Before you read this, it’s best I declare Lane Wright is a very good friend of mine and if anybody thinks I would stick up for Lane when I’m writing something about him … then you bet ya, damn straight I would.
I will add however, it’s not my friendship that has me agreeing with him in this instance, it’s because I believe the steps he is taking are at least in the right direction.
It’s been known for some time now the PSP has been haemorrhaging teams but that’s not unique to the PSP, leagues all over the Sates have been losing teams to ever more dangerous levels.
Something had to be done to staunch this negative flow of teams but everybody was just scratching their nuts trying to figure what the hell to do .. after all, the reasons for this decline are deeply embedded in the American recession but there’s also a complicating factor of us not getting our product right.
And in this case, the product was tournament paintball or more importantly, the format we played.
The PSP has long been the vanguard event series for world paintball best exampled by the World Cup, the most dominant event of the paintball calendar and has been for nigh on 20 years, and so if any series deserves to survive, it’s these guys.
Lane Wright along with Camille Lemanski who run the PSP [Beauty and the Beast] are a partnership made in heaven because I have little doubt these two people are the most capable of individuals when it comes to pure hard work and experience.
Lane is your archetypal hillbilly with Camille being the archetypal girl next door, she’s got the film star looks of Cameron Diaz but is also disarmingly intelligent which makes meeting her all the more unsettling.
Now, Lane hasn’t got the looks of a film star unless of course you think of Lassie but what he has got is a tremendous knowledge of our sport and a resolve to always to try and do the right thing, there are few men in paintball who possess more integrity than Lane.
Lane is a stand-up guy, disarmingly honest and truly loyal ….
Now, there’s one thing working out what’s wrong with something, quite another to put it into practice especially when that ugly word ‘politics’ gets snagged up in proceedings.
Lane identifies part of our problem in being the fact we have strangled our playing demographic to the point where it is but a fraction of what was available to us before.
Some years ago we tried to manoeuvre ourselves toward more conventional sports in terms of the format we adopted and as a consequence we also began to limit the number of people who could effectively play.
We began streamlining our format in readiness for TV but that idea collapsed, and so did the unfortunate Dick Clark, and with him went any notion we could succeed in bringing our beloved game onto the box which left us hanging with a wholly inappropriate format seeing as TV wasn’t gonna happen.
We have two major considerations here, the first is the survival of the leagues and secondly, the survival of a format .. the format in question being the pro format, an XBall based derivative.
Unfortunately, one is potentially linked to the other in that it could well be the format [product] is doing the strangling and so the survival of that format runs contra to the interests of the wider consideration, that of saving our leagues.
In other words, if we continue hosting this XBall derivative as our sport’s favoured format then it will discourage any regrowth because the transition from woodsball to XBall is just too harsh on so many fronts … we need a parachute format that eases the transition not smashes you in the face.
I think it obvious XBall does not lend itself to attracting the wider demographic of player our sport is used to .. but does this really mean we should ditch it?
Some say ‘yes’, some ‘no; Lane has decided we need to change it at least and he achieves this by increasing field sizes which theoretically at least prolongs game time and therefore gives players more bang for their buck.
So many players are continually voicing their disapproval of the modern game using phrases such as ‘low value for money’ and it’s obvious we need to address this problem but change, especially real change, is difficult for some people to initiate.
A more important consequence of bigger fields means that less fit players can make wider bunkers off the bat which should stimulate an influx of players that would have been precluded beforehand because of their fitness and body shape.
It basically allows less athletic players to play a part in the game which if extended across all other leagues should theoretically stimulate national growth, leastwise that’s the theory.
This is an easy choice here … we either look to stimulate growth in our tournament series or we stick with a format that we know is not helping the situation …. But there are arguments for exactly this and they are primarily emanating from the people directly involved in the top division of the PSP .. but isn’t this just self-interest at play here?
Of course it is but why not?
I think these guys need to take a look at the bigger picture here and not get bogged down in arguments that undermine the notion of an expanded playing demographic in tournaments.
Personally, I am gonna stand by Lane 100% because at least he’s trying to right what’s wrong and he’s done this in the face of some bitter criticism and it is criticism that is mainly borne out of self-interest rather than a rationale argument on holistic principles.
People always resist change, sometimes appropriately, sometimes not but for those who do comment negatively .. try to look at who’s making these criticisms and then maybe things become a little clearer.
I think we do need to have a focal format that the pros play for others to aspire to, all that’s in question is, does that format have to necessarily cater for a wider demographic to maintain the survival of the leagues?
The jury’s still out on this one but my thoughts are this, our sport does not yet merit the notion of an exclusive format for pros; our number one consideration should be the re-growth of our leagues and to do this, we need to create a common format, and like before, the format the pros should adopt should be the one that’s played in all divisions beneath .. in this way, it optimises the chances of aspiring players to emulate the pros in all ways including the format they play ….. just like football, the most successful sport in the world.
Lane and Camille need our support if the PSP is to survive this year out .. Dave Youngblood has long been underwriting the PSP with his cheque-book and now it’s the time for the PSP to try and stand on its own feet .. if anybody can do it, Lane and Camille can .. they are extremely devoted and talented people.
The one a biding point I wish to make in all this is the following …. To play a format that in itself strangles the available demographic is at the very least counter-productive, at its worst, it’s just plain insane. … some people will try to talk you round this on the basis we need this elitist format and the consequent restriction to available players is a natural result of such a format … but it’s not the format that should restrict the demographic, it is the playing level ….
If we look at soccer, it’s the same game for everyone regardless of what division or league you play in and what restricts the number of people playing at the top level is the skill required and not the physical ability to play the format itself … this is a subtle but really important distinction here but it is overlooked by many who argue we should keep things the way they are now …
The distinguishing features between pros and ams/novices should be skill level on a common format and not the format acting as a primary bottleneck ….
Acknowledge this and you cannot do anything else but support Lane and Camille .. and that’s exactly what I would advocate.
