Decisions Decisions: Reading Entity 2014

So the new year rolled in after a testing 2013 season and as a team, Reading Entity were not completely sure what direction it was going to take. We did know that we wanted to play a European league whilst also keeping some presence at the premier UK tournament, the CPPS. 

There original plan was to try and play the Millennium-Series in what used to be Division 1 (now SPL2), however as it is a locked division this would mean we would have to acquire a spot. You acquire a spot by being promoted from the next division down, or by buying/acquiring an existing spot owned by someone else that isn't putting another team in. There was potential for us to acquire a spot for no extra costs however as January came round that wasn't to be. 

Domestically we had decided if we were already financially committing to the Millennium we may not have the experienced manpower necessary to also put a competitive team into the Elite division of the CPPS. Therefore we put a team, Entity UK, into Division 1 so that we could give some valuable experience to our up-and-coming players that have been working with us at training and not committing to the European leagues.

As events unfolded our choice was to either play Division 2 (now open division 1 (OD1)) at the Millennium Series, or alternatively, to play the Champions Paintball Series (CPS) in Europe. 

When weighing up the options, we looked at the standard of teams in the Semi Pro division of the CPS and figured them to be roughly the same as what we would expect in SPL2 at Mills, which is where we wanted to be. We factored cost in and found that with entry being just over 1/3rd of the price, CPS was favorite. We also felt that Rome & Belgium may make for a more interesting traveling experience than Southern France and Bitburg. 

The main con to the CPS is of course that it isn't as big as the mills and therefore our results may not have as much weight as they would at the mills when comparing ourselves to other teams or selling ourselves to potential future sponsors.

We felt as a team we need not just the major league tournament experience under our belt, but as much valuable tournament experience as we could get. Therefore we made the decision to commit to the CPS and prepaid our first 3 events in advance, which at it's reasonable price, enables more of our experienced players to also commit to the CPPS as well. I must also say that the service I received from Slava and Natalija from the CPS was very enthusiastic and helpful from my first enquiry, to booking, to asking about recommendations for accommodation etc.

Our competition in Division 1

Unfortunately it was too late to get our spot back in the Elite division as it had filled up by then, but fortunately for us it was announced there is a champions/challengers style promotion/relegation system between the two divisions. We are aiming to move back up to the Elite division at the first leg, but none of the teams in Division 1 are going to roll over and let us walk back in so it should make for an interesting event.

Photograph by Harry Pitchers / ShootrTV

This season we also welcome some new comers to the table: 

Liam White formerly of The Clan is travelling from Glasgow for training and will be playing with us in Europe and the CPPS and will be our go-to snake player.
Tom Stafford hailing from Leeds and formerly of Birmingham Temper and Rival Kidz has also joined us for CPS Rome and beyond.
Adam Budd who was our padawan learner throughout 2013 will hopefully prove himself worthy of Jedi Knight status at the CPPS.
Jonathan Clarke of Manchester Firm will be our special guest for our first event of the CPS in Rome.

Look out for us at the CPPS and see where we place. I'm also trying to find out if there's a CPS webcast for any of you guys who aren't attending Zombieland to watch!