EXL - Dead or just playing Dead?

[Duncster]

why? because it would be business-politically impossible as Steve said? or because your average player doesn't want to be restricted on the amount of paint they can carry?

Ok, so if it really isn't a viable option, sounds like the suggestion of a reduced game time in lower divisions is the only way forward, if you want to keep the existing game format...

 

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

And here is my point that I always make - paint bills are a massive reason why paintball will never become a true widely accepted sport

£300 paint bills - once a month??

Not for your average joe. The top teams get sorted and that is it (and not as many as everyone thinks).

Paintball will always be hamstrung by the $$$$'s. You cant buy your kit and go play down the local park with minimal further expense. Its cash draining sport that takes commitment of the highest order.

X ball has to change to survive I believe - I think PP will have an answer!!

 

[Robbo]

Originally posted by Duncster
why? because it would be business-politically impossible as Steve said? or because your average player doesn't want to be restricted on the amount of paint they can carry?

...because I been in this game for far too many years not to have become cynical.....

 

[Duncster]

can't argue with that!

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by Buddha 3
The fact that WC will have an incredible amount of teams playing X doesn't really mean anything though. It's only one event, and it's the WC. They always have a stupendous amount of teams. If all of these teams play X at the PSP events of next year, then I'll be impressed.

Over the course of the year to date more teams likely would have played Div X but the PSP limited registration to 48 as the the next increment up is 64 and given the expenses involved in operating an additional field they have been cautious in projecting how many teams want to play.
It's also true it's hard to maintain an Xball team given the expenses involved yet for every one that dies 2 more seem to get started.

 

[gaff]

Originally posted by Baca Loco
yet for every one that dies 2 more seem to get started.

i think this may be because anyone who has seen or played it would sell their moma if it meant being able to play it!

The X format is the shizz to play defo!

 

[Juice]

We actually got through a national xball league here in Finland early this summer, limited to four teams. more info

What I see and hear it seems to me that the "problem" now is in the double elimination format. This format throws those unlucky to lose the first game into "losers bracket" and coming through that way is going to rape anyones wallet.

If and this is again quite big if, we could find reasonable and fair way to get 2 preliminary xball games/team and after those still find tournaments real winner?
That would give teams some way to budget their min and max costs / tournament.
Now you just have to hope not to go through "losers bracket" and have to start doing "odd jobs" just to get that last pod payed...

One way that we here in sunny Finland have also tried is dropping 5-man to 3-man and still play X-style.
I can tell you that the same speed is there and its really affordable even for standard 7-man team.

Sincerely hope that x survives because its really the game that I wish to play in the future.

 

[Duncster]

That's a very good point juice... never thought of that at all... can't think how you could drop double elimination though, as due to the lengths of the games (which must be kept to keep Xball working), there just simply wouldn't be enough time to run all the games. It's tight enough as it is...

Not having a definitive title match in each event would kill the build-up of the event and the atmosphere for spectators I reckon.

 

[Wadidiz]

Originally posted by Juice
...it seems to me that the "problem" now is in the double elimination format. This format throws those unlucky to lose the first game into "losers bracket" and coming through that way is going to rape anyones wallet.

Those unlucky are unlucky by design because of the seeding. I've always felt the traditional seeding for a double elimination tournament is basically unfair and unreasonable. Why should the team that is considered to be number one have to play the team at the bottom of the ladder? That usually means the first game is handed to the historically best team and the bottom team is sent away to the losers' side to try and recover from their first elimination.

I think it would be fairer and more interesting to always seed the highest team against the number two team and so forth. So the bottom team isn't automatically (usually) sent to the losers' side and the top team has to play a tougher match.

Just because it has always been done that way is not a good enough reason IMO and I see no reason to hand another prize to the top-ranked team just because they are at the top. If they are so good they can start defending their position from the start.

Another argument for the status quo is that the such seeding gives the lowest teams a chance to play against the top-ranking teams. Well, if the bottom teams didn't get knocked out so quickly they may have more chances to learn to play the game and climb closer to the top.

Steve

 

[Avatar]

Couldnt the cost be reduced by restructuring the league format?

For example there are 9 teams in the NXL so you create a 9
month long season and once a month you have 4 games (one team gets a by) and you rotate who plays who till everyone has faced off with everyone else. This would mean that the teams
play one official game a month as opposed to all the games that you play in these mini event type things that we seem to be clinging to should think that would reduce the paint bill a bit.

Then you score it football style 3 points for a win 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. If you have two teams drawn at the end you do it on kill counts.

This would have the added the benifit of shifting the focus from the "event" to the games themselves which is after all what it should be on. No more coverage of the Oslo leg or whatever but an in depth look at the Nexus vs. Tigers etc.

Course it wouldnt work for teams in lower divs (unless you
capped them at 10 teams in which case they could run along side
the top league games), but hey I've got a hang over so dont think I've too badly.