the crash and burn of paintball.

[mr.mag218]

i've been playing since i was 11 years old, starting out with a brass eagle stingray and a few friends in the woods. I've loved the sport since day 1 and started playing again after about a year of moving and getting situated. well guys this is the first time i've had the chance to reflect on what i remember, and what i'm observing.

i finally got settled in at my new base, started buying some paintball stuff and found a local field to play at. my first time back i went out with a friend who used to play tournament speedball and we played with a few scenario guys who had tiberus guns and a5's wearing the riot gear and what not, i had a blast. after about an hour or so a small group of 10-12 notably younger kids showed up with rentals, from what i could tell it was a small family and their friends. i don't have any of my gear yet so i just rented a tippman, baught half a case and went out for the day, a few of the scenario guys had electro grip frames maybe shooting 13bps with autoresponse.

about mid day we asked the group if they wanted to play with us, our group vs. their group and they excepted. it was probably 6 on 10 and we absolutely destroyed them, the tourney baller on my team bunkered about 4 kids, the guy with autoresponse slinging paint the whole time, and after-wards these guys on my team start hootin and hollering about the victory. now for me i've always enjoyed going out and playing anyone, on any field never much of a sore winner.

we played them again and destroyed them, and i can hear the kids on the other team already not wanting to play with us again. after the second game they peeled off and went to the other field to go back to a private session.

this is what the sport has become? i used to get paired with the best guy on a field and he would mentor me on how to get better, never once rubbing the opponents noses in the dirt for losing. these guys weren't even playing with high tech 30bps tourney guns. no wonder the sport is losing momentum, kids these days are intimidated out of their skulls. what happened to taking a couple lads under your wing and showing them a few tricks or even losing to them just to get morale up?

i know for a fact when i was younger (11 or 12) i was shooting a bob long millennium, in full motocross gear because i was afraid to get shot and a much more experienced player came running at me gun drawn and blatantly let me get him out. not knowing at the time i bragged to everyone about how i got him out.

i have my guns all setup for tourney play, and im debating getting a pump just to go out and have fun with the rec ballers. what happend to a day of fun without stomping new players out of ever coming back because your acting like you just won the world cup every time you bunker a bunch of kids, who are already scared in the first place without you shooting the **** out of them? not to mention the one kid there with a mini (only fast electro i had seen all day) shot me in the mask, and as i turned to walk off the field (with marker raised high above my head) this kid unloads 7 more into my chest and back.

it was almost enough to make me not want to go back. now im looking at volunteering as a ref at the field on weekends to help out newer players and keep the attitudes in check. paintball needs a vast change in attitude, and huge drop in gun technology before it ever starts to grow again.

[ProblemKinder]

yup.

[chafnerjr]

now im looking at volunteering as a ref at the field on weekends to help out newer players and keep the attitudes in check. paintball needs a vast change in attitude, and huge drop in gun technology before it ever starts to grow again.

Now this is more like it! Paintball needs more people with YOUR kind of attitude and reffing. People have been D-Bag's since the beginning of time... it's good players, good ref's and good fields to fix this issue. It's just fine up in my area, but there's still @-#ole$ around that need to be... "balanced".

I hope you can even it out some

[Konigballer]

I like how it wasn't the often maligned speedballers that were the villians in your story, it was milsim woodsballers. Just goes to show that anyone in this game can be a d-bag, no matter what he shoots or how he plays. It's a general attitude thats widespread, but Ithink alot of it has to do with the 'culture' of each particular field. At the field I usually play at, they don't tolerate that kind of thing, they would have broken up the experienced players to begin with.

I think there was still the general respect for players carried over from the 80's when I started playing in the mid 90's. More of a 'gentleman baller' code if you will. Paintball was bigger, but still not mainstream really, and the cost to play was considerable. The average age of players was gernerally higher as well. If you bought the gear you were entering a hobby that still not that many people knew much about or understood, so I think there was less of a tendency to view other people on the field as fodder. The still dominant mech semi and pump guns only helped re-enforce this. I remember older players helping me out alot.

The abundance of cheap mechs and electro's, hand in hand with the lower player age and increased marker performance available, changed everything in the last decade.

[XM15]

I think part of the problem is the speedball format. Don't get me wrong I play it but it is not my favorite paintball format. Its especially not a great format for new players. It's to easy for them to get lit up at close range. I rememeber one time last spring my buddy and I went to play in the open game at our local field and there was a group of about 6 kids around 12 or 13 playing. The first few games we were inside because it was raining. My buddy and I played with the kids. This one kid after a couple of games was so scared he wouldn't move out of the corner where we started. He quit playing all together later on. I only take first time players out when I'm playing in the woods. The field is way bigger, they don't get lit up at close range as easily and they get to play longer than 15 sec.

[Enemy]

i used to work and ref a field one of my favorite games was when we had all the field refs vs a bunch of new, and older guys 21 on 7 we won but it came down to the last 2.

Past that though if im playing against newer players and kids ill strictly focus on one skill i want to improve maybe left hand only or snap shots only or laning for an in-experienced guy in front of me so he can move up, really the only way to avoid situations like these is either to split the teams up or if you see it happening hop on the other team and gun down the d-bags and let the kids have at it.

