Predictions Toulouse!

[Tiger Woods]

Hi,

I watch the forums long time ago and see what people talking about Bullets. I play for the Bullets since 2003 and I'm Hungarian. First we invited Oliver and Pete in 2004 to learn from them. They become friends and they play with us since 2004. They never played with any other team from Europe during this period they just play/played with us. We can say they are "rented" players but in an another point of view they are part of the team for 3 years we practice toughether in the last 3 years. They are in Hungary nearly every month when the season is runing. I know that during the years they gave us big help and sometimes we won, only with their help, when we should have to fail but we never did anything against the rules. Last time we could win without them which shows we improved with their help. By the way the team has 10 players 5 Hungarian 2 Czech 1 Lithuanian and Oliver and Pete. I belive not only Pete and Oliver won all of our games but I see they gave hughe help and support like players and coaches.

In a last few years a lot of teams started to use players from US. The difference is if they just use them once or they play and train together like a team long time ago...

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Dude - I'm not having a go at Bullets - I was using you as an example.

My point is, had you guys not been fortunate to be backed so heavily financially, you would have had to make it on your own, as a european team - and with the efforts you guys have put in, your would have reached the same place - but it would have taken longer.

I am all for teams getting training by experienced Pros - but I am against them hiring top level International Pros, to play for them in lower ranked divisions.

I know paintball is not a democracy or an equal opportunity sport - and it shouldn't be - but at least let's not give the best funded teams unfair possibilities.

Nick

 

[Bunkerkidz]

I like to see US pros playing in Europe too, but this is just getting ridiculous.

The competition now is to see who can get more Americans to boost up their squad, and not who can play better paintball.

This way, European paintball is NOT going to go forward, since everyone will be relying on their guest players to win, and since they're playing with 3-4 americans and 1-2 of their guys, they're not going to get alot better since they hardly get to play.

[/rant]

Predictions:
Powertrip
Nexus
Joy

 

[markfenton]

Think Chris Edwards is the only ex Pro on the team?

What about AL, and then you have the machine known only as "The Pebble", ok Pebs hasn't played in the Pro ranks yet but he's more than capable.

Good luck guys

 

[gfresh666]

Us players on European teams

I cannot fault a team for getting US reinforcements, when the rules allow it.

Paintball at the highest level is becoming big business, and it is only natural that team owners invest to secure their position.

It's not cheating, when it's within the rules!

Also, how would we like it if Euro players were not allowed on NXL or NPPL teams?

But, if you want changes, write your union board members that you want "1 team per player, world wide"... and let's see what they can do about it.... but remember, making a rule for the big boys, also means none of



It works both ways

Nick

Yo Nick the philly players on the Ton Tons were part of a contract for Fabrez so that he could play for Philly in the Nxl and he has earned his spot and at least our guys are willing to travel and play. I would love to see more Uk and European teams come to the psp ! And look out for the Philly Dawgs shoulkd be one fun team to watch.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Hi Gary

Looking forward to it - I wish we saw more US teams attend, except for all these guest players

Nick

 

[Takedown]

Dude - I'm not having a go at Bullets - I was using you as an example.

My point is, had you guys not been fortunate to be backed so heavily financially, you would have had to make it on your own, as a european team - and with the efforts you guys have put in, your would have reached the same place - but it would have taken longer.

I am all for teams getting training by experienced Pros - but I am against them hiring top level International Pros, to play for them in lower ranked divisions.

I know paintball is not a democracy or an equal opportunity sport - and it shouldn't be - but at least let's not give the best funded teams unfair possibilities.

Nick

If you are against having pros play in lower divisions then petition the rules committee to allow only d1 players on d1 teams across the board. There shouldn't be a special exclusion for US players. What is the difference between a US pro player going to play for a d1 european team and a European pro player playing for a d1 team? Both are ranked pro and both are playing in a lower division. What if the US player paid his own way to get to Europe? Or if a mutual sponsor (such as DYE) paid for the travel, would that be ok? Is this a special situation just because the pro player happens to be from the US? If that's the case then maybe US players shouldn't be allowed to play in the Millenium at all, and what would that solve?

