NXL/PSP Pittsburgh
By: The Genius

Alright, there is WAY too much crap and rumors and hype on the internet about what went down at the Pittsburgh event last week. Take it from someone who plays a decent role in promoting both major series and knows everyone, this is how it all went down. Granted half of this is just my personal opinion on the PSP, but hey, everything is someones personal opinion, so if you don¡¦t like it, write something up yourself, jackass.

First, the location, Nemacolin¡¦s resort. A beautiful place to play¡K¡K¡Kgolf. Paintball? Not so much. Just because we¡¦ve become used to playing on grass doesn¡¦t mean you have to fly us out to a field 2 hours away from the airport in the middle of Hicksville, PA. I may not know the literal reason why the NXL chose this site, but it seems kinda clear. Dick Clark was present at the event, as were many high level VIP¡¦s from Nemacolin and other large companies that the NXL was trying to get investment dollars from. I know what your saying; ¡§Investment dollars? But I thought Dick Clark bought the TV rights himself?¡¨. Yes, he did, but that doesn¡¦t mean he¡¦s footing the bill for the camera crews, editing, and production costs to actually get the friggin¡¦ thing on the air. The solution, throw an event known for great PGA tournaments and bring a bunch of loud mouth, rule breaking weekend warriors down to tear shit up. In what appeared to be an obvious attempt to purely attract NXL money, the rest of the Divisional Xball teams and 10man teams got to pay the price, literally, in the form of gas money driving to hotels 40min away, parking fee¡¦s at the event, not to mention the extreme lack of nice restaurants. And it¡¦s a good rule of thumb to not wanna buy your sandwich from a building that also houses a grocery store and a Radio Shack. ¡§More battery acid on your fries sir?¡¨ ¡§Why yes, pile that shit high to the sky, Mr. Cletus¡¨.

My favorite part was watching 60yr guys that probably think we were National Guard reservists in training trying to comprehend this game, and also probably wondering why more than half the NXL games had less than HALF of the crowd of any Div. 1 game. Bottom line, the NXL appears to be staggering, this event seems to have been a last ditch effort to get TV money going, and the rest of us got to take it up the ol¡¦ anus.

Next up, the reffing. The NXL ref¡¦s are good, really good. They catch everything, the players don¡¦t dispute their calls, perfect. Too bad no ones watching the NXL games. Take a walk over to the Div. 2 fields to see 10yrs. (not joking) pulling a 5min penalty on what would be considered at most a 2min penalty or not even a penalty at all, depending on the judge. The only thing better than that is watching the ¡§pro trained ref¡¦s¡¨ lose their cool and start yelling at the players and getting on a power trip that they have no business tapping into. The only people that should be allowed to harass the players should be the organizers like Rosie, and Rosie sure did flex his zero tolerance muscle, a little too much, but most of it is necessary, until you just start yelling at people because YOUR ref¡¦s are ****ing up and you just wanna seem like the tough guy that can make anyone shut up cuz he pays rent-a-guards $8 a hour to do whatever he says, including banning you from the site for no real reason. Way to blow it, Robocop.


10man ref¡¦s, my god. Is there any wrung on the paintball stature ladder that is lower than a 10man ref? The answer your looking for is no. HELL no. These guys hate life and I¡¦m right there with em¡¦, watching what used to be our primary form of competition (10man) just two years ago, now get tossed aside (or more like ¡§to the back¡¨) of the location, where only the diehards dare stray to watch a couple games. To be a Ten man Pro/Am team is to admit that you either hate Xball or just plain can¡¦t cut it. Or your name is Justice and you wanna avoid any strict competition and just beat up on teams until your forced to play Super 7 amateur next year cuz you couldn¡¦t make the pro cut. If you¡¦re a 10man novice or rookie team, what the hell is the matter with u? The only media out there is Cleo and the only reason she¡¦s out there is to take $20 a roll, crappy film shots of your team so that you¡¦ll buy them at some absurd price so you can have a nice blurry picture of yourself standing still and dropping a pod on your toe to hang on your mantle at home. Bottom line, I love 10man, I still think the world loves tenman, but the PSP hates it, and that¡¦s all that matters, cuz it¡¦s probably disappearing altogether either this next season or the following one. Here¡¦s a good question: If the NXL and PSP are supposed to be two separate leagues and two separate entities, why doesn¡¦t anyone make 10man more noticeable and why is it obvious that both PSP and NXL are trying (and failing) to make NXL matches the main attraction? Think about it.

