The Monday Poll
If you've been keeping up you already know what's coming. If you haven't your penance is to go back a couple of posts and catch up with, A Pre-Monday Poll Query. This week's tongue-in-cheek question (mostly) (sorta) (kinda) is: Why Do Referees Huddle? You, yes you, were offered an opportunity to participate in the process and if you didn't you have no excuses and no one to blame but yourself. Am I bitter? Naw. As usual you were all (for the most part) a pack of worthless slackers--which, on the plus side, makes y'all consistent and predictable. But if you don't like your options let's just say I won't be particularly sympathetic. Now go vote. Do it for your self-respect. Or as a protest against a demanding blog. Whatever it takes--click that mouse and count. Monday Poll in ReviewLast week's poll quizzed your thoughts on the potential for the new water-based paintball from HydroTec to be introduced at the upcoming Paintball Extravaganza. The only surprise was the 15% who claimed not to know what the HydroTec paintball is--given that just a couple posts below is one of a number of VFTD posts on the topic. What, some of you drop by just for the pictures? Otherwise, in this The Year of the Small Ball your reticence, if not outright cynicism, in accepting this new paintball is clear. 3% consider it hype. 10% figure at best it's just another paintball and 9% think if the paintball proves out its promise it will mean chaos for the paint industry. Now that's focusing on the dark cloud. But most of you are withholding judgment even if you're hopeful it might amount to something. (40%) And for those with their eyes on the prize 10% thought if the paintball turns out to be cheaper it would benefit retailers and field operators while 6% were looking to keep a few more bucks in their pockets. Personally I think it will work and be cheaper for both players and field operators while causing chaos in the paint industry even though it's just another paintball.  |
Red Dawn at D-Day Park!
 D-Day Adventure Park, home of (you guessed it) the amazing Oklahoma D-Day extravaganza, will promote another scenario event, this time featuring a more modern theme! The game, entitled "Red Dawn" based on (you guessed it again) the classic movie of the same name, will be played in Wyandotte, Oklahoma on October 16 and 17, 2010. With an extremely resonable entry fee, great park and an excellent storyline, Red Dawn at the D-Day Adventure Park should be on any serious scenario player's calendar! Click READ MORE for the official game info!
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Greg Hastings at PEVS!
 Greg Hastings continues his 2010 Tour of Duty, promoting his soon-to-launch Greg Hastings Paintball 2 Video Game, at Pev's Paintball near Washington, DC soon! On September 18 and 19, Pev's will host Greg for video game play and a meet and greet Saturday, then an amazing day of paintball Sunday on their massive facility featuring a scenario format played on fields full of forts, villages and boulders! We're told that space for this game is extremely limited, so head to www.Pevs.com and register now!
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Over at ProPaintball
Is the first part of a multi-part series entitled, Anatomy of a Pro Paintball Roster. It's terrific. Just the sort of thing I'd do if I wasn't a lazy slacker. Be smart and check it out. Oh yeah, link is the post title.  |
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What is Tournament Paintball?...
Picking up where yesterday's post left off--(it's no longer yesterday unless you are willing to subscribe to a very loose or generous definition of "yesterday" but better late than never)(Right?)--the last thing I want to do is assign blame. Sure there were decisions made that people disagreed with, either then or later. Yes, there were decisions made that had little or nothing to do with the players. And hindsight is closer to 20/20 with the advantage of seeing how things turned out. But even with hindsight only a few things seem clear to me and I'm a lot more interested today in where things go from here than I am in portioning out culpability like Paintball's judge & jury. It isn't going to change anything so what's the point? What does yesterday's brief history tell us, if anything? In pure numbers the largest events ever occurred after the woods were completely abandoned. Field size did shrink over the last dozen years but the biggest turnouts happened after most of the field shrink had reached present levels or were close to it. There was a dropoff with the introduction of xball but the numbers rose year to year until 2007, when WC fielded over 360 teams. And while 2008 was lower the numbers still topped 320 teams. Throughout the huge event era the 5-man turnout floated just below or above 200 teams. Capped ramping to 15 bps was the rule during a 4 year period during the build-up of xball. Prior to that actual ROF were all over the place as they have been all along in the various NPPL incarnations but not consistently crazy fast until the Halo hit the market. Today PSP is 12.5 for everybody. After an introductory season and the massive positive hype about HB the NPPL took off in year 2 with the 7-man format. One league focused on the perks and the other on the paintball. High end sponsorship dollars peaked around '05-'06. Both leagues were pursuing TV and the Russian Legion introduced a previously unseen level of professionalism in their organization and training. A level of