A Black Eye on Paintball

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   I dont know if any you know about this but, this news is spreading like Wild Fire throughout every Paintball Related Forum.

The following is taken from a mass email sent out by PSP (Paintball Sports Promotions) on Friday, March 24, 2006.

Several incidents at the 2006 PSP Texas Open have put a black spot on the sport of paintball. The conduct of teams and players may have reached an all-time low in and around this event.

Based on the number of incidents and the damage caused, both financially and to the reputation of paintball tournaments in general, I have decided to take unprecedented action in hopes of deterring players and teams from making the same mistakes in the future. These intolerable incidents affect the outcome of tournaments as well as the finances of the PSP and ultimately the finances of all teams, vendors, and sponsors involved in the tournament. They also affect the reputation of the sport of paintball and the ability of the PSP and other tournament organizers to find and secure desirable venues. 

I feel it is time to hold people accountable for their immature, selfish, and irresponsible actions. 

Over the past 5 months, PSP had been engaged in ongoing talks with the Marriott Corporation about future involvement with tournament paintball. The talk had progressed slowly, but steadily. Significant efforts on both sides were destroyed by the actions of teams staying in Marriott hotels in the Austin area during our Texas event. 

Include strong call-to action links to various pages of your website to drive traffic and open up additional possibilities to convert browsers into buyers.The day after our staff returned from the event, we were contacted by Marriott and advised that they were not only uninterested in any additional talks, but that they were also letting their hotels in the area of our future events know not to book rooms for paintball teams or players. 

This loss of a possible huge outside sponsor and hotel partner was brought about by the selfish acts of several teams who stayed at various Marriott hotels during the event. I have a list of names of people who booked the rooms that were damaged. I have cross referenced these names with the ID system. Until the teams provide the names of those specific individuals who caused the damage, every player on the roster of these teams will be suspended from PSP events. 

Members of Team Demolition, Choppapb.com, Anarchy, Infinity, and Montage will be suspended for various lengths of time ranging from 1 tournament to a lifetime ban from PSP events. These suspensions stem from various degrees of damage done to the rooms and facilities of a Marriott hotel in which they were guests. Some of the people on these teams are responsible for the breaking off of talks between PSP and the Marriott Corporation regarding future rate deals, sponsorship, and additional involvement between the two companies. 

Team Clutch won the Division 3 Xball tournament. They did so with an illegal roster. This was not simply an oversight, but was a deliberate act of manipulating the ID system, and submitting misleading information in order to have members of the team’s classification dropped. Part of this problem stems from the staff believing the stories told to them and consequently dropping players’ classifications. The other part of this problem was the deliberate and intentional misrepresentation of identity in order to have a team compete below its rightful level. At no point in the future will any player’s classification be changed regardless of circumstances. There is no need for any player to contact anyone in PSP with a request for classification change from this point on. It will not happen. 

While I am certain that not all members of the team had prior knowledge of the scheme, I am left with no reasonable choice but to hold all accountable to some degree. The team has been stripped of all points from the Texas event. Several members of the team will be suspended from PSP events for 3 events. Others will be suspended for 1 year. Two individuals will be suspended for life. Adjustments will be made in terms of payout of prizes and distribution of tournament seed points toward year-end standings for the other teams in their division. 

On Sunday, Todd Martinez decided to take a PSP-rented golf cart for a joy ride through the awards ceremony. He crashed the golf cart into the guide wires anchoring one of the tripod poles, which hold the net up on the NXL field. The tripod pole was bent and is no longer usable. The golf cart was damaged and PSP has been billed for the repairs. He will be suspended from play for 1 year. He must reimburse PSP for the damages to the golf cart before he will be allowed on the property of any future PSP event. 

Here is the list of suspensions handed out to players/teams from the Texas event. 

· Billy York – probation 

· Trent Wilson – probation 

· Grover Srader – probation 

· Michael Fitzpatrick – probation 

· Jesse Babb – 1 year suspension 

· Tanner Russell – Lifetime ban from PSP events 

· Daniel Orren – 1 year suspension 

· Adam/Donald/DJ Thomsen – Lifetime ban from PSP events 

· Todd Martinez – 1 year suspension and reimbursement of costs for damage 

The following is the list of players whose teams caused considerable damage and disruption to one of the hotels. PSP has no way of determining specifically which of the individuals on these teams who rented the rooms is ultimately responsible for the unacceptable actions. We are aware of the particular rooms that had damage, as well as the acts of outright stupidity that occurred. Thus, we are holding all members of the teams on which the players who rented the rooms are rostered accountable for the actions of their teammates. 

At this point in time, the following players are suspended indefinitely. As more specific information becomes available, there may be changes made in regard to the duration of suspensions for individual players. 

Team Demolition 

· CJ Botsalas 

· Travis Arango 

· Chad Bustere 

· Ryan Currie 

· Ramzi El-Yousef 

· Graydon Gesner 

· Dana Klibanoff 

· John Ossian 

· Daniel Riney 

· Arroldo Silva 

· Alex Spence 

· Erik Taylor 

Choppapb.com 

· Josh Harper 

· James Harwood 

· Corey Jones 

· Andrew Macaluso 

· Aaron McCorkle 

· Robert Mcleod 

· Corey Neal 

· Zack Piper 

· Myles Vann 

· Richie Wade 

· Travis Walsh 

· Daniel Watson 

· Duane Watson 

Anarchy 

· Adam Hagar 

· Mason Kane 

· Devin Peithmann 

· Cody Rich 

· Dan Riha 

Infinity 

· Christopher Bobell 

· Robert Hamski 

· Pete Montero 

· Nick Sandalena 

· Robert Signor 

· Domencia Steele 

I hope this message gets to the teams and players in the vein that it was intended. I would be remiss in my duties as the head of the world’s largest tournament league if I let these types of actions continue unpunished. The result of the misdeeds of players at this past event goes far beyond the scope of most players’ knowledge. We are losing sponsorship. We are losing respect. We are now losing the ability for teams to stay at hotels of their choice simply because they are related to the sport of paintball. If we decide to have another event in Texas, the PSP will not be able to rent equipment from the most reasonable vendor, making production of the event much more difficult. Other Texas paintball events may have to face these same issues. It is a very real possibility that no paintball players will be able to stay at Marriott Hotels in the future. 

This is a simple message – players and teams competing in PSP events will be held accountable for their actions and the actions of their teammates and others involved with their team. Heed the warning! 

Lane Wright CEO/President Paintball Sports Promotions