Was safety ignored at the World Cup?

[Wadidiz]

This is NOT an attack on anyone led by any malicious intentions. It is just one of my biggest concerns in the whole business, and rightly so. If the following allegations have any possibility of being true then they must be addressed:

Post on a thread about chronoing at the Cup on PBnation:
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OK, now that WC is over i think i can tell this story:

Before Adrenalin2's game against Hate, the ref came over to our starting point with a handheld chrono. Everybody chronoed under 300, except yours truly (of course) who shot 325, 319,322! I went to ask our podbitch for the #3 metric allen, but the ref stopped me.

"Forget it man, just play, just play." he said. I couldnt believe it! I was actually SCARED; I could only imagine what the other team was shooting!

I didn't play well that game and got myself shot. As i was walking off the field i took a bonus ball to the hopper that went CLEAN thru both sides of the shell. I could only shake my head in disbelief.

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Also:
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pretty much the same thing happened to me...i chronoed on like 315 one game ...and since it was my backup gun and the reg wouldn't go out anymore the chrono judge told me to just go out there...i really didn't want to go on but the ref said don't worry about it, go ahead you are holding up the schedule...it was going on the JT field for me. thank god things are built to a factor of safety about 2-3 times what they are rated at...masks at like 600fps instead of 300fps...
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My reply:
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If either of these stories have an inkling of truth to them then this is major unacceptable!

It would be bad enough to pay for the cost of travel, hotel, food, water, entry fees and paintballs to participate in the WC.

It would be bad enough on top of that to have only 3 or 4 judges per field sometimes and/or incompetent reffing thus opening the doors to get blown away by the best cheaters.

It would be bad enough to put up with 12 porta-johns for how many people?

But this is where it goes overboard. I'm a safety freak and I don't give a flying f... what people say. I'm right to be.

Safety margins schmargins. 315? 320? That sushi will go right through some goggles (especially the ones that have been hit a few times already) at 8 - 18 bps.

I almost feel like starting a criminal investigation! Am I the only person who feels like this? For God's sake! If a few more people get killed while filling HPA tanks and a few more eyes get shot out, IT IS OVER children!
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The thread is at:

http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1224131#post1224131

Anyone else here feel like I do? Anyone else NOT want to step foot on a field where markers may be shooting at 325 or above?

I'd like to hear a few people like Raehl, Mike Oxblood and Tony Big-Sky defend this ****!

STeve

 

[SirJinks]

no m8 you aren't the only one who feels that way. This is both entirely irresponsible and undefendable as well as being very dangerous.

 

[Wadidiz]

It almost pisses me off that no-one is touching this thread (yet). The thought of the organizers not protecting me from hot guns or other potential safety problems makes my blood boil!

If there's no-one out there that agrees with me then I really misread how serious this bunch is. This matter far outweighs all the other shizit combined!

Or?

And this has nothing to do with money. It is all about organization.

Steve

 

[Baca Loco]

Ok, here's a tiny bit of anecdotal info. This year's WC I played on 8 of the 12 fields and was chrono'ed prior to entering field of play each time and in the couple of instances where markers were over the limit we simply changed out guns.
However, we were never chrono'ed on the field by hand held chronos during 10-man play and 5-man was checked twice, if I recall correctly.

 

[Wadidiz]

So far it's all anecdotal.

I hope to God that what I read are exceptions. Maybe those events, if true, were the only two like that. But that would be two too many. (The players in question name their teams, who they played and the fields they were on, so one could find out who the judges were.)

I hesitated to post this here because it is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction on my part. And because I actually respect some of the people in the organization in question. I have already thought about deleting this post. But this is too serious IMO.

Steve

 

[crazypbkid]

I am sorry to say that it happend when i played a wc too. one of the judges chrono'd one of my guys with the hand chrono before the game and he shot 317,312,330 and because the ref was in a hurry he just went on before my guy could say any thing. Then when he came to chrono me (he did all the before game chronoing with the hand chrono) he didn't have his goggles on and didn't tell any one else on the field to get them on with covers off I had to remind him and i didnt notice till 2 shots in. This happend on the chronic field I think field 10.

