Going Stateside
- Thread starter lothlorien7646
- Start date
yes 
and even then I got a nose bleed from being so far away from good old blighty. Missed my yorkshire puds and draft guiness - I suppose the naked mardi gras girlies went some way to making me feel better.
and even then I got a nose bleed from being so far away from good old blighty. Missed my yorkshire puds and draft guiness - I suppose the naked mardi gras girlies went some way to making me feel better. 
heres a thought......
I hear some of the SoManc Crew will be getting their asses stateside a bit next season (although this maybe for McD to go back and clip some ese's who rolled him in Miami). I'd also expect to see the Monkey Boys stateside next season, not only for an NPPL event, but a couple of us are arranging Sabbaticals to take in some serious training (and teach those frightful colonials in SoCal a touch of British Bravado and Daring Do ).
Given that it now costs as much to fly to LA as it does to some European Cities, the only bar to playing Stateside is peoples ability to organise and whether you can get the time of work. We've got Flights to LA in Jan for 254 quid return on BA. These were not any special discounts (nor the cheapest available), just normal economy fares through their Website. When it costs about 160 quid to fly to Toulouse (OK so it may have been booked late), there simply isn't an economic argument against playing in the US.
Now I don't wanna sound like I been smoking blunts round Momma Lambini's house again, but I'd expect to see some of the following next year.
A gulf beginning to open up between Teams who wanna play Domestic local paintball and those willing to travel around Europe and the US and play premier league Paintball. By virtue of competition, profile and exposure these teams will widen the gap on their domestic counterparts. I'd expect to see these teams forego a lot of domestic action to concentrate on training and development for big events. If your playing one big tournament every 6-8 weeks, the last thing you want to happen is to get rolled by some west coast gangsters, it's going to feel raw as botulism. However simply by playing multiple events, a consistent placing over the season and the commitment to the series will make you 1) place higher than playing the odd event and placing high, 2) raise the teams profile within the sport. Teams who are taking Intl paintball seriously at all levels are professionalizing themselves. I think this thread was actually skewed more towards Am B not Am A and Pro, so I think the So Manc teams are an example of increased professionalism at the Am B level.
The teams that do organise and man-up for international and US tournaments, even at AM B level (or whatever is called next year), will begin to operate more as a franchise. As far as industry sponsorship is concerned, those teams with an identifiable franchise, the right packaging and outlook, will enjoy better incentivised buying power (or sponsorship if some of you insist). I'd expect to see this at all Divisions, and as these teams seek to protect and maintain their franchise, players will gravitate towards these teams. This will have the effect of sending smaller teams to the wall as players will be cherry picked and offered the chance to play better game.
I'm going to think out the box for a second, but I can see the possibility of player movement, but not necessarily team movement up and down divisions. If Super league Paintball takes off (and I need more enlightenment on this), I'd wager that the teams taking part will largely be the same names, but with ever changing rosters (i.e an effect of the franchising of teams). I see this up and down Divisions, as players move up, not the team (maybe we should call it the NXL effect). I'm not saying that some teams won't move up and down, but I do see that certain Team franchise's will always be Pro, Am A, or Am B. I think you'll see higher division teams looking at the same lower div teams and having a working relationship to cherry pick the best players upward. I'd expect to see the same highly developed and franchised Am B teams playing a full series events but fighting it out amongst themselves each year, the same at Am A and Pro. Competition will be fierce and the standard of game will rise across the board, as more rides on placing at the top each year than moving up and getting owned by superior teams. We all like analogies, and one I have massive difficulty in following is the constant comparison to football. It's like comparing well, it don't does it. I see the evolution of the baller as more akin to that of Motor racing, with Super League being F1. The fact as the cream always rise to the top, normally through the ranks (ok the odd one does sneak straight in but you get the point). The same teams generally compete at F1, the same for F3, F3000 etc etc. They may share the same engine manufacturers (or compare that to gats), but they are different and self contained teams. If a driver is good he generally moves up a level of racing, but the team remains where it's at. But that doesn't mean that some of the F3 teams do not get good sponsorship deals. I'm not a sports writer, but I hope that was clear. The top teams at the lower levels will be professional by virtue of their position within that league and desire to place well thus representing their sponsors (this raises the bar of the game at the international level).
By doing this I think varying styles of play may arise at different levels of the game, each with it's own spectator base. If Am B paintball professionalized itself, it "could" have a following, of course not as great as super league, but a following nonetheless especially as teams develop personalities and quirks. This makes paintball more rounded and broader in some ways. Pro vs. Pro, Am A vs. Am A, Am B vs. Am B is the way to go, but certain individuals and paintball needs to be careful not to think in purely elitist terms, and in the end bite the hand that feeds them.
