Enforcing the rules and unsportsmanlike conduct

[Wadidiz]

There are no easy answers...

...only intelligent choices.

The problem of playing on and unsportsmanlike conduct is a problem that needs to be addressed and gotten under control.

At the risk of opening up old wounds let me illustrate what I'm talking about by relating an experience I had as a judge at a recent Millennium event:

I was directed to check a player in my judging zone by a fellow judge to find the player clearly marked on his feed tube. I gave the out sign as I ran up but he refused to listen to me because he obviously thought I was trying to pull him out for sitting on paint. He even pulled himself away from me as I tried to pull his armband. What came out of my mouth was: "Trust me, you're hit!" as I pointed at the front of his gun. But he continued to pull away from me while he was still shouting and still didn't get the message. It was starting to look like what sjt19 described earlier in this thread:

(Quote from sjt19)
__________________________________________________
Simularly on the Angel field again with Dynasty, Loughran in the snake was hit and the judge came to pull him out, the player argued with the judge for a good 25 seconds and refused to come out of the game, in this situation the judge should have 1 for 1 the player but he just explained for 25 seconds then removed his arm band.
__________________________________________________
(End quote.)


So, I pulled a 1-4-1 and then the victim of the 1-4-1 shot me in the back side of my arm because he was angry. So, I pulled another 1-4-1. I then had the player who shot me pulled from the tournament.

At the players' party another player from the same team threatened me with an ass-kicking if I ever judged at a Millennium tournament again and later that night, totally unprovoked, threw a drink in my face when least expected.

I then proceeded to get said player suspended for major unsportsmanlike conduct but could not get any witness to write to the Millennium board (nobody else wanted to be a "whiner").

What's the point here? Am I trying to be a hero or a "Nazi" as the drink-thrower called me?

No, I want the sport to get shed of the cheating and intimidation and to develop a better image.

Of course there will always be cheating. There will always be angry players and spectators who boo and cheer.

But we must not be afraid to consistently enforce the rules and get tough on those who perpetrate unsportsmanlike conduct.

I've written these suggestions on other threads and I write them once again:

1. Continue to train PRO refs to get them up to the level they need to be.

2. Require a pre-tournament briefing for all refs to make sure everyone is totally consistent on enforcement of the rules. Give them a pop-quiz to gauge how well everyone knows the rules and go over the important rules most get wrong.

3. Carefully monitor the quality of judging at every tournament and encourage excellence and consistency.

4. Institute a 3-strikes-you're-out rule: if any player gets caught and penalized for the same violation (playing on, for example) 3 times, that player is pulled from the tournament and the team plays with 1 player less.

5. If a player is pulled from 2 tournaments during a season then the player is automatically suspended from NPPL and Millennium for that season.

6. Keep statistics of penalized violations and violators so that spectators and journalists know who to keep their cameras on and so that sponsors know who the "bad apples" are on their sponsored teams.

7. Someone put a "Hall of Shame" on the Web with a list of those who got caught and videos of said players cheating.

8. Put in and enforce very clear rules about threatening, abusing (physically or otherwise) or attempting to intimidate refs. Make suspensions for said offenses mandatory with no exceptions. Zero tolerance!

9. Make sure that NPPL/PSP and X-Ball tournaments have a mix of international refs to avoid the appearance and possible reality of bias because these events are now truly international.

10. Do whatever else is possible to break the "good-buddy network", to stop misplaced respect for big name teams and players, and to ensure that refs don't continue to just let things slide.

11. Boycott the sponsors who continue to sponsor known and blatant cheaters.

12. Assign a head-judge to every field who is independent of any player/ref team and who has the authority to maintain quality and consistency.

Cheating will always exist and it seems like it has grown worse in recent years in paintball. Let's do like the other sports and a least get some kind of handle on it.

Once again I ask, what do you people think?

Steve

ps. At risk of sounding like a total hypocrite I must confess that I once got thrown out of a tournament for exploding at the ultimate in front of everybody there over a bad call.

SM

 

[sonny]

Im with you all the way. Amen, brother.

sonny cerveza

 

[Roland]

Wadidiz, I totally agree with you.

Campaign was the first time I have watched 'Pro' teams and I was appalled by some of the behaviour and language.

It is very tempting to cheat and if players know that there is a good chance of getting away with it they will.

If, on the other hand, they know that cheating will not be tolerated and the serious consequences of being caught they will think twice.

Its going to take a concerted effort and some very unpopular decisions and marshalls to sort this out!

Wadidz, I wish I could speak Swedish as well as you speak English, in fact I wish I could speak English as well as you do.

 

[Buddha 3]

There are no easy answers...

Originally posted by Wadidiz
...only intelligent choices.

The problem of playing on and unsportsmanlike conduct is a problem that needs to be addressed and gotten under control.

