[justinNTX]

Hello Nation,

Justin here from the University of North Texas. After a successful last couple of years in our conference, we have been tossing around the idea of making the jump to class A for the NCPA championships in April. We are looking for some advice from teams that have played A in the past. Ive gathered a fair share of info from the NCPA website, and awaiting an email from Raehl for some clarity, but some of my main questions are:

How many cases of paint do you shoot in a full match? Event?
About how many players do you roster?
Any advice on preparing for A?

Any insight would be much appreciated.

[isgrowitaego]

15 cases a match.
the most matches you can play is 8 i believe at nationals,
the best advice is play some real life points running on the clock

[justinNTX]

Originally Posted by isgrowitaego

15 cases a match.
the most matches you can play is 8 i believe at nationals,
the best advice is play some real life points running on the clock

tight. thanks man

[stingi17]

We have 3 lines of 5 people that we use for regional events, with lines 1 and 2 seeing most of the action. For nationals I think we'll probably go with those top 2 lines, so 10-15 people rostered.

[shortyrider114]

Run as many points as you can back to back. Two minutes is a very short period of time, especially if you are on the top line and are playing the majority of the time.

[CONTRACTkiller_423]

Originally Posted by stingi17

We have 3 lines of 5 people that we use for regional events, with lines 1 and 2 seeing most of the action. For nationals I think we'll probably go with those top 2 lines, so 10-15 people rostered.

This. Playing a full match against willing teams also helps. Helps you adjust to how quick the games go and learning to play with the clock. Also practicing how you will run your pit is crucial. An organized and orderly pit helps you focus on the game on the field.

[justinNTX]

Thank you all so much for the advice. youve been more than helpful.

are there any A teams that made the jump for AA? if so, is there a big
jump in competition level? I understand its a completely different format
but a majority of our teams has played many PSP events, so we kind
of know what to expect?

[Freak36]

You North Texas boys have a solid program and some great shooters. Good luck to you if you're able to get into class A. I'm sure after you guys get more familiar with the xball style format, that you'll be very competitive. You should try and set something up with A&M, seems like they would have the ability to scrimmage you guys on the class A format.

[eforce]

There are three things you need to know about xball.

1. The cost. If you can't afford to spend over $2000 per event on paint alone, you can't afford xball.
2. The pits. You can have a team that's entirely superior to everyone else at the event and still get **** on if your pit crew doesn't have it together. Running out of pods, walking onto the field before the buzzer sounds (penalty), missing hits on your players that should have been cleaned off - these can all kill you.
3. The pace. Class A teams get an on-field coach (snake side at nationals) and unlimited coaching behind the net on the far side (dorito side at nationals). If your players are not covering important zones or do not communicate well, the other team will be running you down in a hurry. Get good coaches to joystick your front players and get your back players communicating properly.

Purdue shoots 15-20 cases per match. In the past we've rostered 12-15 players but now that the school helped us out with funding, we've started playing with 7-8. If you can handle the back to back points and have a pit crew that's on top of their game, it's not bad.

In terms of getting ready, I would strongly recommend running a regulation match at practice. Strictly abide by the 2 minute time limit, have your pit crew working like it's a real match, and figure out where you're getting into trouble. When you play this match, play a real xball team - not local D4 kids. You need to experience the pressure and the pace to truly expose your weak spots. In the past, Class A competition has been somewhere between D4 and D5. Now it's closer to D3 if you're playing one of the better teams.

[shortyrider114]

FAU has 23 Students rostered and only plays with 15-18 players. We have 3 lines with 3 extra players just in case, but the first 2 lines play the majority of the points. We go out there ordering 120 cases an event, 13-15 cases a match and having at least 100 pods. We also have a pod person not on the team that runs our pods before the next point.

[Alex Elliott]

Going to break it down into off the field and on the field.

OFF THE FIELD

-Get a non-student advisor/manager

Class A is a multi-year process. It helps a ton to have a non-student who helps keep an eye on the long term goals from year to year. When you get to the point that your president just quit or the school cut your funding or who know what else, your advisor can help keep things running smoothly.

