MAO Heard 'Round the World!

So, I am a week removed from the PSP's Mid Atlantic Open, and I figure it's time I wrote about it. I'm still waiting for Lambertson to finish his post about the UWL a few weeks ago, so I can write my impression and tell everybody how much he's lying about everything. So, in the meantime, here's my report:

It was great!

Thanks! And I'll see you guys next week.

Ok, so maybe there's more I can write. First of all, I hope everybody that is reading this blog tuned in. We need the support of the entire sport. Everybody. Even you camo-nerds who play in the woods and have goatees and mullets and think speedball guys are just a bunch of cheaters. (Do any of them read this blog?) With big numbers we can make a stab at some good advertising, and some good advertising means we can do even more to make a good show.

As it stands right now, it already is a great show. And not just because of the money the PSP has spent on our gear. For this event, we rolled out our first step towards making paintball statistics a living, breathing thing. We unveiled a widget that keeps track of up-to-the-minute stats, who is playing each point, when they get eliminated, and even includes a link to a bio of each player. Of course, that's if everything is working properly and we are perfectly in tune with the stat-keepers and we have all of those bio pages built. But, we did take our first step with the widget by making it live, including the stats up through the day before, and by putting a green check mark in a box next to a player's name if we see them enter the game to start a point. And, with just using that small part of the widget, it seemed to help the viewer keep track of who was playing well so far, who you were likely to see on your screen, and was a mimic of the information Matty had to disseminate. With the delay of the video, and the immediacy of the widget, it seemed that starting lineups were getting cleared in the middle of a point, and that is something we need to work on, but all in all I think it was a great step forward.


Right here I'd like to take a detour to my soapbox for a minute. If any of you who are reading are on or are associated with a professional PSP team, please pass this along: FIX YOUR JERSEYS TO THE RULES, PLEASE. Do you know how difficult it is, right now, to see who is who with the fast pace of this format? It was difficult to see who was heading out for each point, impossible to see who was eliminated on each point, and some teams just have no stats taken for the simple fact that their jersey numbers are IMPOSSIBLE to see (I'm looking at you, Impact, but to be fair, every team had something about their jerseys that made it tough). The numbers are either too small, have no contrast with the background pattern, or both. I really don't care how you think it looks or how much you want to hide your identity from the refs when penalties are called, if you want stats kept for yourself or your team, you'll fix your jerseys. For players, it's a no-brainer: everybody is fighting for their spot on the team and for recognition from the paintball world in general. How are you going to accomplish that by playing in anonymity? Coaches/owners... don't you want to know who is performing on your squad? Heading in to Sunday, Yosh Rau had a 76% in the Points Won stat. That means, 76% of the time he is on the field, Dynasty wins the point. Kinda makes you think twice about sitting him, doesn't it? Guys like Zack Wake from Aftermath and Justin Schwartz from Dynasty had confirmed G's within a couple of digits of points played. For almost everybody else in the tournament, the G count was in the neighborhood of half the number of points played. That's information that's good to have about your squad, isn't it? That helps you put the best 5 guys on the field at any given time, right? It helps you win! If the pro teams show up to Chicago with Jerseys anything like what you had in Rock Hill, that tells me you have no desire to win and are just wasting your sponsor's money.

Just as a fer instance, do you know the rules governing jerseys in the other major sports? How large the lettering and numbers have to be, no (and I mean NO) logos, writing, designs are allowed, no matter how much your sponsors are spending. AZ Cardinals players were fined for writing Pat Tillman's number on their jerseys after he was killed in Afghanistan! Do you think it's simply so the league offices of those sports can be busybodies and have power? No. Because stat-keeping is an integral part of those sports and you have to give the stat-keepers every opportunity to get it right. Do we need more bodies at more locations around the field to keep better stats? Yes we do, but that costs money, and in the meantime make it easier on the few guys who are giving of their time for this.

OK, off the soapbox and back to the task at hand...