The fact is not all teams are created equally. Some teams have to scrounge for every penny while others have all the resources they need. Should we force all the d1 teams to practice the same amount of weekends before an event? Shoot the same amount of paint at practice? Have a sponsorship cap? Just to keep the playing field 100% even? Some teams can afford more paint or have a larger sponsorship. Some teams can afford to travel all over to get the best practices in, while others have to settle running drills amongst themselves because there is little to no competition in their area.

These discussions always come up, and nothing is ever done, perhaps because it really isn't that big of a problem. I remember a similiar discussion about lower ranked US teams going over to Europe and winning events, again it was discussed that US team have an unfair advantage and if the playing field were even it'd be a different story.

The fact is we play paintball, a sport that is in it's infancy, one that can't really be compared to other pro sports because the amount of events in a season is limited and the
players are not making a living off of it. If we had 2-3 events a month in one league you would't see players playing multiple leagues. If players were getting paid substantial amounts of money to play this sport then the teams could dictate that players only play one league and force them to practice 5-6 days a week instead of partying and traveling around the world to play other events.

Anyway, I really don't see the big issue here. If the roster rules allow a player to play in a lower division then there really should be nothing preventing a US pro player from doing it. Remember we are all players in this sport, and the last time I checked the US was part of the world and was encouraged to play the millenium series.

 

[Takedown]

Also, I was in a similiar situation in 04 while playing with Splat in the XPSL. We would show up at the events and many of the d1 teams would have guesting Pro players, players from XSV, Dogs, Dynasty, etc. We ended up winning 3 of those events and the series, without using pro guests. This was because we practiced and played as a team. Just because those teams had pro guests didn't mean they were guaranteed to win. I guess that's why I don't think it's an issue, it's possible to win on your own with hard work. In 05 I played 1 event of the XPSL, the final event, this time on the flip side, I was guesting (played for XS NRG at the time) for TKO along with Jesse Lapid and we won the event and the series.

The XPSL has since changed it's rules and does not allow semi pro or pro players to play in their highest division. Perhaps the Millenium needs to look into that if the teams truely think this is an issue, however I don't think specific rules for US players is the answer.

 

[Freddie Brockdorff]

Anyway, I really don't see the big issue here. If the roster rules allow a player to play in a lower division then there really should be nothing preventing a US pro player from doing it. Remember we are all players in this sport, and the last time I checked the US was part of the world and was encouraged to play the millenium series.

See this is exactly the issue - as of now because of the lack of a global ranking system, a european pro can´t go down a division (well yeah once but then he is stuck there for the rest of the season!) - BUT an american pro actually can, he can actually go play ANY division in Europe - and the other way around a european pro can go play any division in the US as well! Again - because we don´t have a ranking system that works between the different series.......

And yeah OF COURSE it should be the same for europeans and americans (as I stated somewhere else earlier on?) - too bad if you feel your rank as a european division 1 player wouldn´t hack it in the american division 1 - tough luck, if you are a division 1 player then that´s where you should play - no matter where you are attending events!

At least that´s my point of view.....

 

[DeanH]

looks like your on the same page here, examples taken the wrong way make it look diff tho

Its not a US vs Euro thing, more of a get things in order and not letting pro-ranked players bump up and down in leagues depending on who pays the best

This isnt about monetary equality either, obviously some teams are better funded then others, but general rules that all leagues should at least try to cooperate on in the pro/semipro brackets for both team and single player rules, so that we dont end up with some individuals bouncing around on 3-4 diff teams in a league they just play for best bid offers.

Of course we cant compare most things in the paintball world to other pro team sports, but we can observe and learn to see what they've done to sort out the same issues paintball may have now or in a very near future.

or we can all hold hands and sing kumbaya my lord and headbang while having a beer. anyways rambling over