NPPL Super 7 Update WOW!!

[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/showt...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]

Reffing at S7...

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!

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]

Re: NPPL Super 7 Update WOW!!

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.


[email protected]

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?