MikeE
16-02-2006, 16:39
Before this disappears from:
http://www.paintball.co.nz/articles/1996/nztourney.htm
<edit cut a lot out about technology>
The same is true of Paintball. If it wasn't for competition players wanting better and better semi-automatic markers it wouldn't have lead to the low prices of basic mainstream social level semi's (I'm thinking of Spyders in particular). If it wasn't for competition players using absolutely vast amounts of paintballs, paintball prices would be even higher and (depending on your point of view) the stock would sit around longer resulting in lower quality paint at your local field. I doubt whether thermal lenses would be as widely available as they are these days if it wasn't for the competition scene.
Basically the point I'm trying to make is that anybody involved in serious competition will demand the best equipment and environment and will strive to improve on it. The net result of this drive for continual improvement is that there are inevitable spinoffs for casual players and competitors.
Now before anyone leaps at my throat with a view to removing my windpipe from the rest of my body I will say this. The social paintball scene is as important as the competition scene. Without a healthy and dynamic social scene generating lots of keen new players there will be no tournament scene.
Right, hopefully I've either convinced you that tournament paintball is a good thing or you thought that it was anyway. Now I'll try to explain what I think should be done to improve the tournament scene in New Zealand.
Firstly, the biggest problem I see is not enough people. We do live in a small country and not only that, we have (from a paintball perspective) an unfortunately low population density. The upshot of that is that it makes it damned near impossible to have a competition in Auckland which will get more than four or five teams. So, what can be done about this? Well I have a number of suggestions (and I bet that really surprises you - not).
Firstly we could reduce team sizes from seven to five. Five is a fairly common format overseas. It helps make teams easier to form and keep running. It also means that the smaller cities and towns around Auckland are much more likely to be able to put a team together to compete in major tournament. Let's do a quick bit of analysis. With Seven players (and I'm basing this on gut feel) I reckon in an Auckland Tourney you could get two teams from the Saints, one team from Katipo, possibly one team from Kamo Karzi and possibly one team from Whangarei. That's three teams (probably four and maybe five (yeah, there goes that flock of pigs now)). Right, let's change that to five players. Three Saints teams, two Katipo teams, one Kamo Karzi team, one Whangarei team, and one Warkworth team and maybe one from Hamilton. Now obviously I've pushing a barrow here so its unlikely I'm being 100% objective but I really believe that you could get between 6 and 8 teams turning up to an Auckland based tournament if it were five-a-side rather than sevens.
Secondly I think we need a novice league. I would make it open class (i.e. semis) but I would make it limited paint (maybe 200 rounds per player per game). I would also play it in a speedball environment so that games are unlikely to stalemate and to ensure good spectating (which hopefully convinces more teams to play). I would probably determine a novice team as one that contained only one player who had played in more than two major competitions. This allows a team to have maybe one Saint or one Kamo Karzi player in it. This is not a bad thing as a player of that nature can often add large amounts of cohesion by way of their experience to a team which then means the team plays better and get more enjoyment out of playing.
I think another one of our major problems is RULES. This country needs a unified set of tournament rules. Something that everyone agrees on and that as many tournaments are played by as possible. The reason I say this is that it makes marshalling more consistent which reduces player frustration which then means it's a more positive experience for everyone. I personally would suggest the NPPL rules or the APPL rules (which are very similar to the NPPL rules with a lot of the `Shareholder' stuff removed).
To my mind the biggest single benefit of this is that NPPL says that tournaments have to be BYOP (Bring Your Own Paint). This lets teams with sponsorship obligations fulfill them and it also lets newer teams shop around to try and get a really good deal (and believe, me past experience tells me that it can be done). It doesn't prohibit the field holding the tourney from selling paint at a special tourney price (as long as they are competitive) it just stops them from locking out other suppliers.
I know a lot of people complain that teams don't travel around enough and frankly, given the current tournament scene in New Zealand I don't blame them. If you go to a tournament outside of the island you live in (i.e. Auckland to Christchurch or vice versa) you may as well go to a tournament in Australia. Quite seriously, it will cost you no more. You think I'm joking?? I played in four tournaments last year. One in Wellington, one in Christchurch, and two in Australia. In increasing order of price they go Wellington, Australia, Australia, Christchurch. Why? Largely because we could drive to Wellington and had to fly everywhere else. Now I wouldn't mind traveling around New Zealand to play paintball. In fact I'd love to. However the fact remains that dollar for dollar, Aussie tournaments are better organized, are of a higher standard (both in terms of competition and marshalling), generally have better fields, and overall offer better value for your paintballing dollar. If the major centres could all get good tournament scenes running with consistent rules, good quality marshal's (to my mind and I think you'll find a lot of competition players who will agree with me, the only good tournament marshal is a tournament player) then it would become very worthwhile traveling in New Zealand to play paintball rather than flitting over the ditch to play in Aussie.
Now I realize what I've said is going to irritate a few people but there is no reason for it to. Everything I have said is based on personal experience. I have played overseas (which is more than most New Zealand paintballers (either tourney or social) can claim). I have traveled too major tournaments in three of the four main centres and this is what I believe is required to give us an international quality tournament scene that overseas teams and sponsors will want to be part of.
