Blog articles written by Team Damnation players. These include reviews on gear, random comments about our experiences and insights into our paintball life. The views expressed in these blogs by individual authors may not be views shared by the entire team.
Friends in need
Written by Grant Harrison
Thursday, 26 August 2010 12:57
You may know ex-Armour Paintball staff member, Iron Sea player and current Karma coach/player Halim. He's coached other Singapore teams including Extreme Estrogen as well. We just got news that his wife has had a severe asthma attack which has led to her being sent to the ICU. Our thoughts and prayers for her speedy recovery go out to her and the family.
Khairul Anwar is organising a collection for the family to help them out in this difficult time, so if you'd like to contribute please contact Khairul via facebook or email him
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Thanks.
Just a quick update of happening around Singapore and the paintball world in general because there are some major changes happening...
First in Singapore - SPS Registrations were slow but surprisingly even after early bird discounted registration closed, a few more teams have added their names. I don't know whether this means they have paid or have simply said they will play, but considering we put up a $500 carrot to encourage more than 10 teams to enter last year's SPNS, it seems 2010 has seen an increase in local tournament interest. So far 19 teams have their names advertised on the Singapore Paintball Series in the 4 divisions and with more than a month to go I'd expect even more to be entering by the close of registration.
Singapore has had the honour to host the Youth Olympic Games these past few weeks. While the internet chatter has been pretty negative because of the massive amount the organisers had to spend over their initial budget forecasts, the spirit of the games for the athletes and their supporters has been high. Ok 80% of the live crowds have been local school kids conscripted to go and watch, but I'd rather be watching sport then doing school work wouldn't you? I have to admit I've been watching some hardcore youth athletes do battle on TV and the competition has been impressive and very exciting. At the end of the day that's what the YOG is all about. Maybe Jaques Rogge and the IOC should put a budget cap on all future YOG events so that the spirit of the games can continue to shine (in a less all thrills and trimmings sort of way) without the general population of the host country feeling like they've been financially inconvenienced.
Back to paintball. Seems NPPL may be looking at moving to a Race to format and will trial again during the NPPL World Champs. Speaking of NPPL, Chuck Hendsch the man behind the organisation is also rumored to be one of the partners in a new paintball manufacturing company called HydroTec. These new water based paintballs are hyped up to be as good as the veg oil versions we use now and much cheaper to manufacture. Expect more news on this soon.
I'm in the middle of writing some interesting articles for paintballnews.asia and for this blog. Hopefully will find to complete them over the weekend.
I was reading an interesting editorial by John Amodea, the Editor and Chief of Paintball X3 Magazine who makes an interesting observation that unless "you're 5' nothing, under 125 pounds and 19 years old" it's almost impossible to play paintball at its highest levels. Read the article here. Some would argue that as the sport has become more professional that more athleticism is required to play but this has also been caused by the increased bps of markers, the size of bunkers and fields and the field layouts themselves.
Check the latest field layout release for Millennium Paris 2010 (click on the image for an enlargement)
The design of this field really doesn't leave much options for the taller, slightly more robust player. The design is actually quite interesting because it forces teams to move forward and away from the starting gate, rather than camping at the back line. The lanes may look wide but the positions of the trees, M, brick and Maya at the 50's does allow for players to make it out to the edges. Even so there are few bunkers that the taller player can set up shop and start streaming paint from to defend his front players... so this field layout exemplifies exactly what John Amodea has pointed out.
Does it really matter at a professional level - I think not. Basketball is undoubtedly a tall man's sport as is volleyball. There are always players who through skill and athleticism can get away with being shorter in these sports and the same can be said for professional paintball and taller players.
What John fails to expand on is that for amateur level tournaments, sometimes field designers are copying these Pro field designs. Teams are having to change up the squads bringing in younger, shorter and faster players just like the pros to be successful. This leaves a vast majority of tournament players who don't fit the mold without teams and with no reason to continue playing. Whether you agree or not, I think John made some interesting suggestions in his article that would allow more 'types' of players to play tournament paintball.
