NPPL Super 7 Update WOW!!

[AGD]

AO,

I just got off the phone from a long conversation with Chuck Hensch who is head of the NPPL/Super 7 series. I didn’t think that they had much going on because I had heard very little on the industry grapevine. As we continued to talk so many things came out that I had to take notes to keep track of them all. Considering they are “out of the box” I am very impressed with what they have on deck for their first event. Listed below is the array of things they are setting up for the LA event. Included in the list is his email so you can send him your comments good or bad. PLEASE email him something so we can show him the power of AO!!! (I warned him he might get flooded so don’t make me a lier!)

Thanks

AGD

NPPL Super 7 LA

Event is ON Huntington Beach in the sand.
They got the town ordinance changed to allow paintball in city limits
The spectator nets will but up against the boardwalk where thousands of people come by on a weekend.
The entire playing field area is netted off with security guards only allowing players into the field area.
Each team gets their own small staging tent. 50 tents will be set up.
7 refs per field plus ultimates.
Free massages for ALL players
Four different bands playing on Sat.
Two London DJ’s spinning music all weekend
More air supply than the PSP not including Budd Orr as backup air
Budd Light Sponsored, they are only the third event to have beer on the beach.
Black Fly Sunglasses is a sponsor
Rocky Mountain Water is a sponsor
Fuji Film is a sponsor
The players party will be a “Bar Crawl” with all the beach bars participating in a collective paintball promotion.
Clips will be shown on NPPL.TV
Banners across main street and over the pier.
They are filming part of a one hour TV pilot during the event.
They will be producing a DVD of the event.
99 total staff at the event.
No paintball prizes, only stuff like TV’s and stereos
Radio and TV promos have already happened.

If you think that is cool email Chuck and tell him so!!

chuck@nppl.tv

[Automaggin2]

THATS INSANE! OMG, glad to see Black Fly sun glasses sponsoring the event, i love there sun glasses. This thing sounds like a mini Super Bowl, i mean with all the preperation and sponsors and such, wow, thumbs up to NPPL :D

[Python14]

I'm impressed. I thought Super 7 was gonna be to Competition what the MTV Video music awards are to the music industy. But apparently I am wrong. With a deal like this, I am quite pissed I can't come. and if there is any doubt about how pissed I am, may this face express my feelings :mad:

[Kevmaster]

man...thats gunna rock!

[RetroEclipseMan]

Man that sounds great. Too bad I got school, otherwise I'd fly down to at least watch. It sounds like it's gonna be a blast.

[Fred]

that Americans only want Euro-DJs, and over there they can't get enough of Detroit Techno, where it all started???


Sounds like an awesome event, and if its run well, should be a HUGE source of good publicity for the sport.

---Fred

[Bunny]

I like the way paintball is heading....cuz i'll finally be considered cool in my school for playing paintball:D

[agdemagman69]

When is it?

[spacemanspiff]

Sounds like its going to be a great time. To bad I don't have any vacation time left.:(

[daveymag]

February 6-9
For more info check out
www.nppl.tv

[hitech]

Sounds great. I might even be able to attend (wife loves the beach). Maybe even ref...

[shade23]

sounds great! but the one thing that gets me is the lack of paintball prizes.. other than that though it sounds like they are going full tilt with this.

[Mgwannabie]

ya finaly a paintballing event down in my city WOOHOO everyone comon down!!!! its ganna be great so if ur thinking about it just come!

[luke]

NPPL/Super 7 series

This is a 7-man event right??

[Troy]

yes it is 7-man. Its not just a clever name. Too bad Lions won't be there.

[agdemagman69]

When is it? dates?

[demonguy8]

judging from the currently registered teams for the pro division... DYNASTY will viciously and horribly own everyone and everything.... the only other team that I really even reckognize is lanche but its a rebuilding year for them... any comments? or info on who exactly the otherteams are/ where they came from?

[Prairie]

Originally posted by Python14
I'm impressed. I thought Super 7 was gonna be to Competition what the MTV Video music awards are to the music industy.

...the MTV Video music awards are more watched then the billboard awards...or any other award show for that matter...I dont really know how this pertains to anything. heh.

