Recently the Malaysian government made it a ruling that all cars more than 10 years old would have to go for a yearly checkup with Puspakom. They will have to be scrutinized and checked for road worthiness - In their hope of making sure all the 'aged' cars are still safe to drive.
The government has also forgotten that, the road users wouldn't have to keep the old cars if they didn't impose hefty tax on imported cars, high interest rates on loans, strict terms for loans and others. If they make imported or local cars cheaper and also easy on the loans, I'm sure we would all change cars every 4-5 years and we won't have any problems with old cars.
Instead they shot themselves on their foot by making it harder to buy a new car, then made it even harder by having yearly inspection after 10 years, and if it's not road worthiness - you're effed. Either you have to get a new car (which is already hard in the beginning) and you don't at all. See the problem?
That's pretty sad so my mind wanders back to paintball.
MY-NPL 2010 - New Rules and Regulations
Beginning of 2010, orange and YELLOW will be prohibited colors. I understand perfectly with orange, but yellow?
Unless I'm missing something, there weren't any problems regarding yellow equipments from the Millennium Series, NPPL and even here. Joy Division with their classic leopard prints jersey were not a problem at all - even when playing X-ball (where everything is just blazing fast@)
Yellow and the Pro Teams
We pitted with Stockholm Ignition in Paris, and yes they wore bright yellow and blue, and I can really see which were new hits and which were old hits. The good orange fill they were using there is just great! Thick and bright orange. You can spot it very easily.
That brings it back to us. If the Millennium Series didn't have any problems with it, why are we? Are we doing something wrong here?
Is the sun light here so different that it sheds different kind of 'light' here? which makes the yellow appears orange-ish or the other way round?
I'm sure most of you played in the recent World Cup Asia and were there any problems in using yellow gears? Black jerseys with yellow highlights, or vice versa. Of course it's understandable that you can't use yellow or transparent hoppers. But other than that, I think yellow is ok.
Why it's not a good move
A good friend of mine raised his concerns in his facebook recently about this issue. He has a really good point. Some new players and teams probably have bought expensive tournament gears and just couldn't wait for next year to start playing and only to find out, their gears can't be use cause it has yellow on it.
They effed. Gears aren't cheap. They probably have spent alot of their own money and maybe some of their parents to get these gears and it's pretty much worthless now. Now, the sport is suffering.
Having these restrictions (especially unnecessary ones) is actually putting a dent in the sports growth. I'm sure most of us would like to see more players and teams coming in every year and for each tournament.
If its easy to come in for a tournament and have fun, I'm sure they'll be coming in again and maybe next time, bring more new friends and teams.
We're still discouraging players to wear anything resembles real combat/camouflage, but at the same time we're also doing this.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it
I don't remember that the league or the refs were having problems with orange paint on yellow equipments before and I certainly don't want to think that this move is just to make the refs job any easier - cause it won't.
What the organizer could do is to keep things the way there are and only make sure that the next batch of paint will have the thick, super bright orange fill. That would be so much easier.
Oh, and the organizer is still asking for feedbacks and suggestions - so if you guys have any thoughts on this issue, share it with us.
Meanwhile, here are some teams that rocked yellow!
Unless the organizer has already decided to introduce yellow fill paint (behind this whole yellow rule thing) then that is another whole story.
*Photos are owned by their respective owners.