Pro Tour Team Captains #2

[Robbo]

I can't believe I am reading some of this !!!!

Paintball owes nobody anything, just because somebody might wanna bash heads with the top kiddies doesn't make it happen just because you wanna, or feel you have some sort of right to do it.

Paintball, like any other enterprise needs money and if you feel as tho u don't wanna pay (for whatever reason) then that means somebody else has to , and if that somebody else ain't willing, then it comes back to you .....

The Pro circuit in reality served only those teams who played; as for being any sort of showcase, oh purrrlease, don't even go there.
It was a pretty amateurish, small time set up with about as much glamour and glitz as a half polished turd.
If this was to be the UK's showcase for tournament paintball, then I would be embarrassed because the money invested in that circuit last year was, in my opinion completely mishandled and inappropriately so.
We are a small time country with big ideas going nowhere .. and if anybody wants to argue that point .. please start cataloguing examples of any enterprises that ooze professionalism and imagination along the lines (obviously not scale) of something like Huntington Beach.
We got zip guys, absolute zip.
Our ambitions on these boards seem sincere but the reality is wholly different.
This country seems to breed mediocrity and indifference and if it weren't for people like Ged Green, Owen and Laurent, few of us would have any idea of where to take Brit ball.
It may well suck to hear this but I would love to hear of some gem of hope that would in some way counter my cynicism ... I really would.....anyone?

 

[Smally85]

Northern Twat (I don't know your name so I'll have to call you that sorry) I don't care if I have to pay to play the Pro Tour. Granted being told it'd be free was a very nice thing to hear, but I've paid for every single moment of paintballing i've done since I started. All off my own back, I didn't have mummy or daddy helping me, mainly because they thought paintball was a joke. Don't try and tell me that I'm only whining because I'm not getting something for free because that is complete bollocks.
Besides I'm not actually moaning about anything apart from the complete lack of communication that we were shown.

Get off your high horse ffs.

I'll be playing paintball this year on whatever pennies I can scrape together Pro Tour or not. I don't really care, but I can't afford to go to the milleniums and pay top whack to play the top teams, sorry.

 

[Robbo]

If money isn't an issue, and people genuinely don't mind paying then it's easy.
All you do is get together, work out who you want in the league, get them to accept and then organize some tourneys.
It ain't rocket science here, all you need is the commitment from teams, a site (most suitable sites will do you a deal for a day's rental) and away you go ......

If the premise for the league is to improve UK ball or whatever, then surely it is incumbent upon those teams to arrange it for themselves if nobody is stepping up to the plate.

..or am I missing something????
Please advise !

 

[IanC]

Originally posted by Robbo

If the premise for the league is to improve UK ball or whatever, then surely it is incumbent upon those teams to arrange it for themselves if nobody is stepping up to the plate.

..or am I missing something????
Please advise !

no, that about covers it, but trying to get a few email addresses so you can knock ideas about without filling up a forum gets you told to basically fcuk off. Maybe I do like golf after all.

 

[Steve Hancock]

I liked the idea of having a national league fed from the winners of the regional leagues. And I would have loved to have had something domestic, that all the top UK teams felt was worth investing there time in. So the from those points of view, I liked what the pro-tour did. But I always though that it wasn't set-up in the best way it could have been. It seemed a bit unprofessional and short term. This appears to have been true as the Pro-tour is dead. The organisers have dropped it, the sponsors too - its dead.

It seems some still strive for the ideals that I mentioned earlier: A locked national league fed by properly structured qualification from the regional leagues, that all the top teams consider worth playing. And it sounds like people would like to try and keep these ideals alive by organising their own event, to fill the void left after the death of pro tour. Admittedly it wouldn’t be difficult to organise a tourney, (I held one this weekend for the University Championship) but I don’t small having a scale event and giving it the grand title of pro-tour will have the status it requires. I doubt that would have either the prestige or prizes to make of interest to the top teams, or to make it worth the regional teams bothering with if the qualified for it. I think it would be flogging a dead horse.

Hmm, seems like my idealism is becoming a little jaded.

 

[Smally85]

People keep saying the Pro Tour is dead... I've got to say that whilst the "Dye Pro Tour" is indeed dead as we knew it last year there is still a Pro Tour kicking about with different organisers and less sponsorship. You've got to ask yourself what made the pro tour, was it the fact that it was called the "Dye Pro Tour" or was it the fact that the best UK teams took part in it, or was it the free entry fee that Northern Twat seems so fixated on, or was it the fact that you could be promoted into the league and (next year) demoted from the league?

I think it was the fact that the best teams in the UK were participating, and for me, and my team, thats what made us want to get into the Pro Tour. We didn't even know it was free entry until the Heavens Gate leg of the Pro Tour for gods sake. Now that Nexus have left the Pro Tour it seems like its no longer a proper Pro Tour as you are no longer getting to play the best teams.

