what went wrong?

[bound for glory]

josh, you drunkin' skinhead, between teaching and back to making m&m's, and not having a mag , i most likly won't make it to tuna this may. now if tuna has any emags that he'd like to sell at a good price...what do you say, tuna got anything?

[Lohman446]

Dre1919 said it in one way, I'll say it from a more interspective point.

It came out of the woods....

No, that is not a jade at speedball, the fact of the matter is I love arena ball. Its a jade at the mentality. Once upon a time it was nothing to travel several hours to the nearest tournament, meet up with a great group of guys where everyone knew everyone, and have a tournament where the prizes, if you were lucky, were trophies.

Then the prizes started to be of value. Sponsorhips were awarded based not on someones value as a company reprentative but winning. When someone important to the industry (and no, I'm not mentioning names) was caught in a very VERY early video possibly wiping a hit and they were discussing it someone, in a moment of honesty to them that noone else stood up and said no to decided that they had all done it once upon a time and to let it go. So, through the smallest door of intentions to be honest, we allowed cheating in. Not that that was the first or only time (or only method) - I can recall inverting CO2 bottles and various other tricks to get a long shot...

So now, we had winning = sponsorship. Sponsorship > attitude to gain respect. So now, winning became all important. Cheating became acceptable because "everyone is doing it". Worse, an illusion of profit in playing paintball was created. Now, in the "its just business mentality" winning at all costs became acceptable. Bully a ref to win, fine. Wipe a hit, or twenty, to win, fine - everyone does it .

And now the mentality has seeped down. Because amateur and professional have no meaning in paintball those playing for fun come up against those playing for money, or those practicing to play for money. Somewhere a podium got put in there - I played against someone on Dynasty.... whatever. I played against a team with two players from a pro team once. "There just like us" is nonsense.... they eliminated me three seperate times in four seconds (don't ask).

I can have a million excuses for why some of us played like we did. I can justify it in anyway you want. In the end it was wrong. Even if we only did it when XXXXX (and most of us did) it was still wrong.

Somewhere amateur and professional never got divided. I want to play the game for fun, with respect for the game and my opponent, and being able to say "holy cow, awesome shot, you hit me from stand up to stand up on the tip of my barrel, what a shot" rather than looking at a ref and grinning as I try to shoot through the break. (Ohh... not supposed to say things like that). You know, I could have, and I always should have... but, my team was depending on me (see how easy the excuses are made).

I want to play like what it was. Where we all go play, laugh about the great shots / moves / stupid plays we all made over dinner and a drink, with my team and my opponents. Like OGD was for its brief existance (Kevin, it was a great idea, I wish it had the support that it had been promised). Maybe I'll play pump again...

Beemer, its not about safety standards. Beemer paintball got so bad we even cheated on SAFETY STANDARDS. Not we, as in a small group of us, but WE, the people who run the system. The people who make the equipment intended for everyone to play with. These were not tinkerers in a garage sneaking a way around things, WE just cheated safety standards as boldly as we wiped hits in the middle of our superman dives. You asked in another thread if a team could compete well falling into safety standards. I ask the question, could a team compete playing 100% honestly (everyone on the team) within safety standards? 100%, that means no "I was in the middle of a superman dive on the way to the bunker and didn't have time to see if those hits broke" that some people insist is honest. Its another excuse to justify poor behaviour that we (many of us now standing on the sidelines lamenting where it is now) let seep into our GAME (not a sport) little by little.

[bound for glory]

funny thing is, i want, in my heart, to blame it on the 'paintball nation' types. little brats with $1500 rigs...young guys all full of aggro(and as an ex skinhead, i know these types all too well). i clearly remember my last game with my emag at emr. i was standing in the chrono line and a kid, who really could not have been more than 15, said to his little group, "look dudes, a *** with a mag here is this little fake tough guy, holding a freestyle(i think), which i would bet that mommy bought him, saying this loud enough for people to look and what witty come back did i come up with? "i'm no ***"...

[warbeak2099]

Wow I'm surprised someone with a Freestyle would act like that. Freestyles are just as niche as Mags are lol.

[bound for glory]

well, tbh i was surprised that the little dick knew what an emag was i remember when emr was known as wolfs lair. back then every body had a mag or a cocker. point is, where did this 15 year old get the balls to say this junk to a37 year old man? and his little crew laughed i'm fairly certain i was like the thrid or forth person in new jersey to own a mag. back in the day, kids would ask what it was and can they shoot it. same as when i had my grey ghost. now i get called names? and the over shooting and the wiping and the yelling and the 'f this and f that'. and my little boy want into this? i will set him up. i loved the game, he should get to love it too. but my boy already is quick to put his fists up. and that coupled with paintball may not be cool.

[athomas]

I'm 45 and still play at a high level. I am getting slower as time goes by though. I tend to be a suppression player but still do run throughs when ever they present themselves. I have a lot of fun but I pay for it the next day which I never had to worry about when I was younger. You can still find good people to play with. I originally started paintball back in 1989 and played for about 6 years. When I got back into the sport after a number of years off, it had changed a great deal. I started going by myself out to a local field on walk-on days. Gradually I met a few good guys and eventually formed a team for fun. We progressed and I eventually worked my level of play up to tournament X-ball status. I have a lot of fun. Its all about the people you play with.