Response to the “New National Tournament”

Recently, there’s a new whisper in wind regarding tournament paintball. It appears soon, there could be a new player on the block. It appears folks near and far have been traveling to Diamond Hill Paintball just outside Corvallis, OR. to get a chance to experience the format. Waivers are having to be signed and everything is hush hush… to some it’s no biggie, to others, they can’t get over the fact people can’t talk about it publicly. Me personally, you will find, I don’t mind that it’s a secret, not at all, I just wonder if it will stabilize the tournament scene and finally crown a king for a top national league.
I have questions, but as you will see, my questions aren’t relevant to the actual league, rather to its purpose. While I don’t participate in these types of paintball formats, I am however always interested in seeing the sport grow, gain support and since it’s happening in our backyard, I’m interested.

Stay with me for a moment, as I am going to explain some obvious things before I reach my true question; Paintball has struggled to find its identity on the main stage. Paintball has failed over the past 30 years to find some sort of uniformity other than its simplicity… point the gun.. I mean marker, pull the trigger and eliminate your opponent. For such a simple concept, much like throw a ball, kick a ball, score a touch down, or score a goal, we have failed to agree on the sports “mainstream” version we’re going to promote. NPPL, PSP, Macaroni and cheese, what have you, we have one sport, with many different leagues contending for center stage and what’s the big difference?

Are there two NFL’s? How about NBA’s? MLB’s? Why on earth are there 2 national paintball leagues and about to be a third? Where have we gone wrong here? The image paintball portrays on a national level (my opinion), is that paintball is confused as a whole. One minute it’s this, playing under these rules and the next it’s something else, kinda similar but not. Where are you paintball?

I hope this new league is as great as everyone claims. I hope it either is so amazing people switch to playing it with a sense of urgency or on the flip, it fails quickly instead of slowly drawing more and more people and the sport apart.

We need, the sport needs, uniformity if we ever want to play in the real big leagues, where money is made, where people want to watch and companies actually pay to advertise, then we need “A” standard. Until then, national leagues and the majority of “professionals” of these leagues will continue to be part time desk jockeys during the day and 30,000 dollar millionaires at night.

So, in the future, I hope someone can answer the following questions: What does this league bring that’s so different? Is it the format? Is it the cost? Is it the giant financial backing that will bring it to the mainstream? Is it the sound business plan, market research and management team thats going to develop it into a mainstream market? Is it a little different from most, just “more” fun? (which there’s nothing wrong with). Or is it truly what tournament paintball has been waiting for?

Given this is PbNation, I’m sure someone is going to read my post in a malicious manor, call me a dirty name and tell me to mind my own business (being that most know me as a figure in the outlaw ball community). I assure you that this post is not meant for that reason. I wish everyone luck, I hope it succeeds if it’s what’s good for the mass and ultimately stabilizes the tournament scene.

- Murdoc

Background information on this post can be found in this thread on PBN.