What will TonTon do?

[Impulse raider]

Nexus had a great season in CPPS ,, certainly can't say the best in the European Scene..

I certainly don't see dye backing them for another season if they can't back the Ton Ton's through a whole season and to not support them through a hot gun situation is to me just damn wrong...

It will be a shame to loose Nexus but I think we don't currently have a strong enough UK talent base to keep them at the top to be honest and they don't have the funding to bring in all the European and American big guns.

 

[frobinson]

hhmmm so to summarise so far:
-Heat without two of the Russians but still around for 2014
-Art Chaos with a few RL players, the two from Heat, potentially Clint Moore and Axel Gaudin, maybe even Spicka all playing the PSP
-Nexus without Dye and possibly without Clint
-TonTons possibly without Axel. Maybe still with Dye by the looks of things.
-RL potentially folding...

Barely 1 week into the off-season and there's already plenty of rumours floating around. Where's my popcorn...

 

[Impulse raider]

Don't you just love Rumours ,,, possibly another top Uk player also heading state side ..

Damn if only I could turn back the clock.. And be in my 20,s in this era

 

[frobinson]

Don't you just love Rumours ,,, possibly another top Uk player also heading state side ..

Damn if only I could turn back the clock.. And be in my 20,s in this era

wait, another UK player? Please do share!

I love the rumour mill! and I'm 20 right now, so I'm loving this

 

[Dave284]

Nexus had a great season in CPPS ,, certainly can't say the best in the European Scene..

Nexus finished the 2nd best they ever have this year. Best since 2008. There is no reason to start thinking that Legion will start folding. They are an organization to rival any other. They will adapt, rebuild and overcome. This isn't just a game for them, it's a business. If they fold I will be highly surprised.

I highly doubt Kyle Spicka will leave Dynasty for A/C. Remember Dynasty won the season this year... They literally couldn't be any higher.

There's no point speculating right now, because that is all it's going to be. Speculation, rumour fire.

 

[Ash - GI Sportz]

Nexus had a great season in CPPS ,, certainly can't say the best in the European Scene..

I certainly don't see dye backing them for another season if they can't back the Ton Ton's through a whole season and to not support them through a hot gun situation is to me just damn wrong...

It will be a shame to loose Nexus but I think we don't currently have a strong enough UK talent base to keep them at the top to be honest and they don't have the funding to bring in all the European and American big guns.

Echoing Daves point, this year was Nexus best finish in the CPL since 2007 when we took 3rd. 2008 we didnt rank as high, but we did win 2 Millenniums that year...Whilst it would be rude and unprofessional of me to comment on Nexus' internal relationship with DYE, I agree that the UK talent pool isn't exactly overflowing with ready-made pro players, or even potential ones unfortunately.

We have taken a big step in the right direction this year though with 4 UK teams getting promoted in their respective divisions, however this actually exacerbates the talent pool problem as you now have half a dozen teams all trying to add talent to their rosters to push them on next year.

 

[pablo666]

But in my opinion, not enough is done by teams in the U.K to even attempt to establish whether or not there is a talent pool. It's alright to have the odd pro clinic here or there or a team try-outs but does it go further than that? And I'm not saying anything against the methods used because it must work for some teams, I'm just saying that perhaps more could be done. For example, how are talent pools filled in other sports? Through programmes such as scouting - i.e look through the main few British tournament series in all divisions and from what I can figure, it wouldn't take alot of resources to get someone or a couple people to walk around a bit at these events and watch for perhaps certain criteria they look to fill. You could argue the whole youth squad argument as well but too many problems of kids with guns at young ages and lets be honest everyone has argued this point to death. Maybe the answer isn't to pick up "ready-made" pro players, but instead highlight ability and enhance that, as opposed to leaving it to someone else who could get it wrong.

