Just got back from the tournament and felt that i would post my thoughts on the event as a whole.
Firstly the judging, the marshalls at this event were SUPERB! Big respect to Joy, Joy Kids, Powertrip and Hyponotize you guys rocked. It didnt matter who the team was, the tough calls were made and teams were dealt with impartially and fairly. i thought that the professional attitude that these guys showed was admirable, and they showed why the are flown half eay accross the world to Judge the NPPL's.
Having heard the reports from last year about the fields i was aprehensive about what they set up would be. many of you know that last year the majority of the back barricades in the back corners were lay down pills and little sausages, and they were the same here. The right hand tape on the Angel field was made up of a sub on the 50, and 3 sausages on each side in a line to the back of the field. As you can imagine, the paint shot by the back guys was therefore reduced as they could not stand up and had to play the game on their fronts....
The 3 fields (except the Draxxus field) were too narrow, i think the Angel field was about 25 metres wide!
The staging area was great, sheltered and easily accessible although there was no security and i did not get asked for my players pass at all at any time. The floor of the staging hall was a bit like tin foil.......and you can imagine how many people fell over when the paint was spilt on the floor.....
The staging area got so hot in the afternoon that many teams decided to stage outside on the grass and concrete in the open as it was cooler than inside.
The Chrono situation was average, i did not get chronoed onto every field, and someties was not chronoed at all. The players passes were not checked at any time in the games....even in the semi finals games....didnt really seem much point having them.
The standard of the games played was high accross the board. The pros were exciting to watch and many of the games over the 3 days were just mug fests, with players flying out all over the place and getting tagged. It does the marshalls great credit that they managed to keep up with all the play and make the right calls in split seconds. Well done guys!
The Air was better than it has been, players could control the speed of the fill and the air was much cleaner than at any other event. Magued really did good on that count.
The event if I am honest ranks below Amsterdam, Toulouse and Germany, but I am sure that many people had a better time than i did. I felt that the teams had been hard done by in the way the fileds were laid out and deserved a better field set up for better games.
Sam
Also, congrats to the Tigers and to Shock 3, well done guys.
And Woz--> Next time you need a gun, come and ask
And Paul......whats that on the back of your leg.....?
