Sunday, March 28, 2010
NPPL Interview part 2 of 2
NPPL Interview part 2 of 2
ProPaintball: How will you be able to prevent sand bagging?
Frank Connell: It is going to take a lot of hard work on my part to check every ID that comes through the NPPL system and verify that they are the rank they say they are. We have all the NPPL data from last year as well as previous years, so we’ve got a lot of player information. The NPPL did handle all of their own ID cards from 2003 until 2008 without any problem, so we’re very confident our players will be happy with our new program.
ProPaintball: How did Shawn Walker come back into the picture?
Chuck Hendsch: I’m not sure what you mean by back in the picture. Shawn owns Camp Pendleton Paintball Park and manages the tournament complex at Jungle Island where several of the NPPL pro teams practice, plus he also runs the RPL. The NPPL has always supported fields and local/regional tournament circuits. Shawn is working hard to bring back tournament paintball in Southern California and we appreciate his support and will look at sanctioning events at his parks in the future. We have a 7-man event scheduled at Jungle Island on March 27th where teams and refs can get valuable field practice experience at this event to prepare themselves for the upcoming HB tournament. The NPPL is also offering a free 7-man entry as the top prize.
ProPaintball: How does Shawn Walker’s 5-man & 3-man league fit into the NPPL 7-man series?
Chuck Hendsch: Shawn is hosting a 7-man event this month to get teams ready for our 7-man division. The NPPL also runs D4 and D5 5-man divisions, so obviously any RPL 5-man team can use Shawn’s league as a good way of preparing for an NPPL 5-man event and vice versa.
ProPaintball: On that note, why is the NPPL Super-7 series hosting 5-man alongside 7-man?
Rich Telford: Because it’s easier for teams that are just getting started to get a 5-man team together and then move up to 7-man. That’s what I did. I played 5-man then 10-man and I don’t think that I could have started off playing 10-man because it is too technical.
ProPaintball: Has the NPPL considered going back to its roots and acting as a sanctioning organization in the short term future?
Chuck Hendsch: Absolutely. The league has always been a sanctioning body for tournaments worldwide. We will continue this path as the governing body for paintball. We are trend setters when it comes to rules, formats, schedules, policies and raising the bar. We are also working on a new Ref Training Program designed to get quality refs trained at all levels.
ProPaintball: With most major leagues worldwide moving towards a capped rate of fire (be it ramping or semi-auto) to combat cheating guns & “bounce”, why has the NPPL decided to stay with the uncapped, semi-auto concept?
Alex Fraige: Personally, I like semi-auto because it adds another skill to the game. I talked about it at length on the webcast, but I believe that running and shooting in semi-auto mode is more difficult than doing it in a ramping mode, and I like that added dimension. There’s been lots of talk about the issue because capping the rate of fire is an easy way to solve the issue with illegal modes, however the majority of us (as well as other players we talk to) prefer semi auto. We had a big call early in the year with a number of manufacturers to discuss ways to deal with the illegal modes and came away with a number of good ideas which we’ll start to introduce this season. One of the most effective ways is using high speed cameras to watch the number of trigger pulls and the number of balls shot. Then there’s no doubt if a gun is adding in shots. It’s a tough thing to deal with, but we are definitely working on it. We’ve also changed some of the rules related to bouncing guns, so teams will now get a warning before any penalty.
ProPaintball: Has the NPPL conducted a survey of divisional players to gauge what they, the paying customer, are interested in?
Frank Connell: I have received numerous emails with input and questions regarding the NPPL and feel that the input I got was helpful in some of the decisions the board of directors had to make this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Justin in Los Angeles at justin@propaintball.com.
PSP Phoenix Wrap Up
PSP Phoenix Wrap Up
With the weather looking greater then most tournaments in the past season, the PSP Phoenix event came to a conclusion. Teams packed up their cars and headed home from a long weekend at Glendale Stadium. Read on for the final event scores, a few thoughts from the event and a handful of photos from Matt Dawson.
Final thoughts: The event ran very smoothly. While the PSP was not running their webcast, Camille Lemanski was busy updating the facebook/twitter page with point by point updates and she did a wonderful job keeping paintball fans updated.
There was several new paintball products at the event including the new Alien/Understood “Chalk” Marker and the Planet Eclipse Geo2. Pro paintball players from VICIOUS, Dynasty, and Impact that shot the GEO2 noted that while it was a prototype, the geo2 paintball gun performed flawlessly throughout the weekend and that they were very happy. Check out this photo of Dusty Odell and the GEO2 in action.
Edmonton Impact and Tampa Bay Damage played some amazing paintball over the weekend. Ryan Moorehead from Edmonton Impact was killing it on the dorrito side for Impact. Ryan is without question one of the top players in pro paintball and has definitely proved himself to be an asset to Impact. This event was the first time Impact has won a PSP event in the professional division. Congratulations guys, great job!
Along those lines, Canada seems to be on a roll these days. First, Canada earned a Gold medal in Mens Hockey, then a Gold medal in Womens Hockey, and now a Gold in Professional Paintball. Rock on Canada!
In the semi pro paintball division, Newport Beach Entourage defeated RNT Allstars for the win. This was Entourage first semi pro paintball event as a team and they have definitely proved themselves. There was alot of speculation that some of the pro paintball players on Entourage would not be able to play the event because of player classifications. Entourage player Ryan “Meezy” Martin joined up with the RNT Allstars for the Phoenix Open. RNT was short on players (they only had 5 of their own) and Ryan was the 6th. Both teams played exceptionally well throughout the entire event and ultimately had to play one another in the final game. In the final match up against Entourage for 1st and 2nd place, Ryan Martin sat himself so that he did not compete against his own team. RNT Allstars played with 5 guys and were unable to rotate any players between points, ouch. We can’t blame Ryan for what he did, but we can only imagine that the lack of rotation and freshly energized players for RNT gave Entourage a competitive advantage. Maybe next time RNT will bring more players to the event.
The scoreboard on the pro field was extremely difficult to follow. Rumors had circulated on Saturday that PSP officials were working to swap it out with another but word is they ran out of time. We have a hunch that the scoreboard will be replaced before Chicago.
Last but not least, congratulations to everyone involved and thanks for everyones help and support throughout the event!
Pro Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Edmonton Impact
2nd – Tampa Bay Damage
3rd – Chicago Aftershock
4th – LA Infamous
Semi-Pro Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Newport Entourage
2nd – RNT Allstarz
3rd – Escondido Aftermath
4th – SK Moscow
Division 1 Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Palm Beach Venom
2nd – Total Karnage Orlando
3rd – DBS Kidz
4th – L.I.F.T
Division 2 Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Boom
2nd – NuSkool Wrecking Crew
3rd – VcK
4th – Noble
Division 3 Paintball Event Standings:
1st – ASSAULT
2nd – Hellcats
3rd – Coalition
4th – Topgun Union
Division 4 Paintball Event Standings:
1st – MPS Kids
2nd – Tampa Bay Vengence
Division 3, 5-Man Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Golden State Pirates
2nd – Chicago Wiseguys
3rd – OUTBREAK TX
4th -Puppy Control
Division 4, 5-Man Paintball Event Standings:
1st – Dallas Lethal
2nd – Atlanta Breakout
3rd – NuSkool Wrecking Crew Kids
4th – Friendly Fire
Planet Eclipse Geo 2
Planet Eclipse Geo 2
This new paintball marker will be released May 2010. But when exactly? NPPL Chicago May 29-31st? Or will they just release it May 1st? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gilbert in Halifax, NS at gilbert@propaintball.com.
March 23, 2010Filed Under: Gear, New Releases
New Paintball Goggle System: Invert Avatar
New Paintball Goggle System: Invert Avatar
Invert has released a new paintball goggle known officially as the “Avatar” goggle system. Unofficially, we know of these goggles as the Empire Events, the same goggles that pro paintball teams like Dynasty, Infamous, X-Factor and VICIOUS are using. This time around, parent company KEE Action Sports has expanded our options by offering the goggle in digital camouflage pattern.
Digital-Camo Events; hot or not? Let us know in the comments below.
Former Pro Paintball player cashes in at World Series of Poker
Former Pro Paintball player cashes in at World Series of Poker
Third Place: Early Chip Leader Busts
Raney Stanczak played an outstanding tournament, but lost his momentum late, resulting in a third place finish. He watched helplessly as Joseph Cheong took over the chip lead and dominated the later states of the tournament. Stanczak managed to double up a few times and moved back into contention, but he was knocked out by his adversary late when he moved all in with
. Cheong insta-called with
and watched happily as five blanks fell on board, making the pocket Q’s the best hand. Stanczak, a student who has played Paintball professionally, earned $7,609 in his first time to cash in a WSOP Circuit event. [ Link to original article ]
PSP Phoenix Pro Paintball Schedule – Sunday
PSP Phoenix Pro Paintball Schedule – Sunday
Top 6 PRO Bracket:
- Tampa Bay Damage
- LA Infamous
- Dynasty
- Red Legion
- Aftershock
- Impact
Stay tuned as we will be updating the scores LIVE throughout the day as it progresses, and be sure to be connected with our twitter page for updates as they happen each point at @propaintballcom.
09:10am – PRO – Legion (5) vs. Aftershock (6)
10:00am – PRO – Dynasty (5) vs. Impact (6)
01:00pm – PRO – Infamous (4) vs. Impact (7) Semi Final
01:50pm – PRO – Damage (7) vs. Aftershock (1) Semi Final
03:30pm – PRO – Infamous (4) vs. Aftershock (7) Podium Match
05:20pm – PRO - Impact (7) vs. Damage (4) Finals
Final PRO Standings:
- Impact
- Damage
- Aftershock
- Infamous
Congratulations Edmonton Impact on your first PSP Professional win!
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