A real alternative to Milleniums??

[Dusty]

Dear players!
After successful season of 2008, two major European paintball leagues - Centurio Circuit and European Central Series – decided to work together on developing and improvement of paintball sport competition in Europe.
For the season 2009 we are proudly present you the completely new format of the League that will be existing under the name of European Paintball Championship “The GRAND TOUR”! Our new web-site www.paintballgrandtour.com will be launched shortly. We manage to consolidate two completely different approaches to developing paintball in Europe. At the same time we cover the big part of Europe (including Russia) by offering the international paintball competition in many European cities and still keeping the low cost of participating for teams.
Now we offer you to join the League that consolidates different parts of Europe: East, Center and South! We give you the possibility to joint the paintball tournaments based on other parts of Europe and to make your own GRAND Paintball TOUR!
The GRAND TOUR will consist of 5 main events - the 4 Grand Events with PRO LEAGUE will take place in:
- Poland - May 16-17th
- Austria - July 18-19th
- Ukraine - June 20-21st
- Hungary - September 5-6th
The 5th Grand Event will take place in Moscow (Russia) and will be the independent GRAND TOUR CUP in August 8-9th with Open PRO Division.
Above of that in 2009 we plan as well the regional Conference Events related to The Grand Tour events. In 2009 there will be 4 events included in 3 Conferences that will consist the Grand Events as a part of each conference:
- East Conference – Riga (Latvia), GRAND TOUR CUP Moscow, Grand Event Lviv
- Central Conference – Prague (Czech Rep.), Grand Event Warsaw, Grand Event Vienna
- Southern Conference – Athens (Greece), Istanbul (Turkey), Grand Event Budapest
We will use the new standardized EPBF Rules for all the Divisions and Millennium fields standards and layouts.
Now is the most interesting part, about the league format...
We created a new format for PRO League. This new format will be definitely interesting for PRO teams.
- PRO League is closed. Limit – 12 teams.
- Entry fee – 4000 EUR (To pay at once before the season).
- Game format: Xball Lite, 15 min of main time, to 5 wins.
- Teams play 2 round robins during a Season. Season includes 4 events: Warsaw, Lviv, Vienna, Budapest. So each team plays 5-6 games during the event.
- Roster consists of 12 players for a season. Declared before the beginning of the season and closed before first event.
PRO League has cash prizes for Season winners:
1st place – 10000 EUR
2nd place - 5000 EUR
3rd place - 3000 EUR
As you already know we have one Joker event – the GRAND TOUR CUP in Moscow!
PRO League in Moscow will be open, so any team can come and become the GRAND TOUR CUP Winner.
I can tell you even more: Russian Legion will organize the sparring-games before the event.
Entry fee for PRO League is 1000 EUR.
The winners of GRAND TOUR CUP in PRO will have special prizes in cash:
1st place – 3000 EUR
2nd place - 1500 EUR
3rd place - 750 EUR
Next to the PRO League is the MASTERS Division
- Division is open. Limit – 20 teams.
- Entry fee – 750 EUR.
- Game format: Xball Lite, 10 min of main time, to 4 wins.
- Roster consists of 12 players for a season. Not locked.
Prizes for the events winners in vouchers:
1st place – 1500 EUR
2nd place - 750 EUR
3rd place - 450 EUR
4th place – 300 EUR
Next is the AMATEURS Division
- Division is open. Limit – 20 teams.
- Entry fee – 500 EUR.
- Game format: Xball Lite, 8 min of main time, to 3 wins.
- Roster consists of 12 players for a season. Not locked.
Prizes for the events winners in vouchers:
1st place – 800 EUR
2nd place - 500 EUR
3rd place - 300 EUR
4th place – 200 EUR
And the division for the teams which love regular paintball, it is 5-man Division
- Division is open. No Limits.
- Entry fee – 300 EUR.
- Game format: paintball, 5 min game, 2 flags.
- No limits for roster. Not locked.
Prizes for the events winners in vouchers:
1st place – 500 EUR
2nd place - 300 EUR
3rd place - 200 EUR
4th place – 100 EUR
Now the information for the legionaries:
- Moving to the higher Division is allowed.
- Moving to the lover Division is prohibited.
- Moving inside own Division is allowed.
We will continue the cooperation with Euroref organization. So Eurorefs will keep vigilant watch on the rules requirements and will punish the cheaters on each field.
The Grand Tour league has own ID cards. ID card cost 20 EUR (10 EUR for renewal).
Ranking system:
Ranking of PRO League will consist of 4 results from 4 main events (Warsaw, Lviv, Vienna, Budapest).
Next, we have 2 separate Rankings:
GRAND TOUR Ranking – counts 4 best results out of 5 Grand Events (Warsaw, Lviv, Vienna, Moscow, Budapest).
Conference Ranking - counts 4 best results: 3 results from the own Conference`s events plus one of the Grand Event from any other Conference. (It means that team should visit at least one more Grand Event from other Conference to be in the ranking).
And now shortly about the Conferences
We created the Conferences to let local teams join the GRAND TOUR League and save their expenses on traveling to different parts of Europe. The Conferences events are close to each other, so any team has the possibility to take a part in all 3 events in its Conference. Moreover, that team has a reason to visit one more event in any other conferences to get the Conference ranking points. Conferences events will consist of 3 Divisions: Masters, Amateurs and 5-man. Rules, entry fees, prizes, games format, etc will be the same as for Grand events.
The dates and the exact locations for the Conference events in Latvia, Czech, Turkey and Greece will be announced later with the complete explanation of the Conference idea.

