Camille Lemanski spotted at last year's World Cup

The short answer is...no.  I was as surprised as everyone else was when the NPPL put out their press release stating that they would have D3 and D4 5 man divisions at their Houston event in September. 

Like a lot of people, I intially thought this was an early indication that the PSP and NPPL would be merging for the 2009 season as a way to keep major tournament events alive in the currently tepid economy.  Then the though crossed my mind that with the defections affecting both leagues, that the NPPL felt that they were in a position to take market share away from the PSP by offering a 5 man division.

I even went so far as to email Shawn Walker, the president of Pacific Paintball, LLC, the parent company for the NPPL, XPSL and several other properties that Pacific owns.  While I didn't get a direct answer as to whether or not the leagues were unifying, he did say that "Us adding 5-man is merely a way to make the NPPL more obtainable for the beginner/rookie local teams."  He went on to note that adding a 5 man division is a way to make playing an NPPL event less expensive and easier to do, since it's easier to get 5 players for an event than 7.  In the 90's, the NPPL did have a 5 man division, but it was the only league at the time, too.

Realistically, it's my opinion that there will be more talks between the major players in both leagues at this year's World Cup as they did last year, but I don't feel that reunification is in the cards this year or any time in the near future.  With the exception of Florida,  there are no two states in the US this year that host both an NPPL and a PSP event, so the geographical differences alone make it unlikely that a team in a specific locality would be able to hit both leagues. 

With travel expenses through the roof, traveling great distances to a major event becomes a strain on many teams' budgets, including Pro teams.  Diminishing sponsor support because of the tepid economy means that even the big boys are feeling the pinch as well. 

Maybe it is finally time to introduce limited paint events.  The games are so fast these days, what's the point in playing anything other than hopper ball?  Think about it. 5 players or 7 players at 200 rounds per game with a 6 game prelim means teams could do an event on 3 to 5 cases, rather than the typically average 1.5 cases per player. That drops the paint budget to under 50%.

The fact is, times are tough all over, and in order to survive and flourish, both leagues are doing things that they normally wouldn't do.  Speaking to local players here in Florida, they were very happy to hear of the NPPL's foray into 5-man, because generally speaking they felt that the NPPL puts on a better 'show', but the costs and difficulties in putting a 7 man team together put them out of the running for playing in the NPPL.  While X-Ball is considered to be 'the' format to play here in Florida, the realities of the extremely high paint costs and entry fees relegates the majority to playing 5-Man on the PSP's X-Ball fields.

Given the personalities involved, and the fact that both leagues have solid financial backing, I can't see reunification in the near future.  The fact is that both the NPPL and PSP are getting competition from leagues like the CFOA and The GPL, so the NPPL decided it would be good to diversify a bit and offer D3/D4 5 Man as a way to make them more appealing to the grassroots tourney players, who all dream of being the next Ollie Lang or Frank Connell, but are faced with the realities of having to pay their way up the tournament ladder. 

Everyone wants to be this guy...

The NPPL and PSP are both  getting competition from local leagues (which is why both leagues are sanctioning local leagues)  The original NPPL was formed in 1992, in large part due to the threat of local leagues at the expense of national leagues.  Perhaps a restructuring of one league or the other to the following format would provide stability:  Local leagues, sanctioned by a robust body, that then leads to ONE national championship event every year.

This is one of many possibilities of what could happen with tournament paintball in general...only time will tell what formula works.

© Copyright 1999 - 2008, 68Caliber.Com

Top of Page