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2006/2007 University Paintball League

Steve Hancock

Free man!
Aug 7, 2003
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Birmingham (UK)
students.bugs.bham.ac.uk
Prior to this year's Championship I raised the possibility of having a University Paintball League next academic year. I have continued discussing this with a number of people, and there has been a lot of interest from the clubs, even more than there was for the championship.

Rather than playing individual games like we did at the championship, the plan is to play longer matches along the lines of Xball-Lite/M7 formats. The basic principle of the match is: two teams would play game after game against each other with 3 min breaks in between. Each time they win a game (by hanging the flag at their opponents end) they would get 1 point. The first team with 5 points wins. For more details read here.

The plan is currently based on 9 teams, but depending on interest this might change slightly. Teams would play 1 match against each of the others teams over the course of the season, totalling 8 matches. The season would be split into 4 events, with each team playing 2 of there matches per event, an AM match and a PM match. On average there would be about 7 games per match meaning teams would get around 14 games per day.

Bearing in mind university term times, examinations, the following dates have been proposed:

League
Rd.1 - Saturday 11th November 2006
Rd.2 - Saturday 2nd December 2006
Rd.3 - Saturday 3rd February 2007
Rd.4 - Saturday 24th February 2007

Championship
Saturday 17th March 2007

With the 4 league events and the championship we had 5 events to fit in. We didn't want to have anything after the exams due to the difficulty of organising it during the exams and people not being around afterwards. This means the last event would have to be before the end of the Spring term. It would be too hard to cram all 4 rounds of the league into the Easter term, so the events would be spread over both the Winter and Spring terms. We don’t the first event to be too early as clubs would need time to recruit new players for their teams and get a little training in. Also, due to it being the coldest time of year and many universities having exams we decided not to hold an event in January.

It was suggested that we have all the events at one venue, but it was felt that touring round and visiting different host uni's was part of the fun. And also as we are hoping to get spectators (and perhaps cheerleaders ;) ) out from the local uni's it would be good to spread this benefit around.

I have spoken with a number of universities about hosting an event and they are speaking with suitable venues. However i don't want to announce these until they have spoken to the sites.

Please let me know what you think of the format and whether there are any problems with the dates. (BTW I'm not interested in individual issues with the dates like best mate's 21st etc, i'm asking about things that will effect everyone like exam periods or term dates.)
 

Steve Hancock

Free man!
Aug 7, 2003
1,489
0
0
43
Birmingham (UK)
students.bugs.bham.ac.uk
eddiecsd said:
hmmm, would a merger between Leeds Uni and Leeds Met be allowed;)?
I expect not. We are trying to stick to the BUSA regulations as we hope to achieve recognition eventually. Part of this means universities can only be represented by students who are enrolled there, and no mixed teams. There is no reason you couldn't both form teams and buddy up for training and share transport. UWE (in Bristol) and Bristol Uni's are planning to do something similar, and so might aberdeen and RGU.
 

Steve Hancock

Free man!
Aug 7, 2003
1,489
0
0
43
Birmingham (UK)
students.bugs.bham.ac.uk
Update:
The inaugural 2006-2007 season of the University Paintball League will be officiated by the Paintball Association Referees. This independant body of referees, who's performance is monitored and developed, and many of whom have officated at the top international level, will greatly contribute to the smooth running of the season as well as elivating the league's competitive credibility.