NPPL Ams tougher than Pros?

[TJ Lambini]

We all know that 8 of tha world's dozen or so toughest teams ain't playing in tha NPPL, and that this has severaly weakened tha top division, but tha NPPL Am standard eclipses anything else in tha world. Check out tha stats from Vegas:

Pro cut - 440

Am cut - 622

Given that no teams are likely to shift up this season, does the nature of this cut undermine tha NPPL Pro bracket? Should some top Ams be 'encouraged' to step up? Or is this great for the long term future of the league, suggesting that the next generation of top end teams will be spawned from within the NPPL?

 

[manike]

I'm amazed more Am teams didn't step up and play Pro. If ever there was a golden opportunity to do it, it's during this split and with the other top teams off playing X-ball...

It does seem like less competition, and more glory and money on offer...

Some 'AM' teams did step up and have done pretty well for themselves so far...

At the moment I think the top of our sport is undermined. I'm not sure how it will turn out.

I wonder if it will be like Rugby in that we have League and Union and although obviously Union is the top of the ladder and the best game (blah blah blah ) some people still look to League for their hero's...

 

[Jack Wood]

But don't forget that the Ams play only one, or maybe 2, Pro teams in qualifying.
Nexus had to play 3 Pro teams in qualifying.
But generaly, yes, the level of play of the top Ams (and Novic) is certainly as high as 50% of the Pros.

 

[acsik]

Jack

Ummm that would be the point playing Pro isnt it?


Its a strange world and a big opportunity now to the top AM's thats for sure. Loook at Nexus they worked hard and had this fortunate circumstance and they ended up where they ended up at Vegas.



Cya

 

[mikelynch49]

I think I will probably get slammed for this but I will say it anyways. Keep in mind that none of this is a blatant attack on the NPPL which I think is still the greatest league in the world. Now......

It is complete bull**** that the cut for the AM teams was basically 1 1/2 losses. The reason this cut was so high is the fact that the AM teams that were ranked 1- 16 only had to play one pro, 3 novs, and 4 rookies. 4 Rookies for christ sake???? To make it no better the AM teams ranked 16-23 played 2 pros, 2 Novs and 4 Rookies. It just so happened that most of the AM's beat their pros. This should tell you something about the pro bracket. The point of this is that the AM division was the only division that never played other teams in their division. The solution to this is simple. Let the AM teams play each other. That in turn would give some of the AM teams losses and then lower the cut. I play on Evil Factory (yes we played like **** there so don't ask) and I think it is bull**** that with 1 loss we should be sweating whethere or not we are gonna make the cut. To all the AM teams with just 2 losses out of 8 games, I feel you have a legitimate reason to be pissed. If they are not going to let us play any teams in our division then they should make allowances for more teams to continue on to the 1/4 finals. What did they think we wouldn't beat the Rookie and Novice teams????? **** most of us beat up on our pro teams.

And after all that they then proceed to tell us that we won't be playing on the "show" field. Our rivalry with KAPP is probably the best rivalry in paintball right now. We ****ed up our end by not making finals to play them. But what if we did??? Then no one would have seen us play them for the 4th time out of 4 times in the finals. That is bull**** as well.

That is just my 2 cents. So let the slamming begin (i.e. calling me a whiner, bitch, ******* etc.) But remember my team played on Sunday so really I have no reason to be pissed.

Lynch
EFT

 

[TJ Lambini]

What's tha rationale for Ams not playing Ams - everyone else plays teams in their own bracket, right?

 

[manike]

Isn't it to do with the 'snaking system' for working out who plays who?

Am's are like the forgotten 'inbetweenies', the least cared for in the groups of players represented... serves em right for being sand bagging "whiner, bitch, *******s" (Just kidding Mike )

Novices and rookies want to play PRO's and top teams, that's the main reason behind why teams don't just play within their own brackets.