At the risk of opening up old wounds let me illustrate what I'm talking about by relating an experience I had as a judge at a recent Millennium event:

I was directed to check a player in my judging zone by a fellow judge to find the player clearly marked on his feed tube. I gave the out sign as I ran up but he refused to listen to me because he obviously thought I was trying to pull him out for sitting on paint. He even pulled himself away from me as I tried to pull his armband. What came out of my mouth was: "Trust me, you're hit!" as I pointed at the front of his gun. But he continued to pull away from me while he was still shouting and still didn't get the message. It was starting to look like what sjt19 described earlier in this thread:

(Quote from sjt19)
Simularly on the Angel field again with Dynasty, Loughran in the snake was hit and the judge came to pull him out, the player argued with the judge for a good 25 seconds and refused to come out of the game, in this situation the judge should have 1 for 1 the player but he just explained for 25 seconds then removed his arm band.
(End quote.)


So, I pulled a 1-4-1 and then the victim of the 1-4-1 shot me in the back side of my arm because he was angry. So, I pulled another 1-4-1. I then had the player who shot me pulled from the tournament.

At the players' party another player from the same team threatened me with an ass-kicking if I ever judged at a Millennium tournament and later that night, totally unprovoked, threw a drink in my face when least expected.

I then proceeded to get said player suspended for major unsportsmanlike conduct but could not get any witness to write to the Millennium board (nobody else wanted to be a "whiner").

What's the point here? Am I trying to be a hero or a "Nazi" as the drink-thrower called me?

No, I want the sport to get shed of the cheating and intimidation and to develop a better image.

Of course there will always be cheating. There will always be angry players and spectators who boo and cheer.

But we must not be afraid to consistently enforce the rules and get tough on those who perpetrate unsportsmanlike conduct.

I've written these suggestions on other threads and I write them once again:

1. Continue to train PRO refs to get them up to the level they need to be.

2. Require a pre-tournament briefing for all refs to make sure everyone is totally consistent on enforcement of the rules. Give them a pop-quiz to gauge how well everyone knows the rules and go over the important rules most get wrong.

3. Carefully monitor the quality of judging at every tournament and encourage excellence and consistency.

4. Institute a 3-strikes-you're-out rule: if any player gets caught and penalized for the same violation (playing on, for example), that player is pulled from the tournament and the team plays with 1 player less.

5. If a player is pulled from 2 tournaments during a season then the player is automatically suspended from NPPL and Millennium for that season.

6. Keep statistics of penalized violations and violators so that spectators and journalists know who to keep their cameras on and so that sponsors know who the "bad apples" are on their sponsored teams.

7. Someone put a "Hall of Shame" on the Web with a list of those who got caught and videos of said players cheating.

8. Put in and enforce very clear rules about threatening, abusing (physically or otherwise) or attempting to intimidate refs. Make suspensions for said offenses mandatory with no exceptions. Zero tolerance!

9. Make sure that NPPL/PSP and X-Ball tournaments have a mix of international refs to avoid the appearance and possible reality of bias because these events are now truly international.

10. Do whatever else is possible to break the "good-buddy network", to stop misplaced respect for big name teams and players, and to ensure that refs don't continue to just let things slide.

11. Boycott the sponsors who continue to sponsor known and blatant cheaters.

Cheating will always exist and it seems like it has grown worse in recent years in paintball. Let's do like the other sports and a least get some kind of handle on it.

Once again I ask, what do you people think?

Steve

ps. At risk of sounding like a total hypocrite I must confess that I once got thrown out of a tournament for screaming continuously at the ultimate. And I do mean screaming.

SM

In my humble opinion, you did the right thing. Perhaps it's not a good idea to have refs and players mingle?

Anyway, your points and how I feel about them:

1- Without any question I agree.
2- Dito.
3- Dito.
4- Dito.
5- Good plan.
6- Good idea to keep track of it all (and also a requirement if you want to implement some of the above points), but why should the media focus on the cheaters? I'd rather see them focus on something else.
7- Don't think that'll be necessary. It'll put too much emphasis on the cheating, and it'' just make the sport look stupid. The penalty system as you outlined above should be enough of a deterrant. I think it's better to ignore the cheating, and focus on what's good if we want this game to grow.
8- Agreed!
9- I said the same thing recently, but some people said that it might not work. I still agree with you though.
10- That is down to training for the refs. But I agree.
11- No. Companies who continue to sponsor those who cheat, will see the return from their sponsorship drop if your points are implemented. That will force them to take action. Banning companies from sponsoring events is crazy, and also I doubt if paintball is in a position at the moment to do so.

So as you see, I agree with you mostly, just some details that I would do differently.

 

[Wadidiz]

Wadidz, I wish I could speak Swedish as well as you speak English, in fact I wish I could speak English as well as you do.

Thanks Roland. The fact is I am an American and I (cough) teach business English (cough) here in Stockholm. That's why I edit what I write over and over because I get embarrassed by the many mistakes I make in spelling and grammar.