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.
Luckily I've found myself we a lot of free time lately so I've played MPOC with my team ZOO, MY-NPL with Shoot In Rage aka SiR (a team from JB that we often train with) and CPCL with Dark Angels (from KL). Last weekend I played with SiR at Event 4 of MY-NPL at MAPAAC, the headquarters and home field of MY NPL. With 23 teams in Division 3, making it to the Top 16 finals was no easy task. SiR managed to win 6 out of 8 prelim matches, drawing one game and losing another. This saw us finish in 3rd place overall and drawn against Jesterz in the 'sweet 16' round on Sunday. Looking at the final placings the top ranked teams were only separated by a few points so Sunday was going to be a fierce battle.
Unlike MPOC, the sweet 16 round at MY-NPL sees teams playing the best of 3 games against one team only based on their rankings. SiR tripped up against Jesterz in our first game with one of our guys getting a one 4 one call leaving us open on the snake side. We regrouped and managed to win the next two games to make it to the top 8 quarter finals and drew Scarecrow, who had almost made it through their prelims undefeated. Sweet 16 game match of the day had to be Feva Division Vs Grammaton Clerics who had to play a 1 Vs 1 match decider after the best of 3 games was drawn. The guy from Feva Division pressed hard with Nick Lim from GC playing it cool and hanging back. In the end the Feva player forced the issue and ended up exposed running between bunkers so Nick simply popped out from behind his behind his bunker and took the charging player out.
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".
Eight paintball teams took up the challenge last weekend at Red Dynasty by entering the Noob Wars, a 3 Man intro tournament to wet the appetites of new local tournament paintball players. Congratulations to Dark Militia (noob edition), Ballistics, The Outlaws and Team Generation Kill who finished in 1st to 4th place respectively. These intro tournaments have done wonders in rebuilding the amount of paintball teams in Singapore after many teams simply vanished without a trace at the end of 2009. And while many of us may mock the YOG (probably because we are jealous of the buckets of money been thrown into the event, the media coverage and the priority freeway lanes) you have to look at YOG just like Noob Wars. It's a platform for young athletes to gain experience in a competition environment and has been created as a transition to bigger and better events. These events may be minnows when compared to the larger international events but they are important in the development of athletes and teams.
I was more than impressed by the Singaporean Division 4 teams that made the trip up to KL to compete at the recent MPOC Leg 4. Not only did Dark Militia, Ragdolls and Raving Lunatics show great team management and organisational skills in simply making it to the event, they also came prepared to win. All teams came fully equipped and had professional pit set ups that put my team to shame. They were all sporting team jerseys or at least matching jerseys and Ragdolls had even organised Rudy Big Mac to coach them, which proved a contributing factor to their many wins and 4th ranking during the prelims. Dark Militia showed that their new recruiting efforts of the past 6 months has paid off. All 3 teams made the final 16 but unfortunately the luck of the draw saw two of the teams Ragdolls and Raving Lunatics placed in the same playoff group. None of the teams moved on to the quarter finals but it was a vast improvement from previous tournaments for Dark Militia and Ragdolls (formerly of Black Aces) and a great Division 4 tournament debut for Raving Lunatics.
Well we're just about to reach the middle of 2010 and I'll admit that I was mistaken when I thought I'd left the paintball nightmares behind in 2009. Though we had a great start to our 2010 paintball season as a team, winning MPOC leg 1, 4th in Leg 2 and picking up the Angel A1 Fly as our main marker sponsor, things came crashing to a halt within days of MPOC leg 2. I've only just come to learn the truth behind much of the mystery that resulted in our team's markers being caught in a web of misinformation, misfortune and misery and I can only laugh at what goes on in the world of paintball on this side of the world. Unfortunately the laughter masks the despair and anger. To be continued...
