reposted from PBnation, I am wanting to gather people's opinions about this:

So I have seen posts about players conduct on the field of play and even some about off, but here is a question for you. Would you use strong-arm tactics to get what you wanted in a game even if the 'promoter' felt like he/she was doing the right thing by enacting a decision, no matter how unpopular it may be with you.

Not picking on any team, promoter or field here.

Lets say Team Big City Pimps is coming to the game held at BFE Paintball which is being directed by Blinky Productions, a well known and respected promoter. They always want to play with Team Little Town Macks, and Holly City Ho's and so they sign up on the same side.

If during the pre-registration process the promoter, Blinky was to see that the sides were uneven and request that BCP play on the other side to make the game fair for everyone, what do you think the outcome should be?

Do you think that the BCP should just accept the move and play the game even if it against a team that they always play with?

Or would it be ok for them to 'threaten' the promoter with the loss of all teams if he/she doesn't give them what they want in playing together? And if the threat was carried out by going to a competing promoter or event and then to actually recruit teams that were going to that event to leave and come to the new event. Even teams that was not part of the orginal three?

What's your thoughts on this? Good behaviour, Acceptable behaviour or Unacceptable behaviour?

BTW.... all the above are not real teams, fields or promoters. So please don't read anything into this. Just wanting to gauge player's responses to the type of thing that has and does go on.

I have another line of Strong-arm tactics coming, but I don't want to muddy the issue yet.
__________________

IMO, the fairness of the event outweighs everything else. I've played a few scenario's and having an evenly matched game is much more fun than a one sided blow-out.

Sure everybody wants to play with their friends and I do think promoters/fields should attempt to accommodate but not at the expense of the game.

If you take notice of the scenario calender on PBjunkie.com from 2006 to 2007 you will notice an 80% increase in the amount of scenario events. Pretty soon there will be 3 or 4 events a weekend that players will have to choose from and I think that strong arm tactics with teams pressuring the organizers will be one of the "many" selling points to get you to show up at their events. I do think that more importance will be put on other items such as quality of products (paint, air, etc) provided at these events.

I've seen promoters in this situation before and I've seen one in particular tell the team to "HAUL ASS" if they didn't like which side they were on. This was after every attempt was made by the promoter to make the team happy. This particular promoter would not stray away from the fairness of the game and word gets out about this "pride" in fairness. Word also gets out about the conduct of the team!

I think it would be unacceptable behavior for a team to threaten a promoter or field owner because they didn't get their way every time they attended an event. I also think it unacceptable for a promoter/field owner to give a certain team their way every event because of the constant money flow (size of the team) thereby putting the risk of the fairness of the event in jeopardy.

In conclusion most teams have some sort of "honor system" in place and they value how the team is perceived in the paintball community. If strong arm tactics are a constant problem most teams will recognize it sooner or later an bring into question why the promoter allows them at the event in the first place..

I've been an event promoter before and I would not cave in to "strong arm tactics". Your responsibility as a promoter is to all of the customers. I feel any reasonable player/team should realize the difficulty of maintaining a balance game and go with the flow.

That being said I do feel you should try and work with teams that want to work/register togather as long as you can maintain the integrity of the overall game. I would first ask for volunteers to shift sides but if this did not work I would force teams to shift to maintain a balanced game. Again your responsibiliy is to all of the players not a few who might think they are special.

As a player I always prefer to register and play with my team and other friend teams. I have been in the situation before where teams I expected to play with and prepared with for the game have been shifted to the opposing team. Though I wish it did not happen any of the times, once we got over it, all of us had fun still and now got to shoot at each other instead of with each other.

"Qui tacet consentit"


"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."
-Sophocles

First thing that should be realized is that this is a game.

Whenever I get to go out to a scenario, I'm very anxious and hopeful to play with some familiar faces but I also like me a challenge. As Grendel and Rich have allready said, even teams are the most important. Even if your not playing side by side, your still playing against eachother and it is there that the camp fire stories are made. We all trust in the game directors decision and he knows what we want. If we all can't be together then there is a definite reason as to why that is. To step out and threaten the producer in my opinion is an innapropriate course of action that would reflect poorly on any team that does so.

