Recently at the Social Paintball Office there has been a lot of talk around the water cooler regarding changes we’d like to see in the PSP for the 2014 season. Considering the announcement of the new Event Manager, Damien Thareau, and the (re)arrival of a 10.2 balls per second cap at the professional level, we thought now would be as good a time as ever to submit our Christmas Wish List to Paintball Santa in hopes that he comes through – not that he’s ever been that reliable, but it’s worth a shot right?
5. In house field designs. For the last few seasons there has seemed to be a complete lack of communication between the league and Sup’Air, the makers of the bunkers used by the league, in what the league wishes to accomplish. The new “technical snake” is still almost completely unusable and as the league was wanting to make the game more accessible to a larger (literally) contingent of players, Sup’Air reduced the size of the bunkers. Combine that with field designs that have been slow as molasses and you’ve got players begging for some fresh ideas, from within the league. With the hire of Event Manager Damien Thareau, this seems like a good possibility!
4. Remove padding! No, I’m not talking about protective under the jersey padding. I’m all for safety, what I’m not for is hockey pads sewn into jerseys. It’s time to get back to our roots and play smash mouth paintball that leaves craters in your chest.
3. Move the pits. This was a recent suggestion that I think would really improve the atmosphere at the events: move the pits from the dorito side of the field to the ends, and add more bleachers where they once were. While I believe this is a great suggestion, I don’t think it’s realistic to have another set of bleachers until there is a need. So, Paintball Santa, can you up the number of spectators we have??
2. Bring back 12.5. We’ve been racking our brains trying to figure out the logic behind moving to 10.2 bps, and all we’ve ended up with is a headache. Why PSP? Others have laid out very detailed reasons as to why NOT, but we have yet to figure out “why?”. Please Santa, explain this one, or move it back.
1. Be done with the Race2 format. The Race2 format was brought about to meet the demands of a slumping economy – Xball was simply too expensive and we needed a format that allowed for limited paint consumption but still offered the “points” based system that has defined modern paintball. However, the economy is looking up, the league has never been in better shape and the player base is ready: it’s time to return to some form of real Xball. Does it have to be 20 min. halves? No. We just want to have some number of time on the clock and the ability to score as many points as possible within that time limit. Carpe diem! Let’s make it happen?
So now that you’ve seen our Paintball Christmas Wish List, do you agree? Disagree? What would you add, or remove?
Get rid of coaching for all divisions.
Agree on all counts, though I’m indifferent to the ROF.
I’d add: move to a Millenium style buzzer system instead of the flag, only move the buzzers up to roughly the 20-30 yard line rather than all the way at the back.
OR
Leave the flag as is, but instead of hanging it at the deadbox the player with the flag simply needs to cross a line at about the 10-20 yard mark in enemy territory. Touchdown. This is imo the best solution.
OR
Leave everything as is, but give one point for the pull and two for the hang. This will get the flag in play more often.
OR…
… heck there are about a *dozen* ways like the above which could add more of a focal point to the game by getting a flag in play more often or making it possible to score without necessarily just playing a straight deathmatch 99% of the time. None of them involve completely reworking the format either, just minor tweaks.
The economy is not looking up lets be serious here.