This of course leaves the Domestic tournaments. Those that affiliate or help nurture teams into International or train crash Paintball will likely gain a quid pro quo, with the support and help of the franchised teams. Anything else just becomes "Run what you Brung".
It's a thought anyway.............
I hear some of the SoManc Crew will be getting their asses stateside a bit next season (although this maybe for McD to go back and clip some ese's who rolled him in Miami). I'd also expect to see the Monkey Boys stateside next season, not only for an NPPL event, but a couple of us are arranging Sabbaticals to take in some serious training (and teach those frightful colonials in SoCal a touch of British Bravado and Daring Do
).Given that it now costs as much to fly to LA as it does to some European Cities, the only bar to playing Stateside is peoples ability to organise and whether you can get the time of work. We've got Flights to LA in Jan for 254 quid return on BA. These were not any special discounts (nor the cheapest available), just normal economy fares through their Website. When it costs about 160 quid to fly to Toulouse (OK so it may have been booked late), there simply isn't an economic argument against playing in the US.
Now I don't wanna sound like I been smoking blunts round Momma Lambini's house again, but I'd expect to see some of the following next year.
A gulf beginning to open up between Teams who wanna play Domestic local paintball and those willing to travel around Europe and the US and play premier league Paintball. By virtue of competition, profile and exposure these teams will widen the gap on their domestic counterparts. I'd expect to see these teams forego a lot of domestic action to concentrate on training and development for big events. If your playing one big tournament every 6-8 weeks, the last thing you want to happen is to get rolled by some west coast gangsters, it's going to feel raw as botulism. However simply by playing multiple events, a consistent placing over the season and the commitment to the series will make you 1) place higher than playing the odd event and placing high, 2) raise the teams profile within the sport. Teams who are taking Intl paintball seriously at all levels are professionalizing themselves. I think this thread was actually skewed more towards Am B not Am A and Pro, so I think the So Manc teams are an example of increased professionalism at the Am B level.
The teams that do organise and man-up for international and US tournaments, even at AM B level (or whatever is called next year), will begin to operate more as a franchise. As far as industry sponsorship is concerned, those teams with an identifiable franchise, the right packaging and outlook, will enjoy better incentivised buying power (or sponsorship if some of you insist). I'd expect to see this at all Divisions, and as these teams seek to protect and maintain their franchise, players will gravitate towards these teams. This will have the effect of sending smaller teams to the wall as players will be cherry picked and offered the chance to play better game.
I'm going to think out the box for a second, but I can see the possibility of player movement, but not necessarily team movement up and down divisions. If Super league Paintball takes off (and I need more enlightenment on this), I'd wager that the teams taking part will largely be the same names, but with ever changing rosters (i.e an effect of the franchising of teams). I see this up and down Divisions, as players move up, not the team (maybe we should call it the NXL effect). I'm not saying that some teams won't move up and down, but I do see that certain Team franchise's will always be Pro, Am A, or Am B. I think you'll see higher division teams looking at the same lower div teams and having a working relationship to cherry pick the best players upward. I'd expect to see the same highly developed and franchised Am B teams playing a full series events but fighting it out amongst themselves each year, the same at Am A and Pro. Competition will be fierce and the standard of game will rise across the board, as more rides on placing at the top each year than moving up and getting owned by superior teams. We all like analogies, and one I have massive difficulty in following is the constant comparison to football. It's like comparing well, it don't does it. I see the evolution of the baller as more akin to that of Motor racing, with Super League being F1. The fact as the cream always rise to the top, normally through the ranks (ok the odd one does sneak straight in but you get the point). The same teams generally compete at F1, the same for F3, F3000 etc etc. They may share the same engine manufacturers (or compare that to gats), but they are different and self contained teams. If a driver is good he generally moves up a level of racing, but the team remains where it's at. But that doesn't mean that some of the F3 teams do not get good sponsorship deals. I'm not a sports writer, but I hope that was clear. The top teams at the lower levels will be professional by virtue of their position within that league and desire to place well thus representing their sponsors (this raises the bar of the game at the international level).
By doing this I think varying styles of play may arise at different levels of the game, each with it's own spectator base. If Am B paintball professionalized itself, it "could" have a following, of course not as great as super league, but a following nonetheless especially as teams develop personalities and quirks. This makes paintball more rounded and broader in some ways. Pro vs. Pro, Am A vs. Am A, Am B vs. Am B is the way to go, but certain individuals and paintball needs to be careful not to think in purely elitist terms, and in the end bite the hand that feeds them.
This of course leaves the Domestic tournaments. Those that affiliate or help nurture teams into International or train crash Paintball will likely gain a quid pro quo, with the support and help of the franchised teams. Anything else just becomes "Run what you Brung".
It's a thought anyway.............
at the mo im planning (if i can get it arranged) on going stateside for a week or so and hopefully taking in a wgp tech class while im there....and a little balling of course