The Wild World of TB!

So I got approached by Kevin 'Kevlar' Quinn who does Podcasts along with the Hellions. He was a great guy, and very interested in me, and my opinions, for good or bad. But he has also interviewed several other big names in the sport.

Take a look and shoot him an email, even more if you think you should get interviewed!

Click here.

or click below for the whole list:

http://www.hellions.net/media/podcast/2010_Season/2010_Season.html

I know some people wonder about the 50 of the field and CPX and why there is a huge chokepoint. And Ratsnake even claims that they are going to cut more of the central park out next year to make the choke point smaller. But there are much more issues than that for that field.

Here is a map that was made by the TechPB guys and submitted to Viper (he did a lot of prep talk in their private forum). So an argument from him that he didn't know would be well, bullshit.

First and foremost is the distance for the west side of the base. As one person put it, the West base has it the worse:

West = 1050 Foot

East = 580 Foot

That is the distance that an inserting person is supposed to take to get into the game as you have to go to your hospital first and then your base.

On a side note it is .51 miles from base to base.

Now the 50 of the field should start at roughly the west side of 10 by about 100 feet and then runs due north. 9 is a full 200 feet closer to one side than the other however the other bunkers even it out if everyone started from their bases. You can see the distances BTW. Now that is as the crow flies and you have trails and underbrush, but the East side has the definite advantage, now this is a slap at the producer, you count how many objectives are on the one side VS. the other. The objectives are there for a reason to be sure, as the missions come in for that. If you are on the west side well you are pretty much fucked. Where is his sense of 'everything being equal' now?

Anyone with half a brain much less 13 years of scenario production would know better than to lay the field out this way. The first Living Losers saw the base at 8 and the field played just as harsh with a chokepoint in the middle. Now me, I love choke points, both ways actually, you can push choke points a lot easier closer to them but there are no objectives and less cover on one side of the choke point than the other. Why wasn't that built up? Now I know Kerry knows how to do that with blow up bunkers and such and he could have made a deal with any number of people to work with that. I gave him that Idea at Blanding and people loved it.

So bravo to Honu for picking the better side for the longer portion of the game, but this should also show you why he had such a hard time on Sunday. It wasn't the 'rampant' cheating, it was that one side of the field was off balanced and on Sunday well he got a small taste of what happened all day on Sat for Barney.

Now take into consideration the starting points and realize that the distances now are about 300 feet shorter for the east side. I mean there it is in red letters from bus drop off point 365 from it to the CP. So let's look at the distances from starting points to the "50" shall we?

In the video below, you see that techPB was supposed to hold point 9. The distance took them roughly 2 minutes to walk or run to the point , 3 minutes in you hear Mike yell keep moving up, no contact yet. It is 5 full minutes before you see Mike start shooting and that is with his First Strike rounds. Listen to the audio of other people shooting and you will see it 8 minutes until you hear any type of real fight at the choke point. By then, well the Red side is in the speedball field to the valley. There is NO cover from the wasteland to the speedball field so there is about 100 feet of open space fighting and entrenched enemy. So the only place to fight from would have been the Valley, where you see 12 minutes into the video they mass a huge defense. Now from that side of the field you are fighting an entrenched enemy with the high ground. Didn't work out to well now did it?

Now I know Ratsnake claims 1200 people, but do you see 600 people starting the game? Or hell even in the woods? People who have played these games know what it sounds like with that many guns at game on. Everyone makes game on..... LOL. It takes 15 minutes for a consolidated force to push the woods, in a space that us roughly 380 feet across. That's right the choke point was a little over a football field in length. Where was the massive battle of 600 on 600? Where or even 300 on 300? By 8 minutes in, Mike has switched to his main marker and is dropping a lot of paint, which leads one to believe that they were pushing. He calls back that they are pushing about 70 in the valley. Again, the numbers don't match to what Ratsnake claims.

And people wonder why 30 minutes into the game, Barney starts sending Helicopters across the field to run missions.

By the way, let's look at one more thing before we drop off.

Posted by the game director Ratsnake: The red lines should go to the hospital, and THEN the base, since that's the route the players inserting have to take.

From point 6 and 8, which is where most of the fighting took place the first 30 minutes, you are looking at roughly 1300 feet to walk back to the hospital and then to your base to re-insert. That is if you didnt need paint and air. Anyone want to guess what roughly 1300 feet is? Yep, about 1/4 mile. So not, again, the fault on this was squarely on the promoter as it should never have gotten this bad right?