Oh... I guess that's it. I mean, the event was within a few teams of the Phoenix team count, but down just a little bit. The vendor area was a bit smaller, mostly because it was a small event and not within driving distance of SoCal, where most of the vendors seem to live these days. But Dye's big truck was there, Luxe had their manor set up, and there were a few others there showing their wares. If you want to know what the action was like, watch the webcast On Demand when it comes online in the next week or so. We are starting to get the coverage down to a science. There were a few very fast points where Patrick had to switch to a camera before checking to make sure the camera was on the right shot... and it was. Patrick is learning his job better, the camera guys are learning their jobs better, and they're more and more in synch now. Having all the best, whizz-bang toys is one thing... having a staff that anticipates each others' moves and works like a team is everything. And that's saying something when our 4 camera operators live all over the place and can only get work in at 4 events this year. And by all over the place, I mean only 2 live in California, and no where near each other. The other two are in Washington and Tennessee. None of them get paid for their work, and they work their butts off... standing in the sun, getting hit all day, then at night cleaning all the paint off the rental gear and offloading footage to computers to get ready for the next day. They're also the set-up and tear-down crew and have to clean and wind all of the cables and pack all of the gear for the trip home. None of us get any sleep at these events, the director and camera guys least of all. There: my homage to the crew of the webcast. These guys are the heart and soul of the coverage and Matty and Patrick get all of the credit. And, in case you're wondering: I don't do much of anything, so it's OK that I get none of the credit. But I always get first pick of the lunch!

PSP Phoenix Open, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Wolf Shirt

Sleep! It is precious and good. I’m not an old hand at this… I haven’t been attending out-of-state paintball tournaments for years and I’m certainly not much of a party animal. So, recovering from this weekend’s PSP Phoenix Open is going to take me some time. Time, and massages with release.

So, I was tasked with writing about the Phoenix Open and the “condition” of our sports current Longest Running North American National Paintball League. I will do so by telling you my story. I am doing this for 2 reasons: because I think it will illustrate to you what I see as going on in our sports top level, and also because nobody else (not even my wife) cares at all about my story.

I arrived in Phoenix on Friday morning to begin preparing the PSP Webcast. The work was already underway and I made myself busy pretty quick. Patrick Spohrer, the man, the god, was running a day behind because a member of the crew was unable to make the event. As you may or may not be aware, we simulcast the webcast via closed-circuit feed to the major vendor booths in the vendor area. Patrick had to do all of that wiring and set-up himself, putting us behind in everything else that needs to happen to put on a webcast of this caliber. For those who don’t know, I myself have webcast 2 PSP Events, but they were rinky dink. I think everybody deals with me with kid gloves over this, because they weren’t really all that good. But I know that. I knew going in that it was me and a cam and a laptop and that it wouldn’t look anything like a professional show. But, it was better than nothing, and I take pride in the fact that what I produced was so bad it forced the big wigs to give Spohrer the financial backing to do his thing. I’m the grain of sand that irritates the oyster into producing the pearl. Patrick isn’t someone who does anything by half, though, and the sheer amount of equipment and cabling and computers and complexity to the webcast absolutely blew me away. There is no way in hell, not with all of the funding in the world, I would have been able to do a show like this. I didn’t even know this many cables existed!

Not only was the budget expanded a bit to add cameras for Dorito side coverage, the PSP gave the webcast away for free. The PSP seems really committed to building a show for the long term, taking the initial steps to packaging their product for more mainstream consumption. The plan, as I know it, is to do all four events this season, refining our practices and adding features as budget allows. Working on making this a viable avenue for advertisers to give the PSP money. You have to break eggs to make an omelet, and they have already broken a few thousand eggs on this.