Not letting the crappy things in paintball let me down I've been on a solo mad run of paintball tournaments starting with the Sultan of Kedah Cup and every 2 weeks after that playing tournaments... MPOC, MY-NPL and CPCL. This week is MPOC Leg 4 so back to KL I go with my brothers from team ZOO. Guesting for other teams like Dark Angels and SiR has been not only great fun but educational. Not only have i been able to play different and higher ranked teams but I've also managed to learn how other teams approach games and tournaments. While my individual skills probably haven't improved, I have been learning from stupid on-field mistakes and picking up tips from other players. There's always something new to learn and I'm always one to try and improve my game by taking advice from others. Playing so many tournaments also helps your field awareness and of course watching how the better teams play and how they win is always inspirational.
While my Xbox 360 sits in dust with 3 red lights of death and the Wii sits close by keeping it company, I do still get excited every time E3 comes around. This year the usual suspects are making noise, Xbox have come out with a new motion detection system called Kinect and a slim-line 360, Rockband gets a bigger band and the the big games like Halo, GOW & COD are out with sequels to continue the FPS gaming revolution.
Amazingly Super X Studios still thought it worth while to develop a sequel to Greg Hastings Paintball. Greg Hastings Paintball 2 features tournament paintball, recball and woodsball in locations set around the globe. Up to 10 versus 10 can go head-to-head in elimination and team battles, you can choose well known paintballers, upgrade markers and employ paintball style moves and shooting techniques to stay out of trouble and take down opponents. There's even paintball tanks for the scenario players...
While the graphics and lighting effects are far from the masterful and artistic scenes gamers have been lucky enough to find in games like Gears of War, I think like all previous paintball games this is one title that paintballers themselves will feel compelled to buy and will help them promote the sport to their friends because we all know there's nothing like the real thing. Its' release also proves that, if only paintballers would buy this game then there must be a lot of paintballers around the world to make this title a viable option to publish.
Greg Hastings Paint Ball 2 will be available September 2010 for the Xbox
360, Playstation 3 and Wii. No news yet whether there will be a release for the Asian market.
Paintball is a cruel game. One minute you can be flying high, the next you can be licking your wounds wondering what if. ZOO had one of those "what if" weekends at MPOC leg 3. We did well to make it through the pre-lims with only two losses given that most of the games we only had 4 guys with working markers. Chak made the play of the day after running on to the field with no marker after his gun was shooting hot (over the 300fps limit)... he played rabbit (decoy) for a while and called out positions and then when I ran out of paint, he dived between bunkers to collect paint from Brian and delivered it door to door to me to the cheers of the appreciative spectators...
On paper we had what we thought was an easy draw for the quarters coming up against Ultimate Speed, Hammer Zero and Rhymber X. Unfortunately I hadn't learned my lesson from Leg 2 and didn't change up our breakout plan enough... Ultimate Speed targeted my blind spot break out and I ended up with an unseen hopper hit and a 1 for 1 which had us lacking firepower and over-run by a determined opponents. In the match against Hammer Zero we were on equal terms with them but we lost both our fronts midway through the match and my tank unscrewed and lost all it's air after a 2 minutes... Hammer Zero played aggressive and it paid off with their fronts streaming down the dorito tape side taking out Brian then Chak leaving me hiding in the snake with no gas waiting to get bunkered... with two losses we were out of the semis. Determined to go out fighting we took it to Rhymber X and even though Abdullah also lost all the gas in his marker we managed to play aggressive and take the win.
Let's hope we can resolve our marker issues that have caused many a grey hair on yours truly lately and show what we're truly made of in Leg 4. The battle for the MPOC Leg 3 series championship is going to be tight if we don't come back with a championship trophy in the last 2 legs of the season.
We're all up in KL for Leg 3 of the Malaysian Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC). Sorting out markers has been a nightmare as we still haven't got out markers back after the "JB Incident" - so we're using and assortment of borrowed markers. With only 5 players and no crew the morning was exhausting. We had 8 matches in the prelim round and without fail every game there was at least one marker down. We still managed to win 6 of 8 games and finished 2nd in the first round with equal points to Spunky Militia who finished above us. In Div 2, Red 7's did well with former player Zach joining them for Leg 3. They finished top in Division 2 and play off on Sunday in the semis for a top 4 spot.
