OK Pete happy too but first some background.
The PA National League is like no other in the UK, its formation from the first instance was not to make money (and it has done that bit very well
) but to try and change the way paintball is perceived by the sports council and the public so we could maybe with other things we need to happen become a recognised sport.
The reasoning behind it is very simple.
Paintball in the UK (and more or less every other country in the world) is just a recreational pastime and because of that it would never be conceived as a viable sport.
So we asked the Sports Council what we would have to do to change that viewpoint, so they gave us a stack of guidance books and told us to go away and read them.
We did and it became obvious that all other Sports have a criterion that sets them apart.
One of the most obvious things we had to do was instigate a National league and that must also be closed and locked (just like football) the teams that entered was irrelevant to a degree as long as we used historical results and experience to assign every team to a division we would meet the criteria set us by the SC.
It was never set out to get the best 50 teams in the country playing (but that would have been great) but to get players who wanted to represent a geographical area to form teams. And to that end we still strive.
Now you might think I am just being disrespectful to all the other leagues in the UK and you would be wrong, Bully for instance – without him we would not have any tourney paintball or a UKPSF.
It is just all other leagues are looked at as recreational paintball because you can turn up if you want and the winner is just the leader on the day, the staff at the event are not independent from the teams, anybody can play on the team you could even have another team play under another name and there is no rule against it also most events don’t even publish the rules they will be using if they even have any, and most of the leagues are won in general by one of the four or five teams who played at every event not the team who has beat every team who they played without loss. So it is quite obvious they are run as a commercial enterprise (nothing wrong in that) but would not help in getting sports recognition.
You may wonder why I would like us to get the SC on paintballs side well the simple reason could be that ALL teams would find it a lot easier to acquire cash sponsorship but I assure you there is a lot of better reasons than that but it is kind of the first thing that the players themselves want to know.
To my knowledge I only know of three events in the world that run a locked league the NPPL pro division. The NXL and the PA in the UK as far as I am aware you do not have to compete in all events for all the rest – Just finish top at the end when the points are counted.
The Paintball Association does not put itself above others it just has a different viewpoint and aims for paintball in this country, all of them I believe for the better.
You do have a valid point to your argument when you claim that how can we say that the winners of the PA would be the best in the country when the so called best teams are not playing. (for this point I am only referring to Tigers, Shock and Nexus)
I could possibly counter that with the argument saying how do we know they are the best what have they won in the last twelve months or even two years.
But I wont bother because I do know how good they are but I hope you see my point
So I think it is a valid claim to say winners are the best in the country because they competed and won the only UK national league in existence at the moment.
I also know that you in no way mean to sound disrespectful to anyone who competed in the league so if anyone is thinking that they are wrong.
As I told you on the Phone if Hatts had said in his post “The Paintball Association National champions will be decided this weekend” it would not have upset people as the title he used did, even though what he said was factually correct. And my own advice to Hatts was not to post at all on PGI’s forum.
Dynasty are correctly thought of as the world champions and I think they maybe the only ones who may hold that title in its genuine sense for some time because to avoid confusion the just go out and win everything around the world.
I am going to the world cup in America in October but hang on did we not have a world cup in Paris a little while ago and will everyone be in attendance at all the world cups and if not should we all start to say they should not call themselves world champions because of…………. See what I mean.
Respects
Russell