 

[Ash - GI Sportz]

But in my opinion, not enough is done by teams in the U.K to even attempt to establish whether or not there is a talent pool. It's alright to have the odd pro clinic here or there or a team try-outs but does it go further than that? And I'm not saying anything against the methods used because it must work for some teams, I'm just saying that perhaps more could be done. For example, how are talent pools filled in other sports? Through programmes such as scouting - i.e look through the main few British tournament series in all divisions and from what I can figure, it wouldn't take alot of resources to get someone or a couple people to walk around a bit at these events and watch for perhaps certain criteria they look to fill. You could argue the whole youth squad argument as well but too many problems of kids with guns at young ages and lets be honest everyone has argued this point to death. Maybe the answer isn't to pick up "ready-made" pro players, but instead highlight ability and enhance that, as opposed to leaving it to someone else who could get it wrong.

@pablo666 you make a good point, but very few teams in the whole world have the resources to run a reliable scouting program or run a 'farm team' to develop players up to a high standard.

The current model within paintball is based on having depth of quality teams through the divisions. The top teams feed off the level below them, who in turn add in at the bottom. I have said many times the UK needs more depth through the divisions. If you take a snapshot of the Millennium Series going into 2014 this is the spread of UK teams.
CPL - 2 teams
SPL - 2 teams
Div1 - 4 Teams
Div2 - 7 Teams (although none of these teams played all four events in 2013)

This is already a huge step forward from the start of 2013 ago when the picture looked more like:
CPL - 2 teams
SPL - 1 team
Div1 - 3 Teams
Div2 - 9 Teams (only 2 of these teams played all four events in 2013)

Ideally I would like to see something like:
CPL - 2 teams
SPL - 3/4 teams
Div1 - 5/6 Teams
Div2 - 8 Teams (playing 3 or more events)

This kind of depth provides a natural framework wherein talent has more opportunity to rise to the top.

By contrast, if we look at France, which has probably the most healthy frame work in place in terms of national organisation and depth of quality among teams we see a 2014 line up of:
CPL - 5 teams
SPL - 7 teams
Div1 - 14 Teams
Div2 - 10 Teams (6 playing at least 2 events in 2013)

 

[shoaibaktar]

Nexus had a great season in CPPS ,, certainly can't say the best in the European Scene..

I certainly don't see dye backing them for another season if they can't back the Ton Ton's through a whole season and to not support them through a hot gun situation is to me just damn wrong...

It will be a shame to loose Nexus but I think we don't currently have a strong enough UK talent base to keep them at the top to be honest and they don't have the funding to bring in all the European and American big guns.

The talent base is there ,they just chose not to use it . A large part of the Tigers CPL team were ex Nexus .Disruption ,I would put good money on a top2 placein SPL and a return to the top table next year.GI Defiance DV8 15,s all winning single events and championships .Blimey if you think that this is not enough for a country 1/5th the size of France you will never be convinced.Where you do have a point is this country has no support structure for these individuals ,or the sport to compete on a level plane

 

[pablo666]

@Ash - DYE Europe (please take with a pinch of salt, not meant to be offensive at all) But are that many resources needed in reality to set up something like a scouting programme, i'm not saying scout what they had for breakfast in 2003 just merely walk around at tournaments, the CPPS for instance and watch some lower divisions, I play in Div 2 at the CPPS and granted we play r t 2 and yourselves r t 4, but I still find a fair amount of time to go sit on the bank and watch the "elite" division. All i'm proposing is as players yourselves, and this goes for all teams looking to progress and fill rosters with talent, (remove thoughts of cost or whatever out of the question i.e bringing someone to scout) take a few minutes to watch lower divisions. Now in the 40 odd teams that play in divisions other than the top one, it's hard to convince me that there is not going to be enough people with talent to fill a team from scratch and be competitive. If you feel i'm missing the point slightly or anything please let me know, just putting thoughts out.

With regard to the Millennium Series, without boring everyone you of course have to factor money in. Now what i'm wondering is what is it that France does in Paintball that we don't to allow this framework? And if we don't know, how do we go about finding out and/or fixing it so we can have that framework? As teams we can moan about travel etc. but there are millenniums in France x 2, the U.K and Germany. Everyone who wants to play has to travel so surely that argument about "they have 2 tournaments in their country" can't be used and as pointed out by @shoaibaktar, France is 5 times bigger than the UK so they don't have it much easier. Interested in anyone's thoughts on this?