I was asked yesterday what I thought of an opinion piece posted on the website over at Rich Telford’s Wide World of Paintball. (Title is the link.) You may know it better as Facefull. The comments were made by, who else, Rich Telford. It is after all his wide world of paintball. And instead of simply answering the question it seemed blog worthy.
If you’re hoping for fireworks you’re going to have to set off your own or settle for disappointment. I was asked if I’d seen the piece and if so, what did I think? I have now read it. And it’s hard to argue with. Most of it sounds like stuff I’ve been saying. It offers a suggested path. What’s to criticize?
What I will do is piggyback on a couple of points. (I’m also assuming you’ve read Rich’s comments so don’t be a lazy slacker and take a minute to check them out.) There are 3 items I want to riff off of here. 1–Rich generously passes responsibility for the current state of the game around and while it’s certainly true the facts is that some are more responsible than others. 2–Rich suggests the players need to support the members of the industry that support the pro teams and ignore those that don’t. Some might read that as advocating a boycott of sorts–which is how I read it–and while I am agnostic on the utility I’m not shocked by the idea. Collective action in the collective interest (where it can be ascertained) is perfectly reasonable. (But is that in the collective interest?) 3–And finally Rich suggests if times are tough for the pros, and they surely are, it’s also no picnic for the lower divisions. Which is true too, as far as it goes.

1–the current state of the game is the responsibility of an industry and major league promoters who have, at times, largely been one and the same. Did some high profile players have input at times? Sure, did their vote count for anything at all at crunch time? When the nature and direction of the game were on the line? Not so much. Without some control there isn’t any real responsibility. The only responsibility teams and players bear is the result of an unwillingness to become embroiled in the politics of the game, either individually or collectively. In the present that’s neither here nor there, I just want to be clear.

2–if the players and teams have proved incapable in the past of acting in concert in their own self-interest–and they have–I doubt much of anything will convince them to act individually for the collective good–even if they buy into the boycott idea. And then there’s the disconnect between the pro teams and the not pro teams. Does the average player see a connection? Other than that’s where some of them hope to one day be. It’s not that I oppose a boycott or something like it, it’s more that I’ve never seen any evidence to suggest it could be organized, formally or informally.
One reason the needed dollars aren’t there is because they can’t be justified. Budget cuts don’t necessarily dictate which parts of the budget the cuts come from. When sponsorship dollars are targeted it means the value received from those sponsorship dollars is less certain than dollars spent elsewhere. Perhaps one thing teams need to do is figure out a better way to make their case. (Ironically, not unlike what Rich and XSV have been working toward for years. So who would know better what is possible in this environment and what isn’t?) One good question for teams is how do we go about building value in our team? And an equally good question for sponsors is what do we lose if we fail to support the pro teams?

3–which kinda leads me to a comparo between the pro teams and the divisional teams. There are a couple of relevant differences. What passes for sponsorship in most divisional situations is really differing sorts of discounts. Are the basis for these discounts tied to pro sponsorship, or the lack thereof? Not so much. Any company that has a product line targeting the competitive part of the game probably offers some sort of discount options to teams, either directly or through retail stores and field shops. Are players really going to ignore those options in order to encourage other parts of the industry to give stuff to pros? Again, not so much, it seems to me. One place (among many) where the pros and divisional players share a common cause is in the costs both incur in order to compete. As divisional players move up ranks the costs of being competitive increase as well so for those players with dreams of playing pro must begin to confront the reality of what it takes off the field as well as on it.
Lastly, while decisions made by industry and promoters have brought us here I’m not pointing fingers and insisting on placing blame–the point is to accurately assess what is so we can all hopefully make wiser decisions as we move forward.

I’m still in the middle of writing about last weekend but here is something to tie you guys over – me lining up with Mikko Huttunen and Zyzek in the ‘All-Star’game.

Me and Erno’s friend from Finland

Just a quick update, kids. We’s been in Sacramento at Capitol Edge and flying out at the crack of dawn in the morning. We thought our flights sucked–we left Thursday evening at 6:30 pm and arrived at our hotel 10 hours later. The Russians got in around noon on Friday after around 27 hours on various planes and stop overs. Ouch! You’d have to pay me the big money too just to put up with the travel. Weather was great. Better than expected or forecast. The paintball is always good. Otherwise practice went well but it does interfere with my blogging schedule.

PSP registration for Phoenix has closed. Final numbers aren’t confirmed yet but could be off 20% from last year. What’s going on? More on Tuesday’s Suicide Watch. The Millennium has also made some sudden and unexpected moves in the last few days. What’s up with that? A temporary flash of common sense or is it every day garden variety fear? Is the NPPL 3.0 holding its own in a shrinking major league paintball universe? (I’m still curious as to what the paint dealio is gonna be.) I don’t know about y’all but I need a break from all this seriousness so expect a couple of posts this coming week on the lighter side–like a new animated Ask the Coach.

It has been a long break, I have gotten some reports of the Madpaintball 2010 tournament at RAF Cosford, Wolverhampton. The winning team turned out to LufBru Legions, beating previous champions Kaizoku (Southampton – won 2nd place). I think those who played had a great time, but I wonder how it fared compared to previous tournaments. I say this coz’ I have not seen any players with their own markers though many seem to have their own paintball jerseys and also masks. Well, send me a photo and video to prove me otherwise. I will posting some photos I got from LufBru tomorrow. 

What’s new in paintball ? 


Apparently Kingman has come out with a new generation of paintballs starting this year, a smaller one. A 0.50 caliber (standard ones are 0.68) Check below: 

WHAT ARE SOME ADVANTAGES OF SPYDER .50 CALIBER
Spyder .50 Caliber Paintball is all new for 2010 featuring a smaller than standard ammunition which means greater accuracy and efficiency, less mess, less impact and less cost for the consumer.

This new .50 Caliber marker is extremely air efficient, light and compact while retaining all of the performance benefits of .68 Caliber paintball including range, accuracy and marking characteristics.
The highly air efficient Patent Pending “EKO™” Valve System is capable of up to 3,500 shots from a 20 OZ. and up to 2,000 shots from a 12 OZ. CO2 tank, in contrast to a .68 Caliber marker which averages 800 shots from a 20 OZ. and 600 shots from a 12 OZ. tank. With the low recoil of the marker it is easier to maintain a more accurate flight path capable of placing your shots within a tight grouping. Since the paintball has less mass the energy carried during impact even at 300 feet per second is tolerable and less likely to cause excessive bruising of the skin. Impact energy at 300 feet per second is rated at approximately 5 joules compared to 13 joules from a .68 Caliber paintball fired at the same velocity.

You  can read more at http://www.spyder50.com/