Move to pro?

[Manning26]

I've been a bit under the weather lately and so reading some old paintball publications. Something I've noticed in many issues has been the recurring subject of teams sand-bagging at the am. level, and avoiding the bump to pro. Some of these critics are respected players, but many, in my opinion, are just bitter chatter-boxes who are either just repeating things they've heard, with no kind of personal knowledge, or just jealous fools upset over a good smacking. I'm not denying that it may happen, but reading some of these articles make it sound like a plague. I don't think a lot of players realize what the jump to pro means. It sounds so easy, "What's the hold-up?" The pressure, not to mention the skill level is so much higher. A good example of both sides of the coin for this season would be Strange and OBR. Strange has shown that they can mix it up with the pro's, and they worked themselves up at their own pace. No one forced Strange to mature, they did what they had to do to hang. Now look at OBR. They didn't have to make the move, hell, they were disbanded for a season. But how much crap have those guys had to listen to? They're one of the teams that have been hounded to make the move, and I'm curious if that's why they did it. They've had a poor season thus far, and it seems they should've given themselves more time to rebuild before taking the dive. I'm not completely sure of the point I was trying to make with this post outside of, next time you read about teams sand-bagging, think before you grab your torch and pitchfork. Okay, back to sleep for me.

 

[John Molloy]

Nighty night and sleep tight, the sand bags are coming!!!!!

 

[John Molloy]

while were discussing AM teams sand bagging what about teams who change their name to drop a division or two?

 

[Baca Loco]

no such thing

"sandbaggin" doesn't exist. when every team on the face of the earth chooses for itself where and at what level of competition it will play how can you possibly have anyone playing "where they don't belong?"
the only thing you really have is well known very good teams occasionally trying to play events for the prizes where a large proportion of the competition will be inferior to the "sandbaggers." at the major event level it's a totally nonsensical debate.

 

[CROOKED-POPO]

How much of that depends on the sponsor? If someone was willing to pay me to play, I would play at whatever level they told me to. If they said pro, fine. Should Trauma move up just because they are wasting everyone? What if they can't afford to move up or their sponsor doesn't want them to? Maybe there should be an open class added in which all teams can play if they want and you play anyone that signs up no matter what other division they are playing at the same event. I would love to play against the pro teams but am not willing to pay pro entry fees to do it. An open class seems like a good compromise.

 

[Manning26]

PoPo, if you play NPPL, even at entry level, you'll end up drawing a pro team, so there you go. What're you waiting for?

Cow, always glad to have you on my side... however rare.

John, thanks, I had a lovely nap. Does this changing names thing happen a lot over there, or was there just the one instance recently?

 

[John Molloy]

glad you had a nice nap

I've heard rumours of this happening at a few events over the last three years, its not a regular thing and I can't remember any that have occured recently (last 4-5 months) I would say its not a regular occurance....

 

[Tyger]

Originally posted by John Molloy
I've heard rumours of this happening at a few events over the last three years, its not a regular thing and I can't remember any that have occured recently (last 4-5 months) I would say its not a regular occurance....

I know a few tems that have an annual "Restructuting", but I won't name names because it's just more rec-player bitching about what he doesn't know about. At least that's what the new team that used to be the old team tells me.

As to sandbagging in general, Shoulda been at Skyball. Man, It was kinda odd that the Novice division was larger than the Am's, and most of hte AM teams, who play NPPL as ams, suddenly became novices? Hrm?

I shouldn't say anything tho. I mean, PPIG was accused of purchasing jerseys so we'd look like the referees. Accused, mind you, by a team that beat us to boot. Like we had called Zap 2 months before the event and said "Yeah, hi. We wanted to know what the color scheme for your referees will be for Skyball. We know that you'll be debuting your new Chronic paint there, something that you won't tell us until a few weeks before the event, but we want to get an idea what your refs will look like so we can camouflage ourselves to look like your staff. After all, since we're not sponsored by Chronic or Zap we'll scour the paintball netherrealms until we find a jersey form another company in the same colors, shades, and if we can print font so that we can pull this off. Oh, and by the way, I'm planning on breaking my wrist and going through a living hell of rehab and sharp pains when I bend it for the rest of my life so we can win sportsmanship too." (Yes, I heard that accusation after the fact...)

I'm more than a little jaded this week, does it show?

-Tyger

 

[John Molloy]

Tyger you are almost as much of a cynic as I am m8

I know how your wrist feels, I did mine in a bike accident 12 years ago, and it is a tad painfull to play these days. I wonder if any company out their will do a one off grip frame? i'll get in touch with PP and see what they say.....
L8rz

 

[Tyger]

Originally posted by John Molloy
Tyger you are almost as much of a cynic as I am m8

I know how your wrist feels, I did mine in a bike accident 12 years ago, and it is a tad painfull to play these days.

Last January, collies fracture. 4 pins, 4 screws, 2 plates, and no insurance. Live for the moment, for tomorrow the lawyers cactch up with me.

Really puts a lot into persoective when someone says you did it for a publicity stunt. Actually, I was trying a method air.

-Tyger