Ao-va Day Poll!!!!!

[Tassel Mask]

I think you should give us a heads up on when your most likley to be free to help us plan better.

[Empyreal Rogue]

The best way to plan these is to establish a field, then a play date. I'm not coordinating this, but I'd recommend that the best time to throw this together and giving everyone plenty of time to prepare would be between May and even as late as August.

Does Pevs still allow BYOP? We could do a group order of paint like we did at the last AO-VA that went to Pevs.

[Tassel Mask]

I can find out

[93civiccpe]

I like that idea, but I'd suggest going to Warplay. I really like their setup, and am going to be headed back there next weekend to play again...

[sdlm_]

I like that idea, but I'd suggest going to Warplay. I really like their setup, and am going to be headed back there next weekend to play again...

I second this. I love Warplay (even though Powerline is the field I normally goto). It is BYOP with a $10 fee, they have plenty of air, and several large fields, that can be combined if need be, along with a professional staff, and food. That and it is 10 minutes from sheetz which has good food and drinks, as well as fairly cheap gasoline.

Main reasons I don't normal go there is the cost, $10 air +$15 field fee, +$15 in gas just to get there and back makes it $40 just to start, but that is also due to distance.

Look we can get an AO-VA day going, I am willing to drive from NoVA to Warplay, but I am not so sure about those that live off of I-81, it's very far for them.

[IcantBelieveit]

O.K. Seems like people like warplay, Sooo we are going to use that as a our field of play. I will call them next during the week to see if they can work us a good deal for paint and play fees. I will see what kind of paint they carry and minimum number of peoplel we need to have...if anybody has any more questions that need to be asked please let me know...also throw up some time frames that would work for everybody...im down for whatever.

[Tassel Mask]

Warplay it is then. I cant play till April.

[rawbutter]

I am going to Warplay this Saturday as a chaparone for my church's youth group. Should be fun to play with a bunch of fresh kids.

Anyway, are there any questions I should ask while I'm there? Want me to take some pictures? Let me know.

[93civiccpe]

Hey rawbutter, nice meeting you and seeing your pneumag yesterday at warplay.

As for Warplay, I'm going to retract my vote for that place. I don't want to mislead anyone.. I had a decent time yesterday but I know some of the members will probably get rubbed the wrong way by some of the ways they do things.

First of all, they refer to markers as "weapons" and shooting people as "kills". This place is run by ex-marines and it shows. The way they talk.. everything is tactical, and they feel that they know best because apparently military experience makes you a good paintballer as well.

The field allows ALL modes of fire. Next, the field limit is 300fps.. everyone chrono's tight there. At the same time, there is not a 20 foot rule. You can choose to say surrender but you do end up getting lit up at point blank. On top of that, they ENCOURAGE blind firing, sweeping your marker around before going into an area. They also encourage aiming at masks / other hard areas to make sure the paintballs break.

I'm not saying I don't do any of that, but it is typically the exact opposite of what you hear at most fields. I've played warplay a few times and I end up having fun, but the last couple times I've seen things that have bothered me enough that I'm probably going to play elsewhere for a little while.

The format is actually interesting. It's designed by marines so you have "choke points" and strategically set up fields where you can only go certain ways and a couple fields that are next-to-impossible to win at. (You'd have to go against a team of new players to win one of their favorite fields). When you are on the offensive side, your spawn releases every 2 minutes. On defense, it spawns every 4 minutes. What that means is if you are shot out, you run back to your spawn and you wait at most 2 or 4 minutes to get in the game. (Sometimes you get back right as the respawn timer goes off so you turn around and go back out. What that means is that you go through a lot of paint, and spend a lot more time on the field. That's fun but a two-edged sword. On one field where I know it is impossible for the offense to get to the flag, instead of wasting paint I just sit back as I know they are not going to attempt to rush the small bridge (suicide mission). So for me it's a 25 minute break as I do enough to keep them back. For the field owners, it is great because people go through a LOT of paint. Then again, at their prices $45/50 a case, it's not too painful.

Now the bad. Over the last couple times I've gone there I've seen some issues that have really bothered me. One of which is the fact that twice early I got behind people and yelled surrender only to have them try to turn on me and me be forced to light them up at point blank with a marker chrono'd right at 300fps. Over the course of the last couple times playing there you don't even hear surrender. You just shoot them close and keep going. Due to that, I've seen 3 younger players (my guess is that they were around 9-10 years old) get really overshot bad at close range. One paintball would have put their hands up but instead they now are going to have some serious welts/bruises. I believe 2 of them actually were done for the day. In one incident it was blatent that the guy took a full auto marker and lit a young kid up and the kid was still being shot with his hands up. There was a ref right there. I strongly encouraged the ref to pull the kid and go have a talk with them and the ref did not see why it was necessary. The comment was along the line of "if they can't take the pain they shouldn't be out here". I honestly do not know if that's a supported idea, but that left a bad taste in my mouth.

On top of that, there was one other issue that I had with some of the refs where I basically got called a liar by a ref who would not talk with me or explain it. I discussed it with the owner as I am an adult and live my life with honesty and integrity and he would not let me know which ref was behind it so I could confront them and have them explain it. I don't want to explain the whole situation as I've written a lot as it is, but I joined a team with mostly new players trying to help them out (all using rentals.. out on their first time), and we were on the losing end most of the day. I ran in, got the flag, and we won the round finally and I was called a cheater without explanation.

It's nothing that is going to prevent me from giving them another chance, but it has left a bad taste in my mouth. I just don't know if it is the most fitting location for us oldskool mag guys. One of the best choices (in my opinion) is Hogback Mountain in Leesburg (http://www.hogback.net/). They have 14 woodsball fields, and the owner of the field and store were one of the largest supporters of automags back in the day. They always had a majority of automags on the field back in the day, and were good to us maggers. You still see mags there from time to time. Not to mention it's just a really laid back place with good refs. You can bring your own paint and I don't think there's a fee to do so. Lunch is cheap there.. they grill hotdogs. It is a very well run place and it doesn't have as much of the "agg" crowd that you find at Pev's and some of the other mainstream places. The fields are top-notch. I think it's one of the best fields I've ever played at, if not the best. I know it's a longer drive for us in central/eastern VA but it's definitely worth it in my opinion.

I also wanted to mention that we have a good number of oldskool guys on the MCB forums that are in the area who have expressed interest in a get together. When we pick a date I'll let them know when it is as well.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

[Empyreal Rogue]

As a referee it sounds like the way that guy acted was completely unacceptable. For me when I take a group out for a whole day, if it's really clear that one side has a huge advantage I'll mix up the groups every other round until there's a nice balance. Maybe it was just one "bad apple" but from the sound of things that may not have been the case.

I myself have never played at Warplay before, it's probably the only field on that list I haven't been to in the state yet. However, last time I was at Hogback was when it was a decrepit old field that was always overshadowed by Pevs since they're within like 30 minutes of each other. Who is the guy that owns Hogback? It's not Rob, is it? I know he lives in Fairfax and is, or was, an official AGD tech but spent most of his time at Pevs.

That's a good review civic, very informative. While I've never been to Warplay I really don't feel to excited to go there after that. Maybe I'm spoiled because we have a pretty stellar staff here where I work and have always had a great time at Pevs so I haven't had a bad time in recent years.

Since Hogback's gotten bigger maybe if we schedule something with them they'll give us a private referee for the day. I know they do that at Pevs upon request if your group is large enough. I'd really like to get something together soon so lets figure something out.

[rawbutter]

Since I was at Warplay this weekend with civic, I guess I should add my own 2 cents. (By the way civic, it was cool to meet you and see the Droid. It give you any touble that day?)

I would also like to retract my vote for Warplay, although for different reasons. A few of the refs were very overzealous (like... civic's incident, calling people out for splatter, or calling me out for being out of bounds, even though there was no markings saying that I was), but for me, the thing that soured my taste was the entire set-up. You get there at 10:00... they do a safety briefing and explain some of the rules, and then EVERYONE gets put into two teams. (There were fifty people there this Saturday, so each team had 25 people on it. It was rather insane.) You play twice on the first field (once as the attacker, and once as the defender), twice on a second field (again... once defending, once attacking), and then a final time on a "king of the hill" field. While it was an enjoyable paint-slinging fest, I really didn't feel that it would be a good format for an AO meet-and-greet. I'd rather play small-scale woodsball or speedball field where we can pick our own teams, play at our own pace by ourselves, and not be confined by their set-up.

I would go back to Warplay, but only with one or two other friends that I already knew really well... and I'd have to be in the mood to shoot a LOT of paint. I don't want to go there for an AO-VA game, though. I feel that if we went to WarPlay, we'd all spend $80-$130 and never really get to know one another.

I don't really have another field to suggest since I don't play at public fields a lot, but I'd still be open go just about anywhere as long as I have a good enough warning.

[rawbutter]

On top of that, there was one other issue that I had with some of the refs where I basically got called a liar by a ref who would not talk with me or explain it. I discussed it with the owner as I am an adult and live my life with honesty and integrity and he would not let me know which ref was behind it so I could confront them and have them explain it. I don't want to explain the whole situation as I've written a lot as it is, but I joined a team with mostly new players trying to help them out (all using rentals.. out on their first time), and we were on the losing end most of the day. I ran in, got the flag, and we won the round finally and I was called a cheater without explanation.

By the way, that whole situation was just plain dumb. The player who called you for cheating was one of the "regulars" who knew all the refs by name, and he was in the spawn zone with me (100 feet away) when you charged into the tower and got the flag. I don't know what he saw, but it was very bias for the ref to believe him over you. But hey... he's been there more often than you, so he must be the honest one, right?

[93civiccpe]

By the way, that whole situation was just plain dumb. The player who called you for cheating was one of the "regulars" who knew all the refs by name, and he was in the spawn zone with me (100 feet away) when you charged into the tower and got the flag. I don't know what he saw, but it was very bias for the ref to believe him over you. But hey... he's been there more often than you, so he must be the honest one, right?

Hey man,
You know how it goes. I've been there a few times now and the ref inside the castle was Rhonda, who knows me by name. I had a discussion with her and she said it wasn't her who saw it, yet it was her inside the castle. I know which guy it was. After I charged inside the castle he tried to get me over the wall and we exchanged.. I shot him twice in the mask and he hit me once in the chest and it bounced... and Rhonda was right there and saw it and pulled him because both of my shots broke on his mask.. verified I was clean and I continued. The official claim was that I had called myself out at some point then threw the flag out the window. The flag was halfway back to spawn before i popped up and started spraying like crazy to detract everyone from the flag runner, at which point I did get lit up and call myself out. Sad thing is that the flag was already at the base when that happened. It just goes to show the bias of the refs.. it wasn't a terrible time and it was just a dumb thing to make a big deal out of it like they did. It wasn't a tournament.. no money on the line or anything.. just "bragging rights" I guess, but who brags about a random day of play?? It just left a bad taste in my mouth when added to a few other incidents.

As for the droid... I love that thing. I would be the last one to ever spend $1000 or more on a paintball marker, but I happened to have a milled viking that I was able to sell along with an extra barrel kit which made up enough to pick a new one up cheap off of a friend. For anyone considering getting one, I would highly suggest it. I have made a recent decision to try to only own semi markers from AGD, AKA, Macdev, and PPS. Those are the companies that have always treated me right and made high quality markers. I shot a pod off my back deck when it came in the mail Friday evening. Saturday morning I put it over the chrono.. adjusted it, and it was shooting +/- 5fps when I chrono'd in over 5 shots.. not great but not terrible either for a new reg. After shooting about a case and a half I checked it over the chrono before leaving. +/- 3fps over ten shots. It was quiet.. had no kick, and no shootdown. It was fast.. did not have a single chop, not a single barrel break.. not a single problem whatsoever. In the second round I think I shot out more people in 25 minutes than I have in my entire life. It is by far one of the top 2 markers I've ever owned.. and maybe even the #1. (I have owned the "Nemesis" stroker.. it's hard to compare that one of a kind piece of art to a mainstream marker, but this is by far my favorite electro I've ever owned). It's just too bad you were on the other team butter or I would have offered to swap markers with you for a round in an attempt to try out that pneu-mag of yours. Maybe next time we get together.

None-the-less, it was nice to see an automag out there. I should have brought mine but I knew that since the new droid got in I wasn't going to have anything else in my hands all day.. lol.

[seekandestroy78]

im voting for pevs in leesburg. i like how everywhere else has a city listed but pevs is in "northern Va"

either way its the closest to my house by about 2 hours.

and no rob hoover does not own hogback, hes an agd tech and pevs player

[rawbutter]

After seeing Warplay, I'd be willing to drive to Pevs. I can do two hours. Leesburg is a nice place, too.

If we do it in Leesburg, however, we may as well make it into a VA/WV/MY/Wester PA AO day. Leesburg is a long way for people down in southern VA. People coming from Pittsburg would have a shorter drive.