The guys that should be praised for English as a second language are Nick Iuel-Brockdorff and Jay Wijnhold, if English is indeed their second language.

Thanks Buddha and you other guys for your support. I have, in fact, sent some of these suggestions to the Millennium board for consideration at their next meeting. I hope something will come of it. Maybe you guys could use your influence to get something pushed through.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[Baca Loco]

drop me a note

Steve,
Would you have a problem with me taking your long post of suggestions/ideas and starting a new thread in Tourney with it? At the end of a long thread it's not gonna get the attention it deserves otherwise. . . (yes, some of this is old territory but worthy on discussion from new voices)

 

[Wadidiz]

Sure, Brother Man. Go ahead on. As you can tell, I really want discussion and, even better, action on these issues.

Steve

 

[alt01]

I agree with removing players from a tournament for a certain amount of blatant violations, however I don't agree that players should be removed for an entire season for anything but the most extreme of violations, such as physical violence. Doing this would potentially remove a spectator favorite (which will be very important to draw viewers if we ever want to be on tv). If a player is pulled for a tourney they've crippled their team, removing someone for an entire season would basically be asking for them to be cut.

I also think there should be some sort of harsh penalty for throwing guns, it's only a matter of time before something snaps off and a tank goes flying into the crowd.

 

[Wadidiz]

At the same tournament talked about above a player who was angry at losing threw his marker down just a couple of meters from me and the tank started spewing air. I, of course, had the player pulled from the tournament and they had to continue with one player less. Throwing your gun is major unsportsmanlike conduct, it is bad for the image of paintball and, worst of all, it is downright dangerous.

I understand your point about suspending players but that is just my point. A few of the "celebrities" and top-level teams think they have carte blanche to do whatever they want to, or think they must push the rules even if they have to pay the price.

Let's make the price higher in order to modify behavior and get things under control.

If I went to a tournament and saw that a well-known player had been suspended, it would just give me more respect for that league. (Millennium already has gained my respect because they have shown themselves dead serious about improving the image and quality of tournament paintball.)

A few suspensions, especially of some of the big boys, would have a major educational impact on the whole circuit. Maybe it would only take a few to slow this cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct down. (And I'm not suggesting a witch-hunt. Once the rules are in place and enforced the problem will take care of itself.)

Didn't Dennis Rodman get suspended from the NBA for some of his shananigans? If not, I'm sure there are examples of some of the "big" pro sports suspending players.

But maybe that part of my suggestions is too extreme. Even if we need to take my suggestions down a notch or two here and there, we must do something.

Steve

 

[Wadidiz]

Re: There are no easy answers...

To reply to Buddha's remarks:

Originally posted by Buddha 3


In my humble opinion, you did the right thing. Perhaps it's not a good idea to have refs and players mingle?

Anyway, your points and how I feel about them:

1- Without any question I agree.
2- Dito.
3- Dito.
4- Dito.
5- Good plan.
6- Good idea to keep track of it all (and also a requirement if you want to implement some of the above points), but why should the media focus on the cheaters? I'd rather see them focus on something else.
7- Don't think that'll be necessary. It'll put too much emphasis on the cheating, and it'' just make the sport look stupid. The penalty system as you outlined above should be enough of a deterrant. I think it's better to ignore the cheating, and focus on what's good if we want this game to grow.
8- Agreed!
9- I said the same thing recently, but some people said that it might not work. I still agree with you though.
10- That is down to training for the refs. But I agree.
11- No. Companies who continue to sponsor those who cheat, will see the return from their sponsorship drop if your points are implemented. That will force them to take action. Banning companies from sponsoring events is crazy, and also I doubt if paintball is in a position at the moment to do so.

So as you see, I agree with you mostly, just some details that I would do differently.

On point 6: This would not be solely for the purpose of getting the media to focus on cheating but to keep statitiscal track of violations and violators. I wouldn't want PGI, Facefull or any other magazine to put too much emphasis on this negative side of our sport, but it could be justifiable for the paintball media to do some editorial article(s) about what we're talking about here. I'm also thinking about the "amateur" photography that other paintball players might do from the sidelines when they themselves aren't playing. Some on-the-side focus on cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct might show the playing public that we have the balls to face this issue and might go a long way towards getting it under control.

On point 7: I probably am being a little bit vindictive here. I would like to see some videos published for the tournament-playing community partly because I want to see if all the allegations are true and partly because I do want the violators to be shamed for what they do right in front of the public but perhaps out of sight of the judges.

On point 11: I didn't mean by this that the leagues should boycott the sponsors. Of course that would be shooting our own foot. I mean something more along the lines of individuals sending e-mails to sponsors, perhaps with video or still pictures of their "glory boys" misbehaving. That might encourage some "serious discussions" with the continually-violating players in question.

Good discussion.

Steve