Can paintball be saved ?

[punkncat]

The locals said they wanted something like this, so I put it on, and then they shat themselves and ran away like little girls.

Might I suggest that the reason they took off was the fear of the "guys in jerseys".

Perhaps what they were looking for was a game with a bunch of other "backyard" gamers like themselves. Somewhere they could compete with folks of their same experiance and skill level w/o having to get shot up by the "pros".

Or perhaps they were just blowing smoke out their pieholes.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiance with that.

[zorrotmm]

Might I suggest that the reason they took off was the fear of the "guys in jerseys".

Perhaps what they were looking for was a game with a bunch of other "backyard" gamers like themselves. Somewhere they could compete with folks of their same experiance and skill level w/o having to get shot up by the "pros".

Or perhaps they were just blowing smoke out their pieholes.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiance with that.

I agree. I don't mean to criticize, and it sounds like you did the best you could given the situation (I had a very similar incident last year, trust me), but just as I was saying we don't need the pros, we also don't need the wanna be pros. The common theme I see here is "big money owns the teams". So why pander to the current teams? If someone starts a fresh movement, it would only make sense to start with fresh troops. Most field owners I've talked to mention that hardcore "tourney" players only make up about 10% of fieldgoers, and recball pays the bills. I'm willing to bet they would play tourney if it was fair, and less expensive. When starting a new series or league, reach out to the 'locals' that would play more, but don't want to get destroyed, don't want to pay huge entry fees, and aren't concerned about winning Egos. I wouldn't even go out of my way to invite established, sponsored tourney teams. A ground swell of new blood would do far more good than trying to pacify any tourney teams that can't handle fair organization.

[CoolHand]

Might I suggest that the reason they took off was the fear of the "guys in jerseys".

Perhaps what they were looking for was a game with a bunch of other "backyard" gamers like themselves. Somewhere they could compete with folks of their same experiance and skill level w/o having to get shot up by the "pros".

Or perhaps they were just blowing smoke out their pieholes.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiance with that.

What they wanted, was to play like it was a tournament, but without any competition at all. Typical stuff, noobs wanting only too shoot up bigger noobs while never facing anyone with even the same level of skill. Basically, all of them were big pussies.

Every team that came and played was nothing but new guys. No one with more than a year of experience. There was one team that was pretty good, but they weren't super duper. The level of competition was such that just about anyone should have been able to at least play the game, no one got rolled.

It's a fairly typical situation in this town though. Everyone talks the talk, no one walks the walk. They're all too afraid of being made a fool of. They'd rather never make an attempt and be able to still talk about how great they are, rather than play and take the chance of losing.

At the race track we called guys like that "fender racers". They talk a hell of a race while they're setting on the fender of your car hauling trailer, but you never ever see them actually drive a car.

I should have known better, I've lived in this town all my life. I guess I really wanted there to be some kind of paintball scene here, so I talked myself into making one, rather than putting on a series that had merit and would make money. Lesson learned.

[RogueFactor]

I'm not even interested in $$ prizes. It'd just be cool to enter and have some fun, and for $20 per man?! I pay that much to play at our fields anyways.

It was even fun for the refs. Ive never forgotten one event where a father played with his 2 sons. One was older (~12-13) the other was maybe 8 or 9. It was do damn funny, and cool all at the same time---the 8-9 year old was padded up like the kid in A Christmas Story where he couldnt bend his arms---damn near the Stay-Puffed Marshmellow man He couldnt run, only wabble, and had the full protective JT Mask-Helmet. Whenever I get into a heated situation on the field, I think of that kid, and it reminds me what the game is really all about.

CoolHand: It will be nice then when you have your new field on your own land. Do you think youll try again when you get it all decked out?

[CoolHand]

CoolHand: It will be nice then when you have your new field on your own land. Do you think youll try again when you get it all decked out?

I dunno. I hadn't really thought about it to tell you the truth. We're pretty much self sufficient, so it wouldn't be much for overhead this time, and we could leave the field up at night to do a two day.

It would be cool, but by and large, things haven't really changed around here. Things never really change much around here actually. It's good and it's bad.

That's a bridge I'll cross when I come to it. I've got so much to do between now and then I can't even think of it all right now. I do look forward to having a permanent place to play though.

[punkncat]

That's a bridge I'll cross when I come to it. I've got so much to do between now and then I can't even think of it all right now. I do look forward to having a permanent place to play though.

It is really nice to have a place to come back to and play any time you want or weather permits. According to what you expect from it and how much you want to put into it.

I have been blessed with having a good friend who has the best woods field I have ever played as his back yard. It's where I first played. We have worked on this place for many years and each year it get a bit better. Of course we are a bit biased....

[Aggravated Assault]

we don't need the pros, we also don't need the wanna be pros. The common theme I see here is "big money owns the teams". So why pander to the current teams? If someone starts a fresh movement, it would only make sense to start with fresh troops.

And the ones who are fed up with the scene and/or want to participate but are turned off by it. :)

Location would be real important. Certain areas seem to come and go in regards to a good tournament series. Some have well established ones. Find that location/time where there are enough players and teams, but a shortage of good events. Pick the battlefield carefully and not in the enemies backyard.

I've been thinking that a slightly different "tournament" structure could be key also. The majority of events, or series of events that I see, are set up the same way they been doing it for years. Somehow structure things where you dont have to go head to head with everyone else doing things the same way. Build the better mousetrap by building a different one.

[RogueFactor]

And the ones who are fed up with the scene and/or want to participate but are turned off by it. :)

Location would be real important. Certain areas seem to come and go in regards to a good tournament series. Some have well established ones. Find that location/time where there are enough players and teams, but a shortage of good events. Pick the battlefield carefully and not in the enemies backyard.

I've been thinking that a slightly different "tournament" structure could be key also. The majority of events, or series of events that I see, are set up the same way they been doing it for years. Somehow structure things where you dont have to go head to head with everyone else doing things the same way. Build the better mousetrap by building a different one.

Rabid is right though. It really comes down to cash. You either gotta have it, or have access to it to beat the big dudes.

[rabidchihauhau]

OR

you could get something going with a membership organization that stresses fairness/honesty/sportsmanship/responsibility etc.

That will take way too long though.

I still hold out hope that companies like summit partners, K2, Imperial Cap. Corp, Angelo Gordon, etc., will recognize that a real sport will be a benefit to their businesses and will do what is necessary to build such a thing;

on the othre hand, I look at some of the people who still work with and for those companies and I realize that my hopes are probably unfounded.

This "sport" is NEVER going to rise to the level of anything respectable, or serious. If you're doing anything other than playing for the hell of it, you're wasting your money, your emotion and, probably, your soul, if there is such a thing...