New Paintball Rule:

[raehl]

You are not allowed to be a "Professional" or "World Champion" paintball anything if you ever let someone get shot and then remove their goggles on camera.

Or if you tell people that your marker is powered by "Nitrous".

I could have dealt without the military guy saying it is the closest thing to replicating being shot, but not much anyone in paintball couldda done about that.

At least they made the air softers out to be the military nuts.

- Chris

[Richter]

you must be referring to the show on the history channel
at least there was a mag on the show

[TheDuelist]

In the very least they showed our sport in a better light than almost all of the others I have seen.

[Sir_Brass]

I figured this would happen. It's like you all were thinking that NOT a staged shot (it obviously was). Go cry me a river.

ANd hey, SOME of us pballers like milsim, myself included. At d-day expect me and the guys I'm playing with to look almost like those airsoft guys, except with pball guns and full masks instead of blackhawk vests and AEGs.

Paintball is paintball. Speedball isn't the only way to play the sport. Please recognize that, b/c from what I'm seeing, that seems to be something not alot of people are realizing or allowing to come into play here.

[Python14]

Yea, it was nice....but could have been nicer. It was really the little things. Like when that one guy got hit and he fell over. My mom was watching too and she asked "Do they really hit that hard?". Also, they said the guy was former world champion or something? What? Which team did he play for?

And that was a pretty interesting drop setup he had going on that LCD.

Oh well, it wasn't bad, but a few things irked me.

[Sir_Brass]

Agreed, but for a show that wasn't focusing on pball, it did well. I think they glossed over or ignored some things in airsoft that will irk some hardcore airsoft players as well.

it is the little things, but the over image was good.

[mbyankee10]

Relax

The Whole Thing was staged and if you cant see that then there is a problem.

If you have ever been interviewed and not made a mistake hey then you are the perfect man.

From What I remember his was a really big player in the late 80s early 90s.

So what he said nitrous instead of nitro, WHO REALLY CARES!!!
I think the segmant gave a pretty postive look at paintball. Nothing negative like most reports.

[Ginjiroku]

I missed it ahhhhhhhh and it doesn't look like they will be repeating it soon

[ezrunner]

ok guys

Let's not crusify chris raehl, he is doing more for our sport than most people in the industry.

For the uninformed, he is the president and driving force behind the college and high school paintball leagues.

I do what I can in the south east but this man works on the national level and devotes a large amount of personal expense and resource to promoting our sport and our players.

-rob

[raehl]

The thing about interviews regarding paintball is there really is just a small list of things to get right. If you put a little thought into what you're going to say in advance, it's pretty hard to botch an interview.

And while speedball is certainly nowhere near the majority of paintball, it's a much larger part of paintball than mil-sim. The vast majority of paintball is people going to play in the woods, which is exactly what they showed, minus the jersies. I would have thought it would have been cool to show a scenario game - there's plenty of well-themed examples that would give paintball an interesting look and probably more easily demonstrate that there's more to it than shooting.

And while to you as a paintball player the little things seem little, I try to watch stuff from the perspective of someone who doesn't know anything about paintball. Like the guy who said his mom asked if paintballs really hit that hard - anyone who saw that show who has no paintball experience is going to be left with the impression that paintballs pack a lot of force. Sure, we all know that's not true, but looking at people falling over many times after getting hit, and listening to the military guy, that's the impression you're left with.

Same deal with the mask. Yes, we all know that the shot was staged, because as experienced paintball players, it's easy for us to tell the difference. For anyone else, it looks like he got shot in the face during a game and then took his mask off.

I have a little more tolerance for when TV producers miss the little stuff - but when people are there who should know better, it's a little annoying.


- Chris

[.tMan]

so has anyone actually heard of the "pro" they had on the show?

[raehl]

Originally posted by Tanner Johnson
so has anyone actually heard of the "pro" they had on the show?

The name was familiar. I'm fairly sure he was on a team that won World Cup at some point or another.

- Chris

[MrWallen]

I agree that most paintballers play rec/scenario ball, and that this was probably why they chose to show it on the show.

The problem is, when you portray the sport like this, it looks more violent to the outside public, specifically the rule makers (if they think using a keyboard and mouse is turning gamers into killing machines, it will be much worse when one decides to pick on paintball).

Showing the sport from the speedball/tag angle makes it more closely relate to other sports, and, at least imo, less violent (seems kinda contradictory when there's 500 paintballs in the air each second in speedball, and not even half as many in rec-ball, which has usually triple the players).

So while more people play paintball in a more war-game type of style, showcasing this side of the sport (without showing the other aspects) seems like a bad idea.