 

[Dave284]

Extremely interesting...

discussions i see in my future

 

[jitsuwarrior]

This looks nice

 

[Cusack]

We created a new format for PRO League. This new format will be definitely interesting for PRO teams.
- PRO League is closed. Limit – 12 teams.
- Entry fee – 4000 EUR (To pay at once before the season).
- Game format: Xball Lite, 15 min of main time, to 5 wins.
- Teams play 2 round robins during a Season. Season includes 4 events: Warsaw, Lviv, Vienna, Budapest. So each team plays 5-6 games during the event.

does that mean all divisions teams get 5-6 games during the event?

also, events spanning two days instead of the millenniums 3 should be interesting.

not sure what CPL or SPL entry fees are, could someone clarify? If the amatuer is equivalent to mills div2 then it's less than half the price:

Mills Division 2 (M7 Format): 1351.25 Eu
Grand tour Amatuer Entry fee – 500 EUR

Mills Division 3 (M5 Format): 587.50 Eu
Grand tour 5 man entry fee – 300 EUR

Wonder where the cost differences will show up?

 

[Robbo]

This move was inevitable considering some of the 'moves behind the scenes' going on lately but for any interested teams, it must seem quite confusing as to the timing of these new events and also what it says it is offering.

In essence, this is a power-play by the Centurio made easier by what's been going on with the Millennium lately and by the way some people feel as though they have been treated.
The timing of this is awkward for various reasons not least of which is the recent tie-up the Millennium has achieved with the PSP in order to standardise rules, formats etc ...

This puts the player / team smack in the middle of this struggle for European domination which is ironically good for the player because it now bestows upon the players a degree of leverage they didn't have before.

I ain't gonna advocate people go one way or the other but what I will say is this ... the Millennium guys are now answerable to a higher authority and have aligned themselves with this new world order thingy (UPBF) - for the first time, we look to be moving in the right direction.
We (Euros) also have a significant say in this new order alongside the Yanks.

If the Centurio now wanna move against the Millennium, they are also taking on the PSP which as we all should know, represent not only the Yank leagues but a fair proportion of the Yank industry.

The Americans will not lose any paintball confrontation, that I can promise you and the only way the Centurio could have made their initiative successful was to do what the Millennium guys just did and align with the PSP (which of course they still can but would need to contract their event portfolio if they did).
I say this as long as the sleeping red giant of eastern paintball remains preoccupied with more pressing financial issues..if he becomes involved then it might go in a different direction but as I see it, the future is with the Americans.
In my humble opinion that is ....

 

[cookie_834]

what this has above millenium in my eyes is this one sentence

"The 5th Grand Event will take place in Moscow (Russia) and will be the independent GRAND TOUR CUP in August 8-9th with Open PRO Division."

That event will be the most important i reckon. It will show wether the euros have the pulling power to draw across pro teams from the states to compete in an open div. I mean we could even see a superstar team perhaps? The yanks who are all friends just getting together to play it? Has the potential to be an amazing event spectator wise

 

[Fisz]

what this has above millenium in my eyes is this one sentence

"The 5th Grand Event will take place in Moscow (Russia) and will be the independent GRAND TOUR CUP in August 8-9th with Open PRO Division."

That event will be the most important i reckon. It will show wether the euros have the pulling power to draw across pro teams from the states to compete in an open div. I mean we could even see a superstar team perhaps? The yanks who are all friends just getting together to play it? Has the potential to be an amazing event spectator wise

The question is not whether we Euros have that power, rather whether the Russians do. Traditionally, Moscow events have been plagued by lack of participants from pretty much every country west of Bug River (eastern polish border).
There's visas, high costs of travel, expensive hotels and local transport.

 

[Robbo]

I think if you are gonna try to tempt teams from the Millennium with a big open event, then tactically, Moscow is a real clanger.

Seems to me they haven't thought this through because as Janek suggests, it ain't the easiest place to get to and if you are gonna run a flagship event to get all them Yanks over, then Russia is basically a no go.

 

[#29]

and ukrain is a no no

8 hours stuck at the border because they dont like your passport
and haven to pay the brder police to get it back.

but all and all there is some good events there

 

[onasilverbike]

Pete, have you changed your stance on this subject since the alliance of the Millennium with the PSP? In the past you seem to have advocated a move away from Millennium, if a viable alternative was offered. If this new alliance of the eastern/central European series is an alternative then, IMHO, competition is not a bad thing to keep the Millennium on its toes and ensure it delivers the customer the package they want at the right price. As you have implied before, monopolies suck.