US Pball championship discussion

[buzzboy]

Anybody end up seeing this last night. I thought the games were pretty good myself. Not a fan of wathcing dynasty do what they do but they did win. I would also have prefered to see stolkholm win their first match up of the night.

Anybody? Discuss?

[Banshee23]

I watched the first half hour last night... I love paintball & all but it's awful on TV, it just doesn't work. Any non-paintballer that watched would be confused as heck. Before I tuned in I was happy that I remembered it was on, but after watching some I'm pretty sure I won't be tuning in for the rest.

[paullus99]

Paintball is extremely difficult to film up close and personal. My team has been experimenting with helmet-mounted cameras & the action is so fast, and happens across such an area of the field, that it is extremely difficult to be able to get a true sense of what is going on.

You really need camera's above the field to get an idea of the flow of the game, but the bunkers really make line-of-sight difficult as well. There are probably work-arounds, but the game itself doesn't really translate all that well into the TV format.

[etjoyride]

I watched, i have seen a few filmings of games before, and this is one of the best i've seen. ESPN did a pretty good job of getting in most of the field at any given time. I will probably watch the toher 7 episodes.

[NoForts4Me]

I believe that ESPN did a very good job covering the games. They obviously took it seriously, and showed more actual games than any of the other shows I have watched. Granted, Paintball is very difficult to film and make sense of, but they tried a few things to aid the viewer. As posted above, I'm still not sure non-players will get much out of it, but this is the best attempt I've personally seen.

[IcantBelieveit]

i saw parts od it...but i don't know why...maybe b/c i was tired...it just seemed kinda boring...of course i never really thouhg sports on tv was all that interesting anyawy...rather be out playin them

[Lohman446]

I love paintball.. however, watching it in person or on tv tends to bore me. Which is odd, I like a few sports on TV. Maybe if you had hockey style announcers on it....

/Though hockey on TV is bleh too

[marpat]

funny how there was one instance where the "pro" player was caught wiping. and another one shot the flag puller from the dead box...

great sportsmanship on national tv...

even the commentator mentioned to the point "If you're shot and the ref's don't call you out, stay in the game..." so it's ok to get hit as long as the ref's don't call you out...

overall it was nice to see paintball on espn2 but man, the bad things do stick out more than the action...


btw didn't that guy who wore the helmet cam in one game leave dynasty? not sure if i saw that in a pb mag or not. or did he leave another team to go to dynasty?

[WenULiVeUdiE]

Well i must admit it was much better than their first attempt (ok, so they aired it years ago, you know what I mean) back in 2005 with the NXL. The commentators were much better. The game footage was stronger. And the playing quality was something of another, better quality.

I did notice that the camera men did not always know where to look for up and coming moves. I guess in good time they will learn what to look for when trying to get those great shots.

marpat- The player you are refering to is Oliver Lang. He has left his old team, Dynasty, to play for the Ironmen. He left because it solidified his future more so than Smart Parts could.

[Arstron]

The only thing I didnt like about it was when (I forget what team) they showed some of the guys looking over the field and one guy said "I can shoot their face off from here."

[buzzboy]

Yeah, they did use the term "blew his face off" or blew his hand off" a lot. It seemed to war like. Same with one of the announcers saying "bullets" and "kill" in the same sentence.

The filming was good enough. Last time I watched on TV the angles were better but I liked how this had the overhead view with the indicators showing the movements.

I also really liked when Lang wore the head cam. I know it must have been iffy wearing that battery pack and all durring the game but it didn't seem to effect him. I do wish though that dynasty would play worse. I can't stand seeing one team win so much.

[shorty24]

Filming was ok, I thought...just the rest of it seemed kinda boring to watch. Honestly, it's one of those things you have to DO to enjoy. And yeah, the sportsmanship wasn't the greatest... Props to ESPN though, they did a good job!

[muskratjim]

well i have watched it twice now (tivo). the comentary really needs to stop with the paintball slang the "blew his face off" is going to send ma pa kettle running for the hills. and before you flame me thats the people espn needs to keep filming, we paintballers are not going to watch all the time because we would rather play but if paintball can get half of the same people who watch poker it will work and we(as in paintballers) will reap the rewards as outside sponsers will flock to it.



rockin a mag since 91

[Lee]

i think it showed high level tourney ball like it pretty much is:

blown calls, wipes, bonuses from the sideline, swedish refs etc.

i also think they did a good job of showing the game with the way they tracked the players.

best i've seen on tv so far. though i do agree paintball and tv are just not sympatico.

[paintman1234]

great job espn! I thought it was very organized with good angles and decent comentary. Someone who actually new about the whole game was anouncing (matty marshell)

BTW: people talking about dynasty winning and stuff and ollie lang, this is from Nppl Miami 05 so Dynasty will win and Ollie lang has not gone to the Ironmen yet