[DiRTyBuNNy]

I live down in San Diego, so I may be calling in sick to work on Friday to drive up and check it out. The only thing I haven't heard of is whether or not the parking situation is going to suck...

[Jonesie]

Well, after reading all that Tom posted, I HAD to send Chuck and email voicing my concerns about taking paintball to the masses. I have quoted it below. Please let me know what you all think!

Thanks ~ Jonesie


Hey Chuck,
I just read Tom Kaye's post on AO concerning the NPPL's upcoming LA Super 7 Event. This sounds like it's going to be an awesome event! However, there are a couple of items Tom mentioned that concern me, as per my understanding of Paintballs' Professional Ranks.

Before I begin, allow me to briefly summarize my background in paintball. I am a Rec player of 7+ years, just beginning tourney play this year (mostly local stuff, but I am playing at MGO). Everything I know of pro paintball has been read on the Internet or in a magazine. Most likely, I could not recognize a pro player if I ran him over with my car! ;)

What you have done with the LA event sounds awesome! I love the Public Exposure, Sponsorship Ideas, and increase security and refs. I think the exposure will help paintball gain its place in the main stream. However, there are a couple of aspects of professional paintball that will need to be dealt with in order to make your event successful.

First and Foremost, the NPPL needs to take care of the behavior of the professional player. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard of pro players swearing, arguing with the refs, throwing equipment, and getting into fights. This culminated with the Aftershock/Dynasty game at the Mardi Gras Open a few years ago... Placing that kind of behavior on spectacle in a place where "thousands of people come by on a weekend" could do more harm than good for our beloved sport. The various other leagues of professional sports handle this kind of behavior, I would expect the NPPL to be able to manage it as well. I think this needs to be dealt with in a manner of game suspensions, tournament suspensions, and/or player/sponsor fines. The best way to curb that kind of behavior is to hit the players where it would hurt them the most, the wallet!

My other major issue with Pro Paintball is the apparent epidemic of cheating. Who knows if it REALLY happens, but there are enough rumors to ruin the sport. If you allow this to go on, and little 12 year-old Johnny sees the Pros doing it, then you'll have a whole generation of new players who wipe, play on, or bonus ball. Obviously you can understand the implications of this. It is my understanding of pro paintball that this kind of thing is not uncommon. This destroys the integrity of the game, period. However, I am confident that the increased refs you plan to put on the field will help deter this. I think it is a wonderful idea, and I am glad that the NPPL is taking steps to correct this problem.

All in all your LA event sounds AWESOME! I'm more than a little disappointed that I will not be able to attend. Living on the left coast makes right coast trips a little difficult. However, I will be watching WARPIG, AO, and NPPL's websites before, during, and after the event to see how everything turns out. I am glad to see the pros doing something like this to grow paintball. I wish you and the NPPL the best of luck with this season, and hope everything runs as planned!

BTW - Here is a link to Tom's post: http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65840

[ogre55]

What impresses me most, besides the out of industry sponsers, is the fact that there will 7 refs plus ultimates on every field. This is a step in the right direction.

The NPPL has made some very bold statement of late about how they are are going to clean up tournament paintball. This goes a long way towards doing that.

Which brings one to the next logical questions. Who are the refs? Are they to be pro reffs with no team affiliations? Will they have some reff training? What will they be paid?

I am going to pose these questions to Mr. Hensch via e-mail (he asked for it). Should be interesting.

Ogre

[Gutt]

From what I understand, a majority of the refs are being flown in from Europe. Joy Division (pro team from Sweden) is heading up the duties along with some of the "better" PRO reffs from the WC. I think this is a good move for the NPPL since most of the comments from the Millenium Series (Euro) events are positive with regards to reffing. Besides that, these guys are familiar with the rules (since the NPPL has adopted Millenium 7-man rules for the most part) and are used to the seven man format.

I sure wish I was attending this event...sounds like it's going to be a landmark undertaking!

Darren

[ogre55]

The PRO reffs are a good start, but having teams ref is just the same old shi....stuff. Are not the NPPL and the Millenium series scores going to count for both tournaments this time aroud. So there is still a chance of biase.