professionalism the other pro teams needed to compete with to stay relevant. Today events take up less time than ever. Guns are still fast. Across the board officiating is about as good as it's ever been. Running events is almost clockwork these days and if you take paint tabs off the table going to an event is still expensive but adjusted for inflation not a lot more expensive than it ever was. So how to explain the decline? Some want to place the start of the decline before the current and ongoing general economic malaise with the flattening of industry sales. The idea being the sales numbers were indicative of a drop off in new players entering the game and the trickle down eventually has impacted tourney ball. (The player spigot got turned off and it took awhile for the reduced flow to reach the tournament faucet.) I find that explanation less than persuasive in part because the industry downturn was at least partly self-inflicted in my estimation. (Most of the rest of the conventional wisdom fits in here as well. Stuff like ROF chased newbies away. Funny thing is I think there has been a trickle down that has affected tourney play.) The last two years WC has had 191 and 183 5-man teams signed up with both years at well over 300 teams total. The consequential decline was during the season at the NOT World Cup events and, of course, all this year. What I think is fair to say is that the level of growth we were used to stopped prior to the full effect of the recession hitting. But at this point the economy at large is depressing competitive paintball across the board--along with pretty much everything else. Here's where I take the leap and offer a different--if not altogether new--analysis of the situation. Some of the pieces remain the same, just re-ordered a bit. (This is, btw, focused primarily on the PSP, and its sphere of influence, as the larger more active league. That and NPPL 1.0 & 2.0 mostly self-destructed.) The first piece of the puzzle was the move to xball. Xball was intended to be a format compatible with and comparable to mainstream sports. It was designed for TV and it skewed tournament paintball's core demographic younger. (The younger demo has less resources and less ability to organize.) Until this last year the classification system pushed too many players up the ranks--and during part of that period it was done by design as a way to try and fill the upper ranks. Instead, it dumbed down the skill level and pushed players (not teams) into ranks that made it difficult for them to continue competing at the national level and almost impossible at the local and regional level. (None of the PSP affiliates operate a division above D2.) The last piece of the puzzle is what I'm calling the sports mindset--which is something that was cultivated in the xball era. At the pro level the arrival of the Russian Legion and the drive toward a truly professional league pushed all the top teams to develop more formal organizational structures along with expanded training & practice routines. (It also drove up the team costs that have since forced teams to drop out.) And that attitude--along with a practice regimen--trickled down the divisions. Which isn't, of itself, a bad thing but it has changed the definition of tournament paintball. It isn't your Daddy's tourney ball anymore. It's demanding, it's expensive and it has raised the entry bar to potential new players and teams. The end result has been an artificially short competitive paintball "career" for players starting at a younger age in a more expensive, cutthroat version of what used to be tournament paintball. Tomorrow (eh, next time) what to do about it.  |
Anatomy of a PRO Paintball...
Anatomy of a PRO Paintball Roster . . . is not an exact science. There has been innumerable approaches to putting them together There are some tenets however that have withstood the test of time. Some of these aspects have garnered more attention than others. Pro Paintball takes a look at five key components that [...]  |
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A Pre-Monday Poll Query
First, my apologies for the slow week of posting. I'm working on a new project while maintaining several older ones that are usually behind my ever optimistic scheduling without the added pressure of another competing project. Anyway, this is a first. I'm looking to you lot to supply answers for the upcoming Monday Poll. It's going to be a mostly just for fun poll so instead of you telling me afterwards what I should have done you get an opportunity to make this a better poll by offering up your insights in advance. Then if I don't use your answer you can tell me afterwards how much better the poll would have been if only I'd had the good sense to include your answer--which was obvious, brilliant, clever & amusing. The trifecta plus one! The upcoming poll question will be: Why do referees huddle? It happens all the time. In PSP divisional and NPPL play it's usually ex post facto (after a penalty has been assessed) but on the pro field it also happens at times before a call is made but after a flag is thrown. I've often wished Derder or Social or somebody filming would jump in the ref's huddle like they do the players huddles but until we have conclusive video evidence of what's going on I want your answers. You've got the weekend to supply an answer or two--or even three--as the poll will go up Monday, with or without you.  |
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VALKEN SPORTS PARTNERS WITH...