As I ran around the event on Friday, before super huge weekend crowds hit the venue, there was a very somber mood in the air. Nobody was mad, or sad… but I felt a weight over the event. As if everybody knew some hammer was going to drop. Again. Like a Giant Hand might come out of the sky and yank you right out of the event, never to be seen in paintball again. Walking through the vendor village really brought this feeling out. Yes, the PSP changed some rules this year and only manufacturers, or their official representatives, can sell product at the events. A whole other 5 blogs can be written arguing the merits of this, and frankly such matters are way over my head. But I got the feeling that the vendors looked to their left and their right and wondered who might get yanked by the Giant Hand next, hoping it wasn’t them. This is how I imagine the streets of London felt in daylight during the bombing in WWII… only far less dramatic because nobody is getting killed. Underneath this oppressive weight, however, I could sense the plucky reserve of our current group of survivors. They were all determined to be the ones still standing in their respective niches when the tide comes back in. And yet, there were times during the weekend when the single row of vendors was packed. The Phoenix event increased in size over last year by about 20 teams, and as I moved through the crowds of the divisional players, I never sensed this weight of impending doom. They were there to win and have fun, and that much hasn’t changed. Not true when I was around the pro teams, however, as their fate is more closely tied to the manufacturers than the lower divisions.

As Friday got to be Friday night, there was still so much to be done. Our brand new, remote controlled, wide angle Dome camera still wasn’t working, and we didn’t realize until Chris Raehl had already shut off our wireless internet that we needed to download the control software! It took us over 2 hours to do something as simple as duplicate the scoreboard computer’s desktop out to my remote monitor so I can make sure the webcast’s scoreboard and the official scoreboard remain in sync. Little things like that which made our Friday turn into Friday night and then Saturday morning and then Sunrise and games are starting and 3 of us haven’t been to bed yet! Surprisingly, Saturday’s webcast went off pretty well. We were all tired and were facing around 13 straight matches, but managed to do a good job. Sure, our encoding software was wreaking havoc with everybody’s ability to watch, but we didn’t know about that until the end of the day. None of us had a spare moment to even look around the internet for feedback. If XSV hadn’t completely embarrassed someone in one of their games, we wouldn’t have even had a 30 minute break to eat a quick sandwich. Sat. night is a haze to me right now. I think we went out and had Wings and watched a UFC fight. Sunday morning just came too quickly and so did that first game.

Now, with a little sleep under our belts and a whole day of working together, we were ready to really start screwing up. Actually, I was the only one who did. I hit the wrong button and went live on Matty’s camera right as he took a huge bite out of his sandwich, and on another game I got the start time on a game wrong and was caught in the vendor village at game on. But, the good news is there was a whole night of cleaning up to do, and Patrick couldn’t fire me just yet. When cleanup was finished, we caught up with the 2^nd place Ironmen at a nearby eatery and had a good meal. The feedback from the interwebz went from “You suck!” to “You are amazing!” Zero to hero. We went from being on the verge of seppuku to being the kings of paintball. The web is a fickle and terrible mistress.

So we all finally relaxed and I got a chance to start processing all of the conversations I had with various people throughout the weekend. PSP execs, vendors, players, pro’s; everybody with their own piece of the puzzle that is the State of our Union. On the one hand, we have this new and shiny toy with the webcast. We are able to watch this sport like never before and it feels like we’ve reached a new plateau. Only to look back and see the entire mountain looking less and less stable. Is this a last ditch effort? A shot in the dark attempt to at least look “mainstreamable” so someone comes a long and pumps some much needed life into our coffers? Did we fire our last flair into the air? Or is it not all so bad? Maybe we are being overly sentimental to what was lost in this constriction. Maybe we look back on the days of Money Wasting as the salad days, barely conscience of what has caused our near demise. Perhaps someone has created the webcast to shine a light on what is still great about our sport and hopefully show us the way. One thing I know for sure, the professional players never fail to deliver the excitement and drama that makes for good show. If we are truly passionate about this sport, then we’ll at least carve some time out of our day to put eyeballs on a professional presentation of that drama and excitement, right? Especially when it’s free.

Right?

Oh, and a quick note to those cowards out there that didn't wear their Wolf shirts at the event, you've lost your right to wear them in the future. Don't blame me when the zombies come and you are powerless to stop them.

THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION

The PSP industry heavies are meeting next week do discuss the future of paintball and the future of the league. A possible merger with the NPPL may be in the discussions at that time. However, this could be just another rumor that has plagued the misinformed after the end of both leagues season. If the possible merger was to come into affect, one league would either have to bow out of its format or both leagues would have to recognize both formats and work as one. PSP partners have claimed heavy stakes in the XBall format that they have argued is the most effective to way justify winners and losers in one paintball game. (Ironmen and Philly can claim this format) As far as the NPPL format-Any given Sunday, can a team make it to the top. (Dynasty has been most dominant in)

As far as the quality of each league:

PSP- most competitive, most owned by industry, most political. More player appeal
NPPL- Great promotion, has TV in their pockets, promoter owned, more public appeal.
Cons- loop-hole game format and suspect "family teams" as real organized sports teams

WINNERS AND LOSERS PART UNO...

Biggest winner today- Dye Precision
Dye decides to go out this past weekend with the new Rotor Loader. This loader is smaller, lighter more efficient than the now seemingly primitive Halos and other loaders of today.
Think of it as a hybrid civic and a Halo being a dodge v8 4x4 doing the same speed and going on the same highway. Go Green!

Biggest loser today-PSP
With so much riding on the acceptance of the sport and hoping for the abundance of more people to pay for new top of the line stuff, absolutely no media attention was involved accept Pbreserve, Warpig and Katspics for viewers to count on for news, pictures, journalism, sport stats and of course 4 dudes with handheld cameras taping what they can to play on youtube.
Lets look at the simpleness of the situation:
1: Scarcity promotes demand.
2: Population growth promotes demand.
3: Technology promotes demand.
The number one supplier of shiiiiit load of new, old, and rare paintball products and products that have stood the test of time to forge a gigantic surplus of trash and treasure is Ebay. They too have their own banner ad signifying the abundance.
With an overwhelming surplus, wouldn't this equate to LESS demand?
If there were too many diamonds like their worms in the earth, will they still be as valuable?
We know this, the demand to play is always up. What to play with, is not. A struggling industry should invest in awareness, not monopolies.
THIS:

SHOULD NOT EQUAL TO THIS:

We hope for the best of intentions for the PSP and produce a great show and promotion for the fans to watch and enjoy this great growing and ever changing sport.Not just a great DVD that will probably sell for 29.99

RUMORS AND TUMORS

This last Thursday marks the inaugural PSP's world cup of paintball in Orlando Florida. Thousands come to watch the best of the best compete for world cup supremacy to see who is top dog of the year in Xball format rules. Note that there is a 7-man format with different rules.
One thing I try to do is be a "fan" of paintball and went down the "guidelines" of how a person will go about in finding out news and reports. One, go on paintball.com. This is what a regular paintball weekender would do. We do believe that there people that normally buy full retail right? We should then believe that the players doing these events don't normally pay the full price allowed to really see profits.
I go on and as I do, what is see is "NPPL" another league that they too have their shot at a world cup of their own calling it-Commanders cup in San Diego starting Nov 14th to Sunday the 16th. So, it stopped there.

Now if you are a "fanatic or extremist" of paintball, you thoroughly go through pbnation. A paintball nation of enthusiast, pro, woodsballers and whiny wannabees and paintball tech-meisters. Please note that if and when you get on, there are the "familiars" who are people who just stay on the nation and write anything. This will be the 110 in the am to the 156 by noon, 186 by evening, then back to 100 in the late evening. This means this, IS the nation. The rest are readers who dont log on and come up with their own analyses and conclusions on what they want and so forth before they are called idiots or noobs.
Ok back to what was i was leading to. Now, this is world cup! I know because I usually go to play or debut new products for the next season. Also because I was part of this world, we believed the whole of America also knew which goes to the point of awareness. So you asked yourself, "That's not true allot of people new about WC paintball!" It's true' allot of US knew that there was a cup. But how many people did not know. And should we care? If this was so, did ESPN cover it? Foxsports? Where are the writers and Photographers? Where is media coverage? I'm not talking about pbnation, that is a forum. WARPIG, ahhhhhh good old WARPIG.
There is however one or two youtube vids by random camera men that showed our prestigious pro-cup.
There was a web-cast I might add. To the "US" crowd. I wonder how much of the public knew about this. I don't care about the people who are in the mix and watching. I care about the people who don't get to see our great sport of paintball.
ANDERSON "THE SPIDER" SILVA UFC CHAMP, AVID PAINTBALLER ON SPIKE DEMOGRAPHICS-10 MILLION PEOPLE ONE NIGHT