And while the promoter and refs allowed the red side to start 300 feet ahead of the other side, you can see now why that huge advantage played into helping them hold the choke point all day Saturday right? Once you set a line and you keep feeding it, well that is the nature of a grinder. And I am not even going to go into the people inserting directly at the 50 into Bedlam and Temple of Doom. And yes the game promoter was told about it, he shrugged it off and called a ref. And then the ref he called proceeded to watch another group of players do the same thing. If the 300 feet hadn't been allowed then the battle would have been at 10, 11 and 12, which is where I am sure that Ratsnake wanted the fighting to be. As that would be roughly the same distance for everyone, well except that damn walk. But then again I got told a lot of people weren't walking to either hospital and just walked straight to the base or they were allowed to 'hot insert' from the hsopital, but you wonder why the far base was never taken? Well as I see it 400 feet from one hospital on the West side and maybe 80' from the hospital of the East side and that doesn't include if they continued to let people insert from the bus drop off.

Well played Red for getting the choke point, I would have done the same thing. Poo on Viper for allowing the players a 300 foot head start and not thinking what would happen at the choke point and not building in ways for one side or the other to break out with scenario type toys.

And we didnt even touch on the other things, but let me lay them out for you too shall I?

Red Distance VS Yellow Distance with 300 foot head start to objectives:

#9 1320' VS 1414'
#11 1025' VS 1610'
#10 1010' vs 1570'

And do you really wonder why the lines was 300 feet on the other side of those objectives? And no I wasn't there, but with all the video footage and knowing that field and the players, did I need to be?

Let's see if you can see what I see. Shall we?

From the 6.4 rules: Game Start: When the game begins your commander will already know what the first missions for each segment are. Be sure that you at your base and ready to go when each segment begins!

You have about 3.5 minutes to figure it out. If after that, you haven't well, maybe you should ask some people who have played CPX and Viper games and such. Or take a look at what I have provided and see if you can see what I see.

Yep, I told Ratsnake thanks. Want to know why?

Because his post on his website just drove more people away from his game quicker then I ever could. I love the preachiness and the sanctimonious coming out of his little mind these days. I would think the man has sun stroke, but that would require him to actually work for a living and well, I can tell you, he doesn't.

But he keeps mentioning the GSRP, the GSRP, the fucking GSRP. I am going to write a damn history of that document soon, since he was up to his fucking neck in it as well with MXS. But Kerry one thing that you are wrong at, the rules may have started out getting more and more, but that was because like you are now, they penalized out of the box thinking.

But here is the ruling from the 'newest' GSRP:

CHARACTER/ROLE CARD: Your Character Card is your ticket to get into your base and defines which team you're on. Keep this on you at all times. Your commander's base security will ask to see it every time you insert onto the playing field (if they know what's good for them!) This colored card has the identity and character details you will be playing at the event. Get into your character, whether it be "Exalted Supreme Commander" or "Tailor" - this is the best way to get the most fun out of the event. Also on the Character/Role Card, you will find a space to enter your Player ID Number from your ID badge (see above.) Write your Player ID Number onto your Character/Role Card prior to game-on Saturday. This will speed your team's taping up and get you in on the first battle!

Funny since for well since the start of the document, this has been how it has always been. Losing your player card, put your security at risk. Want to know, if the guy who has the card is on your side. Simple. Barrel Tag him and walk him to your insertion, watch if he re-inserts, make sure the base ref checks on him and issues that if he is on the other side and doing this it is against the rules and then don't worry about it.

It ain't like you used a gift jersey to sneak someone into the base to eliminate the other commander and then stand behind your sanctimonious tower and talk about honor, right Ratsnake?

Since you have "stolen" a lot more of the GSRP these days as you ratchet down innovation in an attempt to get the big game players to come to your events while selling them as scenario, just realize you are losing your base, the people who play your games all the time. What a fucking dumbass!

But here, just add this to the rules as it was in the GSRP and your problems will be solved.

THE FINAL WORD

If it’s unclear;

If it’s not covered in orientation;

If it’s in a "grey" area;

If it’s not written in the GSRP, game-specific addendums, or on a game-specific card:

It Does Not Exist.

Ask the Event Director First!

;) How do you guys like those apples? Probably as much as I did when that ruling came into the GSRP.

Everyone wanted my opinion? It's simple, I don't place his fucking games anymore, you couldn't pay me to play them, so he can make all the fucking stupid rules he likes.

That's what sell-outs do........... they sell out!

Now, I'm the first to admit, I think sponsors in paintball are kind of a joke. Unless you're getting free gear, or they're paying your travel and paint, it's not worth mentioning. A lot of people disagree with me though, just cycle through any forum and look at the signatures. It is sponsors, sponsors, and more sponsors.

So this morning I'm pointed to this:
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3397789

A Custom Event Jersey (Special Forces or Inmate)
A Custom event Barrel Cover (Special Forces or Inmate)

Custom Jersey
The custom jersey and barrel cover are a limited edition run made specifically for this event. You will be required to wear the jersey and play as an inmate or Special Forces. The jerseys are very cool, a collectors item and yours to keep.

If I were a sponsor, and my teams had to cover up the logos I paid money for them to wear, I'd be upset. Just sayin'.

This whole thing touches on a lot of issues at once. I won't lie, custom event stuff is cool. I like that... but being forced to wear it? Now you're back into the pit of further reducing the skill level of play. Where does it stop?