 Minor League Paintball is pleased to announce its selection of Valken Sports as the exclusive provider of paintballs to its events. ?As a Platinum level sponsor Valken will have a positive and substantial presence at our events?, said Robbie Goldsmith, League Director for the MiLP.
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Empire Paintball Announces...
 KEE Action Sports announces that Empire Paintball has launched a national billboard campaign aimed at driving new participation. The billboards are centered around the Free ROOKIE Pass advertising campaign, previously known as Great Day of Play (GreatDayofPlay.net). The campaign provides free entry and rental gear for new players (players must purchase paint) at participating fields nationwide.
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VFTD & PRO Paintball...
The mysterious Baca Loco from View From the Deadbox spent time analyzing our PRO Power Rankings and the communities response and poised several questions. Read on as VFTD and PRO Paintball discuss the Power Rankings.  |
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PPB Exclusive: VICIOUS 2010...
PRO Paintball is proud to present the new VICIOUS Team GEO2 by Planet Eclipse. Read on for an inside look at one of the hottest private label paintball guns to hit the market this season.  |
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X3 Mini Review: MaskWraps
 Let?s face it. Everyone who plays paintball wears goggles to do so (we hope).That?s millions of people wearing one of dozens of goggle systems made by a literal handful of manufacturers. That means an awful lot of the people wearing those goggles to play that paintball might look a lot alike from the shoulders up once the paint starts flying. That?s not a good thing, considering how many people play paintball because it?s different and they like being different. If only there was a way that people could personalize or customize their goggles with designs, camouflage patterns or team logos in an attractive, durable yet inexpensive way. Actually, there?s totally a way to do exactly that thanks to Mask Wraps.
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One Liners: Week of September...
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WCPPL Team; Fuzion Interview
Feddy Cummings Owner/Captain of Fuzion was nice enough to answer some questions about his team’s performance during the WCPPL Event #2 event at S.C. Village and some things we can look forward to in the future. How did you guys do in the event? Definitely not as good as we would have liked. Although our main Fuzion [...]  |
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First look: GI Milsim...
GI Milsim & GI Sportz are rumored to be releasing new paintball goggles and a full line of paintballs. Read on for the latest paintball news.  |
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VALKEN ENTERS MARKETING...
 Delta Paintball, Inc. is pleased to announce today the establishment of a marketing agreement between the Delta Paintball Team and Valken Paintball. The Delta Paintball Team is proud to be utilizing some of the most exciting new products to burst on the scene in recent memory. With this wide ranging agreement, covering multiple facets of the teams operations from the Redemption lines of paint and pants to the multitude of products that Valken distributes, the Delta Paintball Team is prepared for domination on any field of play.
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Pbfashion features Scott...
HK Army Clips from Scott Kressin’s footage….MUCH more to come…  |
Future Focus - Paintball Asia...
Paintball power brokers future thoughts!
Future Focus - Paintball Asia 2011
We've past the midway mark of the year 2010 and tournament paintball in Asia, in the opinion of many, has shown progress and growth. When you look at the overall picture, there have been more tournaments in 2010, with more international teams playing in these tournaments, more fields have opened than have closed and in most Asian countries there are even more people playing various forms of paintball than ever before. While things are never perfect in the world of paintball, there is still much optimism that paintball in Asia will continue to thrive and improve.
PaintballNews.Asia has gathered some of the most influential paintball power brokers in Asia, as well as some esteemed and much respected international guests to answer some questions and give us their insights into what to expect in 2011 - Paul Lam (Malaysian Official Paintball Circuit aka MPOC, PALS & World Cup Asia), Michael Whybrew (Australian Super 7's), Sofian Daud (Malaysian National Paintball League aka MY-NPL), Ulrich Stahr (Millennium Series) and Paul Richards (Coach of U.S. pro team Tampa Bay Damage). Here's what they have to say...
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Grind Paintball ? Emerging...
Grind Online Paintball Magazine presents “Emerging Underground.” A documentary, video containing interviews and action from some of professional paintball’s emerging players.  |
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The Rising Son
Ryosuke Banno - Asia's frequent flyer!
One of the rising stars of Asian paintball, Ryosuke Banno from Japan has been quietly clocking up more frequent flyer points playing paintball than most of us can ever dream of.