 

[Wadidiz]

Originally posted by crazypbkid
I am sorry to say that it happend when i played a wc too. one of the judges chrono'd one of my guys with the hand chrono before the game and he shot 317,312,330 and because the ref was in a hurry he just went on before my guy could say any thing. Then when he came to chrono me (he did all the before game chronoing with the hand chrono) he didn't have his goggles on and didn't tell any one else on the field to get them on with covers off I had to remind him and i didnt notice till 2 shots in. This happend on the chronic field I think field 10.

In all of my ranting and raving about a new approach to reffing and new rules I suggested that PRO refs get docked or fired for safety violations and that reffing teams get negative points. Some people just need to think through some of the consequences even to themselves and their other PB businesses, and re-set priorities. It is not a question so much of money but organization and leadership. And it isn't for want of intellect. Some people just don't seem to be thinking about the right things.

Simply, if some accidents happen because of a non-chalant attitude about safety and due to negligence, the proverbial sushi will hit the fan. We can all turn our markers into wall decorations. And magazines, PB teams, PB parks, PB shops, PB manufacturers and PB distributors can all transform their businesses to lasertag or something.

And some of what crazypbkid describes cuts to Millennium also!

Time to sharpen up.

Steve

 

[Robbo]

If this did happen at World Cup, I can honestly say that it would have little if no chance of being reproduced in a Millennium event.
The reffing situation at the World Cup was a joke, an insult to safety and to the players, how the hell can this keep happening ?
I tell you one of the reasons, coz too many of the magazines and other media representatives ignore it altogether or just play it down !!!

When somebody gets their frikkin eye shot out, or worse then perhaps something will be done but until then, a lot of people just keep booking themselves in year after year after year......

Hmnmmmmmm

Robbo

 

[Eddepet]

I definitely agree with you Wadidiz. I’ve got an example that might show you why the rules and regulations considering appointing marshals need to be renewed.

My team and I played our first Millennium tournament this year at the Dutch Masters Amsterdam. Let’s not get into details about this particular tournament, since this has already been heavily discussed. We had gone through the Millennium rulebook once entirely, and went through the more important safety issues several other times. Being new to the Millennium tournament, I was really impressed to hear the amount of strict rules and safety issues that had to be followed. But I’m drifting away from my point.

Our very first game we had to play on the so called “cheese field”, which had, in retrospective, probably the best marshals of the entire tournament. I don’t recall the team's name at the moment, but someone probably knows whom I’m talking about. After testing the velocity of my marker, it turned out to be hot. After one final adjusting possibility (which the marshal made extra clear to me) my marker still turned out hot. So I had to turn it in for the game and play without. No surprises there. My point will slowly make itself known, so relax.

On the second day, fairly late in the afternoon, we had to play our final game, on the Angel field. This was the first and only game we would play on this field, which was marshalled by a successful American team, whom shall remain nameless (unless someone wants to know badly). In retrospective, I’m thankful for only having to play once on that field.
When we entered the field, the entire schedule was already immensely FUBAR and apparently because of that, the marshals on the field clearly had lost interest in the entire thing. This is where things went wrong. When we started to test our marker’s velocity, a few marshals still walked around without their goggles on, not paying any attention. I had to tell these “pro paintballers” to put their goggles on, because there were live markers on the field, myself.

My point: why is there such a big difference in professionalism amongst the marshalling team? Don’t you think it is a crying shame that a team of professional paintballers who act as marshals don’t take their duty seriously, because things are running a little late and they’ve lost interest in securing the safety of everyone? Should not the pro paintballers set an example for other teams to follow?

I think becoming a marshal for any tournament should become more difficult. Nowadays a lot of teams just play marshal because they get Millennium points. I think teams have to take an exam in marshalling and when they pass, they should get an official lincense. I don’t want to play on a field where the marshals aren’t doing their utmost to make sure EVERYTHING on the field goes by the book.

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by Robbo
a lot of people just keep booking themselves in year after year after year......

If it comes off a lot of teams are gonna go with Chuck 'cus it isn't that stuff like this doesn't matter, it's just that actually being able to compete has been more important. Choice gives the average player some real power.