I was going to post all that is happening later but I have to respond to Pete’s statement. Regarding the X Ball and the Millennium.
Firstly I am President, Whilst at times I may not agree with all the Board members all the time I am the one who has the responsibility to inform players of what’s happening, I will as I said yesterday post up all that is happening this year later on. It will probably be tomorrow now. It takes time to put it all together.
Right back to X Ball. Pete and I are friends. We have over the years not seen eye to eye on a few things but we respect each others opinions. He will of course see things from his perspective and that of His team, Pro paintball and the magazine. I look from the view of the promoter and try to come up with what is best for all teams who play the series and also the presentation of Paintball to those outside the sport, the general public and the mass media.
We met last weekend and tried to resolve the X Ball issue from the team perspective. Taking in various considerations we tried to come up with a formula to make it happen. The first overall consideration was the lack of money. How would we finance it? Many of the promoters in the Millennium Series struggle to make their events pay for themselves, yet they were being asked to invest heavily with money that they didn’t have with something that had no guarantee of success. Also the organization of X ball league, in events such as Campaign, would have had a big effect on the number of teams available to play. A Whole field would have to be given up to X Ball, There is only room for Seven Maximum, and this would have meant that I would have to turn away about 30 teams. These teams would be lower ranked teams that make the Campaign Cup the annual highlight of their paintball calendar; I for one would not let this happen. Euro Pro teams are very poor in relation to their counterparts across the pond. Many can’t even afford to play the Millennium Series yet alone purchase a stake in an X Ball league. The Euro Industry is supply based not Manufacture based, WDP the only real exception to this are firmly in the Super 7 camp and obviously would not fund X Ball, with all the big money in paintball Stateside and a lot of it sits around the PSP table.
Pete kept saying to me, “ Europe cannot lose the Russians”, I agree, I really don’t want to lose them, they are a beacon to us all in Europe as to what can be achieved with hard work and dedication. BUT it is Sergei’s intention that the Russian Legion has to play the best teams in the world, and he will go where those teams are. PSP has put a ban on all the NXL teams playing any 7-man event so they can’t travel here. I believe he is going to approach Richmond the join the league. As sad as it is for Europe not to see the Russians playing here I think Sergei is doing the right thing and If I was Richmond I would quickly snap them up into the NXL league.
It became clear that to run the league we needed at least 6 teams and preferably 8. The teams with money are Ton Tons, Nexus and of course the Russian Legion. We had a couple of maybes but not a clear-cut commitment and time was running out fast. This is where we were left going into the Millennium Meeting.
The consensus of the Board’s opinion was that we could show an X Ball format competition at the Millennium events, in the evening under floodlight. It was felt that a Nations Cup event with teams representing their countries would be easier to promote to the media, and a common interest to all those attending the event. The Team would be selected by the Captain of the highest Ranked team in the Millennium and the aim would be that he would select up to a squad of 12 with no more than 3 players from any one team.
So this is where we are now. What I report is the consensus of the Millennium Board’s opinion. Pete, I am sorry that it didn’t work out the way you wanted we have had many a long conversation on trying to make it work. This is certainly not where I thought we would end up!
Firstly I am President, Whilst at times I may not agree with all the Board members all the time I am the one who has the responsibility to inform players of what’s happening, I will as I said yesterday post up all that is happening this year later on. It will probably be tomorrow now. It takes time to put it all together.
Right back to X Ball. Pete and I are friends. We have over the years not seen eye to eye on a few things but we respect each others opinions. He will of course see things from his perspective and that of His team, Pro paintball and the magazine. I look from the view of the promoter and try to come up with what is best for all teams who play the series and also the presentation of Paintball to those outside the sport, the general public and the mass media.
We met last weekend and tried to resolve the X Ball issue from the team perspective. Taking in various considerations we tried to come up with a formula to make it happen. The first overall consideration was the lack of money. How would we finance it? Many of the promoters in the Millennium Series struggle to make their events pay for themselves, yet they were being asked to invest heavily with money that they didn’t have with something that had no guarantee of success. Also the organization of X ball league, in events such as Campaign, would have had a big effect on the number of teams available to play. A Whole field would have to be given up to X Ball, There is only room for Seven Maximum, and this would have meant that I would have to turn away about 30 teams. These teams would be lower ranked teams that make the Campaign Cup the annual highlight of their paintball calendar; I for one would not let this happen. Euro Pro teams are very poor in relation to their counterparts across the pond. Many can’t even afford to play the Millennium Series yet alone purchase a stake in an X Ball league. The Euro Industry is supply based not Manufacture based, WDP the only real exception to this are firmly in the Super 7 camp and obviously would not fund X Ball, with all the big money in paintball Stateside and a lot of it sits around the PSP table.
Pete kept saying to me, “ Europe cannot lose the Russians”, I agree, I really don’t want to lose them, they are a beacon to us all in Europe as to what can be achieved with hard work and dedication. BUT it is Sergei’s intention that the Russian Legion has to play the best teams in the world, and he will go where those teams are. PSP has put a ban on all the NXL teams playing any 7-man event so they can’t travel here. I believe he is going to approach Richmond the join the league. As sad as it is for Europe not to see the Russians playing here I think Sergei is doing the right thing and If I was Richmond I would quickly snap them up into the NXL league.
It became clear that to run the league we needed at least 6 teams and preferably 8. The teams with money are Ton Tons, Nexus and of course the Russian Legion. We had a couple of maybes but not a clear-cut commitment and time was running out fast. This is where we were left going into the Millennium Meeting.
The consensus of the Board’s opinion was that we could show an X Ball format competition at the Millennium events, in the evening under floodlight. It was felt that a Nations Cup event with teams representing their countries would be easier to promote to the media, and a common interest to all those attending the event. The Team would be selected by the Captain of the highest Ranked team in the Millennium and the aim would be that he would select up to a squad of 12 with no more than 3 players from any one team.
So this is where we are now. What I report is the consensus of the Millennium Board’s opinion. Pete, I am sorry that it didn’t work out the way you wanted we have had many a long conversation on trying to make it work. This is certainly not where I thought we would end up!