Tournament Advice thread

[Carbon]

this will be an on going thread. please help out.

Aside from the obvious "dont get shot" some of tehse should be obvious. Most of tehse generally fall under networking skill and ability.

Respect the refs. say "thank you" "please" or "sir" or whatever the situation dictates. It may not mean much, but if you continue this behavior you will devlop a rep as a classy team. And you'de be surprised what that will do for you.

Controll your equipment. Having a hot gun is inexcusable. Having an ramping/bouncing/illegal gun is inexcusable, (unless ramping or wahtever is ok duh) Why risk a DQ or 1 gun short situation, that technological edge it is not worth the points lost.

get plenty of rest the night before.

always ahve a 2 minute turnaround time mentality. Always be ready sometimes a different team in a diff. bracket will want to sub you. Hey its more playing time, get your moneys worth.

make sure you know your schedule. so you know who to watchout for.

more as they come...

its all about the points. in the prelims, in the semis and in the finals. Points points points.

have fun.

be cuerteous to the staff members of the field.

you represent your team. wther you like it or not.

thank your sponsors.

invite other teams to scrim your team when you get a chance, especially when you take top place.

[Enemy]

watch other teams in your division noting how they like to break out.

look for unusaul bunkers on the feild ie open area where only one bunker has the angle!! sid of a layed down x those will suck you in very well!!

snap and always talk..duh!!


always have gun up when your looking around you may only have one open shot dont waste it!!


be prepared for something to break it always does make sure your team knows that you are having an issue and get it resolved asap! if you cant chill call out positions throw paint if its centerflag grab the flag in all but nxl thats big points!!

screw drilling with teams in your div. drill with teams in the next up div you can learn alot from these guys!!

some of these are no brainers but hey why not list them anyway

oh and lastly always have 3-4 spare guns ready with paint just incase something does go wrong before the game starts!!

[Python14]

Some may call it unethical, I call it using your resources. Don't setup away from the other teams tables. Be as "in the group" as possible. The reason is you can pick up on other teams plans from time to time. Players are notorious, myself included, for being quite proud of a unique gameplan and with pride comes confidence and complacency. Take advantage of that and listen to what's going on in the staging area.

A mid-day nap can do wonders. I always eat a good, high calorie lunch then take a 20 minute nap. Any longer and it messes things up. DO NOT NAP DURING GAMES THOUGH! If their are players on the field, watch them.

Get some lil brothers or sisters or GFs or BFs or whatever together to be pod-fillers. If theirs one thing that you shouldn't be concerned with, it's filling pods. If worse comes to worse, buy alot of pods and have them filled for atleast 3 or 4 games worth. It's not the cheapest way, but filling pods is just something you shouldn't be doing while you are trying to watch a game.

No energy drinks. Drink water and limit yourself to maybe one gatorade/sport drink later in the day, or around lunch time. Water is the important thing.

Front guys: Use your back guys as starting blocks. They aren't going anywhere fast anyway. Plus if you practice it a little bit, they can sorta give you that push/burst you'll need off the break

Back guys: Take notes. When you walk the fields, write info down and study it. When you watch games, make profiles of each team. Figure out their habits, their favorite bunkers, their weakspots. You are the key to your teams success on and off the field. Your front guys are nothing more than tools (I'm a front guy btw).....use them.

Captains: Relax. If theirs one thing that can hurt a team drastically, it's seeing the head of the team freaking out. Morale is important, especially when you have newer players on the team/field. Radiate confidence, even if you don't feel like it.

If traveling out of town, bring your own pillow and if needed be, sheets. One thing I've learned from traveling all over is that hotel pillows tend to be hard, and sheets tend to be rough. As a result, I toss and turn at night trying to find a comfortable spot. If you have a good nights rest, you'll play better.


Eat fruit. It's quick, easy, cheap, and best of all.....a fantastic source of alot of the nutrients and vitamins you will need during the day. Apples and Bananas are my personal favorite, but oranges are good too.

Be quiet in the staging area. Listening is more important. Plus, you don't want to be the team that everyone can predict because their mouthy back center tells the whole gameplan to some kid from the team two tables over. But that doesn't mean don't be friendly. Be as friendly as you want, just know whats good conversation and whats spilling the beans. Being friendly also grants you brownie points with other teams. I don't know how many times I've gotten help from other teams, teams I'm playing against mind you, because I introduced myself earlier.

Lose your shame. If it's hot out, I lay down in the grass with my jersey over my head and pants lossened. Being comfortable for the next game is good.

Stay warm at the cold tournaments. If they are allowed, bring a heater of some kind.

Oh yeah, Don't get shot. It tends to mean you are out.

[abunkerer]

make sure everyone knows what their job is before they go on the field...as you set up on the starting block you dont want to hear anyone saying "where should I go, what do you want me to do" they should know that before hitting the field.

[ben-afficial]

never argue with the ref....it has dier consiquenses.....i mean...i got pulled for being low on paint...seriously...the ref said that.... and it was just me and 1 opponent :dance:

[68magOwner]

our team generally goes into a tourney really chill/relaxed, the first BS call or game we get, we dont ***** about it then, we just take that to the next game, by semi's we are usally ready to tear peoples heads off (we have yet to lose a game in the semi's this season). Our problem is that sometimes (first tourney this season) we got happy after not dropping a single player in any of the semi games, so, sucked in finals. Second tourney, shaped up, held onto first.

So- relax, instead of yelling at refs/players, take it out on the next team, dont let down, dont be stupid, talk alot, dont have multiple people reloading at once, coordinate runs before game, dont get shot, shoot people, dont shoot teammates.

[Carbon]

Look for blind shots. Not blind firing but, shots that land on a bunker without an obvious line of sight.

[Carbon]

assign a field captain. the guy who makes the plans for the game.

[Ack]

No matter how bad the wheels fall off the bus, don't come back screaming about who's fault it was. Discuss what happend and how to change it.

Talk to teams that have played the squad your going to play next, usually (esp. if they were on the losing end) they may give you a different perspective on the other teams break/habits

chrono chrono chrono -- hot guns kill

try to have more than one guy have a clue about fixing markers (preferably one who isn't playing)

Batteries... buy em.. use em.. toss em (Don't know how many times I've seen ppls halos/reloaders go down cuz they didn't put in new batteries)

Watch games (I know it was said before but..) your great game plan may have been tried 10x before you get to the box and each time it was blown up... doesn't mean you will... but the odds are good

Find the lanes and figure out how to run them.. a straight line may be quickest.. but it may also get you smoked

Look at the angles past the 50.. if your pushing them off the field you don't want it to be a suprise when you get to their 40

Tha's all the none technique things I got off the top of my head... g'luck

[Athius]

Have fun with your teammates hell get drunk too. I know is not sporty to get drunk but what the hell it ease the pain of the shots lol



Oh and never ever bring your girlfriend or wife to the tourney. She will get bored and will start *****in around.

[Blazestorm]

Always respect the other team and play them as if you were playing the best team in the league, as hard as you could.

Even if they haven't won a game, play as hard as you can, not to "own" them, but to show them they weren't ready and need to spend more time practicing before they should enter another event. Kind of a hard-*** way, but it does get the point across to them.

[ben-afficial]

thats a good plan of action unless you meet a team thats making the point :dance:

[mandatory]

thanks for all the advice. Im a new player to the torunament world and appreciate all the info. Im starting out playing all the 3-man tournays at my local fields so do you have any 3-man specific advice. i.e....breakout setups that work best and what to do when you go one man down as well as what you do when you go one man up? hopefully i can graduate to 5-man/ 7-man and jump on a fun team. I also hane little expierence playing with air bunkers. i mostly played on a hyperball coarse but am playing on air bll fields more often. what are the little seacreats to playin air bunkers?

[Jerhew]

first secret...there are NO A's in the word secret :D

only other thing i can think of...
people generally run longer barrels 14"+ on sup-air bunkers...so you can lean into the bunker and not have it bulge in front of your barrel
kind of good to know for people like me...who love 10" barrels :)

[Automaggot68]

When in Doubt, Pull a Jeremy Salm.

When in doubt, Pull a Chris Lasoya

[tony3]

One of the best pieces of advice I've heard which applies to all paintball, but should be used very much in tournies, is reload when you can, not when you have to. If you are doing nothing and your hopper is half full, top it off and throw the rest of that paint away, it is only 60 balls, you are shooting 2000 in a day, dont worry about it. Before you got and make that crazy move where you will be in a tight spot, you need to have a full hopper, dont want to know a guy is coming to bunker you and you only got 10 balls left.

Guns up 100% of the time. Don't stop shooting if possible, reload while shooting. They can't do anything if you are shooting.

Play the team not the field. If the field is setup for very aggressive play, and you are playing an aggressive team, play defense. They are going to take lots of ground on the break, add 1 or 2 more laners and screw them over. When the game is 5 on 3 after the break, you got a great advantage.

Just because it is 5 on 2, don't make stupid moves. Don't try to pull a huge run through to look good. If you are just playing standard time limit games and still got 5-6 minutes left, no need to end the game sooner then needed. Work the field, shoot A LOT more then those 2 guys left do. Eventually you will overwhelm them with movements and paint, then make a move.

Run and shoot. Just because you are running doesn't mean you shouldn't be shooting.

Make sure your gun works, or have multiple backups, guns know when its a tourney day and love to break. Test your gun the night before to make sure it works good.

Fill your tanks at the beginning of the day, air lines can get long.

Remember, it is still paintball and if you aren't having fun stop playing tourney ball, it isn't for you.

Quick walking the field tips. Never talk loud or point to bunkers if possible. We have definitely picked up on teams from watching them walk the field. Look at every bunker on the field, even if its not a breakout bunker. You never know when you'll need to play it. It is hard when you are at a bunker you've never been to, and you have no idea what angles you'll see when you look out.

If you are in a bad situation, i.e. 1 on 2-5, these situations may seem impossible but they really aren't. I've won 2 1 on 3's at tournies. First off, relax, it is just paintball. Make sure you are shooting a lot. Shoot both sides of your bunker, don't focus on one side longer then the other. If you know someone is going to bunker you, DON'T run out and shoot them. Snap them out on the run. Getting tunnel vision in a 1 on 2-5 is the worst thing possible, focus on the front players, not the back guys, even if you are up front, they are the biggest threat. Keep snap shooting, no long lanes. Wait for them to make bad moves.


My biggest piece of advice. Wait for them to make mistakes and do stupid moves. The second tourney I played in we definitely weren't the best team there but we just played defensive and let them do stupid moves and come at us.

[Lee]

don't keep popping out of your bunker in the same place. go higher, then lower, or change sides or angles.
if someone is posted on you and you keep snapping from the same spot. you're generally going to be toast.

tip your loader in towards the bunker. it helps reduce hopper hits.

keep your elbow in...took me forever to learn this simple a thing.

watch the refs. they can and will un-wittingly help you locate the bad guys. they don't mean to do it, but, an inexperienced or careless ref will bird dog a player you may not be able to see.

know where the out of bounds line is. you'd be surprised how many games have been decided when someone got pulled on a nice move because they crossed the boundry.

debated the refs intelligently. if you have an issue. act like a gentleman and present your point clearly. communication is key. you catch more flies with honey.

when a key position gets taken by the other team, make sure your team knows it. "50 50 50!!" "SNAKE SNAKE SNAKE!!"

[ben-afficial]

coming out different sides is a must but you also have to come out at random times...sometimes you have to stay in your bunker for a couple seconds so some one might try to move up and you might be able to get them or sometimes you have to constintley snap out of all sides and keep it RANDOM. :dance: