Paintball is a Sport. Please support.

[Missy-Q]

Paintball could be called a sport Talfryn, especially by those embarassed to admit they blow their cash on an expensive hobby...

Russian legion are one team. They are the most professional one. Using them as an example is akin to saying that 'Dogs are Enormous'. My dog is small, and so are most of the dogs I see. Even the big ones are seldom 'enormous', but you saw an enormous dog on TV, so therefore....
I think it's pride in the game, more than common sense, that motivates the 'sport' thing

You love paintball, you want it to be a sport so bad, and you want everyone else to feel the same. Some of us are on our 20th time around the block, and to be honest, we just aren't zealots anymore. You Sir, are a fanatical zealot, and more power to you - we need zealots, it's just that your energy and enthusiasm could be better used if it were pointed outside of the industry, and not internalised within it. This is just my opinion of course.

If you want to argue that the PSP/NPPL is a paintball sporting event, thats fine. I can stretch that far, but if you're saying that Paintball itself is a sport, then I think you're mistaken.

 

[Talfryn]

Russian legion are one team. They are the most professional one. Using them as an example is akin to saying that 'Dogs are Enormous'. My dog is small, and so are most of the dogs I see. Even the big ones are seldom 'enormous', but you saw an enormous dog on TV, so therefore....

Hey, I see exactly what it is you are saying. However, I think that it is fair to keep using the Russian Legion as an example. I mean, you have to put thing in context. Football, as an organized sport governed by a solid set of rules has been around for roughly 150 years with players starting to be payed in about 1880. Football has had 150 years to evolve and become professional. Paintball has been around for about 30 years with speedball having been around less than that. So admittedly, yes, there is only one properly paid paintball team at present, but, considering the sport has only been around 30 years I think thats a pretty good achievement and I beleive it is likely that once the economy has recovered more teams will begin to be paid.

If you don't think that paintball is a sport then fine. However, you havn't really given any backing to your arguement whilst I have provided much for mine and don't feel that any more reasons why paintball is a sport to really be needed.

Hope you follow my line of thinking

 

[Stan]

If you don't think that paintball is a sport then fine. However, you havn't really given any backing to your arguement whilst I have provided much for mine and don't feel that any more reasons why paintball is a sport to really be needed.

Your definition of a sport, whether you like it or not, only caters for perhaps 2 teams in the World. Missy's point above is spot on...

If you want to argue that the PSP/NPPL is a paintball sporting event, thats fine. I can stretch that far, but if you're saying that Paintball itself is a sport, then I think you're mistaken.

I'll agree with the above statement if applied to some of the UK players/teams too but it is such a small minority that it simply isn't rational to relate that to Paintball as a whole.

 

[Talfryn]

The final thing I'm going to say because tbh I've got better things to be doing is this. Paintball is a sport for some people. Paintball for me is a sport as I play it in the fashion of a sport as a footballer would play football. Paintball is a sport to most of the teams that compete in the millenium series or other similar events. Paintball may not be a sport to the people I have been debating this with in this thread and I think this is likely because these people don't play at a competitive enough level to understand how much of a sport paintball truely is.

 

[Missy-Q]

Hey, I see exactly what it is you are saying. However, I think that it is fair to keep using the Russian Legion as an example. I mean, you have to put thing in context. Football, as an organized sport governed by a solid set of rules has been around for roughly 150 years with players starting to be payed in about 1880. Football has had 150 years to evolve and become professional. Paintball has been around for about 30 years with speedball having been around less than that. So admittedly, yes, there is only one properly paid paintball team at present, but, considering the sport has only been around 30 years I think thats a pretty good achievement and I beleive it is likely that once the economy has recovered more teams will begin to be paid.

If you don't think that paintball is a sport then fine. However, you havn't really given any backing to your arguement whilst I have provided much for mine and don't feel that any more reasons why paintball is a sport to really be needed.

Hope you follow my line of thinking

I totally follow your thinking, and I admire your passion and drive to force your 'Paintball is a Sport' thing through, I just think that you're talking about 20-30 players worldwide who are paid to play, and half that number that could be considered 'professional'. When put into 'real life' context, it's totally insignificant. Paintball is played, predomimantly, by rental clients, who do it as a pass-time or special/social event. They are not sportsmen. The majority of teams are populated by people who want to play, and can afford to play regularly. They may want to compete, but they are not sportsmen, nor are they professional.
So, lets be generous and say out of approx 3 million people that may play paintball this season, 30 of them earn a living from it. Thats 0.001%, or 1 in every 100,000. This means that 99,999 out of 100,000 are not playing it as a professional athlete. They may be 'athletic'. but thats a different word, with a different meaning.

The absence of a governing body has already been pointed out. That's a big one too.

If you had a million dollars to spend, you could walk onto the field with Dynasty, Ironmen etc., no problem. Try offering that to a manager of a premiership football team, NBA team, whatever, and it won't make a difference whether its 1mil or 5mil, you won't get a game, because it's a professional sport. You can only get in through talent, not through buying a spot.
If you had a team, and you thought they were the greatest team ever, you could enter them into paintball's pro division, and compete in it. Try doing that with any other sport - you can't, because that's not the way that professional sports work..

I think the key is to understand the industry, and all of it, before you make your statement. You're looking at around 5% of the industry (the part you know, and are involved in) and making your statement based on that. There's nothing wrong with that, but as you can see, others are not sharing your belief. Their perception of the industry is different, more complete perhaps?

 

[Missy-Q]

The final thing I'm going to say because tbh I've got better things to be doing is this. Paintball is a sport for some people. Paintball for me is a sport as I play it in the fashion of a sport as a footballer would play football. Paintball is a sport to most of the teams that compete in the millenium series or other similar events. Paintball may not be a sport to the people I have been debating this with in this thread and I think this is likely because these people don't play at a competitive enough level to understand how much of a sport paintball truely is.

I think you'll find this is known as the 'Ostrich technique'. Not a lot of sporting athletes use it these days, but hey, what's the difference, right?

Maybe you're right though, and you have a better understanding than the rest of us, because of the level of play you're at...



....I'm kidding about that last bit.

 

[Talfryn]

I think you'll find this is known as the 'Ostrich technique'. Not a lot of sporting athletes use it these days, but hey, what's the difference, right?

Maybe you're right though, and you have a better understanding than the rest of us, because of the level of play you're at...



....I'm kidding about that last bit.

I never said I was at a high level of play. But ask anyone who currently is at a high level and they will tell you it is a sport.

 

[Missy-Q]

I never said I was at a high level of play. But ask anyone who currently is at a high level and they will tell you it is a sport.

I don't believe that they would. Most of them might, but again I think that's wishful thinking, and anyway, it's entirely subjective, as is the whole debate.
I do agree that this test-group of people would be the most likely to feel they were involved in a sport, and if they are the people you normally mix with, it would explain why you also believe fervently that it is a legit sport.

 

[Talfryn]

I don't believe that they would. Most of them might, but again I think that's wishful thinking, and anyway, it's entirely subjective, as is the whole debate.
I do agree that this test-group of people would be the most likely to feel they were involved in a sport, and if they are the people you normally mix with, it would explain why you also believe fervently that it is a legit sport.

At the end of the day 'sport' is just a label. I don't personally care whether its classed as a legit sport or not just as long as I can play it!! All that I am saying is that I think it is a sport. Not because I'm surrounded by people who say its a sport but because my own experiences of paintball have lead me to my own conclusion that it is a sport. Ask a 5 year old what a sport is and whilst he may not think paintball is a sport, I doubt he will care whether or not there is a governing body whilst making his decision.

 

[Stan]

At the end of the day 'sport' is just a label. I don't personally care whether its classed as a legit sport or not just as long as I can play it!! All that I am saying is that I think it is a sport. Not because I'm surrounded by people who say its a sport but because my own experiences of paintball have lead me to my own conclusion that it is a sport. Ask a 5 year old what a sport is and whilst he may not think paintball is a sport, I doubt he will care whether or not there is a governing body whilst making his decision.

But that isn't the title of thread.. If the title of the thread was, "Does Talfryn think paintball is a sport?" then clearly, you'd be right. Unfortunately that isn't the title.

Look at the bigger picture when you consider branding every form of paintball as a sport. It has been suggested to you on a couple of occasions now that yes, there are elements of paintball that have "sport" at their heart. But you are persistently talking about Missy's 0.0001% when you try and justify your view point.

I've really enjoyed this thread though.