The NXL is actually losing money, and just had a nasty fracture because of Smart Parts' wanting to make some decisions that the rest of the ownership didn't agree with. Consequently, the Smart Parts-only tournament series that recent appeared on ESPN in the US. And despite the league and X-ball format having been originally "made for TV" in order to get all the players paid and on TV, the NXL has never been carried on a major TV network anywhere. By contrast, the NPPL has had a weekly non-infomercial, show on Fox Sports every season since 2003, and on ESPN last season, attracting some fairly promising sponsorships from some big-name US companies like Coke and Budweiser. Most players play both leagues, so it's not like the NPPL is full of second-stringers who can't make it into a decent league. So it's hard to make a case that the NPPL is "playing second fiddle".
But that's talking about leagues, not formats. The NXL and NPPL are leagues. 7-man and Xball are formats.
The 7 man format is hardly dead, but it's got some problems. They both do. One problem with 7 man is that the fields are a little larger, and consequently harder to film, and the action is a little slower and harder to capture. The ESPN coverage this year demonstrated this to some extent. Arguably the best paintball I've ever seen televised was the UAPL 3 man series that took place here in Las Vegas. The action was quick and it was extremely easy to follow on TV because cameras were able to easily cover the entire 100 foot by 50 foot field. I don't think that's the best format for competitive play though. For as much as everybody says that the 7 man team size is prohibitive, we're talking about 2 more players than X-ball. Not to mention that to play X-ball competitively, you have to have a crew in the pits and coaches on the sidelines. Potentially, you could run a 7 man team with a lower total number of people despite having more players on the field. Not to mention the cost factor, which plays into any format, but more so into X-ball because of the length of matches, constant action, and subsequent massive consumption of paint. Other than that, 7 man, for as much as it was castigated by the founders of X-ball, is evidently just as easy, if not easier, to get promoted and to get on TV, and seems to still be attracting the best players in the world. I don't think "traditional" paintball, if you will, is a boring format to play or watch. In fact, I think outsiders might see X-ball as too gimmicky, trying to combine aspects of traditional sports like hockey and football with a completely unique game. It's like trying to incorporate figure skating scoring rules to freestyle motocross. It's like its trying to hard to be a "real" sport. That was a roundabout way to come to another point. We're not really talking about 7 man versus Xball. We're talking about "traditional" (NPPL rulebook) format versus Xball format. "Traditional" format isn't locked to 7 man. You can use that rule set for any number players. Perhaps a 5 man league with the "traditional" style NPPL rulebook? Or hell, we could even get crazy and go 4 man or 6 man? I think I might prefer that to anything. Even numbers are just so cool