 Ryosuke Banno is Captain and team owner of team KU from Japan. Over the past decade he has helped develop paintball in Japan, from opening his own field back in 2003 to moulding a group of enthusiastic Japanese paintballers into one of the most competitive teams in the region. Team KU's playing stats date back as far as 2002, in 2005 they were bold enough to make the trip to the US to play at the PSP World Cup and today they continue to compete at both local and international tournaments. In 2010 he divides his time between running a paintball field/business and playing for team KU in Japan and at international events and playing for the Delta Rovers in Malaysia. His field is also the home field to up-and-coming teams from Japan like Nitamago (World Cup Asia D3, 4th place) and Ryu. We managed to catch up with Ryosuke Banno in between international flights and tournaments to ask him a few quick questions about his paintball life so far:
Q. What position to you generally play?
Everywhere but especially Snake front
Q. Current Sponsors
Dye precision Inc. Rockstar energy drink, KCHL and Samurai Paintball
Q. International Teams you have player for?
Team Delta Rovers from Malaysia at MY-NPL, ISSC and MSL and Team S.W.A.T from Australia at the Super 7's
Q. When did you start playing paintball?
In 2001.
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Australian Super 7's Leg 3...
 Last minute changes to the formats for each division of the Super 7's saw teams from the Amateur divisions moving into a Race to format to increase the number of games they played over the 2 day event. Other divisions also had increases in the number of games in their Race to formats. Maybe the Australian economy is simply that good or maybe the Aussie paintballers simply love playing paintball but the addition of extra games saw absolute solidarity in online support after the announcement with request to even bump the Div 1 to a Race to 7 format.
Professional - Div 1 - 10 Minute games - race to 5
Semi Pro - Div 2 - 8 Minute games - race to 3 (same as the old Pro format)
Amateur - Div 3 - 5 Minute games - race to 2 (same as the old Semi Pro format)
Final results for Super 7's Leg 3
Hostile Intentions secured the #1 ranking on the series ladder with a win in the Pro Division while Uprising A took the Semi-Pro title over SWAT Kidz.
DIV 1 - PRO
1. Hostile Intentions
2. Menace
3. Sydney SWAT
4. X-Fighter$
5. Explicit
6. Blood Knuckles
7. Raw
DIV 2 - SEMI-PRO
1. Uprising A
2. SWAT Kidz
3. Carnivores
4. Shenanigans
5. Rage City
6. The Business
7. Hustle
8. N.B.K
9. Outkasts
10. T.A.G: Legion
DIV 3 - AMATEUR1. Vicious Circle 2. Red Dragons 3. Stand Alone 4. A.C.T Notorious 5. Sydney Spartans 6. ANV Nemisis 7. Uprising B 8. Atomic 9. Korrupt
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PALS Leg 2 UPPIC Results
 International tournament paintball returned to the Philippines over the weekend with teams from Japan, Australia, USA, Singapore, Borneo and Malaysia competing against local teams for podium spots at the PALS Leg 2 UPPIC held at the old Clarke Airbase. From all reports, the weather was beautiful, the field was in great condition and the competitors were all treated to VIP treatment from the moment they stepped off the plane. Competing in their first Asian paintball tournament were the staff of PB Rack, a paintball 'lifestyle' clothing manufacturer based out of Washington State in the US. It seems their trip half way across the world was a very fruitful one, not only making a lot of new business contacts but also taking out the UPPIC Division One champions title over STK from Australia. In Division 2, Malaysian team Xtioneers 2 managed to hold off locals Global Pinoy to take the Division 2 UPPIC Championship title.
Division 1
1st - PbRack Team USA
2nd - STK Australia
3rd - Datis Iran
4th - Xtioneers Malaysia
Division 2
1st - Xtioneers 2 Malaysia
2nd - Global Pinoy Philippines
3rd - Splat Masters Gold Philippines
4th - Sarawak Waxers Malaysia
Division 3
1st - Splatmasters Philippines
2nd - Global Pinoy 2 Philippines
3rd - BMT Philippines
4th - Splatmasters Platinum Philippines
Stay tuned for more updates.
Image courtesy of PALS
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BT BIG GAME - The Global...
 Welcome to the largest paintball battle on Earth, the 2010 BT Big Game. This event is the single biggest multi-national paintball game in the World! On one day, 21/08/10, players around the world will take part in a global paintball battle. Though the game will be taking place in different locations around the world, participants will be globally united in one game as players are separated into the ... Red and Blue teams. So, players in France will be rooting for their teammates in Mexico as the game progresses across the globe. At BTpaintball.com, players will be able to watch live scoring for each location, track missions and view images from battlefields from all over the world. Some of this year?s participating countries include: the United States, France, United Kingdom, Estonia, Portugal, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Poland, Aruba, Malaysia, Australia and BulgariaThe BT Big Game storyline and missions are with our Generals and Field Officials. The event pits the Blue Battalion against the Red Rangers for world domination. So far the BT site lists 5461 registered players so the battle will be epic.
