Seit heute Abend gibt es die vierte Auflage des P8NT Magazine: Ride or Die online. Wir haben es für euch von PBStar.
SAN DIEGO WRAP-UP: ONE BAD WEEKEND
In all fairness, the NPPL San Diego event was fine (though the site was a bit of a letdown). The reffing was not up to par, but the trade show was packed and the event received a ton of exposure. From the standpoint of the top teams, however, San Diego was a nightmare. I haven't seen that many top teams blow out at an event since, well, ever.
Traditional wisdom is that the top teams play best at the last event of the year, but that just didn't happen in San Diego. Just how bad of a weekend was it for top teams? Only one (XSV) out of the top 15 Pro teams made the final four, and only one (TX Storm) of the top five Division I teams even made the prelim cut. It's going to be a long off-season for a lot of people trying to figure out what went wrong.
What does it say when a throw-together team (The Men) from the rival league (NXL) walks on to the final event of the year and wins the Pro Division?
DYNASTY DYSTRUCTED
San Diego was a rough event for a lot of teams, but no one had a worse weekend than Dynasty. Consider:
1) Dynasty 's 23 game NPPL winning streak came to an end on Sunday when they lost in the first game of the quarterfinals.
2) It was cross-town rival XSV who beat them in that game. XSV has now beaten Dynasty 4 of the last 5 times they've faced one another in 7-Man.
2) That game ultimately cost them a spot in the finals, ending their two and half year streak of making the final four in 7-Man events (both NPPL and Millennium).
3) Dynasty 's second team (Entourage) was disqualified for using an illegal gun.
4) In the words of NPPL scrutineer Dave Zinkham, the gun in question was „the most illegal gun ever tested on the robot.“
5) Dynasty lost one of its two franchise pro spots for 2005 as a result.
6) Dynasty 's first team received a „zero“ in the game against the Bushwackers, because Oliver Lang refused to let the referee test his gun after they had hung the flag.
7) All of this went down in their home town of San Diego.
One of Dynasty 's greatest strengths has been their ability to rebound from hardship. It will be interesting to see how they weather this one, and what changes are made between now and the start of 2005.
ALL IN
San Diego was the first NPPL event in which players from all nine NXL franchises competed. In fact, there were so many NXL players running around that it was almost impossible to keep track of them. Here's a (possibly incomplete) list:
Philadelphia Americans played for: Fusion, Ton Tons, Entourage
New York Xtreme played for: The Men, Sedition
Chicago Aftershock played for: The Men, Static
Oakland Assassins played for: Ironmen, Bob Long's Ironmen
Baltimore Trauma played for: Fusion
Detroit Strange played for: Team NXe
San Diego Legacy played for: Platinum
Los Angeles Ironmen played for: The Men
Miami Effect played for: Futureball, Ton Tons
That's a total of (at least) ten different teams with NXL players lending a hand.
IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT . . .
Then there was Nexus. Faced with the very real possibility of losing their pro spot for 2005 (Nexus came into the event ranked 16th) the team realized that they were going to have to pull together, practice hard and fight for their spot. Or better yet, pay the Russian Legion to compete in their place. In the words of the NPPL, „Should this be allowed to happen? Probably not.“ But happen it did, and it worked. „Nexus“ finished third at the event and 11th overall for 2004, well within the 17 team pro cut. And Euro teams wonder why they get no respect . . .
X SYSTEM X
After being one of the main sponsors for the first four events of the season, the System X field was quietly replaced with a National field for the San Diego event. What this means is anyone's guess, but it does seem that National is cementing its relationship with the NPPL.
DYE/SHOCKTECH RETURN
In another show of support for the league, both Dye and Shocktech returned to the NPPL tradeshow after sitting out the Vegas event. Proto even signed on as a Gold sponsor for the event, so that teams could use Proto paint.
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
In protest over how they have been treated by the company all year long, Justice spray-painted over the JT logos on their jerseys with black paint before taking the field on Sunday. This was a bold move from JT 's highest ranked amateur team and it did not go unnoticed. In truth, it was less a statement about the company and its products than it was about the people who are in charge of sponsorship and team relations. Hopefully JT can fix the problems before it suffers widespread revolt amongst its teams.
PRO DEATHWATCH: 27
This is the big one. With the final 2004 event over, we now know which teams made the cut and which teams didn't. In all, 27 of the 42 teams who played 7-Man „Pro“ this season won't be able to next year, at least in the NPPL. The teams that missed the cut can basically be broken down into five categories:
The Old School Pros: This is the big one. Long-standing names like Brass Eagle, Ton Ton Flinguers, Bad Company, Jax Worriors and Tippmann Effect are now in the awkward position of trying to justify pro-level sponsorship deals for what are essentially amateur teams. Of the 27 teams that ended up on the wrong side of the cut, these were the five that fought the hardest to make it, and these are the five that will be hurt the most by missing it.
The NXL Pros: The Men (L.A. Ironmen), Shock (Aftershock), NXe (Strange), New York Raiders (NY Xtreme), Platinum (Legacy)
The Sister Pros: Entourage (Dynasty's second team), Famous (Infamous' second team), Bob Long's Ironmen (Oakland Assassins' second team)
The Faux Pros: Triple Tap, Icemen, Eclipse Factory, Organized Crime, Godspeed, Naughty X Nature
The Foreign Pros: Worms, Hard Core, Millennium, Syndicate, Camp Tigers, Storm, Stockholm Ignition, Powertrip
THE LAST CHANCE 32
With San Diego being the last „open“ Pro division, a record number of teams registered Pro, if for no other reason than to be able to tell their grandchildren that they once played Pro in the NPPL. Altogether, 32 teams competed in the top division. What's so significant about that? That's the magic number that bumps the total teams making the prelim cut from 12 to 16.
The four extra teams that made the cut as a result ended up 10th, 14th, 15th and 16th overall, so one could argue that the impact was minimal. Unless you go back and look at what a three division bracket would have looked like, had there been 31 teams or less. But you'd have to be really anal to do that . . .
San Diego Pro Quarter Final Divisions for 12 Teams:
1. Avalanche
6. Nexus (Russian Legion)
7. Dynasty
12. Sedition
2. XSV
5. The Men
8. Ironmen
11. Infamous
3. Famous
4. Arsenal
9. NXe
10. Naughty Dogs
That first division is no joke, but the smart money would be on Dynasty to make it through. Odds are that the wildcard would come out of that division as well, which would probably go to Nexus (Russian Legion). The second division is by far the hardest. Since The Men ended up beating most of these teams, you'd have to pick them to make it out of the wreckage, which means the Ironmen and XSV wouldn't. That alone would have changed the complexion of the finals quite a bit. The third division is a toss up, with no team standing out above the rest. The Naughty Dogs played tough on Sunday in what was the hardest division of the bunch, so we'll give them the nod.
That would have left a final four of: Dynasty , Nexus (Russian Legion), Naughty Dogs and The Men.
The question then becomes, „Could The Men (or the Russians) beat Dynasty 2 out of 3?“ We will never know. The point is that all those „Faux Pros“ overloading the division does have an impact on the final outcome of the events, which is one of the reasons the NPPL decided to drop the hatchet on the bottom 27.
GREG HASTINGS' TOURNAMENT PAINTBALL RELEASE
Finally out, and the early word is that it's good. The only real mark against it is the lack of a multi-player, split screen mode. But that's only a drawback for people who have real friends, who they interact with in the real, physical world. Like paintball players.