I am hoping the Chuck Hensch will get back to me so that I can hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Ogre

[Jonesie]

Something else I think will be interesting that should come out of this:

How well will the various pieces of equipment hold up playing on sand? Can you imagine going head-first into a bunker and filling you're breach, hopper, barrel with sand! OUCH! :D

Should be interesting to see. Maybe Mr. Mills could do some kind of story for WARPIG?

Later ~ Jonesie

[thecavemankevin]

my main concern is that it is being played on the beach. If no one has ever noticed, sand and paintguns don't mix very well.

I am also concerned with the possible ill effects of drunkin pro players behavior when doing the bar crawl. I hope that they will all keep a good regaurd for the image of the sport when doing this.

other than that, it's great to see all of these non-paintball sponsors really starting to show.

All i have to say is that within the next two years you will see a TON more non-paintball sponsors. Thanx in part to events like this and a huge part to people like Don and Connie Hager of Splatbro's paintball in central VA. There are tons of things brewing with Don's team concerning sponsorship deals and so on. After all, just look at the thread from a few days ago about Ronn Stern's Impact and their sponsors (Don had a HUGE part in that).

Keep up the good work with these non-pb sponsors and we may change the negative outlook that is so prominant with the publics opinion on paintball.

[dmonahan]

I can not Wait!! This event is going to rock. If any of you come by look me up. Our team name is Relic. We will be plying the Nov division.


Darren

[nastymag]

..... DOH!!!! this sounds like the event to be at ..Why cant i have unlimtied airfare ..i would be there in a second ...

[Spray Painter]

that's awesome. i wish i could make it down. it's only a 10 hour drive, YA

[the123]

Originally posted by AGD
AO,


More air supply than the PSP not including Budd Orr as backup air
Budd Light Sponsored, they are only the third event to have beer on the beach.


chuck@nppl.tv

ME AND MY PAL BUDDY WIESER!! Yahoo!
I am really shocked/surprised/happy about the addition of the Budwieser sponsorship to the Super 7. Not for the players but for the spectators. Watching any sporting event with an ice cold Bud in my hand makes my day. Hopefully more and more outside sponsors like Budwieser will be finding out that our great sport of Paintball is the perfect market for their advertising. Hopefully following is big time contracts and players actually getting paid for doing what they love. It's things like this that open the door for our sport to grow HUGE!

Also, thank goodness for backup air. World Cup 02' was a very sad day for the air fill station. I heard that someone let the bulk tanks leak dry during the night before the 10-man preliminaries. "oops!" They eventually caught up, but slowed down the day and made standing in line, sweating, a real bummer.

[GeoffreyInNJ]

Is anyone here planning on going to the Vegas event in April?

[ShooterJM]

Originally posted by GeoffreyInNJ
Is anyone here planning on going to the Vegas event in April?

As a spectator, perhaps. Depends on fundage.

BTW I think it sounds awesome! Wish I could go!

[P8ntballerAK]

Originally posted by ogre55

Which brings one to the next logical questions. Who are the refs? Are they to be pro reffs with no team affiliations? Will they have some reff training? What will they be paid?

Ogre

sheesh doesnt anyone read APG anymore?
there is a whole article in the march issue of 2003 about the super 7 and what they are doing. It says that they will train reffs and fly them to every event. there is alot more info so you should just pick up the magazine.

[dmonahan]

Will be playing both Huntinton Beach and Vegas.

If you need info and anything for the events just check theie web site.

www.nppl.tv

[ogre55]

Originally posted by P8ntballerAK


sheesh doesnt anyone read APG anymore?
there is a whole article in the march issue of 2003 about the super 7 and what they are doing. It says that they will train reffs and fly them to every event. there is alot more info so you should just pick up the magazine.

Actually, I do read APG (waiting for my subscription to run out) and I did read the article, however, I am interested to see if they will implement what they stated. Call me a cynic but I have seen industry people make claims that were not followed through with before.

Further, there are rumors (on this very thread) that only some of the refs will be PRO refs and some will be members of Joy Division.

I just want to know what is happening thats all.

