Millennium --- missing the point!

[Nick Brockdorff]

Vacation

It's simply not correct that "most" people in Europe have to declare their holidays at the beginning of the year.

If that was true - NOBODY would have played the Millennium Series last year.

Nick

 

[stongle]

^^^^ what he said

Vacation, pah!

Surely Millenniums and the "sicky" go hand in hand?

I wouldn't admit to playing paintball in a public/workplace so no-one would be aware that I was at an event anyway. Hence the "had a dodgy curry last night" call will always be a winner. Only a fool phones into work sick on their landline, the lower quality transmission signal of a mobile is critical for making you sound worse than you are. I mean I'm a banker and did 5 Mills last year, even then I only play for sh*ts & giggles and to wind Piper up.

I think the whinging and complaining to the Mill is counterproductive and unfair. The Mill has to have some cooperation with one or both of the US Majors, and in many ways is at the Mercy of political shenanigans / bummings that go one in the States. I mean f*cking hell, you'd soon be moaning if you never saw an American team in Europe ever again (lest we forget rule convergence). It maybe a pain that the dates are not known a year in advance, but 3 months is pretty good and although flights may be a bull's-eye, getting to a domestic event can cost the same if not more. Christ it used to cost me 70 quid in petrol just to get to play the PA, getting to Norway was cheaper.

Teams who are serious about competitive Paintball are going to make the "Major" series their annual focus, not the local / Domestic league. The local / Domestic Leagues may have good execution, but "Sport Paintball" does not exist below "Major" level (no matter how much you may ape or aspire to sporting qualities).

If you don't support your local Major, then don't be surprised if it's gone next year. There's not many poor promoters or Site owners, but if the ROI is ever decreasing there won't be an event. I think the Millennium does have a long way to go, but at least it's trying this year. Ok some fundamentals need to be better handled (the F mark for instance), but perhaps that could be as much down to the individual promoter.

If the Millennium gives you quality venues, the best teams in Europe and the US, plus all the usuals such as quality fields and reffing; you'd be mad to support it with your custom. It does give Paintball the "Professionalized" status many of you so want.

Moan and flame all you want, I don't really care. I'm taking up Golf this year, and if you want something to moan about it you should try it (playing a round with your willy outside you're plus fours cos you couldn't hit it past the ladies tee will bring tears to anyone's eyes).

 

[Gyroscope]

^^^^ what he said

Originally posted by stongle
(playing a round with your willy outside you're plus fours cos you couldn't hit it past the ladies tee will bring tears to anyone's eyes).

I have no idea what this means.

 

[stongle]

Re: ^^^^ what he said

Originally posted by gyroscope
I have no idea what this means.

And some people thought the penalty for a "Ramping-gun" was harsh............

Seriously, people are going to moan about anything they can. As paying customers it's their right. I'm just seeing a lot of potential "voting" with feet, which despite the previous ill's will be a travesty for Euro Ball.

 

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

^^^^ what he said

Originally posted by stongle
Vacation, pah!

Surely Millenniums and the "sicky" go hand in hand?

I wouldn't admit to playing paintball in a public/workplace so no-one would be aware that I was at an event anyway. Hence the "had a dodgy curry last night" call will always be a winner. Only a fool phones into work sick on their landline, the lower quality transmission signal of a mobile is critical for making you sound worse than you are. I mean I'm a banker and did 5 Mills last year, even then I only play for sh*ts & giggles and to wind Piper up.

I think the whinging and complaining to the Mill is counterproductive and unfair. The Mill has to have some cooperation with one or both of the US Majors, and in many ways is at the Mercy of political shenanigans / bummings that go one in the States. I mean f*cking hell, you'd soon be moaning if you never saw an American team in Europe ever again (lest we forget rule convergence). It maybe a pain that the dates are not known a year in advance, but 3 months is pretty good and although flights may be a bull's-eye, getting to a domestic event can cost the same if not more. Christ it used to cost me 70 quid in petrol just to get to play the PA, getting to Norway was cheaper.

Teams who are serious about competitive Paintball are going to make the "Major" series their annual focus, not the local / Domestic league. The local / Domestic Leagues may have good execution, but "Sport Paintball" does not exist below "Major" level (no matter how much you may ape or aspire to sporting qualities).

If you don't support your local Major, then don't be surprised if it's gone next year. There's not many poor promoters or Site owners, but if the ROI is ever decreasing there won't be an event. I think the Millennium does have a long way to go, but at least it's trying this year. Ok some fundamentals need to be better handled (the F mark for instance), but perhaps that could be as much down to the individual promoter.

