OK, I am not gonna play the jewel game here but there are some things that are best left unsaid at the moment because I am not going to pre-empt anybody but I can say this much :-
The way paintball has been going of late is somewhat confusing and here I am talking about the way the different leagues interface and deal with each other when it comes to talk of integration.
I have long advocated that integration lies at the very heart of what we need to do if we are to move this sport forward and I also said, details should never get in the way of this integration.
I am not gonna sit in judgment on the why’s or wherefores of the failure of the PSP to integrate with the NPPL but I honestly think this was a huge mistake and an opportunity missed that will in my opinion, never be duplicated, leastwise not with the same hands sitting at the table.
The power dynamic when the NPPL sat down with the PSP had the NPPL with slightly the better cards, I think the NPPL overplayed them and the PSP got up from the table and left.
The power dynamic when the NPPL sat down with the Millennium had them similarly well endowed with a better rack of cards but once again, this was overplayed with the same result, the Millennium guys got up from the table and left for the self same reasons.
What do we have now?
We have two disenchanted and pissed off leagues, those of the PSP / NXL and the Millennium guys…an old saying springs to mind, 'if your enemy is my enemy, then you are my friend'.
I predicted in my next PGi article that if this situation was allowed to develop whereby the NPPL could not find any way to integrate with the PSP/ NXL (this integration then would have naturally dovetailed with the Millennium guys) then it opens a door which the NPPL most definitely would prefer closed.
I am not gonna say this is a strategic error on behalf of the NPPL but I will say it is still an error because I cannot think that this was part of any strategy, it just makes no sense whatsoever so I am gonna think it had more to do with a default position bought about by somebody else being allowed into the decision loop.
As a backdrop to all these proceedings, it has long been recognized that a ‘new world order’ was needed to consolidate the differing continents and federations but you can only do this if there is some sort of league harmony and all the time the NPPL couldn’t find common ground then any assault they were making to create a new world order was doomed.
Laurent, myself and Chuck went to a meeting in San Diego where we all sat down and listened to Chuck’s ideas for a world wide registration of players where the major part of the registration fees were gonna be funneled into the NPPL independent of any national schemes that were already running, this was only possible if the NPPL could actually align on a league basis and would prove impossible if no agreement between leagues could be reached.
Both Laurent and myself were worried because it created a huge world wide income stream funneled toward the NPPL and somewhat disregarded the interests of the countries those players came from.
To me, it seemed as tho this was being done for the wrong reasons, Laurent I know had the self same reservations and we both voiced them to Chuck at the time.
He stuck to his guns and I remember thinking to myself, there is an agenda running underneath this that is not being articulated and I soon realized what it was.
And so, with the demise of the integration talks between the NPPL and the PSP, a door opened…and remains so.
What the hell has all this crap to do with us as Europeans?
Well, we need a big change over here, we have needed one for some time now and the guys on the Millennium Board have recently undergone a sea change of ethos in that I think they now understand fully what is needed if we are to truly develop our sport along coherent lines.
Previously they would be the first to admit that some things they have done haven’t run smoothly and as most of you know, I have had my differences with them but I have to say, I have had many talks with Steve Baldwin and Laurent and Niall of late and what they are now trying to do, and the direction they are now trying to take European paintball is borne out of a much more reasoned approach.
They understand now what we have to do and the way we have to do it and I trust, if they keep to their word and their new found ethos, the way they are taking us.
XBall lite has been lurking in the background for some time now; it combines the affordability of the 7 man format along with the spectacle and potential of XBall.
At the moment, the PSP/ NXL play XBall (Lite), if we adopt a similar format then in one fell swoop so many pieces of the world paintball jigsaw begin to fall into place.
Previously, there was a loose aggregate of national paintball federations and these will now begin to form a more coherent, more formalized structure with the awakenings of a serious world paintball consciousness.
At the moment, there are already links that the Millennium have cultivated in recent months that bring to the table several continents of paintball, the most important, that of the US is the last combining piece of that jigsaw.
Asia, Africa, Australasia and Europe are already aligned to some degree in this loose aggregation.
The US presently sits outside of this arrangement waiting….but…which league better serves the purposes of the Millennium and its team base?
The door that opened up because of the failure of those integration talks now beckons the Millennium thought it to truly consolidate a new world order.
Most people this side of the water who knew what they were talking about realized this was inevitably going to happen anyway; it’s just that the dancing partner has changed identity.
We as Europeans really need to grasp this opportunity and stop sitting on the fcuking fence, we have waited long enough, if the Americans can’t integrate and do the right thing, a thing that most people have long since recognized was the best route to take then we need to align with somebody that is gonna go forward with the best format and at the moment, the best format is 5 man XBall lite.
7 man as is, will kill this frikkin game if we keep trying to promote it on TV and to the outside world.
It’s just too damned boring !!!!!!!!!!!!
Once that alignment, integration, whatever you wanna call it or way you wanna structure it, is done then we need to go about the business of putting on tourneys that we can be proud of and after talking to people like Niall, Laurent and Steve Baldwin, I am pretty confident, they are responding to what we as their customers need, and of course also responding to what European paintball needs.
