India's NPL Website

Finally it's World Cup fever again. The opening game was between the host South Africa against Mexico. Both teams played very cautiously and it's kind of boring to watch. So, I whipped out my laptop and went online. I was checking my blog's visitor list when I saw one came from India. So, I headed to http://www.nationalpaintballleague.in naturally.

Then I saw the banner. NPL is holding a referee course and I saw a familiar photo. Here's what I mean. The screen shot of India's National Paintball League.

Looks familiar?

This photo of Head Ref Epul was shot back in Kuantan 2008. I had the photo in my Referee Dilemma articles. You can read it http://villainpaintball.blogspot.com/2009/01/referee-dilemma-part-2.html

So Dez, what do you think? I didn't feel like watermarking it, since I had the post title directly on Epul's hand.

MPRO Level 1 Reffing Course - Jan 16, 2010

MPRO Level 1 Reffing Course will be held on Saturday, 16 January 2010 at MAPAAC PJ from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. Course Fee is RM100 per pax which is inclusive of training material, Certificate of Attendance and Meals. For those interested, pls call 016 332 3337 / 016 332 3776 for details.

REFEREE clinic by DAN Perez of USPL

MPRO is glad to have DAN Perez of USPL Referee team in Malaysia.

Taking this opportunity, MPRO will be organising a 2 days Referee Clinic. Detail as below: -

Date: 28th - 29th April 2009
Location: Malaysian Paintball Academy (MAPAAC), Kompleks Sukan Astaka, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

If you are interested to learn more about Paintball Refereeing, please contact: -
Muhsin @016-227 0338, themuhsin@yahoo.com
Sofian @016-332 3337, piandaud@my-npl.org

Referee Dilemma – Part 3

I’m satisfied. Not quite that perfect, but its there. Above satisfactory. On the recent concluded MY-NPL in MAPAAC, the level of refereeing is good. At least at field 1, where D1 and D2 players games were.

Generally, I find the referees are being lenient. It’s not a bad thing really, but somewhat players will try to get away from getting penalties. I mean, I saw some. Surely some of you also did. Eventually the player either gets shot or penalize; but slightly too late and damages had already been done (playing on and affecting gameplay)

Okay, here’s an example that happened to me. My teammate got shot in the loader on the break and continued shooting. With the thunderous sound of seven guns shooting, I guess he didn’t hear the loader got hit and continued shooting. About 10 seconds later, the referee came and pulled him out, and he didn’t get any penalties (which is 1-for-1 for playing on with obvious hit).

The referee was being very lenient and we were relieved that he didn’t call for a penalty. I mean, even if we did get it still OK. You played on, you get a penalty. That’s it. It occurred to me that, what if we indeed get the penalty, the result will probably be different. We might get rundown quickly soon afterwards cause we lost couple of bodies early in the game.

You see how this will affect the outcome of a game. Playing on is very damaging to the general outcome of the match. So, referee should really be alert. I’ve heard referees from other leagues or promoters are rewarded with cash for pulling 1-for-1 penalties.

Where’s the sense of integrity? It only takes a few drunken refs (at players party) to spill the beans out. Although we don’t mind getting penalize for the right reasons, we hate it even more when referees simply wouldn’t admit their fault or simply say ‘I’m sorry’ for a bad call they themselves acknowledged. Owe it to yourself, you call the shots, and if you’re wrong - admit it! That being said, we all can leave the field and get prepared for the next game.

Back in MY-NPL, I’ve heard that our Head Referee, Mohsin was unhappy when refs didn’t pull a 1-for-1 when clearly he has the right to do so. That got him worked up and he went in the field to help out as well. If you noticed, during the later stages of the tournament, he was right there in the thick of the action. Kudos! It’s great to see hard he’s trying to raise the standard of refereeing.

Some communications between the referees might need to be work on I suppose. There are a few communications between them that got misinterpreted by the crowd and players as giving out players positions. We experienced it ourselves last year and after an explanation from the head ref, its all good.

So in summary, there is always a room for improvement. I’m not targeting specific referee groups but as a whole.

1. Integrity - Be true and uphold the rule the best you can
2. Humble - Ready to admit fault if there are any
3. Alert - Watching the players, not the game.
4. Conviction - Especially when making penalty calls.

I'm pretty sure there are other values out there, but these are just my version. The first two points can also be applied to players in general. We could make this sport a gentlemen’s game if we have these two values.

Sometime in April, there will be a clinic by Dan Perez of former NPPL and now the USPL. This will be very educational. I hope to be able to join this.

Meanwhile, anybody interested in becoming a referee, please check out this link. Also check out this video featuring MPRO(Malaysian Paintball Referee Organization) highlights on 8TV, May 31,2008.

Note: I wanted to include something about the declining number of referees that could potentially hurt the sport and ways to overcome this. I didn’t see any problems yet so far and I’ll hold this next post about refs for some other time.

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.

Referee Dilemma – Part 1

ref⋅er⋅ee
[ref-uh-ree]
noun, verb, -eed, -ee⋅ing.
–noun
1. one to whom something is referred, esp. for decision or settlement; arbitrator.
2. (in certain games and sports) a judge having functions fixed by the rules of the game or sport; umpire.
3. an authority who evaluates scientific, technical, or scholarly papers, grant proposals, or the like for the publication or funding institution to which they have been submitted.
4. Law. a person selected by a court to take testimony in a case and return it to the court with recommendations as to the decision.
–verb (used with object)
5. to preside over as referee; act as referee in.
–verb (used without object)
6. to act as referee.
Origin:
1605–15; refer + -ee

Referees or marshals - in paintball games, you always hope that they will make the right decisions in your favor. Praying that the refs near the bugger you’re shooting at would catch any hits in a split second. Praying that you won’t get call out just because you knelt over paintballs, and it broke nicely on your knee. Hoping that spray near the bunker that rubs at your loader doesn’t count as hit.

From player’s side of view, you can always tell what you are doing. You are the referee of yourself. You KNOW when you get hit. It’s your body. You just know. You KNOW who got hit first when you make a run through. You KNOW when the loud pop sounds near the loader, it’s always a hit and not turn around and look the other way.

You see, referees don’t have that privilege. They have to see a lot of things simultaneously. And there will always something be missed and sometimes comes back and bite you in the ass. Wrong decisions going your way. Why? Oh, the referee was looking at the situation differently. But, you KNOW you are right. Can you blame the refs?



Try to be in their shoes. I know some of you had refereeing games before so you guys would know best. It’s not easy to make calls and decisions, when you’re there under the hot sun, with paintballs flying at 280~300 feet per second! And you have 10 players to look at. It’s hard, but not impossible. That’s why you have eight or more referees in paintball field. (speedball, eg: MY-NPL, MPOC)



Here's good example.

I’ve never refereed any games before but I know how the referees felt. The least you guys could do is to play fair and help the refs and make it easy for them and everyone.



Then, there are good refs and not so good refs.

To be continued...