If the Millennium gives you quality venues, the best teams in Europe and the US, plus all the usuals such as quality fields and reffing; you'd be mad to support it with your custom. It does give Paintball the "Professionalized" status many of you so want.

Moan and flame all you want, I don't really care. I'm taking up Golf this year, and if you want something to moan about it you should try it (playing a round with your willy outside you're plus fours cos you couldn't hit it past the ladies tee will bring tears to anyone's eyes).

Glen, get back on the Stella mate because you're making too much sense.

Couldnt agree more - if the Mill is to succeed it needs the patronage of the local teams. That is where the cash is generated to lay on the event in the first place and enables us all to see who's who in the world of PB.

They must ensure though that they deliver what has been promised!!!

I am also taking golf up this year and can sympathise with your analogy.

I might have a run out at CC despite my previous promise not to play this year!

Now, I just need to find a team that will register me with no commitment and no training. Oh the hel with it - I'll just watch.

 

[Steve Hancock]

^^^^ what he said

Originally posted by stongle
..."Sport Paintball" does not exist below "Major" level (no matter how much you may ape or aspire to sporting qualities)...

Again I have to say I’m not sure that i agree with your idea of what sport is. Would you say that Sunday league football is not sport? I'd say yes it is.

The reason tourney paintball is a sport compared with recball is not the difference in skill. (The skill difference is a result of it being a sport, not the cause. One of the natures of a sport, is accurate and fair comparison of a set of performance criteria within a physical context. This provides greater encouragment to people to develop, as the competitive nature is more prevalent.)

The reason is the difference in the way in which it is conducted.

I will conceed that the term sport is not catagorically defined, and different definitions suit different situations, some focus on fairness, some on exercise, some on competition, some on rules and structure. But i have never come accross a definition that limited sport status to the elite performace bracket. Many make reference to striving for improvement, as this is part of ongoing competition, but this is distinct from having achieved excellence. A kid trying to master the basics of a sport is still playing a sport, even if it is not at the same level as the international athlete that who is fine-tuning their skills.

 

[Buddha 3]

I'd take Stongle's point a step further and say: Even the vast majority of people that do attend (most of) the majors do not play "Paintball the Sport".

If you do not train (as a team or individually) in some way, shape or form AT LEAST once a week, you are not playing a sport, but rather engaging in a hobby related activity.

Stop fooling yourselves.

 

[stongle]

Exactly as Budha says. Below Div1 Millennium, pretty much anyone has a shot, and can turn up and play a game of Paintball. I mean, how many times have you seen thrown together teams turn up at events and carve everyone up? Half of the guys on these teams don't know what a drill is, let alone ever performed one. If the "default" level of your game sucks, the only way it is going to improve is by drilling and training at levels far in excess of once a month. I'd guess that below "serious" competition (and I mean Mill Div1), the actual amount of serious drilling / Paintball training is approx 1-2 hrs a month per player. I mean prancing around in your shiny kit and talking the talk, ain't exactly training.

Painballers sound a lot like alcoholics, they kid themselves they haven't got a problem too. I guarantee you, that with proper training, kit, fitness and enough practice any team can be competitive at Div1 Mill standard. The local leagues make it too easy to just do enough (or nothing in a lot of cases). Don't confuse tip top tournament execution and organisation with Sport Status.

 

[Steve Hancock]

You didn't answer my question about Sunday league footy, do you consider it a sport? I'm sure that they don't have at least weekly training.

Maybe I'm just less aware of how the majority of teams train and conduct themselves. My lot train fortnightly on sup‘air and have at least weekly fitness training, (ok we scrapped last Wednesday’s run because of the snow, but about half the squad had already been for a run on the Monday). Does that meet your standards of partaking in a sport? And we are only Div 4 PA. My impression was that other teams were training in a similar manner; I guess I may be wrong, but I still don’t think that means they are not partaking in a sport.

I will admit that a lot of teams don’t train or conduct themselves in a very athletic way, but I do feel there is a trend away from this. One of the things behind this trend might be the more stable team structure that PA registration has brought in, and the need for ongoing consistency with a true league system. When scratch teams were the norm and you could be playing for one team one week and another the week after, and the results of an event had no significance in a wider or more long term context, an environment that encouraged ongoing development wasn’t there. There was no constancy, and thus no long term goals, plans or motivation.

Now there is and the way paintball is conducted is changing, the players are starting to act more like sportsmen (non-gender specific). But that doesn’t mean that someone playing in a scratch novice event isn’t playing a sport, sure the level of performance is lower, sure they are not putting as much in, but they are just further down on the same scale.

 

[Buddha 3]

Dunno how you brits do it, but the sunday footy teams here in Holland train twice a week as a team...