We’ll see how it unfolds………
The way paintball has been going of late is somewhat confusing and here I am talking about the way the different leagues interface and deal with each other when it comes to talk of integration.
I have long advocated that integration lies at the very heart of what we need to do if we are to move this sport forward and I also said, details should never get in the way of this integration.
I am not gonna sit in judgment on the why’s or wherefores of the failure of the PSP to integrate with the NPPL but I honestly think this was a huge mistake and an opportunity missed that will in my opinion, never be duplicated, leastwise not with the same hands sitting at the table.
The power dynamic when the NPPL sat down with the PSP had the NPPL with slightly the better cards, I think the NPPL overplayed them and the PSP got up from the table and left.
The power dynamic when the NPPL sat down with the Millennium had them similarly well endowed with a better rack of cards but once again, this was overplayed with the same result, the Millennium guys got up from the table and left for the self same reasons.
What do we have now?
We have two disenchanted and pissed off leagues, those of the PSP / NXL and the Millennium guys…an old saying springs to mind, 'if your enemy is my enemy, then you are my friend'.
I predicted in my next PGi article that if this situation was allowed to develop whereby the NPPL could not find any way to integrate with the PSP/ NXL (this integration then would have naturally dovetailed with the Millennium guys) then it opens a door which the NPPL most definitely would prefer closed.
I am not gonna say this is a strategic error on behalf of the NPPL but I will say it is still an error because I cannot think that this was part of any strategy, it just makes no sense whatsoever so I am gonna think it had more to do with a default position bought about by somebody else being allowed into the decision loop.
As a backdrop to all these proceedings, it has long been recognized that a ‘new world order’ was needed to consolidate the differing continents and federations but you can only do this if there is some sort of league harmony and all the time the NPPL couldn’t find common ground then any assault they were making to create a new world order was doomed.
Laurent, myself and Chuck went to a meeting in San Diego where we all sat down and listened to Chuck’s ideas for a world wide registration of players where the major part of the registration fees were gonna be funneled into the NPPL independent of any national schemes that were already running, this was only possible if the NPPL could actually align on a league basis and would prove impossible if no agreement between leagues could be reached.
Both Laurent and myself were worried because it created a huge world wide income stream funneled toward the NPPL and somewhat disregarded the interests of the countries those players came from.
To me, it seemed as tho this was being done for the wrong reasons, Laurent I know had the self same reservations and we both voiced them to Chuck at the time.
He stuck to his guns and I remember thinking to myself, there is an agenda running underneath this that is not being articulated and I soon realized what it was.
And so, with the demise of the integration talks between the NPPL and the PSP, a door opened…and remains so.
What the hell has all this crap to do with us as Europeans?
Well, we need a big change over here, we have needed one for some time now and the guys on the Millennium Board have recently undergone a sea change of ethos in that I think they now understand fully what is needed if we are to truly develop our sport along coherent lines.
Previously they would be the first to admit that some things they have done haven’t run smoothly and as most of you know, I have had my differences with them but I have to say, I have had many talks with Steve Baldwin and Laurent and Niall of late and what they are now trying to do, and the direction they are now trying to take European paintball is borne out of a much more reasoned approach.
They understand now what we have to do and the way we have to do it and I trust, if they keep to their word and their new found ethos, the way they are taking us.
XBall lite has been lurking in the background for some time now; it combines the affordability of the 7 man format along with the spectacle and potential of XBall.
At the moment, the PSP/ NXL play XBall (Lite), if we adopt a similar format then in one fell swoop so many pieces of the world paintball jigsaw begin to fall into place.
Previously, there was a loose aggregate of national paintball federations and these will now begin to form a more coherent, more formalized structure with the awakenings of a serious world paintball consciousness.
At the moment, there are already links that the Millennium have cultivated in recent months that bring to the table several continents of paintball, the most important, that of the US is the last combining piece of that jigsaw.
Asia, Africa, Australasia and Europe are already aligned to some degree in this loose aggregation.
The US presently sits outside of this arrangement waiting….but…which league better serves the purposes of the Millennium and its team base?
The door that opened up because of the failure of those integration talks now beckons the Millennium thought it to truly consolidate a new world order.
Most people this side of the water who knew what they were talking about realized this was inevitably going to happen anyway; it’s just that the dancing partner has changed identity.
We as Europeans really need to grasp this opportunity and stop sitting on the fcuking fence, we have waited long enough, if the Americans can’t integrate and do the right thing, a thing that most people have long since recognized was the best route to take then we need to align with somebody that is gonna go forward with the best format and at the moment, the best format is 5 man XBall lite.
7 man as is, will kill this frikkin game if we keep trying to promote it on TV and to the outside world.
It’s just too damned boring !!!!!!!!!!!!
Once that alignment, integration, whatever you wanna call it or way you wanna structure it, is done then we need to go about the business of putting on tourneys that we can be proud of and after talking to people like Niall, Laurent and Steve Baldwin, I am pretty confident, they are responding to what we as their customers need, and of course also responding to what European paintball needs.
We’ll see how it unfolds………