We still have to crawl our way through quarter finals on Sunday so hopefully we'll have enough energy and play well enough to reach the semis...
Will update once we get back to Singapore Sunday night.
The NPPL Super 7 Series Event 2 is being held in Chicago this Memorial Weekend 2010.
What’s even better is that this event will be held in
conjunction with one of the greatest Scenario Big Games in Paintball –
Living Legends at CPX Sports.To run fluidly along with
the Living Legends event, and to make the most of the holiday weekend,
the NPPL Super 7 event will take place on Saturday and Sunday with all
final games being played on Monday, Memorial Day. "This is a
change from the traditional Friday through Sunday format, but we know
that students will appreciate not having to miss School to compete in
this event!This will truly be an event for the history
books with over 3,000 players expected to compete."
There will be a webcast of the NPPL tournament event so get prepared for a sleepless weekend (just see it as training for the Soccer World Cup telecasts)
Post Kedah we're taking a break this weekend. MPOC Leg 3 is coming up in 2 weeks so it's back on to logistics and prep for that tourny. Let's just say that despite ZOO having just been sponsored by Angel, the past few weeks for the squad has been problematic with our training field closed. Luckily Kedah helped with some training and revealed some holds in our game that we need to fix...
Despite being completely unprepared for the Sultan of Kedah Cup due to various nightmares and stresses that the team have been caught up in... ZOO still managed to make it to Kedah to play in the Open Division which featured Div 3 teams, Div 2 teams and Div 1 teams. We helped a few other teams like Contract Killers, Dark Militia, Heartbreakers and Rampage Onslaught get up to Kedah by organising a bus - it was long ride but we all made it.
The organisers had set up 2 tournament fields inside the local sports stadium which doubles as an athletic venue and soccer stadium so the grass surface was in great condition. Day one (Friday) was perfect sunny weather... the only problem was there was no where for the players to hide from the sun unless they want to climb high into the stands (which some like Mission to Mars did!!!) - the players area in the stands was probably the only grievance anyone had.
ZOO had only 3 players available for Kedah, myself, Brian and Marcus so we imported some KL friends from the Dark Angels to make up the rest of our team. After looking at our schedule for the first round I knew we had to beat our first 2 opponents VWW and Votolocos to have any chance of making the top 8. Our day didn't start well and a combination of bad paint, bad strategy and playing strong opponents saw us lose our first two games. We went back to the drawing board and changes our breakout plan which resulted in a win against Hitballerz. We came close to beating our 4th opponent Immortalz but again poor play let us down and we lost this one too.
After lunch we came up against D'Mercy Kidz who despite their young ages have been playing paintballer far longer than I have. We managed to get the advantage but we couldn't remove one of their players who had almost made it past the 50 temple on the dorito side - we should have easily been able to clean this game up but we got locked in a stalemate and the game ended in a draw with only ED points in our favour. We won the next game easily - it was a bye...
Next up were Mission to Mars, a D2 team from Thailand. We took an early head count lead taking out some of their back players but we couldn't capitalise on our advantage and their aggressive attacking style of play and an element of bad luck saw us lose this match too.
Next up were Nightmare - on paper we had the better team but we lost heads early and Nightmare got a lucky break when a hopper got jammed up with sweaty paint. They took advantage of this and overran our back line to take the game. By this stage most teams were feeling the effects of heat exhaustion but the games kept coming. Next we had a little grudge match against Pandamonium who had knocked us out of our last MPOC semis. Luckily we got an early advantage and quickly mopped up the last remaining player to take this game. This was supposed to be our last game of the day but the organisers had decided to play on to complete the first rounds so the stadium lights went on, a little light rain came down and we prepared for our last game against fellow Singaporean team Contract Killers.