[VELOCEMAG]

Couldn't agree more. We used to have 5 fields within a :30 drive (Charlottesville,Va). All of them are gone, 1 lost the lease and the other 4 had nothing but a bunch of tournament players shooting up the rec players. The rec player now play on their own land. I have nowhere to play so I took up golf of all things.

[skipdogg]

95% of the time I play with a pump. I would say that a good part of the reason I play with one, is so I cannot become a d-bag that overshoots people. I'm going to hit someone with 2-3 balls max when I get an elimination. I like to think noobs appreciate that.

[om3n]

95% of the time I play with a pump. I would say that a good part of the reason I play with one, is so I cannot become a d-bag that overshoots people. I'm going to hit someone with 2-3 balls max when I get an elimination. I like to think noobs appreciate that.

I nubbed some people the other day...

I played re-ball for the first time on an indoor air-ball field last weekend and I had a BLAST. There were 3 private parties there, and each party had to take it's turn in order to play. Each party played individually.

The party I was playing with had about 20 people and only 2 experienced players- me and my bro. My cousin was the only person we knew there, and I'm pretty sure the only reason he invited us was because he knew that we love paintball and he wanted us to help him survive lol. Well initially I didn't know we were the only experienced guys, so on the first game my bro and I (who were on the same team the first game) decided to take the snake which was on our left.

When the whistle started, my bro and I were the only ones who started shooting- everyone else just ran to a bunker. I got 3 people out on the break. I dove for the snake, crawled up it all the way to the other end, and shot out 4 other people from behind. My brother took out the remaining 3 from the first part of the snake. The game lasted about 1.5 minutes and I took maybe 100 shots with the e-mag.

After that, my bro and i were split up. I didn't know we were the only guys who had played before, and then I felt kind of bad. I then helped direct guys on my team, and encouraged them when they got eliminations or when they helped me push up. I would say it was definitely as much fun to help these new guys out as it was to just rip through everyone :)

[Lohman446]

I can sum it up like this:

We went from a "lets go play and everyone have fun" game to a "win at all costs" sport.

Yes its oversimplified. But if I had to go back to $100 a case rigged together pump markers to have my game back I would give up everything else in a heart beat. And yes, 90% of the so called "athletes" participating in the sport need to try out for a team in any other sport and understand what most athletes actually go through.

/No, not at all bitter
//Punk little agglets

[dre1919]

This topic has been hashed, rehashed and re-rehashed here many times before with little to nothing new to add to the proceedings. Paintball is a win at all costs sport played mostly by well off elitists and complete noobs, to be very broad. The problems are plentiful, which is why paintball is mostly viewed as a game or hobby and not a sport, per se. Paintball as a whole should do a better job of shepherding the next crop of players in to keep it alive instead of letting the minority light them up and gloat. We need slower guns, better formats, better skill level division, etc. None of which is likely to happen.

[Smoothice]

Besides mentoring the newbies when ever possible you should also put the d-bag in his place. Preferably with a pump or pistol. It will sting that much more.

d4m4don3, shrub, and myself went out a while back with a group of junior high kids from my church. It was most of their first times. There was this one kid who has always been cocky. He had played a few times and thought he was all that and a bag of chips. So he starts talking some smack on me. Mostly playful. But that is just how he is.

So the first game we are on opposite teams. I move all the way around his side until I am behind him. Then I put a few shots into his bunker. He starts looking around like WTF!?! Then I just run up and get into his bunker with him. Put my hand on his shoulder and say "hey how's it going?" With any luck he won't grow up to be a d-bag.

The rest of the day we just jumped into bunkers with the kids and tried to teach them the basics. Told them to move up when possible. d4m4don3 let these 2 girls eliminate him. It was the highlight of their day.

[kcombs9]

d4m4don3 let these 2 girls eliminate him. It was the highlight of their day.

/agree

One day of play we had a group of 3-4 girls and 5 guys play, all the girls on one team guys on the other. I was with the guys. I saw it was me and 2 guys vs 3 girls. I stopped shooting and went to the other side of the field and gave the girls tips and had them bunker one guy and shot the other while he was on the run. never saw them come back but I hope they do some day cause they enjoyed it.

[DevilMan]

Yup, when I play at BC depending on who goes, it's usually ZMan, and a few other folks we know if we are split up we try and make it a rule that we won't shoot the newbs. So say there are 3 on 3 of experienced players and the rest newbs on each side, we won't shoot them or try to gain ground on them. We'll find out where the other experienced players are and go after there. It is funny to move up a side and leave a newb to your side/back of ya knowing that if they were paying attention you'd be hosed!!!!

Do what you can for the field. The way I think of it is that I pay to have fun. On a rec day there is no monetary win, no trophy and no real bragging rights. So why bother? Play and have fun. I do have to say I chuckle at the same time that I feel bad when I try to bring a newb up with me, or get one to move to a bunker up one that he gets shot out of... Unlike Zman I don't intentionally do it!!!

DM

[SCpoloRicker]

Play with you friends, set a good example.

/thread