Ay Caramba
Originally posted by Robbo
I have always been of the opinion, that without rules, people are prone to anarchy and as such, rules are an undeniable necessity governing the way we live and also how we play.
Except when it pisses you off
Originally posted by Robbo
But taking the letter of the law, we can extend this definition to any gun that has the trigger pulled 100 times and 101 balls issue forth, now Manike would argue this can and is, similarly classified as full auto but hey, where's the common sense?
But that isn't what happened in Portugal, is it? Please don't try to suggest some cabal of refs sat around for 15 minutes pulling the trigger and counting the balls. Were the markers plainly in violation of the rules? A simple yes or no will suffice.
Originally posted by Robbo
To lose two players as the Legion did for this offence, well, I can't believe it, it makes me so angry that we could treat paying customers like this when the judges must have known the RL did not intentionally set up their guns to fire full auto.
If someone can prove they did, then yes, slam them into hell, but there was no way they did and this proof could never have been forthcoming.
But what do the Millennium rules committee do?
Instead of trying to fix a rule that is obviously unfair and impractical, they just go ahead and ban the players from the RL, easy ain't it ?
Did any other team(s) have players disqualified at either Maxes or Portugal for the same thing? If so, can you or anyone else "prove" any of them did it intentionally? Not very likely.
Did any other team(s) receive a different penalty for the same infraction?
And, btw, weren't you the one after Maxes ranting about rules being changed in the middle of an event? Doesn't that apply in ALL circumstances?
Originally posted by Robbo
As for answering the first part of the question, hmmm, Baca, me and you both well know, this game of ours, including every top American team has cheats (in an absolute sense) riddling thru them.
I have seen every one of them cheat at one time or another and just because they do, do we ignore the great parts of their game ?
Nah, course we don't if we ignored those who do cheat (and r u gonna draw the line?) the pages, of nigh on every mag would just have me and the RL in them and believe me, you don't want that 
Have you written about anything besides you and RL? Musta missed it. I'll check my back issues.
Sticking exclusively with the Pro ranks there are literally dozens of players who have never been mentioned by name or so rarely that most people would have no clue who they are--seems to me they are routinely "ignored." And except for Sergei have you ever mentioned any of the other RL players by name? Aren't they at least equally deserving?
As to my original comments I was responding to Nick's suggestion someone ought to name names and identify big time cheaters and TJ's counter of the potential perils of a magazine doing so. I offered something in-between as an alternative. after all, nobody "has a right" to be mentioned.
Originally posted by Robbo
Nah, that was a stupid question as I'm sure you know, it doesn't reveal any contradictory policy from me or the magazine is just shows the pragmatism we adopt when reporting.
Robbo
If you can adopt a pragmatic attitude towards reporting why can't players adopt a pragmatic attitude towards playing?
Originally posted by Robbo
Does boxing news ignore Tyson cuz he's an animal ?
Did it stop his licence being issued to fight again in your country ?
Do we ignore Michael Jordan because he used to commit fouls ?
The list goes on and your suggestion gets more ludicrous by the minute….
No, but it doesn't fail to identify him as such either. And, yes, it took him and the money behind his promoters a number of months and half a dozen states before they could find anybody willing to sanction him and that after years of fighting out of the country--frequently in Britain.
And nobody runs around calling Micheal Jordan a cheater either. But there have been innumerable stories in his past about gambling, womanizing, problems in the locker room, etc. so the mainstream sports media doesn't sweep all the nasty bits under the carpet either.
Originally posted by Robbo
Nah, cheating is everywhere, it is part of human nature just as much as human excellence of endeavour and play, ignore one and you have to ignore the others..
Don't think so, PGI invariably whitewashes the darkside. It's only in the last couple of years any mentions get made and they are mostly generic. You help make heroes out of individual players by touting their skills but cover up their deficits and claim to be pragmatic. I can think of another word for that. If you want to create heroes at least try and make sure they aren't cardboard cutouts.
Originally posted by Robbo
You would have a sport devoid of character, passion and personality and if you want that Baca, start up a Dominican Monk paintball league and see how just how many buy the magazine that concentrates their coverage on it.
Baca, you are intelligent guy that's for sure, but you knew the answers (or should have done ) to this long before you put finger to keyboard.
Those Domincans are tough little guys, great baseball players.
As to "a sport devoid of character, passion and personality" that's a rather excessive leap of prose even for you Robbo. Are you suggesting that PGI props up personalities to sell magazines or if PGI actually started "reporting" on events and personalities the way the mainstream sports press covers sports that would be the result? Horrors! We can't allow that to happen.
Moo
[quick edit] PS--in the time it took to craft this little gem about 800 new posts have popped up (slight exaggeration) and I only read TJ's follow up to the Robbo I responded to. As usual the Maestro gets it right.
