Campaign Attendence Reality

[Robbo]

Just to flesh out some numbers for attendance at this year's CC, I wanna focus on the M5 because it is this division that provides a pretty good indicator as to the state of paintball in the country that the Millennium is being held.

I had a couple of pretty long talks with Barry Fuggle and Steve Baldwin when I was there yesterday and apologies if i haven't got the figures right but they will be there or thereabouts.

Generally speaking, the M5 sells out extremely quickly with 60 teams being the max with France and Germany already maxing out so far this year.
Once again, generally speaking, the host nation will provide between 70 and 80% of the teams in that M5 division.

At CC, we have something like 42 teams entered and the 18 shortfall can be directly attributed to the host nation (us) not providing enough domestic teams to fill the division.

Barry made the point that the foreign teams who tend to follow the M5 around are all in attendance here and so we can be quite sure this is a UK shortfall and nothing to do with anybody else.

I then asked both Barry and Steve as to why they thought we had such a low turn out and I'm afraid we keep coming up against the same old problems.

I suggested to them that it is either:-

a) We just don't have enough teams in the UK whereby the trickle through to Millennium tournament is sufficient to produce numbers that would negate that shortfall or

b) We do have enough teams but they just can't be bothered with it (for whatever reason)

Both Barry and Steve answered the same and I have to agree with them, they said, 'both'.

We don't have enough guys playing paintball in teams at the entry level and the ones that do, they can't be bothered to step up to the Millennium M5 plate.

Well, at least we know the scale and nature of the problem we are dealing with here and i have to say, it's not really surprising to me.

Over here in the UK, we have an expectation and it is this expectation that provoked questions such as the ones i am posing.
If we had always been a bunch of losers then nobody would give a sh!t as to what's happening now in our domestic tourney scene but this is not the case.

We used to be able to hold our heads high across the world of paintball but now.....I'm embarrassed .... and i don't like that feeling really, in fact, I hate it.

And so, all the time we have an expectation, then we are gonna be dissatisfied with the present situation.
We either forget the past and accept what is happening, stop moaning about it all and just get on with it or... we do something about it.

I'm afraid we don't have the expertise or resources to even think about the latter.

 

[Dark Warrior]

Just to flesh out some numbers for attendance at this year's CC, I wanna focus on the M5 because it is this division that provides a pretty good indicator as to the state of paintball in the country that the Millennium is being held.

I had a couple of pretty long talks with Barry Fuggle and Steve Baldwin when I was there yesterday and apologies if i haven't got the figures right but they will be there or thereabouts.

Generally speaking, the M5 sells out extremely quickly with 60 teams being the max with France and Germany already maxing out so far this year.
Once again, generally speaking, the host nation will provide between 70 and 80% of the teams in that M5 division.

At CC, we have something like 42 teams entered and the 18 shortfall can be directly attributed to the host nation (us) not providing enough domestic teams to fill the division.

Barry made the point that the foreign teams who tend to follow the M5 around are all in attendance here and so we can be quite sure this is a UK shortfall and nothing to do with anybody else.

I then asked both Barry and Steve as to why they thought we had such a low turn out and I'm afraid we keep coming up against the same old problems.

I suggested to them that it is either:-

a) We just don't have enough teams in the UK whereby the trickle through to Millennium tournament is sufficient to produce numbers that would negate that shortfall or

b) We do have enough teams but they just can't be bothered with it (for whatever reason)

Both Barry and Steve answered the same and I have to agree with them, they said, 'both'.

We don't have enough guys playing paintball in teams at the entry level and the ones that do, they can't be bothered to step up to the Millennium M5 plate.

Well, at least we know the scale and nature of the problem we are dealing with here and i have to say, it's not really surprising to me.

Over here in the UK, we have an expectation and it is this expectation that provoked questions such as the ones i am posing.
If we had always been a bunch of losers then nobody would give a sh!t as to what's happening now in our domestic tourney scene but this is not the case.

We used to be able to hold our heads high across the world of paintball but now.....I'm embarrassed .... and i don't like that feeling really, in fact, I hate it.

And so, all the time we have an expectation, then we are gonna be dissatisfied with the present situation.
We either forget the past and accept what is happening, stop moaning about it all and just get on with it or... we do something about it.

I'm afraid we don't have the expertise or resources to even think about the latter.

I still think that you have to take into account the late decision to bring the date forward to a date that is effectively in the main holiday season.
Most brits get their holidays booked early and expected Campaign to be in September. When the Millennium board put up dates, Campaign was undecided, but peoples holidays cannot wait that long to be booked. This will have been a factor in the drop in teams and not to accept that as a fact would be foolish. I do believe that if the board decide to keep this date next year then teams will be more prepared for it. I am one of those who would have been liked to enter a couple of teams in September and was looking forward to it, but to have it this weekend was just to early this time.

