Hi Guys,
I left a message a few weeks ago noting that I just got back to the game after picking up a pair of B2K4 refurbs for myself. I also think I inadvertantly started that whole SP bashing again when I commented that I wouldn't buy their products anymore.

So a few weekends ago I went out to my local PB Field and played for the second time, woodsball. There were quite a few players on the other team with some of the newerish pb guns inverts, ions, angel and a marq. They were all owned by a crew that played together and it was obviously that they were s'ballers.

On my side were all non speedballers and casual players including three mothers (god bless them for actually joining in the game play with their kids).

The s'ballers worked well as a team and they were coordinated in their clearing out of their section of the field in play. They were covering all the cross angles and I admit that I was caught several times having to fend off multiple players, the end result was me getting tagged out the majority of the time. I had a great time.

But...on the other hand, I have to ask are the newweish guns these days, just THAT FAST or do these guns have boards with a ramping feature on them. The s'ballers when tagging people out, they were hitting them not once but 6 or 7 times. There wasn't an occasion when I wasn't marked an dhad my hands up to get out of the firefight, where I wasn't tagged an additional 3 or 4 times. I don't want to cry poor sportsmanship, but the moms on my team in the afternoon started to get frustrated as they were being hit multiple times after raising their hands.

Additionally one of the ladies was hit square on the top of the head as she was crawling for position and when she got up with her hands and marker up they laced into her. I ended up complaining to their refs after watching the guy on the other team call the mom a b**** and said he was going to shoot her while everyone had their masks off in the safe zone.

I'm just trying to get a sense of whethere or not these guys were just a)a bunch of dirt bags b) that guns these days are just that fast in semi-auto c) they triggered ramp modes in their guns and couldn't help that 5 or 6 extra balls met their target.

I'm a little cynical as I was in a bunker and hit had my hand up for the better part of 15 seconds and was calling myself out when they were still lacing into my location. The ref had to jump in in order for me to get out safely. And the others on my team had the same situation.

I have to say, that while I'll still be playing, its a sorry state of paintball though, when teenage boys and middle age men gang up on a bunch of moms. If I see them again, as I'm sure I will, I'll make sure I'm on the opposite team every time, because what I believe they did is unacceptable. It puts a bad taste in people's mouths who either don't have a thick skin for the sport or are new to it.

Yep, D-Bags.

Agree 100%. I am by no means superballer, but any rec day that I go to the field and due to lack of people, whatever, get mixed in with a group of new(er) players, I alwasy adjust my game play to make sure it is fun for everyone.

I most certainly would have had some things to say to that entire group. Player showing that sort of attitude are going to find themselves with no new people to play if they don't cut that out. There is an appropriate time for that, but there is not a need for showcasing your skills against a mixed team with new players on board. That is asinine.

QFT.

Yes, most of the new guns have various enhanced firing modes.

Mostly they sound like poor sports.

That said, there's probably some gun stuff going on too.

I took a group of new players out recently, and due to having gun troubles, I ended up having to use a rental. This field rented Vibe's set to semi auto only. I fudged a bit and moved my rico over to it, so I wouldn't have to shake it. I ended up overshooting people by 3~4 pretty consistantly on semi. Wasn't intentional, I just wouldn't stop shooting till I saw the first one hit. Given that there were balls in the air behind it... it happens.

But I still think it sounds like they're poor sports, and I firmly believe that for rec-ball, pure semi should be enforced.

VF-XX... were all of your people ok with the way we played against them? My buddy (JD) felt bad for lighting one of the younger dudes up, but then again our guns didn't ramp.

Question: are there fields out there that do not allow the "RT" affect but do allow ramping? If so that seems hardly fair...

IMO they should get thrown off the field for that. Bad sportsmanship will drive away new players, and future regulars. How likely is the mother to tell her friends(who likely also have kids) that paintball was fun that day?

Ego boosting at another players expense is sad, ego boosting at the expense of a fresh player is downright despicable.

Sounds like exceptional douchebaggery. I'd have had a word with the reffing staff/management. The threatening part is what really rides me, it's a game. Sounds to me like the reffing staff were probably friends with the douchebags in question and therefore will do nothing to them. The boys club mentality is a real issue.

Yeah, everybody was cool

I've had the same experience with speedballers on a casual private field. A speedball team showed up, and though really cool guys off the field, were constantly bonus balling, and even gogged me as I walked off the field with my marker in the air. Also, unless they were shot in plain sight, wouldn't call themselves out, which meant that to take them out, we had to hit them with 3-5 direct hits in succession before they would walk off the field. Like I said, they were nice guys off the field, but I think the speedball mentality has given speedball players their own set of rules to play with.

Some of column A, a lot of column B.

First off, yes, stock guns are that fast today, 10 - 15 bps easy. Even the "entry-level" guns like the Mini, SP-1, Vibe, Fusion, and G3 have some ramp modes on the stock board and the triggers are getting lighter and more sensitive. Like VF says, after you hit someone the first time, there's usually 5 balls in the air right behind the first. If you've got multiple people shooting at a single target. . . It can also take a second or two for the shooter to recognize their target has been hit. I've been lit up from behind soft cover and I don't blame the shooters. I was trying to cover myself up and raise my hand at the same time and they couldn't hear me over the noise of their guns. It happens in the game and it doesn't involve anyone being a bad sport.

Second, sometimes the honorable players have have to result to "dirty" tactics to play fair ( stay with me here! ) I play clean and so does my team, but sometimes you end up playing against the alpha-hotel that tries to get away with anything. You tag him in the mask and he'll turn and shoot at you. After the first few times of a player doing that, I'll shoot until they call themselves out. I don't like doing that and I know it rarely happens, I just wanted to throw that in here.

Your situation seems to be more along the lines of poor sportsmanship. I can excuse getting lit up under a lot a circumstances. But once I hear people bad-mouthing and threatening to break safety protocol ( such as shooting someone in the staging area, ) they've crossed the line and I won't let them back.

If I had that experience at a field, I probably wouldn't go back. I definitely wouldn't have had a good time with that kind of caliber of player, whether they were on my team or not.

Some of the refs that run the field where I go don't care. They'll allow anything until someone about it. I got lit up by some 14yr old with a DM8/9 (I can’t tell the diff). Got stitched from head to toe (a good 12 hits). Ref went crazy and I told him it was no problem. I cranked up the air to 1300psi and if the kid went right I went right with him. Little man didn’t like it much but he didn’t quit. He was a hell of a target and wanted to borrow the mag half way through the day. He got the jest and apologized at the end.

Moral of the story. Put them in their place.

He was a seasoned baller so it's not like I was taking advantage.

I personally slow my shooting down whenever I get in a group against rental players. I caught quite a few of them last week trying to hide behind a sapling as if that would provide cover. I did my best to not light them up though and just get them out.

Also I just sent an email to Skirmish management about the situation, the threats were especially unaccaptable.

I hope to see these guys again, and I'm going to make sure that if folks are bonus balling they get some of their medicine back.

That's the best way to handle it: inform the management. If it's a quality field, the staff will handle it. If they don't, it's not a field I want to play at or support.

Part of it is the players being punks. The other part is the reffs. If (in recball) a team is completely dominating they other team then they need to adjust the teams. Break up the dominating team, add more players to the losing team, things like that. I have even seen where a spare reff will grab a rental and join in to help level the playing field.

That is one of the reasons now I only play private games.

I did quite a few scenarios last year and there was ALOT of that going on, I brought it up to the ref at the field and he said they were the sponsored team just let it go. I went to the field manager and he sort of blew off my comments, so that night when I got home, I found the website for the field, sent an email and lo and behold it was the field owner who replied. He was unaware that the team was playing like that (despite him being at the field, and no one mentioned it to him when he was there), and he said he would have some words with the team. About a week later I got a phone call from the owner, who informed me that he dropped sponsorship of the team after hearing of numerous complaints, and offered me a one-year free membership to his field.

Yea it is sad how some Paintball players are like that...in all honesty, If anyone has seen Black Balled: The bobby dukes story; It was a really low budget movie some may say mocking our game but I believe it shows Paintball how it should be.

In how we treat/handle cheaters and in regards to the players in the tournaments, it didn't matter what marker they were using. (the main objection I seen from people on PBN about the movie was "ugh, they aren't shooting ego's.") Even the part when the main characters got brand new JT markers and how excited they were when they held them...that should be how Paintball is.

I feel lucky that I've never really had to deal with this stuff too much. I experienced it when I played competitive speedball but back playing woodsball I can honestly say I've never played with a nicer group of people than I've encountered at my local field.

Not only are the players nice but the refs are conscientious and always watching.. my first time back I was pretty hyped to get back out on the field after 3 years off and I let fly a quick string of balls at someone. The ref nearby walked past me afterwards and say 'Go easy man, that's a rental player.'

Some people might've taken offense but I was really appreciative of the fact that they were actually watching out for new players.

I agree with the above. If I encounter people like that (d-bags) i make sure they are put in there place. They will be hunted all day.
Next time...I recomend grabbing a party, finding these jerk faces and give them what they are dishing. And more if necssary.

I personally think ramping, bonus balling and full auto hurts the growth of the sport. Most first time people will not play again if they encounter it.

i agree, ive played woodsball before i started playing speedball/tournaments and thats just douchbaggery, i mean common woodsballers/people just wanna go out and have fun shoot each other a few times not like 8 times in speedball to make sure someone is out because someone is whiping, woodsball players have more respect than that and i know it for i use to play it and still play it once in a while because it is fun running through the woods and whatnot, its definitly nice to have a change once in a while then running up to inflated bunkers and just spraying the **** outta each other, althought it is fun but all in all i agree they should have adjusted there playing to compensate everyone else for the field, and to play with ramping is rediculous on a woodsball field if you have to shoot ramping in the woods then you must be a horrible player

So, how did the management respond? I'm kind of curious.

Gah, this has degraded into a woodsball vs speedball thread. While i will admit that speedball can spawn people like this, there are just as big of douche bags in woodsball. Luckily they seem to be much fewer, but it's not the type of game that causes douchebags, they'll show up anywhere. Two ways to deal with them are to give them their own medicine or report them. I suggest the latter, but if they do nothing, rip into them because if you do get kicked off that's likely not a field you'll want to go back to.

Face it, there are just as many douchebags in woodsball as there are in speedball. I've played plenty of times with hardcore woodsballers that felt as though they were entitled to do whatever the hell they wanted to the noobs and the speedballers that come out to play on the woods field once in a while. They wiped, they overshot, they cursed, they played on, etc.

To the OP, yea, it's not that hard to shoot pretty fast on semi with a gun that has a well set up trigger and good code on the board. I wouldn't jump to anyone conclusions about them using modes, but yea, they're d-bags.

I have to agree with warbreak here there are as much Dbag playing wood ball as speed ball. Last week when I went out with a group I haven't play with for a long time, we had a few player on the other team dressing in full camo / remote line / Response Trigger A5 just to intimidate the other side. I guess they are just used to playing against 1st and second time rental, that they were acting pretty cocky the entire game, and throwing F bomb everytime they got shot out.

So people like that are everywhere, sometime they may not be pro, but they think they are due to their gun either electros or mil sim look alike.

Too bad last weekend they were against my god daughter wielding an emag, pneumag, and ICD FS

Well, I don't know who's post people got that idea from but I certainly wasn't saying speedballers are idiots and woodballers aren't - just stating that I feel lucky I have a field nearby with a good group of people playing. It just so happens to be a woodsball field.

There were quite a few people saying that stuff wasn't a problem in woodsball because they all just want to have fun. The fact still remains that a douchebag is a douchebag regardless of where he is, and that they are everywhere in the sport.

Yep.

Unfortunately I've run into this too frequently locally and it has really sucked the fun out of the game.

Yeah I have played on several fields this year and it just seems to be happening almost everywhere, with woosballers and speedballers. It sucks to, the game just isn't the same as it used to be.