Do Your Part to Help Reunification

[Baca Loco]

Here's your chance to voice a meaningless opinion and contribute to the push for unification. Since we will assume the Big Boys are handling the money hording, legal manuevering and power sharing aspects amongst themselves how 'bout we stick to Paintball? There are surely lots of paintball-related details you clever lot can think of that will also need to be settled if we are to see a Paintball One World Order come about so get started.

Oh, and in case you need a bit of prodding here's a couple of ideas to get going--

Gun Rules--ramping or no ramping? Capped ROF or the ever elusive True Semi Only? Enforcement?

Format--some tweaked 7-man variant, all 5-man all the time, Xball, Xball Lite, dare I say it?, G-D or perhaps the Brockdorff Perfect Alternative (which no one has yet thought up) [get to work, Nick ]

How many events?

How many teams? (And what happens to the teams that want to play but can't get in?) Do we need to create a whole interlinking regional and local structure too?

Independent officiating and oversight?

How bout strict guidelines for sponsor involvement in supported teams?

The list isn't endless but it's long so if you expect this to get done before 2007 contribute your ideas now.

 

[Furby]

Okay, for grins and giggles I'll give it a go:

NPPL stays the same, sets up a 2006 season and waits.

 

[Matski]

Ramping is an unlikely option...even if the backyard changes, the dogs with the teeth are the same...power has to be taken- power given aint power, and I think peeps should bare that in mind when thinking about the kind of formats and gun rules etc. Democracy at its best.

God Furby don't crush the magic!

 

[Red Ring Inflictor]

You knew you could count on me for a reply.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Gun Rules--ramping or no ramping? Capped ROF or the ever elusive True Semi Only?[/

PSP-type seems fine and make that the same from bottom to top (NXL).

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Enforcement?

Exactly the way they're doing now in NXL with the parabolic-software-modified Pact IVs and the radar speed guns. Perhaps the new all-in-one device when it is ready. They have things as much under control as it gets. It is fair and mostly safe.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Format--

5-man center flag single-goal for the regionals. At the international tournaments there should only be X Ball (of course ): X Ball Lite for maybe a Young Guns division and Div 3, PSP-style X Ball (2 x 16 minutes) for Div 2 and 1 and NXL style for the pros.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
How many events?

Six in each part of the world with options for teams to drop their two lowest scores.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
How many teams? (And what happens to the teams that want to play but can't get in?)

The 16 top teams in the world by invitation based on this season's results in Millennium, NPPL, NXL and PSP. Relegate and promote NPPL style after the first season. Use the APPA registration and roster system so that divisions are regulated by the playing class of the constituents and not based on team names. No selling of team names to get an outside team in. (Haven't thought this one all the way through).

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Do we need to create a whole interlinking regional and local structure too?

Yep, but I don't know how.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Independent officiating and oversight?

A must. A world league structure needs to be set up á la international soccer for example with committees, by-laws, clear procedures and checks and balances. There must be meaningful training programs with meaningful certification and most-of-all a careful ref evaluation system. The rules committee must work hand-in-hand with the officiating committee with a lot of voting power given to the officiating committee.

Originally posted by Baca Loco
How bout strict guidelines for sponsor involvement in supported teams?

Probably good thoughts behind this but haven't thought much about it. Someone else?

Let's get the whole PB world together and do this thing right.

 

[Baca Loco]

Off topic, Bad Loco. Stick to constructive comments

Originally posted by Furby
Okay, for grins and giggles I'll give it a go:

NPPL stays the same, sets up a 2006 season and waits.

Dale, you and Matski plainly have a Pollyanna-ish notion of what's afoot here as I assure both of you if power wasn't being wielded nobody would be talking. Perhaps you're just misjudging the sort of power at work here.
Then again anyone who imagined that seeing Keely in Miami or Camille and Chuck at Cup meant anything at all has only the shakiest grasp on reality. (But at least I'm reading your stuff. )

 

[Red Ring Inflictor]

Another point about enforcement of gun rules that I just thought about: it was refreshing to see the stark contrast between this year's Cup and last year's regarding this issue. There were MANY MANY gun suspensions last season and I was personally involved with maybe 15 or so and we hardly put a dent into the illegal guns.

This year I was one of maybe three people helping players get their guns adjusted correctly and then running out to check guns that were held for suspicion of excessive ROF. I was involved in around five suspensions out of maybe seven or eight that needed to be checked. Most of those were clearly over the limit and I heard that without even having to look at the Pact device although I did scroll through it to verify all the illegal shots. I also appreciated that PSP went to random "guns down" checks Millennium-style just before the horn started games. As had been discussed here earlier the illegal guns stuck out like someone singing out of key in an otherwise well-singing choir; all the judges were so accustomed to the right sound.

Until there is some relatively fool-proof, inexpensive and logistically implementable way to get back to "true semi" then I'm totally convinced this is the way to go.

 

[Chicago]

I could make a wish list, but none of it would happen.

- Semi-auto only, with verifiable software (Hah! Although to be fair, I've mentioned this to a couple of the gun manufacturers who didn't respond by immediately vomitting or anything, but it was pretty obvious that on the list of things these guys have to do, this one wasn't near the top.)
- I do want the refs to wear jersies - but I also want them to earn them. I'd like to see PSP's ref trcking system flushed out, and I'd like to see 2003-style NPPL training classes - with one big change - you can fail the class and not get to ref.
- Xball for the upper divisions, XBall lite for the "middle" and 5-man on Fri/Sat for the lower divisions so the locals can jump in once for their local event and get a taste of a natioanl-level tournament.
- Keep APPA's ID/scoring system and NPPL's registration girls.
- Never again have an event at a location that searches your bag for alcohol.
- Pavement is for parking and grass is for playing, not the other way around.
- Call it anything other than NPPL. People on the plane look at my funny when I say it.
- IF there is a unified series, I'd like to see a minimum of 8 fields per event and thursday->Sunday play (with the upper divisions starting earlier). Or maybe do double weekends a the same spot, or have a 2nd series that's"Amateur" events.

 

[Furby]

Off topic, Bad Loco. Stick to constructive comments

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Dale, you and Matski plainly have a Pollyanna-ish notion of what's afoot here as I assure both of you if power wasn't being wielded nobody would be talking. Perhaps you're just misjudging the sort of power at work here.
Then again anyone who imagined that seeing Keely in Miami or Camille and Chuck at Cup meant anything at all has only the shakiest grasp on reality. (But at least I'm reading your stuff. )

So educate me on the ways of the power being projected...or don't. But don't tease me with what you may or may not know. Off the record, I promise!

I have yet to see what the PSP can offer to the NPPL to induce them to merge, other than what the industry people want. Granted, they have an enormous amount of influence because they effectively hold the pursestrings, but as yet I haven't heard mention of how the CFOA will be dealt with, if at all. Say what you want about their regional status, the fact remains that they attract 100+ teams per event, and nobody can afford to brush that off.

The mere fact that the 'front' people were being seen at the two events says something to me, regardless of their actual influence on things...the front people don't normally flit around unless the heavyweights are doing their smoke-filled-room thing under the radar.

As for Ramping, I believe there's an ASTM meeting going on, and one of the things on the agenda is to put up to a vote to grant the 15 bps ramping ASTM certification, which is an obvious ploy to protect the manufacturers from liability in the eventuality that someone gets hurt at an event that allows it. From what I understand, it only takes one 'nay' vote to kill the proposal, so hopefully at least one of the participants will show good sense and kill the idea. It's a bad one, and I don't imagine a world where it is a good idea.

And thanks for reading my stuff...

EDIT ADDED: Sent you a pm. No--more--distractions from the thread topic, and, yes, I know I started it. TFP

 

[H]

I'm gonna second pretty much every single one of Chi-Town's suggestions, with the exception of the one about car parks.

Although great grass is always preferable, the XL Turf used at campaign was excelent, a lot better than the jumped up carpet the NPPL have been using so far it seems. I'd like to see how it stands up to hardcore Xball.... probably a lot better than the quagmires and deserts you seen in the average NXL and open Xball fields.

 

[sjt19]

I would like to see flags being abandoned. Its boring and pointless having a team capture a flag and walk it back to their start bases. A hooter at each end with a button that teams push to stop time and win the game would be far more exciting to watch.

ESPN have a lot of footage in Miami of teams like XSV and Dynasty walking the flag back slowly to win the game. It is not interesting to watch, and in my opinion no longer has a place in the modern game. In the past, in the woods, flags were key because you could shoot out a tape and grab the flag, but then getting the flag back was a challenge if there were opponents left on field. Now on supair most of the time one team is eliminated, rarely do teams hang the flag with opponents still on the field.

Also a scoring system that the MS use would be better than 99,98,99,97 etc..... Its too confusing.

Similarly I dont like the rule where in the best of three in the NPPL, you can win the game as long as you have more bodies alive at the end of the game. Not knocking Joy, because they are a great team, and the NPPL field in Miami was terrible, but they won 2 out of their first 3 best of three matches without winning a single game. They won each game on body count. It was boring to watch, and did not do justice to the crowd, as Joy are a better team than that, but playing the scoreboard is a key part of modern paintball. That needs to change.