"It doesn't bother you, killing those people?
-Well I wouldn't be very good at my job if it did."
Proudly sponsored by Qloader and Hammerhead

Ide say belly-aching for up to 2 seconds should be allowed if done in a respectful manner.

What team would threaten a promoter with pulling out several teams because they didnt get the side they wanted? That is not a team I care to be on the field with at all. I know not everyone agrees with me, but there has to be honor in paintball or it will turn into a game of thugs and hoodlums (sp). And no one wants to play with punks.

JesterTLS
scenariosupply.com cdpaintball.com http://www.tacamopaintball.com/

If I were the promoter, I would say: "don't get a ticket on the way back home".
Case in point, last scenario Joker and I were put on the "opposite" side from the team we wanted to play with, what did we do? We asked the promoter if we could switch sides but was told sorry, what did we do? Sucked it up and shoot kids. We didn't play with our "buds" but, we did learn how to sign ourselves in for the next scenario.

I don't take my meds
because I like being ANGRY!

Below is what I wrote in response to TB's question in the Scenario section of PBNation.

Ironically, last weekend the Hired Gunz attended a small scenario at a brand new field in Poplarville, MS. Pearl River Paintball is a 40 acre woods field that has just opened and has the potential to be a great place. From the modern bathroom/shower facilities, to the Bauer HPA system with multiple fill stations, this place is an "up and comer".

When we arrived on Sunday, there were eleven of us. To place us all on one team would have thrown the balance. There were not any "seasoned" scenario players in the mix. They were mostly first time scenario players that were having fun. The field owner asked Woody if we would split up. The players had been together on Saturday and he didn't want to break up the alliances that had formed then. Though we didn't WANT to, we did it anyway. All the while I cursed TB for placing this instance of Murphy's Law on us!

Anyway, we played and had a great time. As I said above, some of the best times I've had have been playing against close pals. And the newer players benefitted from our tactics and smack talking across the field. Any of you who have played with us know that is is a near-religious experience to see Woody do one of his tease dances to get the other side worked up. It was a fun time and a great experience. To me, that's what it is all about. EVERYONE having fun, no matter who end up the victor.

IMHO, the vainglorious should be told to take the hit or take a walk...

Jester

a few years ago, my local field(at that time) traveled about 2 hours to attend a big game/scenario event. We called and emailed ahead of time telling them we were bringing 24 people to the event. They claimed they normally get over 200 so we said great we were hoping we could all play together that day, they said shouldn't be a problem.

On the day of the event only 60+ people arrived. So effectively my home field was a team. We wanted to play together, the coordinatoor wanted to split us up. Info to let you know at least 10 of our 24 were out there with jeans and a tshirt and were renting from the field, we obviously were not a team we were a fellow local field supporting a not too far away other local field.

We did not threaten we simply requested to get to stay together, we agreed to split up if we had to but were strongly against it, even to the point of having only us 24 vs everyone else out there that day. The coordinatoor then decided to let us stay together and have us up against our 40 or so opponents. To say the least we got hammered all day long but we enjoyed it(I think thanks to all of our people were marines or navy personnel). You know the types who love an impossible challenge but rise to it anyway.

My real disappointment of the day though was...

They have a mid-day break, they give out prizes, have lunch, tell everyone the score, at that point it was something like 800-100 us losing bad. At that point, I would have expected to coordinatoor to maybe decide to even the teams if not balance them at least, well none of that happened. So most the experienced players chose to lend out their extra guns to our rental people. Now most of us know the gun doesnt make the player but most certainly a reliable and accurate piece of equipment does lend a hand.

We still lost horribly, but we definetly turned the game up a notch.



I guess my point relating to the topic:

should players be willing to split up? yes most definetly.

should coordinatoors be willing to let them stay together? yes, but with a degree of judgement involved.

Should anyone ever try to intimidate in order to get what they want at an event? no, to the point of telling them to leave and don't bother coming back

Even though the teams are fictional in your example, seems to me I've seen this before....