Ogre

[-FronTMaN-1022]

I really don't like the playing on the beach part. It seems like a really cool idea, but in reality what we'll see is many front players with jammed markers and players trying to clean the sand out from under there goggles. Maybe a playing field with reduced sand or something could work?

[dmonahan]

Remember, They are removing the top layer down to the hard pack. I live about 5 min from H/B and if they do it correctly it will be just like playing on dirt. It should be fine. They are also going to have air stations set up to clean your markers. you just have to make sure if you take a digger you clean your stuff up after the game. As long as the wind doesn't start blowing it won't be a problem (by the way it's 80 degrees and sunny.) If this weather hold it is going to be a very nice.

[DiRTyBuNNy]

dmonahan..I'm going to be coming up from San Diego and wondering what the parking situation is down by the pier where they're playing?

[zads27]

Hey is AGD and company showing up for the event?

I'm coming up from San Diego as well, hope to see you guys there.

[Smoken]

Hey Dirtybunny,
Parking will most likely suck next to the pier, But if you don't mind walking a ways there are all the beach parking lots to park in. I'm figuring on walking a quarter mile from my car (I hope I don't have to, just trying to be realistic). But hey, if its a nice day and you don't have equipment to lug around walking along Huntington Beach is not a bad thing at all IMO.
AGD will have no formal representation at the tourney as far as I know (aside from players anyway).

[pbzmag]

Here's what you can do to avoid busy parking lots. Park a mile away and rollerblade all the way to the pier. Just make sure that you blade behind the hotties!

pbzmag

[dmonahan]

Dirtybunny,

There is a large parking structure a crossed the street and if you stop by one of the bars or restaurants for a bite to eat or a drink they will vaildate your parking stub. Other that that just try to find a place to park a few blocks away and walk down.

[leopardhead]

I just finished up the deal to have Spplat attack represented there. Pure promotions will be giving away several copies of the movie.

[Smoken]

Here's what you can do to avoid busy parking lots. Park a mile away and rollerblade all the way to the pier. Just make sure that you blade behind the hotties!

My thoughts exactly. :D :cool:

[Jack & Coke]

UPDATE...

Coverage from The Orange County Register

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=24054&section=NEWS&subsection=NEWS&year=2003&month=2&day=6

Thursday, February 6, 2003

Paintballers aim for wider appeal
League hopes to fashion the games as an extreme sport to target more players.
By JIM HINCH
The Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/newsimages/news/020603paintball.jpg

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Scurrying around a half-built Huntington Beach office in T-shirts and sandals, 10 fresh-faced paintball fanatics are betting $300,000 that they can write a second act for their much-maligned sport.

Starting today, the small but fervent crew of the National Professional Paintball League is attempting what some call the impossible: draping a sport long considered the refuge of camouflaged gun nuts in the more glamorous mantle of surfing, skateboarding and other extreme sports that grip the imagination of American youth.

Stop one: moving the first leg of their world championship tournament out of a Riverside paintball park that smells like the cow pasture next door to the sands off the Huntington Beach Pier, where surfers reign and, according to one fan in an online paintball chat room, "they don't have ugly girls."

Today through Sunday, 91 teams of seven paintballers each from around the world will fill the area's budget hotels, their bags laden with $1,000 guns, Cordura nylon pants and motocross goggles.

They'll awaken as the sun hits the morning waves, strap on their equipment and spend the day shooting each other in beachside arenas strewn with giant shapes of inflatable vinyl.

At night, they'll party to sounds laid down by imported DJs such as England's Mark the Artist, who oil-paints while he spins and is equally renowned for his skill as a barber. Bars may host what is expected to be a well-attended Miss Paintball pageant.

"This is like our coming-out party," said Chuck Hendsch, head of the NPPL and mastermind of the extravaganza assembling on the Huntington shoreline. "We're extreme now, we're out of the camouflage, out of the woods. ... Huntington Beach is kind of the extreme-sports capital of the world ... so this is a perfect place for us."