I'd like to see a format where each team mainly plays their own level, but with say two teams from each division above or below them. (so Pro would play 6 games against pro's and 2 against am's. Am's would play 2 pro, 4 Am, and 2 Novice. Novice play 2 am, 4 novice and 2 rookie, and Rookie play 2 novice and the rest rookie...

Bottom teams wouldn't get to play their hero's and that's the biggest reason's against it... but then why should they?

Unfortunately I'm not sure the numbers work for that kind of scheme... hence the snake method we currently have.

Let's re-hash the self seeding event debate again

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by TJ Lambini
What's tha rationale for Ams not playing Ams - everyone else plays teams in their own bracket, right?

The rationale is simple. The NPPL continues the old tradition of offering the opportunity of playin' one's betters (or so it's supposed to be) and with the limited number of Pro and Am teams in order to offer Novs and Rooks those games something had to give. Since the NPPL is shifting focus to Pro category those match-ups had to be scheduled from somewhere and somewhere was the Ams.
Unrelated but similar scheduling curiosities at PSP LA where highest ranked Am teams had an easier draw than lower level Am teams.

PS--Mike, this ain't SmackTalk so while folks might disagree with ya it'll be more or less civilized.

 

[mikelynch49]

I guess my problem with it is that in HB we played 4 AMs and our cut was pretty reasonable. If we did it in HB then why not in Vegas???

Also, 2 MAJOR soapbox's for the NPPL was the way the AM teams were treated at World Cup (i.e. Ams only playing Ams on Tuesday and Wednesday which was seperate from the tournament) and scheduling. But here we are at Vegas where, in my opinion, the Am teams were kinda screwed with a bit and no teams had a semifinal or finals schedule until 9 PM at the players party. The NPPL can argue all they want that the fan base revolves around Dynasty but believe it or not the Naughty Dogs, Evil and KAPP all have a fairly strong fan base as well. Granted not as strong as Dynasty (rightfully so) but still strong none the less. This was evident by the stands and all space along the netting being filled when we played KAPP at the PSP LA. Not having the AM teams play on the NPPL field because they are taping for TV is ****. You cannot base promotion of a tournament series (NPPL Super 7) on one team (Dynasty) or one division of that series (professional). The teams that paid money to play in a "stadium" venue have a legitimate bitch. As for the schedule my only problem with that is weeks before the event they knew how many fields they had and how many teams were going to semis and finals. How hard is it to have a schedule made up ahead of time to give to the teams in their team packets???? We should be able to walk fields after our last prelim game and go home and sleep. Not have to look on WARPIG (who incidentally did a great job) or go to a player party to get a schedule.

I respect Chuck, Camille, Bart, Ged and everyone involved with the NPPL more than they will ever know. If they want to dislike me for these statements then so be it but I think in HB they had everything right. I just think in Vegas they kinda lost sight of the "vision" they had in HB. Paintball doesn't need VIP areas everywhere you look, concerts or Miss NPPL contests. It needs great venues, precise schedules, good judging and an equal chance for every team to feel like Dynasty, if only for one game. Promote paintball for paintball, not because there is a concert going on at the paintball event.

This year is every promoters chance to one up the other promoter. But the problem is that the players are being used once again as pawns in the promoters big swinging dick contest. The NPPL had us hooked because HB was a huge success. So the PSP had to do something. The only reason we weren't playing PSP LA at SC Village is because of HB. I am sure now the NPPL has alienated some teams. So now what is the PSP going to do to one up the NPPL in Vegas? I had nothing bad to say about HB cause there was nothing bad to say. Vegas NPPL wasn't a bad tournament by any stretch, but all in all it was just a paintball tournament. Not an event like HB and no better or worse than the PSP LA.

Lynch
EFT

 

[Baca Loco]

For whatever meager consolation it serves, Mike, I agree with you pretty much 100%. Expect that point of view to be expanded on in PGI's coverage unless somebody edits the bejeezus outta the article.
I think you have spoken, intentionally or not, for a lot of teams who ain't Dynasty.
However, this is only event #2 and I think the whole NPPL/PP crew deserve this whole tourney season before any final judgement is made.