Contract Killers had earlier in the day managed to nearly beat D1 team Xtioneers/Xfox and had defeated Red Sevens with only 4 players at the starting gate in what can only be described as a David and Goliath match. For our match both teams were low on paint and had opted not to buy more. It was dark even under lights, it was raining and team pride was on the line. I gave the CK boys a friendly wave from the starting gate and the game was on. Benguin made this crazy move up the snake highway side past the 50 and was met with a hail of paint from a few of our players. The attack didn't let up and 2 players streamed down the dorito side with Shak from CK coming down the snake side. Brian managed to take out one of the dorito side players but didn't realise that their was another hot on his heels. Shak took out our snake player before getting taken out himself. Brian got taken out by Nick from CK who flew down our dorito side and ended up gun fighting with myself and Joe (from Dark Angels). He managed to survive a hail of paint from both of us before Joe ran at him and bunkered him in our own dorito side back corner. Initially we had all thought CK had made it through to the top 8 but a few unexpected wins by other teams saw them just miss out. They finished in 9th place and we finished just behind them in 10th.
Congrats to Singaporean treams the Red Sevens for finishing 7th overall and for Dark Militia in the Novice division for finishing 7th as well. It was a great few days and everyone really seemed to be having a lot of fun which at the end of the day is what this game is all about.
Some pretty strange things go on in the Malaysian paintball scene and this little 'storm' is just another weird one. Seems a company calling itself Millennium Series Asia sent out a press release, printed flyers and made a website stating that they were partners and co-owned by Millennium Series Europe, the powerhouse promoter of paintball tournaments in Europe. The press release goes on to state they will form a local Semi-Pro league and present a Pro league featuring International teams in their inaugural event in Jan 2011. Sounds cool right!!
Unfortunately it seems no one at Millennium Europe knows anything about this, nor do any of the sponsors listed on their website and of course the current Millennium partner in Asia, PALS is rightly pissed at the claims being made. They have contacted Millennium Europe and no one over there seems to know these guys. I've sent out an email on behalf of paintballnews.asia to get the official word from Laurent Hamet from Millennium Europe so let's see what he has to say officially.
Another Malaysian paintball mystery to solve... all eyes are on Penang...
Having won the first leg of MPOC earlier in the year, expectations were high for a good placing in Leg 2. With Abdullah taking time off to take care of the new addition to his family we slotted in young Robert Wild as a front player for his debut Division 3 tournament. We had a shaky first round losing a few matches due penalties and some strategy errors but we did enough to stay in the middle of the pack and make it to top 8. Quarter finals round robin bracket included the Street Mobsters (2nd
place Leg 1) and Pandamonium and Overkill (teams that had beaten us in
the first round). We managed to take out Street Mobsters in a hard drawn
out battle only to be beaten by Pandominium in the next game. It was a
do-or-die Quarter Finals match versus Overkill (who on paper were the
best team that weekend) and we had to beat them to advance to the
quarter finals. A penalty on their team opened the door for us to take
advantage and grab the flag sending us into the Semi finals.
We drew CMX Bucaneers in a best of the Semi finals match up. We had beaten them easily in the first round but they got the better of us in the first game getting early hits of the break and clearing us off the field one by one. The second game we had a good break out but Allan had a ball stuck in his hopper and had to frantically pull it apart to try and remove the ball. CMX took advantage of the open lanes and suck down the middle of the field taking out players in succession and bunkering out Allan just as he'd fixed his hopper. So it was off to the 3rd and 4th playoffs for ZOO Vs Ultimate Speed.
Ultimate Speed had shown great form throughout the weekend. We managed to win the first game but they took early heads in the second game so it was down to the final game to decide who was going to take 3rd. They laned Robert off the break leaving us weak on the snake side and I was shot out not long after. The remaining players tried to hold on to the game but it wasn't to be our weekend, so we had to settle for 4th place. This finish should still keep us at the top of the Division 3 rankings for the season but we definitely have to go back to drilling hard to improve some elements of our game if we want to dominate as much as we did in Leg 1.
