ChuckC said:
1--How was it overall?
2--How was the reffing? Who reffed? NXL refs?
3--Was it the same rules as X-ball? If not, what was different?
4--Was the field a regulation X-ball field? If not, what was different?
5--What was the final standings?
6--Why did some teams change their name?
7--Is another one planned?
8--Were there any prizes / money given out? What were they?
That's all I can think of for now...
1-- Ah, Chuck, I'm sorely tempted to say smoke and mirrors but it would give the wrong impression probably as everything on TV is, in one way or another, smoke and mirrors, especially anything passing itself off as 'reality.' But that's perhaps too philosophical.
The venue was fabulous--the arena inside the Mohegan Sun casino and resort. It fired the imagination as to what everyone hopes Pro Pball might one day be like.
The TV element annoyed me as it was time consuming with peeps underfoot and in the way all the time. I'm sure others were more interested in the prospect of being on TV. And of course everything was driven by the demands of TV.
The event was purely a made for TV project.
2--NXL refs and I thought it was generally poor. After our first match--and during on a few occasions--I objected fairly strenuously to ref placement because it resulted, over and over, in missing certain calls. I was told the refs were fine so I harrassed Mike Ratko for a while about it as well but he knows as much about paintball as I know about microsurgery so ...
Oddly, by the start of the second match all the refs were working new positions. Hmmm. It helped some but I wonder if the whole TV thing overwhelmed them some too.
3-- more or less. Some changes as pertained to match scoring and no gun regulation as we were shooting NPPL-style semi-auto. I was told Jerry insisted on that particular requirement. Any time the refs suspected a gun they simply took it away for the remainder of that match--which I saw a couple of times but why one gun and not another I couldn't begin to guess.
4-- No. Dimensions were the same or thereabouts but no center large X. Fingers (trees) were used but instead of the X they used 4 large cans. Exactly how that improved anything much, again, couldn't say. Coaching was on an elevated platform from the "wrong" side of the field and the pits were plexiglas-walled platforms at each end. There were some other minor odds and ends but no huge differences.
5-- good question. It doesn't matter really but I'm sure they managed to calculate it somehow or other. You see, we started with two divisions of 4 teams but we only played two prelim round matches and those matches were hand picked by Jerry. (At least he said as much to me at one point on Wednesday.) Going in we were told match results would be scored as per the NXL with wins/losses and point differential the deciding factors. That proved to be not altogether correct but close enough.
As to who finished where beyond Dogs and Dynasty they would all be a question of wins/losses and/or point differential so I'm assuming XSV finished with a better point differential to Atlanta (Strange) for third and fourth cus they didn't play for it.
6-- my understanding is the other franchise holders in the NXL insisted that as this wasn't an NXL event the full names couldn't be used. At one point we were going to be the Jacksonville Pirates but ended up the Jacksonville Raiders. (?) Strange was Atlanta Predators. Non-franchise teams apparently weren't affected except they used different city designations, for example, Dogs were Seattle, XSV was LA, etc.
7-- I would imagine the plans are in the works but I would also guess, and this is purely a guess as I have zero specific info, that any future similar efforts will only occur if this first one proves a success, whatever that might mean.
8-- Nothing beyond the privilege of participating.
