In their quest for gobal volleyball media domination, the creative minds of the Kinda Good crew have released their first iPhone game today: Bump Record.

It's a simple volleyball-themed game where the goal is to keep balls from hitting the floor. Bonus points for taking flaming balls to SPIKETOWN, sticking a last-second pancake, and taking out the occasional bird Randy Johnson -style.

Good addictive qualities and easy to learn. I'd like to see more levels, though, to help keep it interesting. And a touch of that Kinda Good -style humor would give it more personality.

Solid first effort! B+

The sad pile of detritus that was once the AVP — bankrupt and virtually non-operational for well over a year — has been sold to some guy in Irvine, CA for $2M. Acquired for $3.8M in debt in December 2010 by shareholder Nick Lewin, the ever-depreciating AVP property will next be acquired by the guy who traded up a paperclip for a house.

The new owner, 37 year-old Donald Sun, is described in the LA Times as a "former executive" at computer memory giant, Kingston. My shoddy Internet fact-digging also reveals he's probably the son of Kingston founder, David Sun, currently listed on Forbes as the 138th richest person in the US. The younger Sun, who was an all-star high school volleyball player at University High in Irvine, claimed in the Times article "I'm not a volleyball guru, but I understand the enthusiasm people have for volleyball."

So what does this mean for the future of the once-premiere pro beach volleyball tour in America?

The negatives:

Being a 0.0000001% -er right now is totally un-PC, bro. Aside from that, there's a lot of rebuilding to do. A lot. You basically own a logo, some gear, and a bunch of old cases of Gatorade. Sun also seems to have no experience, uh, running a professional sports tour. Hope you've got some good help.

The positives:

Might we see a massive sponsorship from Kingston? Deep pockets from a single sponsor could eliminate the distraction of money concerns while the tour gets back on its feet. Also, just a guess here, but the guy who once headed manufacturing at a company with revenues of $6.5B for 2010 is probably no idiot.

More:

• LA Times: Pro beach volleyball league AVP is sold to O.C. businessman
• SI: AVP pro beach volleyball tour has new ownership
• Press release: AOS Group, LP Purchases AVP

The dudes who bought the tattered remains of the AVP are now suing Manhattan Beach over use of AVP trademarks. Sounds like a great use of resources, you know, considering all the other stuff they've got going on. Durrrrrrr.

AVP parent suing city for trademark infringement

Former AVP beach volleyball player Hans Stolfus has unveiled that he and partner Josh Glazebrook of Rev2 Media have been working closely with the AVP (whoever that is now -- Nick Lewin?) to help with the "difficult task of rebranding" the now-defunct tour.

The simple placeholder page that has been AVP.com since last August has now been replaced with ... a simple Wordpress blog. Hey, it's a start. And check out this super-sweet artist's rendering of the 2011 AVP Championships.

From Stolfus' lengthy blog post on the topic, it sounds like he's been a little more involved than with just branding aspects. But I don't think that's a bad thing: the guy's got passion, charisma, and a vision for what the Tour could be. He's a journalist at heart and values truth and transparency. (In fact, he kinda reminds me of ... me.)

Making the business aspect actually work is a whole other matter, but for the guy driving the ideas, I vote Stolfus 2012.

Matt Garthoff produced a pretty hilarious low-budget volleyball version of A Christmas Carol. I roffled pretty hard, especially at the Nick Lewin appearance. (Lewin is the head dude at RJSM and put The Net Live dudes on hold during a live interview.)

Favorite quote: "No ... Hans! I don't want to tweet!"