The PSP continues to be one of the most dominant paintball leagues in the world, but there will always be critics that disagree with the way some things are handled within the league itself. We’ve compiled a list of what we believe are some key points that the PSP could change in 2013, for the better of the players, spectators and the league as a whole.
1. 90 Second Swing Point Rule
PSP Rule Book, [RaceTo-2 & RaceTo-4/5/7], September 18, 2012, [rev. 2], Pg. 12
What is easily one of the most frowned upon rules in the PSP rulebook, the “swing point” rule should be completely eliminated, period. Many, including our own Mike Jeffrey and coach of Tampa Bay Damage, Paul Richards, have suggested solutions to fixing this problem. Personally, I am fond of the idea to replace the rule with something similar to the following: When a player is assessed a major penalty in the final 60 seconds of a match, he will serve 10 minutes in the penalty box. This 10 minutes will carry over into overtime, forcing the penalized team to play down one player. As Paul Richards stated, “Play of the game determines the outcome, not a rule.”
2. Alter the World Cup Professional Bracket
Needless to say, San Diego Dynasty and Omaha Vicious fans were furious to see their teams win three games in the prelims and not move on to the finals. The addition of Edmonton Impact and Sacramento XSV to the PSP Pro bracket basically screwed things up and inevitably screwed some teams over. Omaha Vicious was easily playing the best paintball that we’ve seen them play their entire careers. Dynasty found their groove, something they’ve been searching for all year it seems, resulting in a win against Houston Heat (the #1 ranked team in the league). Coming off of three wins and just one loss in the prelims, it’s hard to fathom the idea that your team won’t take the field on Sunday morning.
If the World Cup bracket isn’t limited to the normal 12 team cut-off, then there is another simple solution. Add a “Ocho Finals”, just before the Quarter finals, which would ultimately allow 8 teams in the finals, similar to the Division 1 bracket (glance below to see the order of the proposed finals bracket). The two top performing teams (after calculating point spread), would be granted a ‘bye’ from the Ocho Finals and would resume play in the Quarter finals. Currently, the World Cup finals bracket is structured as if there were 12 teams instead of the allowed 14, which makes absolutely no sense. If you’re going to allow two new teams to sign up to compete in the Pro division, please alter the way the finals are structured!
Ocho Finals* –> Quarter Finals –> Semi Finals –> Finals (*Ocho Finals would be the new addition)
3. Add Semi-Pro Division
Hats off to CEP for their strong-will, not breaking up after one of the worst seasons in professional paintball history. But a line has to be drawn somewhere. Aside from CEP, there are obviously going to be teams that are just not ready to play at the professional level, yet they are allowed the opportunity. Bringing back the Semi-Pro division would allow those under-performing professional teams a chance to drop down in competition and rebuild. Which would in turn, allow another top Semi-Pro team to take their place. What do you do when a professional team continues to come in last place, in every tournament, two years in a row? Allow them to continue in the pro ranks, being every teams “easy win”? No, make a Semi-Pro division and give another team a shot! On top of this, it wouldn’t hurt to cap the number of professional teams at 10-12 teams for every season either.
4. More Dorito Side Coverage
PSP/PBA finally adjusted their lack of coverage on the dorito side during World Cup. Where was this coverage prior to World Cup? Most of the key moves that have been made throughout the year have been on the dorito side. Now that PBA has touted the ability to have minimal dorito action coverage, the fans are hungry for more! When Marcello Margott or Jacob Edwards runs down the field to shoot three people in under a minute, I want to be in the action and jump out of my seat in excitement! Granted, there are multiple things going on at a time during a paintball match, so it can be difficult to have one focal point on the dorito side. The only thing that I propose is that the dorito side get half the exposure that the snake side receives in events. (Not to take anything away from PBA’s coverage of events, we believe they have done a great job of providing the fans with great coverage at events).
5. Penalty Boxes in Division 1 Play
Currently, Division 1 play is the step just before you enter the pro ranks. When a team earns a major or minor penalty, the player must exit the field instead of entering a penalty box. If the Division 1 players are preparing themselves for the next level, why shouldn’t they be granted the option for a penalty box? When a team earns a major or minor penalty, the player must exit the field. Who doesn’t want to see some of the most skilled players in the world (apart from the pro’s) step out of a penalty box blazing their guns in a last ditch effort to preserve the chances of their team winning the match?
These are just a few additions we believe would ultimately improve a great league. What are some of your opinions on these additions? Do you agree with our opinions? If not, what would you change, if anything?
Ocho Finals* –> Quarter Finals –> Semi Finals –> Finals (*Ocho Finals would be the new addition)… this is basically how football(soccer) world level professional tournaments are played(FIFA's World Cup, Eurocup, Copa America, etc) , and I think this can work excellent for PSP's tournaments, it can bring a lot more emotion to the last part of the tournament, the fans would be happier and it is also more competitive for the playing teams.
Yep. 🙂
There isn't enough teams for semi pro and they need to make the fields faster this shooting a cross lane for twelve pods so no one can move up the field is getting ridiculous teams can't afford 120 cases an event
There are over 5 teams that currently do not play in the PSP that would be interested in a spot in the Semi-Pro division that we know of. There are several teams in Division 1 that would be interested in a spot as well. And PSP’s newly added bunkers this year are supposed to fix the slow game play a bit, according to them.
Make a Pro Am…like in the past where D1 teams have to play pro teams…gives them a feel for where they stack-up.
It’ll be great when everything is released and all said and done.
if they dont make a semi pro bracket, they should atleast make d1 race to 7. upton and cep stated that “we didn’t know how to close out games once we got to 5”. which we saw in upton’s first match ever against the russians when they were up 5 to 3. upton adjusted, but cant say the same for cep
Really good suggestions! I agree the field may be thin for Semi Pro but once you bounce a few pros down and a few D1 up. Tht allows some D2 to fill D1 and I think you have a reasonable number in each division. In PSP’s effort to keep around older players by slowing down the game they increased paint usage. Add more bunkers. This will block lanes, make bumps easier for older players but keep te game pace up.
I would love to see points rewarded by time. For instance if a team is down 4 -1 and they needed to make up points quick. If they closed out a game in under 00:59 that team could be rewarded 3 points. If the team closed out in under 1:59 they would earn 2 points. Anything above that time limit would be a 1 point game. I feel this would change the speed of the game and would also kill teams from playing back foot paintball once they are up 2 points because they just run out the clock. Food for thought.
No
Definitely not.
Would never work or even cross peoples minds.
PBA should run on a time delay, like other sports broadcasting networks, so they can cut to the awesome run throughs and game-breaking moves seamlessly.
I agree with all of this.
if you do step 3 then PSP should not do step 5.
D-side cameras require breaking the 180 rule. That's why the commentators have to explain it every time. They need either some super high up cameras on the snake side that can watch the D-side without bunkers getting in the way too much (impractical), or save it for the replays. The other option is to flip the field so *all* cameras are D-side. Heck that could work…
What's much more important is to add a 2 second delay to the video and audio feed but not to the cuts. That would meant that when the view cuts to some action we see the action from just before it started rather than missing it altogether.
There is nothing wrong with the swing point rule, it is to stop players from running down the field when their down a point, get hit at their own 30 and keep running to the other teams back center to shoot every one. And their is a semi pro devision. Its called d1. If they cant make it in pro then drop back down too d1, get more confidence by doing well in there and then next year go pro again and then they have more confidence