 

[jester22]

plus some teams will only enter local events that they know they will win (so they can get something shiny) and they don't want to play against some of the best teams in europe. beacuse they might lose.

just my thoughts

 

[Lovetone]

We don't have enough guys playing paintball in teams at the entry level and the ones that do, they can't be bothered to step up to the Millennium M5 plate.

Well, at least we know the scale and nature of the problem we are dealing with here and i have to say, it's not really surprising to me.

.

Why is that a "problem"?
People dont want to play the Milleniums because:

1 - its is poorly organised
2 - it is over hyped
3 - it is poor value for money

all this equates to a decreased fun factor, that the promise of playing "good teams" cant overcome. Why travel hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of pounds only to feel ripped off, tired of sitting in the cold waiting for game while your car gets broken into when you can play...say....the PA, NSPL or masters, get more bang for your buck and not feel like you didnt get what you paid for?

added to that the fact remains - a lot of people dont care if they arent the "best" at their given sport. they are happy to compete at a recreational level and not strive for being at the top of their game. therefore, why would they bother to play the MS event, based on the above facts?

if you wanted to, for example, play a computer game tournament,say, best CS european team, but you had sit on a computer stool with a 10'' black dildo fckin you in the ass the whoe time, i think you'd just stick to your clan matches once a month.

 

[Dark Warrior]

plus some teams will only enter local events that they know they will win (so they can get something shiny) and they don't want to play against some of the best teams in europe. beacuse they might lose.

just my thoughts

What we are trying to ascertain here is why the UK entry in down this year and although was you say is true, it is normal to find that happening at every event in every country, every year. My reasoning is that some of the blame has to go down to the change of date

 

[titoburito]

plus some teams will only enter local events that they know they will win (so they can get something shiny) and they don't want to play against some of the best teams in europe. beacuse they might lose.

just my thoughts

yes and alot of smaller newer teams don't like to pay £100 entry each to get 8 (or however many) games and get slaughtered. Like Ian said, people want "more bang for their buck".

I also don't like the catagorisation of teams that has been implied i.e.

Teams at Campaign = good
Teams not at campaign = bad

we aren't playing Campaign so the tone of my response is probably expected but the simple fact is that from our team we could not get enough players who could afford it and due to plans for next year we feel its more preferential for us to get together and train all weekend at a much much lower cost.

 

[Lovetone]

plus some teams will only enter local events that they know they will win (so they can get something shiny) and they don't want to play against some of the best teams in europe. beacuse they might lose.

just my thoughts

and if thats what they want out of the sport then fine
they shouldnt be derided for that.

the guy who enjoys owning the local pub snooker circuit isnt a loser cos he doesnt want to play at the crucible. there is no problem there.

 

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

Just speaking for me;

I'm not there because;
Dates changed
I am about to go on holiday,
Totally dissatisfied with what is on offer.

In 13 years this is the first CC I have missed. I have been part of teams that have been successful at CC;

Amateur;
3rd twice
2nd once
1st place once

Pro
4th

I love CC, its always been a good tournament but before it was part of a good series. My experiences of Germany this year have left me now completely jaded and my last vestiges of interest in playing gone.

Am I alone? I dont think so. If I feel like this after playing tournaments for the best part of 15years then there are alot of other guys out there feeling the same I bet.

 

[Jacko]

my point of vew, is that the m5s seem to be an after though with all the trade, food, seating ,focused around the pro fields.
i remeber esher, that was the case there, and allso crystal palace.
for me birmingham so far was the best set up.
and allso a lot of people i have spoken to would rather put the money into playing two tournys and getting say twenty odd games for there money.

 

[Stan]

Here, 19 of the 40 teams are from the UK. (47.5%)
At the MAXS, 26 out of 60 teams were German. (43.3%)
In Toulouse, 33 out of 48 were French. (68.75%)

Last year
Campaign saw 26 out of 42 teams from the UK. (61.9%)
Paris last year had 37 out of 56 from France. (66.1%)
Spain saw 11 out of 28. (39.3%)
Germany saw 12 out of 28. (42.86%)


The M5 has only reached capacity once in 7 tournaments.

Strange how the Paris event last year attracted 56 teams but Toulouse only had 48. However the percentage of French teams in attendance was similar.

Compared to Campaign last year, the M5 tournament has only lost 2 teams but the UK has lost 7.

This is obviously based solely on the M5 no idea what the spread of nationalities the other divisions have but, the two venues with the highest attendance in the M5 were the ones with an established local attraction nearby (Disney and the Nurburgring) any mileage in that?

Will be interesting to look at the numbers at the next events to see whether the percentage of local teams heads back up into the 60's... can't see that happening in Belgium but more than likely in Paris.

Last year i played Campaign with a scratch team put together on these forums as the team i was playing on didn't enter as they didn't think it was worth it. This year the guys on the Academy team couldn't afford to play this and play the NSPL and train. The majority are students either at school or uni and simply don't have the money even though we are well supported by Syd and the sponsors in my sig.