any potential disaster, Steve and Laurent oversaw a number of trial events to try to determine if the new format does in fact reduce paint usage and uphold the character of our game. Thankfully, usage was significantly down with no discernible compromise being made to the competitive element.
It seems the old format sometimes created a war of attrition whereby the sheer volume of paint from both teams acted as an active deterrent to aggressive play, consequently racking up the paint bill as the game was stretched by a volume orientated standoff. The best way I can frame the comparison between the‘ race to’ format we’ ve had as against the new format that’ s proposed by Steve and Laurent is by likening the old format to playing draughts( Checkers to you Yanks) and the proposed limited paint format, to playing chess. The new format requires a more measured approach and as any chess player will know, the more thought-out your moves are, the greater your degree of control you have over your opponent. Of course, people can still adopt the‘ wham-bam thankyou ma’ am’ style of play we’ re used to in the‘ race-to’ format, but to do so would place too much emphasis on things going exactly to plan with very little room to maneuver should things go awry.
Another important introduction is a time limit on games which can only benefit this new format and so the prospect of a dwindling paint supply of a team coupled with the need to win the game and its associated temporal pressures will undoubtedly affect the flow and direction of many games under this new format. The allocation of paint prior to the game will now be inextricably linked to whatever tactical strategy you plan to adopt. You can set up your back players with the lion’ s share of the paint leaving the middle and front guys to follow the plan with the back-guys suppressing the way for the front men, depending upon which way you’ ve set up and whatever game plan you’ ve adopted. The pro division starts out with a 15 minute limit with a mercy call being levied if either team reaches five points within the game time. After all, if you go five-zero down with thirty seconds to play, a mercy call is imposed and the torment is relieved. played with a reduced price-tag has to be good for our sport. The time-frame for seeing a greater inflow of players into tournaments due to a reduced cost will be measured in years I’ m afraid, but at least it’ s a positive first step in the right direction. It’ s much better we settle for the right format now and allow market forces to influence the flow of players into our side of paintball, rather than maintain a format that we already know is injurious to our sport’ s best interest. As an aside, field designs will be released one month prior to the event. There are of course consequences to this, one of which, it provides teams with an opportunity to practice the field designs at their local fields. This then has a knock-on effect of generating income for local fields which on the face of it seems a philanthropic consequence, but it makes sense to keep all aspects of tournament play turning over, and that includes local fields across Europe.
The top pro teams tend to be those who have the greater degree of industry support in the form of sponsorship, which means they can practice more on the fields before the event; but there is always gonna be this inequality amongst teams so it’ s nothing new. I really hope this new initiative works for many reasons, not least of which it breathes new possibilities into our sport and let’ s face it guys, paintball needs tournament play. It is undoubtedly the more serious side of our sport and with no disrespect to the rec-scenario people, tournament paintball is the pinnacle of our sport and unless we provide the conditions that enable us to thrive, paintball would then be defined in terms of weekend Rambos, and our tournament scene is so much more than that.
Steve, Laurent and Richmond have now changed the tournament landscape in the hope of provoking more players being channelled through to tournament play and I for one believe it’ s a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen if this change has the desired effect but I know this much, the old format would have sentenced our tournament scene to a protracted demise. Such cautionary insight is what’ s needed, but at least these guys have done something in an attempt to put things right. Let’ s hope providence lends a hand and we can get back to where we once were. • • •
The game time is scaled down as you move from the semi divisions through to the open divisions, such that the semi division gets a 10 minute time limit with a 4 point mercy call. And so on down to the open divisions whereby game times are 8 minutes with a two point mercy intervention. Those who really understand our game will be able to negotiate the challenges this new format presents, but it will come as a welcome change to people’ s wallets and a style of play that possesses a greater reliance on tactical preparation. Will this new format achieve the aspirations of Steve, Laurent and Richmond in ultimately encouraging a greater flow of players into tournaments? I think anything that enables our tournaments to be
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