2009 Millennium changes for 2009 season
Dates and Venues 2009
1st Event: 24.04.09 – 26.04.09 Fuengirola Beach – Malaga – Spain
2nd Event: 29.05.09 – 31.05.09 Bitburg – Germany
3rd Event: 03.07.09 – 05.07.09 Paris (Plus Intercontinental Cup) – France
4th Event: 18.09.09 – 20.09.09 Basildon – England (New Venue)
5th Event: 23.10.09 – 25.10.09 Location TBA (Very Shortly)
Millennium Cup and Millennium championship
2009 Millennium will have two titles like in all the main sports.
The Millennium Series Championship consists of 4 events (event1, 2, 4 and 5) instead of 5.
The 3rd event will be a true CUP.
CPL, SPL, D1 and D2 teams will play 3 matches in a division of 4 teams.
The best team of each group will be directly qualified in the Pro group where teams will play direct single direct elimination (1/16 final, 1/8 final. 1/4 final, 1/2 final and final)
The best 2nd team of each group will be qualified in the semi pro group where they will also play direct single elimination. (Example attached)
LIMITED TO 128 TEAMS. Some wild card entries will be available subject to final numbers.
There will be also a cup for M5 (d3).
Teams will play 10-15 preliminary games using race 2 format in a division of 6 teams
The best team of each grouped will be directly qualify in the AM1 group where teams will play directly the 1/4finals
The best 2nd team will be qualified in AM2 group where they will play the ¼ finals.
LIMITED TO 48 TEAMS
More changes:
Gun rule changes
PSP suggested ROF of 12, 10 and 8 for different skill levels, now agreed to use ROF 10 universally for all from 2010, MS will start already in 2009 with ROF 10.
New Seeding in CPL
In order to avoid the same teams often being in the same prelim groups, team owners have decided to test a new seeding system for the CPL.
A format where all teams would play each other two times over the season with all teams having exactly the same number of games has been discussed, but discarded for 2009. Instead the known and proven system will continue with the addition of a random factor.
All 16 teams are put into four “hats”: Rank 1-4 in I, Ranked 5-8 in II, Ranked 9-12 in III, Ranked 13-16 in IV. Preliminary groups A, B, C & D will each get one team from each hat drawn randomly. The draws will be done in public at the end of each event. The draw for the first event will be done on a live webcast in English by Spirit of paintball in March. If successful, a similar system can be used for SPL and Div 1 in 2010.
Field layout commission 2009
Steve Di Pietro and Laurent Hamet will be assisted by Nick Truter
SupAir bunkers
Introduction of small pillars, like in PSP in order to help moves.
"Fixed" games
In order to reduce opportunities of fixed games, the two top teams in each group will now play the first instead of the last match against each other.
Sister team enhancements
1. Players from teams of the same club can only move to teams in a higher division, if such a team is not more than two categories higher. Example; Players from “Sister Team 2” registered in Div 1 can move to SPL or CPL. If “Sister Team 2” is playing in Div 3, they can only move to Div 2 or 1.
2. A player must play at least one tournament with the team they were registered with before moving up. Example; Player from “Sister Team 2” registered in Div 2 has to actually play one event in Div 2 first before they move up to “Sister Team 1” in Div 1 or SPL.
3. A second team in SPL and Div 1 will get a discount of 10% on their annual license fee. A second team in Div 2 will get a discount of €100 per event.
General rule change
Players will no longer be eliminated for leaving behind non-safety related equipment
Relegation
Stays the same.
Top 4 teams from CPL 2008 are to be nominated by the EPBF for the Intercontinental Cup 2009 as the European contingent. Bottom 2 teams from CPL with be relegated to SPL after the season ends.
Top 2 teams of SPL will be promoted to CPL at the season end. The bottom 4 teams of SPL will be relegated to Div 1 at the season end.
Top 4 teams of Div 1 will be promoted to SPL at the season end. The bottom 4 teams of Div 1 will be relegated to Div 2 at the season end.
Top 3 teams of Div 2 will be promoted to Division 1 at the season end.
Gun teching at vendor’s booths
This will be allowed with certain restrictions (out of site, no noise, safety etc).
Scoreboards
Scoreboard start/stop signal to be louder. Scoreboard signals from different fields to be more distinct.
Reffing
Refs to use red & yellow flags in order to make penalties more visible.