry Fuggle into their midst might give another perspective to their decision making process.

What I mean is this, whenever a group of people sit down to make decisions, especially when they may perceive it as a hostile environment, it only needs one comment for that comment to crystallize the whole atmosphere of the meeting and thereby create an environment not exactly conducive to making the best choices.

Now if Barry can maybe feel a lot more confident in what he's saying, then perhaps we can look forward to decisions that have been made through a consensus, commonsense approach rather than a confrontational reactionary one...

Barry has been on board for long enough now and maybe this new venue and new approach is a sign of him doing just that and if so, I will be the first to praise them, as I always used to a few years back.

It would be kinda cool and ironic if we were to start promoting the best events as we used to .. it would then just remain for our teams to follow suit tho i fear that might be a somewhat more difficult task than what the Millennium have in front of them.

One step at time is I suppose the best policy and also not to expect too much too quickly...from our teams that is, not the Millennium

 

[Dark Warrior]

Again, my point about teams like my own is that I can do that at the UK Masters. We're not in Div 1, we're in Div 3, there is still plenty to learn in our chosen arena.

Played Campaign 6 months after I started playing Sup-Air and played in a scratch multi-national team (A Scot, 2 Northerners, 2 Southerners, A Swede and not forgetting little Paddy). Played some brilliant games of paintball and its was an experience not to be missed. Missed Sunday club by not so many points but we tried and considering the make up of the team a commendable performance.

 

[stongle]

Well I'm going. Originally to laugh at Piper's man boobies, but now I'm gonna play. Which I'm sure will be an even more ridiculous specticle...

The problem the UK "may" face is all the displaced rec ballers having to play tournament. For us fat oldies with the money to play the event, it's probably a bit too serious now. The rules and enforcement is waaaaay too harsh, giving people far too much to moan about. And for the youngsters whom really wanna play "sporty" paintball they haven't got the rips.

The balance and cost in the lower division needs to be moved more towards fun and a good experience, than pure sporty paintball. Perhaps more varied fields, tempt some of the pure rec fanboys out for the day and make it a real holistic paintball experience?

You can still have you creme de la creme playing SPL / CPL, but for the rest make it more of a festival? No matter how much BS people s[ray in here about playing a sport, they must know deep down their kidding themselves (and others). Perhaps the Millennium events should cater for the wider Paintball audience than just the Sup Air wannabes....