Millenium dates?

[Robbo]

I think this whole situation needs to be thought through because as Missy implies, it only takes one big gun to just say 'no' and the house of cards begins to fold.

There are principles of interest on both sides of this divide with a degree of blind protectionism fuelling them but it's a complex situation for sure and one that I'm also sure will create more problems than solutions if it isn't refined in some way.

I think it needs greater consultation .....

 

[Mario]

There are many reasons for this new rule, the main one is to protect the current sponsors who support the Millennium series and the teams.
This is their request and this this rule is imposed because certain manufacturers of markers misuse the system.
They asked for the same protection as the paint manufacturers have.

er...what company asks to pay more money to represent themselves?

 

[MissyQ]

My understanding is that KEE have refused to play ball. Does this mean that Mini's, Invert Product, Events, Contact gear, Pure Energy tanks, Halo loaders, and all of the many brands controlled and owned by Kee are no longer allowed to be used at the MS? I doubt many people have nothing from KEE in their gear-bags.
No-one can use Halo's? - If they CAN use Halo's, then this new system does not work, does it?

 

[WingNut]

My question here would be:

"With the possible additional revenue from these 'potential' sponsors, are any of the teams actually going to see any benefit of this, or does it just fall into the 'loss' pot"

Just for the record, I agree that this is a little to far..... But then hey, who am I, only a customer, albeit not a frequent one, but a customer none the less......

Wingy...

 

[onasilverbike]

Missy, we are indeed on the same page, as far as I can see the rules only apply to CPL/SPL/D1 (at present) and indeed it would be interesting to see if they refused Joy entry to the field with their Angels. I can hardly see them switching guns mid game, unlike one team did at Malaga this year.

Can you imagine Matt's commentary "and at the other end of the field we have Joy Division, 2008 series champions, out of Stockholm Sweden, there they are at the start gate with their bottles and Dye Rotor loaders, unfortunately they can't bring their Angel Fly's on with them because we told them to **** off and stick their euros up their *****!"

*Disclaimer* Not that I am actually suggesting that Matt would say such things.

My understanding is that KEE have refused to play ball. Does this mean that Mini's, Invert Product, Events, Contact gear, Pure Energy tanks, Halo loaders, and all of the many brands controlled and owned by Kee are no longer allowed to be used at the MS? I doubt many people have nothing from KEE in their gear-bags.
No-one can use Halo's? - If they CAN use Halo's, then this new system does not work, does it?

Well, I'm guessing this will not be the case for the Dye teams with a full kit deal, people were saying at Cup, wow you can buy everything from Dye, well, like I told them, the same has applied to KEE/Empire for some time now. I doubt there are many players out there, anywhere, who don't have some item of KEE gear in their bag either. Actually, KEE only had a trade presence at the two French events this year anyway, so why would they want to shell out loads of 'licence' fees for their gear to be used, if they don't even consider it worth being at the events?

When will Adidas and Nike have to pay so that players can wear their footwear on field "The ref goes in and eliminates the temple player for his Puma shoes, oh and now he's pulling a penalty"

 

[fuzzy juzzy]

well they were teetering on the edge all this year and finally the MS has gone ..... freaking Crazy. There's a great idea, just when the economy is a mess and paintball companies will be finding it harder then ever they decide to put prices up and make things harder.

they wonder why teams are falling apart and going elsewhere.

 

[Ledz]

Let me see if I can shed some light on this from Planets point of view....

First up..... We have NOT agreed or confirmed ANYTHING with the Millennium for 2009 yet.

These companies breaking the rules.. Well, I can comment on that. We (Planet Eclipse) as a paintball marker manufacturer wanted to come to events and support the players that have gone out and paid their hard earned money to buy an Eclipse Marker. The way that we do this is to supply tech support for any and all players using our equipment. A couple of years back the Millennium decided that in order to have a tech booth at each event you had to be a Gold Sponsor (I think it's Gold I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong). We made the decision at that time to go Gold so we could support the players. We were not happy about this as we felt that we were being almost forced to pay for this level of sponsorship so that we could support the players, nothing more. What annoyed us was that there were a few companies that didn't bother to sponsor the millennium and were still attending the events and doing a more casual tech support, no official tech booth as such. Teching was performed either in their trade tents, car park, pits or whatever. What annoyed us was that we had been forced to pay for the Gold Sponsorship to give our players the support and other companies had ducked the systems and still did tech at events. So our point of view was 'why should we bother if others are not'. So I guess this is a way of the millennium plugging the holes in the system.

I'm not saying what the Millennium series are trying to do is right or wrong. I'm just trying to fill in a few blanks so people can get a fuller picture.

LEDZ

 

[MissyQ]

Let me see if I can shed some light on this from Planets point of view....

First up..... We have NOT agreed or confirmed ANYTHING with the Millennium for 2009 yet.

These companies breaking the rules.. Well, I can comment on that. We (Planet Eclipse) as a paintball marker manufacturer wanted to come to events and support the players that have gone out and paid their hard earned money to buy an Eclipse Marker. The way that we do this is to supply tech support for any and all players using our equipment. A couple of years back the Millennium decided that in order to have a tech booth at each event you had to be a Gold Sponsor (I think it's Gold I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong). We made the decision at that time to go Gold so we could support the players. We were not happy about this as we felt that we were being almost forced to pay for this level of sponsorship so that we could support the players, nothing more. What annoyed us was that there were a few companies that didn't bother to sponsor the millennium and were still attending the events and doing a more casual tech support, no official tech booth as such. Teching was performed either in their trade tents, car park, pits or whatever. What annoyed us was that we had been forced to pay for the Gold Sponsorship to give our players the support and other companies had ducked the systems and still did tech at events. So our point of view was 'why should we bother if others are not'. So I guess this is a way of the millennium plugging the holes in the system.

I'm not saying what the Millennium series are trying to do is right or wrong. I'm just trying to fill in a few blanks so people can get a fuller picture.

LEDZ

Yes, last year they did the whole 'pay to tech' thing, and that was bad enough, though most sucked it up and paid-out.
Clearly, according to your post, the MS could not police this and therefore did not give you the protection that your dollars paid for. Did you get a refund?
So, you/we are now expected to believe that this year, by paying even more money, you are buying their ability to do it right this time? That sounds ridiculous.

The MS cannot stop people teching guns in the parking lot or pits. Its an unenforcable rule. They can only stop people having an established 'official' tech presence, no more than that. Even to claim to be able to police this is a joke.
They can't decide what product will be sold at the event, because they can't police that either. The same people that were teching out of the pits will be selling stuff out of their vans, and next year the people that DO pay, and DO play by the rules, will be asked to pay more again. I believe this system is called 'spreading the wealth'.

Also, if Eclipse have not agreed, and Angel have not agreed, then are we to now believe that the other 5 manufacturers mentioned have? Why are we being fed these lines? Is the assumption that we are all that dumb?

Perhaps these 7 manufacturers should refuse to pay, and also refuse to tech. Perhaps they should set up and tech at the Centutrio instead, and urge their teams to play there?

 

[Markie C]

Why with post like these( and there is a lot of them), does the MS never comment?

I would think it would make good business sense to actually come on and say some thing.

Any way back to it because this is a really good debate.

 

[Robbo]

The Millennium guys will be back at their respective desks tomorrow after their meeting in Germany.
I think they are gonna have to make some sort of statement some time soon re arrangements for next year, and these necessarily include, dates, locations, format changes (if any) etc etc.

Let's see if they address this particular subject, and if they don't, I'm pretty sure you lot will let them know how you feel ....