-Have as much depth as you can

Keeping 12 Class A players is about 3 times as hard as keeping 6 Class AA players. I don't know why but in my experience that's how it works. People drop, get their girlfriend's pregnant, crash their cars b/c of DUI's etc. Plus, the more people you have, the lower the per person cost.

-Spend lots of non-paintball time together

At Rutgers, when we started playing Class A I made it a point to have everyone eat together after we did our fitness work outs. As they say, "who you eat with becomes your family". Class A requires a lot of team work and the more you can build that off the field, the better it will be on the field.

-Get in shape

Even with 10 players, being in shape pays off big time in Class A if only because most teams don't make physical fitness a big part of their practice regimen. This is especailly true if you are down on points and need to win quick. Having extra gas in the tank in the second half can push things your way.

ON THE FIELD/PRACTICE

-Get a DEDICATED on field coach

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a good team lose because they're on field coach didn't know what they were doing by getting penalties, throwing the towel at the wrong time or just not having a trust balance between them and the players on the field. You need to practice with your. coach in Class A situations (e.g. two coaches, one player from each "side" in the snake) to build that trust over time.

-Class A is way harder than AA

Go back in the schedule results threads and you will see Top 5 Nationally ranked Class AA teams join Class A and they don't win a game all season. As already mentioned, the pace is faster, the format punishes mistakes quickly and little things add up fast. A good rule of them is that mid-level D3 PSP Race-To teams are roughly what you will be facing in Class A.

-MORE SPECIFIC TACTICAL ADVICE

I highly suggest you read the articles I've been posting about college paintball stats as those have a lot of good info (they're based on Class A matches). The article on when to throw the towel is probably the most useful to new teams.

Here is the link:
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3882621

[shortyrider114]

Originally Posted by Alex Elliott

Going to break it down into off the field and on the field.

OFF THE FIELD

-Get a non-student advisor/manager

Class A is a multi-year process. It helps a ton to have a non-student who helps keep an eye on the long term goals from year to year. When you get to the point that your president just quit or the school cut your funding or who know what else, your advisor can help keep things running smoothly.

-Have as much depth as you can

Keeping 12 Class A players is about 3 times as hard as keeping 6 Class AA players. I don't know why but in my experience that's how it works. People drop, get their girlfriend's pregnant, crash their cars b/c of DUI's etc. Plus, the more people you have, the lower the per person cost.

-Spend lots of non-paintball time together

At Rutgers, when we started playing Class A I made it a point to have everyone eat together after we did our fitness work outs. As they say, "who you eat with becomes your family". Class A requires a lot of team work and the more you can build that off the field, the better it will be on the field.

-Get in shape

Even with 10 players, being in shape pays off big time in Class A if only because most teams don't make physical fitness a big part of their practice regimen. This is especailly true if you are down on points and need to win quick. Having extra gas in the tank in the second half can push things your way.

ON THE FIELD/PRACTICE

-Get a DEDICATED on field coach

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a good team lose because they're on field coach didn't know what they were doing by getting penalties, throwing the towel at the wrong time or just not having a trust balance between them and the players on the field. You need to practice with your. coach in Class A situations (e.g. two coaches, one player from each "side" in the snake) to build that trust over time.

-Class A is way harder than AA

Go back in the schedule results threads and you will see Top 5 Nationally ranked Class AA teams join Class A and they don't win a game all season. As already mentioned, the pace is faster, the format punishes mistakes quickly and little things add up fast. A good rule of them is that mid-level D3 PSP Race-To teams are roughly what you will be facing in Class A.

-MORE SPECIFIC TACTICAL ADVICE

I highly suggest you read the articles I've been posting about college paintball stats as those have a lot of good info (they're based on Class A matches). The article on when to throw the towel is probably the most useful to new teams.

Here is the link:
http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3882621

Good Advice, but from experience having a coach is a good thing but being able to run off your lines body language is so much better. Having a coach is just extra help on the field.