Prizes:
(1) The overall winning army (according to world scoring) 500 pellets per player that can be used at anytime from 21/08/10 with 3 months validity.
(2) The wining Army of the day in Malaysia will each be awarded a Commemorative BT Campaign Medal.
Entry is only RM 80 per player including lunch and paint RM 140 per box. Slots are still available.
Malaysian venues are listed as Xtion and Mudtrekker Paintball Park but we think Mudtrekker has been chosen as the sole Malaysian venue.
Enquiries:
Terry: lukoskav@yahoo.com, 016-2622869
Roslan: lan@mudtrekker.com, 016-3326104
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PALS announces new China Cup...
 The folks at PALS have just announced the formation of PALS China, which consists of Mr. Michael Tan and Mr. Michael Whybrew and the establishment of the China Cup as the 1st leg of PALS 2011 in Hainan, China. If you're wondering who these two gents are, both Mikes are Aussies and business partners, having joined forces in 2007 to create a paintball manufacturing company based in China called Reactor Paintball. Since then they have gone on to create a mini paintball manufacturing empire which includes Paintball Assassin and Killer Paintballs. Mike Whybrew also heads up the Australian Super Sevens organisation, Action Paintball fields Australia-wide, PaintballShop.com and still manages time to play with his team SWAT. The date set for the PALS China Cup is 24th - 27th March 2011 which should slot in nicely between exisiting regional tournament schedules. PALS believes that this entry into China will bring about significant opportunities for the global paintball industry and have significant impact for the recognition of paintball as a mainstream sport. With little to no local paintball tournament scene in China (that we know of) the organisers will have to promote heavily to international teams to make up the registration numbers. Hosting the event in Hainan seems to be a smart move since the area is well known as an international tourist destination because of its lush greenery and sandy beaches. Hainan even boasts a visa-upon-arrival policy available to citizens of twenty-six different countries.
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PALS UPPIC next week in the...
 International paintball comes back to the Philippines next week after a long break. The United Paintballers Philippines International Championship will be held at the Clark Field in Pampanga from the 19-22 August and will feature teams playing 5 man formats from Divisions 1 to 4. This will be the second leg of the PALS series for 2010. Here's the team registration list so far: Team Ku - Japan Team Xtioneer Xfox - Malaysia Team STK - Australia Team Epic - Japan Team PBX3 - USA Div 2Team Red Sevens - Singapore Team Simpsons - Malaysia Team Sarawak Waxers - Borneo Team Xtioneer 2 - Malaysia Team Splatmaster - Philippines Team Global Pinoy 2 - Philippines Team Tagli - Philippines Team North Borneo Syndicate - Borneo Div 3Team Splat Gold - Phil Team Splat Platinum - Phil Team Global Pinoy 3 - Phil Team Paintball Republic - Phil Team Impact - Phil Div 4Team Balasik Team Bukto Team Feedworld Team Hada Alpha Team Hada Bravo Team Excom Team Energizer Paintballnews.asia will try and keep you up to date with all the scores during the UPPIC event.
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Congratulations to Boston Red Legion for winning the Professional Division of the 2010 PSP Mid-Atlantic Open! The mostly-Russian team finished Saturdays Prelims with 4 wins and a free pass direct into the Semi Finals.
Paintball Sports Promotions (
Hoping to bring back some of the features of the former NPPL when it was featured on ESPN, the NPPL announced it was bring back the 'All-Star Game' to the DC Challenge event. 
Local paintballers should considered themselves blessed to have choices or when and where they can compete. While we at ZOO decided that we would concentrate on the competing in the MPOC series other teams like Karma have decided to play the MY-NPL series. A few teams like Red Sevens have played both. Most Singapore teams are limited by funds and finding the time to travel every second weekend is a strain when players are starting families or have family responsibilities.
As Singaporeans proudly count down to the nations 45th birthday, let's take a moment to credit unheralded local paintball teams who, despite the hardships faced by Singaporean players, continue to unwittingly live up to the NDP 2010 moto of "Live our dreams. Fly our flag". 
