Referee Dilemma – Part 2

Back from holidays and a long weekend. Somehow getting stuck in traffic jam all the way to the east coast on Saturday, takes my mind away from the road and in to the paintball field. Although I’m fully aware of my driving, every now and then I’d be thinking about it. It just happened. And somehow, that’s helped me escaped the mundane of driving barely 10km/h on Karak Highway up till Bentong. And pretty much smooth sailing after that.

Looking back at the comments on the previous Referee Dilemma, it’s pretty sad that there are retards who commented on things that had nothing to do with the topic and still trying to sound intelligent. I’m sure they tried very vest to sound very ‘wise’, but the fact is they are NOT. Who do we blame? The society? Their friends? Sounds plausible.

Maybe they are so used to making comments or posts with zero substance in forums, that they are simply couldn’t change the way to express their thoughts. It’s already written at the right column that this blog has its purpose and somewhat very relaxing in moderation. The big plus is, you don’t even have to register to post a comment. You can say whatever that’s on your mind and not be afraid to say it.

It’s been getting out of hand a few times and I take this as a positive sign that VillainPaintball.blogspot.com has been getting a lot of readership although not many will admit it. Fine by me. Blogs attracts all kinds of people, and sadly there are people out there who just can’t follow simple house rules. These people think, they can simply drop by, post a few comments that they think would make them grow and inch or two and never wants to owe it up.

Come on! If you think you have something good to say, by all means, please do. If I keep getting nonsense comments from users with ‘Anonymous’ stamped on their forehead, I may have to enforce user registration. Now, that wouldn’t be ‘nice’ won’t it?

This brings back to my topic. You see these attitude are synonym with paintball. Imagine the referee being me, and the blog is the field. You have players (readers) come over and starts making their own rule and pretty much being an asshole. You as referee or (guardian, admin, arbiter, judge, etc) will take action to preserve the integrity of the game (or blog).

The way to do that is to penalize players, enforcing the rules, protect the game. That’s what referees do. You can refer back Part 1 of this topic, if you’re still in la-la land.

Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never ref in a competitive game (only in recreation or practice games) but as an observer and a very concern individual on the refereeing standards, I came to learn a few things and what are their problems on almost every game.

What Referees Hate - Obvious hit, and obviously stupid.
Players who get shot at their body or gear which are considered as obvious hit (You can refer rule 19.2 on the MY-NPL rulebook). Too bad there are no obvious hit ruling in Millennium format. I’ve seen a lot, I mean a lot of players who get shot at the loader or hopper and still continuing shooting. From D3 all the way to D1 players. I know personally some of these players, and it’s pretty sad that they take this matter very lightly. They would continue shooting until a referee comes up to them and pull them out. Come on lah! You get shot! You were sloppy, so get the hell out la. If you’re any good, you won’t get hit in the first place.

A hit in the goggle is as good as out. I’ve seen a few but not as common as the hopper hit. Players snap shooting or whatever and gets clip at the lens. Not at the earpiece or strap, lens. You know what they did? They looked at a referee and point to their googles. Hello? Are you blind or cross-eyed? With paint streaking down near the corner of their lens, they still have the cheek to ask?

So if you’re a newbie. That may ok. But experienced players automatically should know it’s a hit. Some would argue it’s a splash. But splash don’t leave a paint streaking down the sides would they?. You get sprayed all over instead. What I would normally do is take my hand and lightly run my fingers over where I felt I get hit. If I got paint on my fingers, its as good as a hit. I don’t need a referee to tell me that.

Another example, you get shot at the elbow. You can always self check right? Twist your arm a bit, and you have a perfect view of your elbow. I see a lot of players got hit on their elbows and they would just look at the referee and waited to get some reaction. If somehow the referee missed it, they will play on and consequently cheat. Then they would change sides and rub it off the bunker. Yes, we know all about it. If they don’t spot on the field, they are ‘watchers’ outside the field taking down your name.

One of the best classic example I witnessed myself was in Kuantan last year. I think it was one of the semis of the D1 teams. This bugger ran down tape towards the carwash and got shot in the chest. In that split second, he threw himself at the bunker and hope it will rub off. To his horror, the hit stays and he had no choice but to ask the ref to check.

He turned around and point right at his chest. True enough, there’s a big blob of paint right there. The referee called him out. What irked me was that, he can actually turned and ask for a paint check, when he can check himself! I mean, you just look down, pull your jersey a bit to check and you’re done. Is that so hard? To me, the referee should give him a 1-for-1 for that stupid stunt he tried to pull and being a veteran D1 player, that’s not a good example for the young players.

I remembered screaming, “Obvious hit lah! Pandai-pandai la keluar woi!”. I was disgusted on how some players gets away so easily. Coming from this team, it wasn’t a surprise. All the senior referees know they are very good. Good indeed. In cheating.

In some of the instances given, any referee and some spectators would always have that sad, anger, frustration and helpless feeling. To some teams, winning is everything and they would resort to cheating, controversies and anything to get whatever they want. But is that what the Malaysian paintball need? We certainly don’t have world class paintball athletes yet, but do we need world class cheaters?

We have referees that are definitely good, but against players who are good at cheating? What are the chances that they get caught by the referee? Spectators will always be able to spot these cause they can watch one player instead of a referee who has to watch several players at any time. Please la, help the game a bit, you get shot. Pull yourself out. Help keep the game running smoothly.

Meanwhile, referees have already branded or tagged certain teams by their reputation. Who likes to play on a lot, who likes to argue in the field, who likes to wipe, etc. yes, they have and they always share this information with other referees. You can’t blame them. If your team is one of those labeled, ask yourselves why. 20-30 refs cannot be wrong on something right? Think about it.

Let’s see if we can improve the refereeing to cope with these issues.





And sometimes in emergency cases, referees are always the first one to react. Players safety is always top priority.




Note: Photos will be added when I find some. LOL! Before you comment, please read about this blog being our views and our rules. Thanks for your time.

Here’s something related posted long time ago.