How much of this is still relavent today... ?
http://www.paintball.co.nz/articles/1996/nztourney.htm
<edit cut a lot out about technology>
The same is true of Paintball. If it wasn't for competition players wanting better and better semi-automatic markers it wouldn't have lead to the low prices of basic mainstream social level semi's (I'm thinking of Spyders in particular). If it wasn't for competition players using absolutely vast amounts of paintballs, paintball prices would be even higher and (depending on your point of view) the stock would sit around longer resulting in lower quality paint at your local field. I doubt whether thermal lenses would be as widely available as they are these days if it wasn't for the competition scene.
Basically the point I'm trying to make is that anybody involved in serious competition will demand the best equipment and environment and will strive to improve on it. The net result of this drive for continual improvement is that there are inevitable spinoffs for casual players and competitors.
Now before anyone leaps at my throat with a view to removing my windpipe from the rest of my body I will say this. The social paintball scene is as important as the competition scene. Without a healthy and dynamic social scene generating lots of keen new players there will be no tournament scene.
Right, hopefully I've either convinced you that tournament paintball is a good thing or you thought that it was anyway. Now I'll try to explain what I think should be done to improve the tournament scene in New Zealand.
Firstly, the biggest problem I see is not enough people. We do live in a small country and not only that, we have (from a paintball perspective) an unfortunately low population density. The upshot of that is that it makes it damned near impossible to have a competition in Auckland which will get more than four or five teams. So, what can be done about this? Well I have a number of suggestions (and I bet that really surprises you - not).
Firstly we could reduce team sizes from seven to five. Five is a fairly common format overseas. It helps make teams easier to form and keep running. It also means that the smaller cities and towns around Auckland are much more likely to be able to put a team together to compete in major tournament. Let's do a quick bit of analysis. With Seven players (and I'm basing this on gut feel) I reckon in an Auckland Tourney you could get two teams from the Saints, one team from Katipo, possibly one team from Kamo Karzi and possibly one team from Whangarei. That's three teams (probably four and maybe five (yeah, there goes that flock of pigs now)). Right, let's change that to five players. Three Saints teams, two Katipo teams, one Kamo Karzi team, one Whangarei team, and one Warkworth team and maybe one from Hamilton. Now obviously I've pushing a barrow here so its unlikely I'm being 100% objective but I really believe that you could get between 6 and 8 teams turning up to an Auckland based tournament if it were five-a-side rather than sevens.
Secondly I think we need a novice league. I would make it open class (i.e. semis) but I would make it limited paint (maybe 200 rounds per player per game). I would also play it in a speedball environment so that games are unlikely to stalemate and to ensure good spectating (which hopefully convinces more teams to play). I would probably determine a novice team as one that contained only one player who had played in more than two major competitions. This allows a team to have maybe one Saint or one Kamo Karzi player in it. This is not a bad thing as a player of that nature can often add large amounts of cohesion by way of their experience to a team which then means the team plays better and get more enjoyment out of playing.
I think another one of our major problems is RULES. This country needs a unified set of tournament rules. Something that everyone agrees on and that as many tournaments are played by as possible. The reason I say this is that it makes marshalling more consistent which reduces player frustration which then means it's a more positive experience for everyone. I personally would suggest the NPPL rules or the APPL rules (which are very similar to the NPPL rules with a lot of the `Shareholder' stuff removed).
To my mind the biggest single benefit of this is that NPPL says that tournaments have to be BYOP (Bring Your Own Paint). This lets teams with sponsorship obligations fulfill them and it also lets newer teams shop around to try and get a really good deal (and believe, me past experience tells me that it can be done). It doesn't prohibit the field holding the tourney from selling paint at a special tourney price (as long as they are competitive) it just stops them from locking out other suppliers.
I know a lot of people complain that teams don't travel around enough and frankly, given the current tournament scene in New Zealand I don't blame them. If you go to a tournament outside of the island you live in (i.e. Auckland to Christchurch or vice versa) you may as well go to a tournament in Australia. Quite seriously, it will cost you no more. You think I'm joking?? I played in four tournaments last year. One in Wellington, one in Christchurch, and two in Australia. In increasing order of price they go Wellington, Australia, Australia, Christchurch. Why? Largely because we could drive to Wellington and had to fly everywhere else. Now I wouldn't mind traveling around New Zealand to play paintball. In fact I'd love to. However the fact remains that dollar for dollar, Aussie tournaments are better organized, are of a higher standard (both in terms of competition and marshalling), generally have better fields, and overall offer better value for your paintballing dollar. If the major centres could all get good tournament scenes running with consistent rules, good quality marshal's (to my mind and I think you'll find a lot of competition players who will agree with me, the only good tournament marshal is a tournament player) then it would become very worthwhile traveling in New Zealand to play paintball rather than flitting over the ditch to play in Aussie.
Now I realize what I've said is going to irritate a few people but there is no reason for it to. Everything I have said is based on personal experience. I have played overseas (which is more than most New Zealand paintballers (either tourney or social) can claim). I have traveled too major tournaments in three of the four main centres and this is what I believe is required to give us an international quality tournament scene that overseas teams and sponsors will want to be part of.
How much of this is still relavent today... ?