The tournament is perhaps Huntington Beach's first corporate debutante ball, and the timing is a bit awkward. For one thing, the city is in the midst of its own gawky teen transformation, trying desperately to shed the surf-rat image Hendsch covets. The talk of the town this week was, not paintball, but Saturday's black-tie charity ball at the newly opened Hyatt Regency beachfront resort, where locals marveled that the steaks were all properly cooked.

For another, the world of paintball is in turmoil, with Hendsch leading one of two rival world-championship promoters demanding loyalty from torn players and predicting doom for each other's events. Industry watchers say the survival of Hendsch's start-up promotion company hangs on his ability to marry paintball's sometimes-eccentric loyalists with the extreme-sports mainstream.

That's a first, said Harvey Lauer, president of American Sports Data Inc., which tracks sports-participation levels for retailers. "The sport is seeking respectability and an escape from the camouflage image, the redneck government- hating lunatic, you know, who drives a pickup. ... No one has ever bragged about being a snotty, aggressive little surfer. Here's the first example of someone aspiring to that level from a lower level."

Paintball was born about 20 years ago in the woods somewhere "back east," in the words of Jerry Braun, who runs the rival to Hendsch's promotion company and claims to have played "the third game ever in the early '80s in the White Mountains of New Hampshire."

For years, the sport was dominated by what Lauer termed its "fascistic, bloodthirsty" elements. But recently, those in charge have striven to purge the game of its militaristic tinge.

Paintball parks in Bellflower and Corona, apocalyptic playgrounds strewn with burnt-out helicopters and bullet-ridden buildings culled from movie sets, have outlawed camouflage at certain competitions. New arena games were invented that emphasize strategy and visibility from bleachers.

Players even blanch at the word "gun." Tools such as the Ripper Milled Intimidator, which shoots paintballs at automatic-weapon speed, is a "marker," players insist.

To a large extent, the reinvention worked. About 7.7 million people played paintball in 2001, nearly 1 million more than rode a snowboard, according to Lauer. Corporations reward employees with team-building parties at paintball parks. Dating services encourage singles to seek true love with a marker in hand. Paintball fields swarm with kids running circles around heavily winded dads.

Still, the sport faces obstacles. Its models - surfing and skateboarding - began life on working-class beachfronts where latchkey kids with nothing to lose and nothing to love embraced a culture of attitude and movement. Surf and skate companies still chase that early essence, striving to convince kids on Huntington's Main Street that the spirit of, say, Dogtown skaters lives on in $17 T-shirts.

Paintballers, by contrast, want nothing more than to ditch their origins.

For Hendsch, the new face of paintball is the world-champion Dynasty team, 10 spike-haired friends, most of them college students in San Diego, who meet every weekend to obliterate rivals at local paintball parks.

The team embodies paintball's new allure: money and endless boyhood. Most members live in a converted San Diego frat house that member Brian Cole of Newport Beach described as "a complete disaster, dude."

After class, they retire to shoot each other in the back yard. After weekend practice, they head to Cole's parents' house, where his mom feeds them "chicken, beef, steak," he said. "We hop in the pool and Jacuzzi and watch paintball videos."

Most aspire to careers in the industry. Rodney Squires, at 32 the team's oldest member, earns $100,000 per year marketing paintball guns. "I was the neighborhood leader of BB-gun wars, rubber-band wars," Cole said. "My parents think I'm just being a kid. You tell them you're a pro paintballer, they laugh."

The money is serious, however. Paintball is now an $800 million-per-year industry, Lauer said. Team Dynasty earns $200,000 per year from four sponsors, which last year paid for six trips to European tournaments.

All that's missing: "hot-looking women," Squires said. Being a world-champion paintballer "doesn't work in bars."

The two faces of paintball, old and new, are everywhere evident. On a recent Saturday, 15-year-old Kyle Walker of Yorba Linda, clad in camouflage his parents recently bought him, summed up the sport's essence while waiting to enter an arena at the SC Village paintball park in Corona: "It sounds sick and demented, but it's fun to shoot people and see them get hurt."

Miles away, in NPPL's wood-floored offices nearing completion on Huntington's Main Street, Hendsch offered a gentler view: "It's like a game of chess. ... We're ready for another big growth curve."