I don't like going into debates about how to make British ball better because its been done to death now, everyone knows how to make it better but not enough people are able/willing to do it now. Shame, but hopefully it'll get sorted out someday, wish I was in a position to do more, but I'm not so I'm not going to harp on about making British ball better.

 

[Oli HPG]

Originally posted by Northern Twat
Tell me this , why does this thread keep coming back ...............

IS IT the fact that some good Teams got to knock heads or

is that fact that you all thought you where going to get to play for free ?

is that the reason that most of you are complaining ????

Free ball is surely something no one will let pass. But the fact that most teams actually play MS and other series where they pay loads of money should show you that they are more after some decent games. If they are for free it is a bonus. Plus it has been used to advertise series to draft more teams to play their events.

 

[Robbo]

It would seem that every strata of our sport is infected with indifference, from the average site owner to the average team, we seem paralyzed by mediocrity and apathy.

It’s a terrible indictment of the people involved in our sport that we seem to flag up the problems, even suggesting answers, coherent answers at that, and yet, nothing happens, well nothing significant anyway.

Sites continue to look no further than their pockets and teams look no further than the local tourney. This is our lot it seems and regardless of any murmurings we might see on these boards reading cries of ‘it’s a disgrace’, ‘let’s do something’, or whatever, we march on regardless into the paintball backwater.

Pissed off?
We should be but I have now gotten past that and gave up looking toward to the average site owner for any help with our sport and as for our teams?
Our record is below average, well below average if we look toward Millennium rankings as any sort of indicator and yet we soldier on amid cries of ‘Paintball’s too expensive’, ‘you can’t improve unless you got bundles of money’ etc, etc, etc ….
More excuses......

For the few with ambition and dedication, I wish them all the luck in the world, people like Chuck from the Jags, Triss Hewitt with the Ducks, Chris Pelling with his new team down in the South West and Pete Martin with his new Tigers to name but a few.
These guys train hard and have a goal, they ain’t gonna be happy unless continual improvement is part of their game, this is what is needed, it’s not impossible, far from it, it just takes the right people to take control.

These are rare examples of real ambition and dedication, I know there are others, but not many and I apologize in not mentioning them but it’s not exactly an extensive role call.

The future doesn’t look rosy for us, far from it in fact; pettiness seems to have more influence in Brit paintball than does ambition which just about says it all as far as I am concerned.

The real tragedy is, we have the potential, we have a lot of ballers who could really benefit from a serious approach but they haven’t got the vehicle on which to progress.
It’s not always about money, money helps, of course it does but far too many people would rather moan about teams like Nexus having too much than knuckling down and trying to improve themselves.

Oh for a few more people like Chuck, Triss, Chris and Pete, if we had about ten more of these types we could start knocking ourselves into shape but until they appear, all the talk on these boards is gonna remain academic.
Instead of talking, we seriously need to do some walking guys.

 

[A.B]

I'll just put in a little bit for my team from the captainy end

In Jan 2005 quake was looking to achieve an end of season goal, one that both satisfied our current sponsors and improved the standing of the team for the 2006 season both in performance and profile.

The millenium series was financially out of our league at that point to attain any reasonable end of season place ( in our opinion attending more than 3 events) and to a large degree it still is.

We decided that by attending and achieving results in the NSPL series we could potentially gain a spot in the 2006 pro tour, this would not only be good promotion for our sponsors products and facilities but meant that in the 2006 season Quake would be playing some of the best Uk teams, we saw this as an opportunity to improve our game far quicker than attending any other series in Europe (bearing in mind that the pro tour was supposedly going to offer 10 games on a single day against 2 of the top teams in the UK)

Cost WAS a factor- why wouldn't it be? that amount of experience for very little outlay (in comparison to other series) would of been fantastic. We still fund everything - not griping, but cost is a factor! We would still play the same format/teams if we had to pay.

Quake as a team is upset that this 'achievement' we made in 2005 now counts for very little/nothing in the eyes of our peers, but we will achieve our development through other ways. Whether that is a commitment to the 2007 millenium series or not.

Robbo's quite correct about the people he's mentioned (of course he is he's Robbo ) i have had the pleasure of meeting both Chuck and Martin from the Jags several times , and they are both an inspiration. Everytime i've spoken to them they've been both considerate and constructive in their comments both for my personal development and in our teams progression.

It really is a shame there aren't more like them.

Please bear in mind that some players on the teams that gained promotion may be speaking passionately about it, they have put a lot of effort and made some big sacrifices to achieve this goal and that goal is no more.

Quake will play the top UK teams, wherever and whenever, but at some point we will be on that same field as you.

A.B

 

[yatesy]

If you wanna play the top teams then you should of entered the PA

There is no doubt that domestically they have the most (not all) top teams/ players playing out of all leagues, that was true last year aswell (not including pro tour)

You could always bear that in mind for your long term plans i.e. next year as I'm pretty sure th PA will continue to run