Now, its not all rain clouds and hate storms, there are a couple things right with the NXL. I like the format, the penalty system, the scoring system. I do believe it¡¦s the right form of paintball for TV. The main problem? The wrong people are running the series. The only reason the NXL has lasted this long in my opinion is Mike Ratko. Why? Cuz he does EVERYTHING himself, with no staff over than his ref core, which run like a machine on their own anways. Ref¡¦s need rakes? Mike gets em¡¦. PA system needs to be set up? Mike gets the cords and sets it up. Players have trouble understanding the rules? Mike drops everything and helps them out. Jesus Christ people, the Super 7 has enough staff that if Owen or Chuck crapped their pants, two little Super 7 minions would be out there wiping their asses clean within¡¦ a 30 sec. time frame. Meanwhile, were watching one very determined stressed out man run what the top leaders in our industry are calling the TRUE form of paintball? Why don¡¦t these top companies (SP, National, DYE, Draxxus) shell out a extra $1000 each for the next event to stack the sidelines with girls to attract viewers, give away freebies, and to walk around to make sure people come back to watch the NXL games, instead of just hoping the Dynast vs. Russian Legion game doesn¡¦t steal all their thunder? The answer is, the PSP choses to let things ride, let poor planning rule the day, and just hope it turns out alright in the morning. Not to divulge what I do for a living, but my entire way of life/job revolves around perfecting schedules, problem solving, and trying to figure out every possible solution weeks before the project ends just so I¡¦m ready to deal with the UNFORSEEN problems that always occur. The PSP doesn¡¦t do this, so now the easily fixed problems that they didn¡¦t plan for launch into major problems that must now be dealt with that exact second and now it just sets up the domino effect of destruction that¡¦s become synonymous with this league all year long.

Finally, the Alberto (Bear) D¡¦Egidio fiasco. This is how it was planned and this is how it went down. The HK¡¦s were sitting with members of Avalanche and Infamous (all parties shall remain nameless unless I change my mind in the next 5min). They got the idea to hogtie a couple of their own members and then got the bright idea to try it out on Bear. HK¡¦s relationship with Giovanni and SC Village? Controversy in the past, which was worked out and now SC Village continues to sponsors the HK¡¦s, despite what others think and what happened in Pittsburgh. Well, they (lets call him G. Glaze, wait no, that¡¦s too obvious¡K¡K.. Gator G., much better.) took little Panda to the ground, with no intent on hurting him, and Bear got spooked and starting to get spooked a little, as any 12yr kid would when a reptile alliGator grabs your arm and goes into a roll. Gio acted as any father would, and any loyal teammate, and defended his son. While Jules Foote played a part in the madness, he didn¡¦t set up the attack nor took Bear to the ground. Jules already has both the PSP and Super 7 trying to ban him for the next season, and made a point to tell his teammates that he¡¦s gonna lay low and let all storms blow over. Well, Gio apparently saw something, threw Gator to the ground, and wrapped Jules¡¦s headband around Jules neck, swinging him side to side while yelling ¡§Apologize!! Apologize!!¡¨. Anyone that thinks Gio overacted is a lying sack of shit, cuz we all know we¡¦d do the same thing to someone for LESS than what they did to Bear. What ensued was a crazy conglomeration of security guards yelling at Gio and trying to disperse the crowd. Talking to Gio this past week, he¡¦s still trying to figure out exactly what happened with a calm head, and no longer blames the HK team.

So to sum it all up. Probably the worst event of the year, worst reffing, most pissed off players, most misuse of power. We¡¦ll probably never see something this terrible ever again¡K¡K¡K.at least not until World Cup. ƒº Cya guys there. Now if you¡¦ll excuse me, I gotta go get a x-ray taken care of.

Sincerely,
The Genius

Source: flagpull.com

wow....thats a lot of hate....

EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE!!!

...and I got asked this weekend why I do not play or judge tourneys anymore!

"Qui tacet consentit"


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

yea i play 1 or 2 big tourneys a yr. but the fun is at the local level. cuz you have bragging rights for a longer time, and you prolly wont see 1/2 the same teams at a big event ever in your life

EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE!!!

well he does have some valid points. i can also see why he's so pissed off. people in the paintball "life" take things they hear and repeat them in oreder to make others think they are "in the know" and those stories get messed up and you could hear 10 different versions of a story. also with ten man. i personally a a fan of ten man and always have been and always will be. i don't like x ball. too complicated for me paintball wise and it just does not appeal to me. bbut yea the location was kinda, no wait realy crappy from what i hear from a few many first hand accounts. yea anyway i kinda agree with him. he could have written it a little less angrily but hey. whatever.

GLK=brocore.