Singaporean based team the Red Sevens added another notch to their belt taking their first MPOC championship after coming so close in previous years. This is probably their sweetest victory to date, seeing that they have been playing MPOC for many years and have many close friends in the league. To achieve this result in Division 2 against some of the best teams in Malaysia, after having coming 4th the previous week in MY-NPL, proves that their current line-up is an in fine form. I'm waiting for the MPOC season rankings to be released but don't be surprised if you don't see two Singapore based teams #1 in their respective rankings now.
Kudos to other local teams who made their debut at MPOC on the weekend. Black Aces and Dark Militia in Division 4 and Wildlife in Division 3. Dark Militia won the most matches of the 3 teams and finished 11th out of 22 teams in their division, which is a great result considering they were playing with a new line-up. The other two teams each had wins and gained invaluable experience that will only see them improve in future tournaments. If they are reading this blog please don't be disheartened, even our team endured many 2nd last places before we started improving, so training and persistence will pay off.
Thanks to Shameen from Angel Paintball Asia, Jane from Red Sevens and X-Fox for their help on the weekend with last minute preparations for games. Stay tuned for more exciting news this week about team ZOO.
Another historical milestone for the Damnation paintball club. MPOC leg 2 will see us coming to KL with 4 teams: ZOO & Wildlife playing Div 3 and Dark Militia & Black Aces playing Div 4. For some of the players it will be their first regional tournament, for some their first tournament and for ZOO it will be a return to defend their No. 1 spot against the Malaysian teams looking for a ZOO scalp or two. There will be 5 teams in total from Singapore including the Red Sevens, an SG turnout not seen in Malaysia since last year's World Cup Asia 2009. I know a lot of the D4 guys are nervous, I suppose the first hour before game time is where they just need to suck it up and enjoy the experience. After the first game the nerves will be replaced with adrenalin and by the 6th game probably fatigue and heat exhaustion.
For those who haven't seen my facebook hints, ZOO will now be shooting the Angel A1 Fly after securing a new sponsorship deal with Angel Paintball Sports and Angel Paintball Sports Asia. The team is very excited about becoming part of the Angel family. While we haven't made any formal announcements we will be sending out a press release next week and telling you more about our partnership with Angel and some more new sponsors in the coming weeks. We'd also like to thank Mr Shameen Dahalan from Angel Paintball Sports Asia for his support and help over the past few weeks. Much appreciated mate.
I'd also like to dedicate this weekend's tournament to Abdullah's new baby boy Hasan and to the injured Kelvin, who once again cannot make it to play due to a recent injury. We'll all play hard and do our best for you boys!!!
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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 Review Last 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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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 [...]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 [...]
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.
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...
Grind Online Paintball Magazine presents “Emerging Underground.” A documentary, video containing interviews and action from some of professional paintball’s emerging players.
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.
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 - AMATEUR 1. 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
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
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 Bulgaria
The 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
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.
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:
Div 1 Team Ku - Japan Team Xtioneer Xfox - Malaysia Team STK - Australia Team Epic - Japan Team PBX3 - USA
Div 2 Team 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 3 Team Splat Gold - Phil Team Splat Platinum - Phil Team Global Pinoy 3 - Phil Team Paintball Republic - Phil Team Impact - Phil
Div 4 Team 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.
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". 
The NPPL Super 7 Series Event 2 is being held in Chicago this Memorial Weekend 2010.
Another historical milestone for the Damnation paintball club. MPOC leg 2 will see us coming to KL with 4 teams: ZOO & Wildlife playing Div 3 and Dark Militia & Black Aces playing Div 4. For some of the players it will be their first regional tournament, for some their first tournament and for ZOO it will be a return to defend their No. 1 spot against the Malaysian teams looking for a ZOO scalp or two. There will be 5 teams in total from Singapore including the Red Sevens, an SG turnout not seen in Malaysia since last year's World Cup Asia 2009. I know a lot of the D4 guys are nervous, I suppose the first hour before game time is where they just need to suck it up and enjoy the experience. After the first game the nerves will be replaced with adrenalin and by the 6th game probably fatigue and heat exhaustion. 
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!
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 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
Welcome to the largest paintball battle on Earth, 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: