PA Cup - UK's first national Champions...

[Gillie]

The Paintball Association Cup

It’s now less than two weeks before the entire country will know who are the UK’s first truly national paintball champions. The anticipation is growing as some of the best players in the country are taking their places to represent their hometown.

John Bonich is one of the best known players in the UK and has just taken on the role of manager of Bicester Town, the first team to get a TV interview as a result of entering the Paintball Association national league. In a recent interview John said, “Being the manager of a highly successful young gun team and being amongst all the young bloods made this old git feel like having a go to make the town team successful. I want to be the Arsen Wenger of paintball. I’ve got a good bunch of lads around me and there’s no reason why they can’t do well.”

In true tabloid press style, Hatts edits the above quote to:

John Bonich says “Bicester are gonna win coz everyone else is a bunch of tossers!”

The latest teams to book in are Lincoln Storm, one of the bookies favourites having a relatively young team but already with international experience; the Sunderland Black Cats with new manager Ian Burke; and Durham City, so far the youngest team with an average age of only 16.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a part of the future, join your local team or if you’re not going to play, support them. Help generate interest for the sport you love - ring your local radio station and newspaper and ask for information on your local town paintball team.

For more information on booking into the Paintball Association Cup or about the Paintball Association generally, please contact me on 01642 809589.

 

[Collier]

Originally posted by Gillie
The Paintball Association Cup

It’s now less than two weeks before the entire country will know who are the UK’s first truly national paintball champions. The anticipation is growing as some of the best players in the country are taking their places to represent their hometown.

John Bonich is one of the best known players in the UK and has just taken on the role of manager of Bicester Town, the first team to get a TV interview as a result of entering the Paintball Association national league. In a recent interview John said, “Being the manager of a highly successful young gun team and being amongst all the young bloods made this old git feel like having a go to make the town team successful. I want to be the Arsen Wenger of paintball. I’ve got a good bunch of lads around me and there’s no reason why they can’t do well.”

In true tabloid press style, Hatts edits the above quote to:

John Bonich says “Bicester are gonna win coz everyone else is a bunch of tossers!”

The latest teams to book in are Lincoln Storm, one of the bookies favourites having a relatively young team but already with international experience; the Sunderland Black Cats with new manager Ian Burke; and Durham City, so far the youngest team with an average age of only 16.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a part of the future, join your local team or if you’re not going to play, support them. Help generate interest for the sport you love - ring your local radio station and newspaper and ask for information on your local town paintball team.

For more information on booking into the Paintball Association Cup or about the Paintball Association generally, please contact me on 01642 809589.

So which top teams are booked in? Nexus? Shockwave? Tigers? Jags? Storm(although I assume this is the Bicester team)? Kelly's? K2? Twisted? etc etc etc
Without teams of that caliber isn't the tittle of 'UK National Paintball Champions' a little empty?

Paul

 

[dam-dangerous]

Originally posted by Paul_collier
So which top teams are booked in? Nexus? Shockwave? Tigers? Jags? Storm(although I assume this is the Bicester team)? Kelly's? K2? Twisted? etc etc etc
Without teams of that caliber isn't the tittle of 'UK National Paintball Champions' a little empty?

Paul

paul, you are missing the point of the whole thing.

its not a normal tournement. its an inter city thing.
all of kellys etc can enter but not as kellys.
they enter as say "preston bandits" or whatever.
you wont hear of the usual names even though the whole team may be there.

ian

 

[Gillie]

Originally posted by Paul_collier
So which top teams are booked in? Nexus? Shockwave? Tigers? Jags? Storm(although I assume this is the Bicester team)? Kelly's? K2? Twisted? etc etc etc
Without teams of that caliber isn't the tittle of 'UK National Paintball Champions' a little empty?

Paul

I assume you mean "title" and not "tittle" but I could be wrong

No it's not an empty title at all and the title of UK National Champions is perfectly correct...as Ian says, you've rather seem to have missed the point...

It is a national league, not a regional one and the offer to participate in this event was open to everyone. In fact players from some of the teams you mention are taking part but if those teams you mention & others choose not to enter that does not mean the title is any less valid for those who have opted to compete in this event.

If you've actually read any of the many posts that have been put up across the majority of the forums used by UK players and also the write-ups in the Paintball Association's magazine then you'd probably have a much better idea of what it is we're trying to accomplish.

And full credit to all those teams and players who are taking part because at the end of the day, if anyone from outside of the paintball world does sit up and take notice, these are the ones who'll be seen and the first ones to pick up any kind of serious sponsorship.

 

[sykesg]

Where will it be played and whats the format - 7-man sup air?

 

[Collier]

No I haven't missed the point at all, I know I'm not gonna see Kellys as such but I would be expecting to see a team made up of the Kellys. Same goes for other teams.

Yes I've also read the many posts about the event, including the post by 'tourny baller' in the A&Q forum who had this strange idea about local sites giving the local team money

My post could've been taken 2 ways, 1 was a chance to promote the event further, name drop some of the awesome players that are competeing the other was to assume I haven't got a clue what I'm talking about I'll concede that I don't get the PA Magazine and mainly browse this forum (there's others???)

I do get what the event is all about and I truley hope it is a success! Hell, we'd probably of entered it but £400 plus paint a few weeks before Campaign?? No chance, maybe next time give us a chance to get some local sponsors to foot the bill (see told you I get it!!)

Paul


The format is:
7-man Sup'Air Ball
Unlimited Paint
2 Day Self-Seeding Competition
Entry £400

http://www.pbuk.biz/pa.html

 

[Hatts]

I'll concede that your post could have been taken two ways, unfortunately I guess the way it read came across as a little negative, certainly by the people who called to draw my attention to it. But I do greatly appreciate your support...I'm glad that you want this to succeed...after all there are some who don't for whatever reasons of their own which kind of puts us a little on the defensive side.

I'll also concede that £400 is a lot of money although in actual fact the entry fee was dropped to £350 across the board. Over two days, even with a minimum 7 man squad that equates £25 per head which is less than you'd actually pay for entry into most 1 day tournaments, especially considering that air and event T-shirts are included in that fee. Most teams actually have more than 7 players on their squad so that reduces the cost still further.

Strangely enough, not every player in the UK is actually playing Campaign either and some of the guys entered for the PA Cup are actually rec-ballers who would never have played Campaign anyway. I guess the chance to represent something and someone other than themselves was too good an opportunity to pass up and most of the teams will probably get to play significantly more paintball than they would at Campaign anyway. Which lets face it, for these guys it's about playing as much 'ball as possible at the end of the day.

As regards time to get sponsors, well the event was officially announced in February of this year at the European Indoor and was in fact being talked about with teams expressing an interest as early as November last year. We've also been on the case ourselves working hard to encourage sponsorship for the teams taking part and sending letters and press releases to interested teams for them to copy and distribute to local media and businesses. So in all fairness it's not exactly been short notice and the teams who have put the effort have actually started to get somewhere. It's been hard work and it'll continue to be hard work but no one ever said it was going to be easy.

As far as teams receiving money from local sites goes I wouldn't like to comment but I do know that some of the teams entered are backed by sites from their local area or have even been put together by a site operator. Pretty logical really as any press coverage the team gets should draw significant attention to their site.

But if anyone is interested the gates are still open...we haven't set any limit on the number of teams and we can adapt the field arrangement at very short notice to accommodate as many as 8 fields.

Once again, thanks for your support and hopefully we’ll see you playing for your home team next year when the season starts proper.

Cheers

 

[Hatts]

Originally posted by sykesg
Where will it be played and whats the format - 7-man sup air?

The Paintball Association Cup
August 16th/17th 2003
Witton Castle, County Durham

· 7-man
· Sup’air
· Unlimited paint
· 2-day self seeding tournament
· All teams must represent a town or city in the UK

The Paintball Association Cup is designed as a showcase event, and an introduction to a national series, with an emphasis on attracting attention from outside the sport. In this event, the first of its kind, teams from around the country will represent their home towns and cities in a truly national competition. Some of the most exciting paintball ever seen in the UK is expected with the prospect of games such as Liverpool playing Manchester, Newcastle vs Sunderland and Wolverhampton against Birmingham.

The event is scheduled to take place over two days on the weekend of 16th/17th August 2003, at Witton Castle, County Durham, home of the “Storming the Castle” finals of the Series 2002, the second largest domestic event of the year in the UK. The format for the competition is 7-man, Sup’Air, unlimited paint. Day One will be a self-seeding competition to determine division placings for Day Two.

Team managers: for an information pack and booking form, please call Gillie 01642 809589.

 

[Shuck]

I can't wait to play, and its just on my doorstep! Should be excellent training for Campaign and I know it will be well setup, as per every tourney at Witton Castle.

Roll on the PA Cup, but I do have STB to get through first!

 

[Collier]

Originally posted by Hatts
I'll concede that your post could have been taken two ways, unfortunately I guess the way it read came across as a little negative, certainly by the people who called to draw my attention to it. But I do greatly appreciate your support...I'm glad that you want this to succeed...after all there are some who don't for whatever reasons of their own which kind of puts us a little on the defensive side.

I'll also concede that £400 is a lot of money although in actual fact the entry fee was dropped to £350 across the board. Over two days, even with a minimum 7 man squad that equates £25 per head which is less than you'd actually pay for entry into most 1 day tournaments, especially considering that air and event T-shirts are included in that fee. Most teams actually have more than 7 players on their squad so that reduces the cost still further.

Strangely enough, not every player in the UK is actually playing Campaign either and some of the guys entered for the PA Cup are actually rec-ballers who would never have played Campaign anyway. I guess the chance to represent something and someone other than themselves was too good an opportunity to pass up and most of the teams will probably get to play significantly more paintball than they would at Campaign anyway. Which lets face it, for these guys it's about playing as much 'ball as possible at the end of the day.

As regards time to get sponsors, well the event was officially announced in February of this year at the European Indoor and was in fact being talked about with teams expressing an interest as early as November last year. We've also been on the case ourselves working hard to encourage sponsorship for the teams taking part and sending letters and press releases to interested teams for them to copy and distribute to local media and businesses. So in all fairness it's not exactly been short notice and the teams who have put the effort have actually started to get somewhere. It's been hard work and it'll continue to be hard work but no one ever said it was going to be easy.

As far as teams receiving money from local sites goes I wouldn't like to comment but I do know that some of the teams entered are backed by sites from their local area or have even been put together by a site operator. Pretty logical really as any press coverage the team gets should draw significant attention to their site.

But if anyone is interested the gates are still open...we haven't set any limit on the number of teams and we can adapt the field arrangement at very short notice to accommodate as many as 8 fields.

Once again, thanks for your support and hopefully we’ll see you playing for your home team next year when the season starts proper.

Cheers

I completely understand and re-reading my innitial post it was easy to take it negativley.
I also agree that per head it aint that much, my relating on the closeness to campaign was purely on a personal team level.
Yeah the announcments did go up ages ago, but hey we're ballers give us 2 years to scratch our arses let alone organise a team portfollio for potential out of industry sponsors.
You mentioned a media pack that you'd send out to teams for them to use to help attract support, if I mail you my address can you send me one over?

Again good luck.

Cheers,

Paul