UFC All access Anderson Silva
by khyuma04

What i am leaning toward is the simple fact that we needed publicity like we had 4 years ago where there was a need to see and play with new stuff. Life was good then, even La soya was good then. (I meant as a celebrity)
Now we come to an age of having way too many things to choose from which prevents equity growth of certain brand companies. Wait, unless you-are DYE, KEES,SP and Planet. hmmmmm. Now wouldn't it be advantageous to just get more of the public to love the sport for being what it is and have more to sell than just the "US" crowd? Because "US" don't need new stuff, we have too much. In reality we bought too much stuff that we should not be allowed to pay full price for anything. (That is straight up the mentality). If i bought a new car every year or a new set of clubs a year, wouldn't we be.. wasteful? But if we can then so be it. However, we will get tired and we need the new player to take the place of the vicious cycle.

Reports pour in that leagues need to justify more financial "stimulus" from manufacturers to prevent the loss of the league and more policing on those who do not because they may believe they are riding the coattails of the league way too long. I remembered being called "bottom feeders" by one who cannot be named.
Then again, people may just look at them as the industry and forget the "tent people." This would make sense to capitalize on "shortness" of growth. Without Scarcity, their is no demand. If there is less to see then what you see is what you get.
If the "big tent" companies banded together and said screw the round table, is it justifiable? You see, the Kings of the round table need them to look like kings in front of us and keep us a bay. We contribute style and technology they will soon incorporate themselves and claim "original." Beware how you represent because they will knock you down a peg or two just to show your place in this world. I know first hand as Paintball Junkies, Kapp and Hybrid.

We should pay homage to less fortunate companies like AKA, AGD, http://www.warpig.com/paintball/tournament/LA_open00/gallery/MVC614S_JPG.shtml Liquid, Diamond Labs, Unique, Nexed, Worr, Diablo, ARMSON, ACI,Nelson to name a few. INDIAN CREEK!
WE SHOULD REMEMBER WHERE WE CAME FROM!

We were all smaller then.

Now if we can just have an improvement on fan base in the PSP and the NPPL we can see more growth as a industry. It would mean a smaller team based league. Note that the people who watch the NFL on TV or on the grandstands cheering and jeering is not necessarily "players." These fans buy 200.00 pro jerseys and anything that the athlete or franchise endorses, by way of media and other forms of marketing. I digress, what magazine now that does this for paintball? Gun Manufacturers will have to Annie up an additional 35-40k to have their gun be used at the event. An after market manufacturer including clothing will have to digest 8-10k.
If you are going to ask for more money, put it in away to have more paintball seen. A media group... wait, that was Dick Clarks role... I should look into why that went south.
ACQUIRED: Dick Clark has bought the broadcast rights to Professional League Paintball, an organized professional paintball league consisting of eight teams from major cities, reports Reuters. Additionally (and oddly), he's developing a celebrity paintball-themed reality show. "We are pleased to be at the forefront in producing what has become the fastest-growing leisure sport activity in the world," Clark said. "We look forward to taking the tiger by the tail and moving this marketing phenomenon to the next level -- television."

My thought: Its about control.

I'm not here to bash or praise the industry and leagues. I'm merely stating the facts, and the obvious.
I played paintball this weekend and had more fun than I usually do. The people who later decided not to play were people who stopped before they had a bad day. Good way to end the weekend I guess. I asked them about world cup and who their favorite team was and ask them about top players. (note I'm in California) 90% said "I come to play and i don't know who the best team is and no nothing of a World Cup." One guy said, "Hey, are you not Oh Pollack?"

ALSO ALSO ALSO!!!!Little John Marques aka Traitor, Hybrid, Contract Killer, just had his 4rth baby!! call the shop and show some love!