UK vs. US
- Thread starter pbsmoker
- Start date
Maybe too simplistic, why would your primary paintball sponsor want you entering "Slantyhill muddy extravaganza 4"? There's no payback in it, even if you turn-up and whoop ass. The sponsor needs something back for his rips, and you gotta asks where is my bang for my bucks. Winning a domestic event might doesn't really elevate you on to the Paintball hall of fame, win a Millennium or a US event, and then your sponsor may get something back for his cash (i.e. positive press, product placement and association).
You might find that if a sponsor is ploughing cash money into a team (unlikely in the UK anyway, most teams are on incentivised buying a whole different concept), the sponsor may want your time spent training. I mean how often do you see the top teams in the UK playing domestic events?. If your on incentivised buying, your "sponsorer" (for want of a better word), would almost encourage you to play, he's making money still........
I'm not saying people shouldn't play domestically, but we suffer from tournament overkill, too many tourneys, not enough training means the UK Paintball skill base and infrastructure simply isn't developing in the correct fashion.
imput
Thanks for all who have offered imput on this subject. This post was not meant to whine or complain about not getting prizes, im just wondering what could be done about getting more people interested in playing competition paintball in the UK.
For anyone who doesnt know, I am an american. I have played competition paintball for a long time on many teams in the US. I now live here in the UK and to be honest i am a bit dissapointed with the differences but I am here to play the sport.
I am just trying to get people to try and come up with suggestions on how we all can make tournament paintball better, and attract more of a following here in the UK.
SMOKER
Thanks for all who have offered imput on this subject. This post was not meant to whine or complain about not getting prizes, im just wondering what could be done about getting more people interested in playing competition paintball in the UK.
For anyone who doesnt know, I am an american. I have played competition paintball for a long time on many teams in the US. I now live here in the UK and to be honest i am a bit dissapointed with the differences but I am here to play the sport.
As far as that goes, I have played in the heat of vegas, the sand of Arizona, the rain in colorado, and many, many more..... maybe you havent seen some of these fields over here???
I am just trying to get people to try and come up with suggestions on how we all can make tournament paintball better, and attract more of a following here in the UK.
SMOKER
While I know nothing about the UK scene other than what I've been told or read about it I'm gonna have to disagree with you a wee bit, Glen. Seems to me the "problems" revolve around two factors; player attitudes and field operators attitudes. With the later, many operators seem to have little interest in helping develop the playership and in fact, have rules and policies that actively discourage developing progressive layers of experienced and skilled players and even when they do exist (in places) efforts are made to separate them from the newbs (the bread and butter).Originally posted by stongle
I'm not saying people shouldn't play domestically, but we suffer from tournament overkill, too many tourneys, not enough training means the UK Paintball skill base and infrastructure simply isn't developing in the correct fashion.
From the player side it's not too many events, it's the routine choice to play an event instead of practicing. For too many teams and players it's been an either/or situation; either play the event or maybe practice. And some of that is no doubt the result of a general lack of seriousness among the ranks of even the tourney players. Face it, most players are just in it cus they enjoy the game, the novelty and a bit of a laugh now and again. Nothing wrong with that, but it won't win many games much less events.
There you have it, Glen. Your objection to events sounds like blaming obesity on the existence of too many hamburgers in the world. The events are necessary--they provide guideposts to progress or the lack thereof and they also "teach" teams how to win in progressively more competitive situations.
To answer Smoker--you've got to change the whole pb culture in Britain (or find teams and players dedicated to doing it right.)
I bow to your superior knowledge in all matters affecting or relating to burgers, Cow.
I was kinda answering the point about "wouldn't your sponsor want you to play more events", of which in the UK, I doubt the sponsor would benefit, unless he was "selling" you the paint. I got a tad carried away, although I feel that if there was less events the quality of competition would be higher, thus the successful promoters of said events would hopefully make more cash (through greater numbers of entrants or even higher entrance fees for a better experience), and teams would be forced to train more to compete. I think if the you increase the quality of teams playing an event, you in turn increase the Kudos of winning, in turn increasing it's value. Although I totally agree that the customers and those playing these events ultimately want a competitive environment to enjoy their hobby.
I was kinda answering the point about "wouldn't your sponsor want you to play more events", of which in the UK, I doubt the sponsor would benefit, unless he was "selling" you the paint. I got a tad carried away, although I feel that if there was less events the quality of competition would be higher, thus the successful promoters of said events would hopefully make more cash (through greater numbers of entrants or even higher entrance fees for a better experience), and teams would be forced to train more to compete. I think if the you increase the quality of teams playing an event, you in turn increase the Kudos of winning, in turn increasing it's value. Although I totally agree that the customers and those playing these events ultimately want a competitive environment to enjoy their hobby.
1--what can I say? Eat chicken.
2--this argument sounds to me rather like the whole shorter game times make better games argument in which, your ideal, would be one All-England Championship. A single annual event to crown the king or kings of British paintball. One event would force everyone who wants to compete to play and with so much at stake how could the incentive get any higher?
But seriously, I still think you've got it backwards. You can't give heart to those what ain't got it by raising the stakes of success or failure.
3--I hope I didn't say that 'cus I don't believe it for a minute. What too many Brit teams want is the appearance of competition even if the level is uniformly mediocre.
The reality is that very few teams (percentage-wise) get a full ride from anyone. Paint sponsors are usually of the "you get x amount of paint per month for practice, plus paint for major events" or the flat "xthousands of balls per year". Also keep in mind that most regional or local events in the US are event paint only, so a paint sponsor may or may not help with that.
The truth is the majority of teams in the US don't get much sponsorship aside from discounts, let alone entry fees paid, free paint or free gear. Even on the national levels, most of the rookie and many novice teams aren't fully sponsored.
It isn't the number of competitions you enter, it's how you prepare for them. My Xball team practices 3 - 4 times a month for most of the year. Yet we only enter 4 events per year. That's a pretty high practice/event ratio but it's what we need to do to improve.
Originally posted by stongle
Maybe too simplistic, why would your primary paintball sponsor want you entering "Slantyhill muddy extravaganza 4"? There's no payback in it, even if you turn-up and whoop ass. The sponsor needs something back for his rips, and you gotta asks where is my bang for my bucks. Winning a domestic event might doesn't really elevate you on to the Paintball hall of fame, win a Millennium or a US event, and then your sponsor may get something back for his cash (i.e. positive press, product placement and association).
You might find that if a sponsor is ploughing cash money into a team (unlikely in the UK anyway, most teams are on incentivised buying a whole different concept), the sponsor may want your time spent training. I mean how often do you see the top teams in the UK playing domestic events?. If your on incentivised buying, your "sponsorer" (for want of a better word), would almost encourage you to play, he's making money still........
I'm not saying people shouldn't play domestically, but we suffer from tournament overkill, too many tourneys, not enough training means the UK Paintball skill base and infrastructure simply isn't developing in the correct fashion.
fair point... i bow to your knowlage
I don't agree with that at all. I think different levels of players want different things.
In the states we have national, regional and local events. The players who come out for the local 3 man event, with prizes like markers and tanks, tend to be younger/newer to the sport or just interested in having fun.
The guys who play the national events tend to be more focused on competition and winning. While the prizes are an attraction (and a constanst source of complaining), IMHO they're secondary to the competition - defeating the other teams and then getting to talk smack on the internet
. This is really true of the national level nov and am players.
thanks Pete, i did not know the exact figures, just guessed!!!Originally posted by Robbo
Gaff, I think I might revise that 10% figure to something like 0.1% if I were u mate. They got more players attend a Saturday afternoon session at SC Village than we get over here in England