You know what I love about good old fashioned Woodsball....

[tasker89]

....it really doesn't change all that much. I've been playing paintball for 16 years (little bit less than half of my life) and man do I love the woodsball game! I knocked around (with a borrowed Retro-Valved Mag in hand) down at Fox River Games yesterday...and had a great time. Those electronic speedball guns just don't bring quite as much to the table out in the scrub.

I had fun long-balling and crawling...and never once felt out classed.

I'm building myself a Mag again.

[DamianTC]

definately agreed. woodball is the original and in my opinion, the best way to play paintball

[tasker89]

No doubt! It is a shame to think about all of the elements of the game that have completely dropped out of the average player's skillset. Do players have better head to head gunfighting skills than they once did? I don't think so...they just have guns that work harder for them. But skills like crawling (especially playing the two man game...crawler in front of a loud and obnoxious cover-man), cross field longballs, the effective use of concealment and topography in addition to the patently obvious cover...being able to "listen" to a field (cause you can't see the whole thing and you don't have people shouting from the sidelines) have all but disappeared.

etc., etc.

I know there are still players that keep the old woodsball style alive...but most incoming players don't seem interested in learning them.

Their loss I guess.

[Toll]

I'm always in shock with the amount of people who don't actually listen to whats going on as much as just try to find something to shoot.

Guy one knows where I am, yells to guy two that I am to his right about 30 feet.

Thanks to you guy one for letting me know there is atleast one person about 30 feet to my left.

[kcombs9]

I played at fox river when I lived in that area few years back, great field. If I ever go that way again Ill let you know



this picture was taken there at a big scenario game I played there with 600 people

I'm on the front left with my green/black/silver splash anno spyder with a 13bps hyper frame

PS: my brother in the middle back row is holding a RT automag

[tasker89]

I played at fox river when I lived in that area few years back, great field. If I ever go that way again Ill let you know



this picture was taken there at a big scenario game I played there with 600 people

I'm on the front left with my green/black/silver splash anno spyder with a 13bps hyper frame

PS: my brother in the middle back row is holding a RT automag

Fox has regular scenario games on-site. In fact, yesterday was a "mini scenario" that ran for three hours. Basically they have a theme and instead of straight capture the flag you have objectives and re-insertions.

Fox is and always will be my home field...a great place to play paintball...even if it does flood once in awhile.

[drg]

No doubt! It is a shame to think about all of the elements of the game that have completely dropped out of the average player's skillset. Do players have better head to head gunfighting skills than they once did? I don't think so...they just have guns that work harder for them. But skills like crawling (especially playing the two man game...crawler in front of a loud and obnoxious cover-man), cross field longballs, the effective use of concealment and topography in addition to the patently obvious cover...being able to "listen" to a field (cause you can't see the whole thing and you don't have people shouting from the sidelines) have all but disappeared.

I don't see how those skills were lost, in fact many of them are more important than ever in speedball. I especially disagree with the gunfighting statement, today's players gunfight WAY better than back in the day; that's a skill directly honed by speedball.

Perhaps you have the wrong idea of speedball, but I find the skills for speedball don't really get honed in the woods rather than vice versa. You'd be surprised to find that the typical speedball field has far more cover than most woodsball fields.

If you see a speedballer that lacks these skills, then he lacks skills in general. This may have more to do with the higher turnover rate in the modern game than the game itself.

[PumpPlayer]

^ The good players are better now than they used to be, sure, but there is an ever-increasing number of casual players who are just out there to burn through paint.


People play for a year or two in high school and then drop the sport. That's the same as it ever was, and some people will always stick around, but as the population increases, so does the number of casual 'ballers. The days of going to a woodsball field and finding 20 other skilled guys to play against are now over. You've now got 50 people of mediocre-at-best skill level with a few good players mixed in.

I'm not hating on newbies, far from it in fact, but it seems like the new players don't have anyone left, at the local level, to learn from. That's important and it's something most fields don't have. Sure, every kid gets a few DVDs and watches the pros play, but what does it really look like, from down in the dirt, to see a guy make a good brush crawl, a good tree walk, a patient ambush?

I remember first starting out and being in awe of some of the ninja out on the fields. They were out there every weekend and I did everything I could to learn the game. I play whenever I can, but anymore that's only 6-8 times a year. I feel like we're not passing down what we know to the next generation.


The audience is out there. Let's go out and show them how the game should be played.

[XM15]

I remember playing a early spring 5 man tournament there once like 10 years ago. Snow flurries came down in the afternoon. The one field we palyed on had a area of water everyone avoided all day. I decided to go through it and surpirse the last guy left. I thought the water was only about knee high. I was wrong it was almost waist deep and cold. I manageed to survive the crossing and win the game. I really miss woodsball tourny's.

[tasker89]

High turnover is definitely a factor. Players get in and get out at an alarming rate...largely because the cost to play has increased dramatically as a function of the style of play...with equipment designed for that style.

I also have a complete sense of speedball...as I've been playing since they coined the name. Please note that I wrote the "average player." I don't classify tourney players (any level) or tourney wannabes as average players. I am talking about the once or twice a month rec-ballers.

[kcombs9]

Fox has regular scenario games on-site. In fact, yesterday was a "mini scenario" that ran for three hours. Basically they have a theme and instead of straight capture the flag you have objectives and re-insertions.

Fox is and always will be my home field...a great place to play paintball...even if it does flood once in awhile.

this was a 10am to 10pm scenario game. Put on by waynes world paintball

[drg]

High turnover is definitely a factor. Players get in and get out at an alarming rate...largely because the cost to play has increased dramatically as a function of the style of play...with equipment designed for that style.

I also have a complete sense of speedball...as I've been playing since they coined the name. Please note that I wrote the "average player." I don't classify tourney players (any level) or tourney wannabes as average players. I am talking about the once or twice a month rec-ballers.

Well if your estimation of the average player is what you said, then it doesn't come from the format he or she plays, it comes from a straight lack of experience and skill-building. Speedball builds the skills you mentioned as well or better than woodsball. Remember the whole point of speedball was to emphasize skill, both individually and as a team.

[tasker89]

Speedball builds the skills you mentioned as well or better than woodsball. Remember the whole point of speedball was to emphasize skill, both individually and as a team.

Really? That isn't how I remember speedball's origins. I recall a game format born out in SoCal that was intended to create "more excitement" for players and faster turnarounds for field owners. The format spread and became "the" way to put paintball on TV. Some of the earliest broadcast stuff was done on speedball fields. Later, tourneys started including "spectator tapelines" which typically featured foliage free viewing and staggered bunkers. Spectator tapelines became entire fields...and gradually woodsball tourneys went away all together.

I'm curious, how does a speeballer playing on a SupAir field, Xball field, or whatever...learn how to spend 25 minutes crawling 12 feet through a weed patch to put themselves into position to knock out a critical opponent? I'm not saying that speedballers don't have skills...it is just a different set of skills. I suppose a decent analogy might be this: Speedball is like a digital signal. It is sharp and it crisp...but audiophiles sometimes hear clipping and think the sound lacks warmth. Woodsball is analog. Something the sound is richer...but it isn't as easily accessible as CDs and MP3s anymore.

[DamianTC]

If your taking your kids paintballing for the first time.. More than likely its going to be woodsball..

throw him on a speedball course the first time he ever got a marker in his hands and........

[tasker89]

Brutal! Poor kid is lucky he only took one.