G
Gassy
Guest
Yes a paper target must be hit,I think its 2ft square but Timboy will correct me if I am wrong on the size.
New Paintball World Record!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Timboy
- Start date
Bloody cheek, I have an unofficial world record though, may not have been done in front of the Guinness guys and was done at a seminar in front of a few paintballers but I'll settle for my record any day over this Guinness one ...na na na na na !!! ...:whoo:
I'll knock off the points you've raised one at a time Pete, then I'll explain what this is all about and the reasoning behind it all in more general terms at the bottom.
The record doesn't claim to identify the worlds best paintball player - it simply records who under a set of controlled variables managed to hit a target at the longest distance when compared to anyone else using the same parameters.
If you agree with the basic premise that there is no real harm in this World Record project, then by definition the very first person who attempts it will be the World Record Holder - even if the distance is only as long as my tadger - about 10 inches.
The first session we ran for this record we had about 300 attempts, during those 300 odd attempts a new 'record' was set about 15 times. For common sense reasons, the furthest distance was the one that was submitted.
The second session we ran (on the weekend) that distance was increased by this guy in the video after loads more attempts were made by players.
It stands to reason that in the early days of the project, the record will be broken fairly frequently and then become increasingly more difficult as time goes on.
But I take your point about the way the video is presented. But the chap who got the record was only a young lad at his first ever paintball game and was literally walking on cloud nine afterwards. The presentation in the video is a bit excitable but in fairness, he was made up and I'm not in the game to go around raining on any kids parades. If a youngster has picked up a paintball gun and done something that's made his day then I'm happy. If he goes back home and tells all his mates then I'm even more happy. It means he'll be back, and he may bring some mates with him.......which is a bucket of win in my book.
As for you being a miserable b@stard - hehe, I'll chose not to put my head in that lions mouth thanks
So why bother with this record idea? (this is a general explanation and not aimed at any specific point raised by Pete)
There are a few reasons. People know me as a straight guy so I'll give you the reasons straight.
1) Its' a bit of a giggle. It's free. People enjoy doing it.
When we set up the record with Guinness, we were quite clear that we didn't want it to be only something that people could try using some fangled supergun that cost one millllllion dollars or a preserve of only players who could afford shiny kit. We wanted it so that pretty much anyone could step up and have a crack. Clearly you need an element of skill to hit a target at range and clearly if you know what you are doing and set your kit up right then you put yourself in the box seat. But we also wanted it so that others could take this record and let people try it outside of paintball. Whilst we've spent the time and money setting it up, I've got no problem if someone else wanted to set it up at a local village fete, school or anywhere else (as long as they were not charging for it) and piggyback the idea - I'm not precious like that.
Why? - because it's a bit of fun and does absolutely no harm whatsoever for the game. Also, it provides a decent bit of PR for paintball and the opportunity is there for it to raise money for charity if done correctly.
2) Because I was the person who thought of it, got off my arse and sorted it out with Guinness and also stuck my hand in my pocket to fund it - I'm the first person to be running the attempts - but anyone else can try it if they wanted to. Someone I know in the USA is setting up attempts over there later this year and we're going to get some Yank/Brit banter going etc.
I run the attempts at my events for free and players, kids of players, wives.....anyone who comes along can have a crack for free. It's a bit of added value for my customers and does my events no harm at all. Does it sell tickets - probably not. Does it do me any harm - definitely not. It just shows my customers that I'll try what I can to stuff a bit more added value into my games as opposed to sit back on my arse and just take their ticket money.
As you can see from the video, my company name is watermarked on the video which'll be seen all over the world. So I'm not hiding anything, I get a bit of PR off it, but nowhere near enough to cover what it costs to do.
3) It's not designed to be a dick waving contest.
Just because someone can hit a target with one shot on a given day under a set of specific circumstances, doesn't mean they are the best shot in the world on the field.....and in fairness the record doesn't claim that. It is what it is.
When we've run attempts, we've had guys coming up with some ridiculous 12ft long paintball Sniper rifle and doing no better than an 11 year old kid with an Inferno. It amuses me to see those guys stomping off moaning about wind conditions etc......they just don't get it.
The record is meant to be a bit of fun, accessible to all and something that over time will grow so that you've got people all over the place having a pop at it. It does no harm at all to the game of paintball to have it going on and for the guys who get off their arse and spend the money to run attempts, if the record happens to be broken on their session then they get to stick a logo in the corner of the video and it maybe viewed by a couple of hundred people on Youtube - that's it.
Nothing more - nothing less.
It's not meant to be a dick measuring contest. It's not meant to provoke massive existential arguments. It's not meant to start fist fights between paintballers or make people angry or quarrel over rules. It's not a great big corporate money spinner or part of some dark plan hatched in a smokey room somewhere - it's just a bit of a craic.
I've thought of it, paid to make it happen and am happy to give some kid his 5 minutes in the limelight at his first paintball event.
If anyone doesn't like it, they can apply to Guinness to set up their own record under whatever conditions they would prefer to see. There are loads of records that I can think of that would specifically test the skills of a genuine paintball player, anyone is free to get off their arse and sort those out, I'll even have a beer with someone and let them know what the process is - but lets not confuse something that's meant to be fairly light hearted and accessible for all with anything more po-faced and serious.
As each person breaks a record, they'll get a certificate from Guinness and I'll make sure they get a picture in their local rag. Whoever the local site owner is may get a bit of benefit off that - they may not. But I can't see any angle where it can't be seen as anything other than good for the game, good fun for the people having a go and the person who has set the session up may get their logo on a bit of footage as well. The day I claim the person who breaks the record is the Worlds Best Paintballer is the day the project can be torn apart.....but until then......lets just let these kids have their jollies, 5 mins in the spotlight and a certificate on their wall. It's not harming anyone and is arguably doing paintball in general a little bit of good.
I hope that clarifies what it's all about and the motivation behind why we're doing it. I'm a pretty straight forward bloke so if anyone has any questions they can just fire them up and I'll answer if I can. I'm sure someone somewhere will see a dark side to this and think that somewhere there is a scam and I'm raping thousands off it (people in paintball usually get accused of that when they come up with new stuff), but I'm afraid the reality is a lot more mundane than that. I appreciate that there are better tests of a paintballers prowess, but this particular exercise isn't designed to do that job.
Ultimately, people can like the idea or not - and forums are designed for those sorts of discussions to take place. What can't be argued with is the queue of players who were lined up for hours having a go or the smile on the lads face in the video. Paintball can sometimes be a pretty humourless place and when times are tough (like they are now), anything that gives a player a smile, isn't taking a penny out of their pocket and isn't harming anyone is worth doing in my book.
If anyone has any questions, they can ask about and find my number easy enough.
Cheers
Tim.
Yep - that's pretty much spot on. Anyone could have come up with this record idea, or any other idea and spent the time and money to make it happen. But they haven't - so I did it.
The record doesn't claim to identify the worlds best paintball player - it simply records who under a set of controlled variables managed to hit a target at the longest distance when compared to anyone else using the same parameters.
You'll need to take this answer in context with what I've written below about 'why' I've bothered to do this record attempt. But to address the point directly:
If you agree with the basic premise that there is no real harm in this World Record project, then by definition the very first person who attempts it will be the World Record Holder - even if the distance is only as long as my tadger - about 10 inches.
The first session we ran for this record we had about 300 attempts, during those 300 odd attempts a new 'record' was set about 15 times. For common sense reasons, the furthest distance was the one that was submitted.
The second session we ran (on the weekend) that distance was increased by this guy in the video after loads more attempts were made by players.
It stands to reason that in the early days of the project, the record will be broken fairly frequently and then become increasingly more difficult as time goes on.
In fairness, it was posted in a fairly dry way on the forum.
But I take your point about the way the video is presented. But the chap who got the record was only a young lad at his first ever paintball game and was literally walking on cloud nine afterwards. The presentation in the video is a bit excitable but in fairness, he was made up and I'm not in the game to go around raining on any kids parades. If a youngster has picked up a paintball gun and done something that's made his day then I'm happy. If he goes back home and tells all his mates then I'm even more happy. It means he'll be back, and he may bring some mates with him.......which is a bucket of win in my book.
I don't think you are missing anything - but the explanation below will probably make it clearer what it's all about.Mind you, I could be missing something here and so I'm sure you'll put me right if I have
PS I've just been told by one of our mods I'm being a miserable bastid and should let the sun shine a little without clouding it over ... I think he may be right but this is a forum, and forums are where we discuss things, miserable or otherwise ..
As for you being a miserable b@stard - hehe, I'll chose not to put my head in that lions mouth thanks
So why bother with this record idea? (this is a general explanation and not aimed at any specific point raised by Pete)
There are a few reasons. People know me as a straight guy so I'll give you the reasons straight.
1) Its' a bit of a giggle. It's free. People enjoy doing it.
When we set up the record with Guinness, we were quite clear that we didn't want it to be only something that people could try using some fangled supergun that cost one millllllion dollars or a preserve of only players who could afford shiny kit. We wanted it so that pretty much anyone could step up and have a crack. Clearly you need an element of skill to hit a target at range and clearly if you know what you are doing and set your kit up right then you put yourself in the box seat. But we also wanted it so that others could take this record and let people try it outside of paintball. Whilst we've spent the time and money setting it up, I've got no problem if someone else wanted to set it up at a local village fete, school or anywhere else (as long as they were not charging for it) and piggyback the idea - I'm not precious like that.
Why? - because it's a bit of fun and does absolutely no harm whatsoever for the game. Also, it provides a decent bit of PR for paintball and the opportunity is there for it to raise money for charity if done correctly.
2) Because I was the person who thought of it, got off my arse and sorted it out with Guinness and also stuck my hand in my pocket to fund it - I'm the first person to be running the attempts - but anyone else can try it if they wanted to. Someone I know in the USA is setting up attempts over there later this year and we're going to get some Yank/Brit banter going etc.
I run the attempts at my events for free and players, kids of players, wives.....anyone who comes along can have a crack for free. It's a bit of added value for my customers and does my events no harm at all. Does it sell tickets - probably not. Does it do me any harm - definitely not. It just shows my customers that I'll try what I can to stuff a bit more added value into my games as opposed to sit back on my arse and just take their ticket money.
As you can see from the video, my company name is watermarked on the video which'll be seen all over the world. So I'm not hiding anything, I get a bit of PR off it, but nowhere near enough to cover what it costs to do.
3) It's not designed to be a dick waving contest.
Just because someone can hit a target with one shot on a given day under a set of specific circumstances, doesn't mean they are the best shot in the world on the field.....and in fairness the record doesn't claim that. It is what it is.
When we've run attempts, we've had guys coming up with some ridiculous 12ft long paintball Sniper rifle and doing no better than an 11 year old kid with an Inferno. It amuses me to see those guys stomping off moaning about wind conditions etc......they just don't get it.
The record is meant to be a bit of fun, accessible to all and something that over time will grow so that you've got people all over the place having a pop at it. It does no harm at all to the game of paintball to have it going on and for the guys who get off their arse and spend the money to run attempts, if the record happens to be broken on their session then they get to stick a logo in the corner of the video and it maybe viewed by a couple of hundred people on Youtube - that's it.
Nothing more - nothing less.
It's not meant to be a dick measuring contest. It's not meant to provoke massive existential arguments. It's not meant to start fist fights between paintballers or make people angry or quarrel over rules. It's not a great big corporate money spinner or part of some dark plan hatched in a smokey room somewhere - it's just a bit of a craic.
I've thought of it, paid to make it happen and am happy to give some kid his 5 minutes in the limelight at his first paintball event.
If anyone doesn't like it, they can apply to Guinness to set up their own record under whatever conditions they would prefer to see. There are loads of records that I can think of that would specifically test the skills of a genuine paintball player, anyone is free to get off their arse and sort those out, I'll even have a beer with someone and let them know what the process is - but lets not confuse something that's meant to be fairly light hearted and accessible for all with anything more po-faced and serious.
As each person breaks a record, they'll get a certificate from Guinness and I'll make sure they get a picture in their local rag. Whoever the local site owner is may get a bit of benefit off that - they may not. But I can't see any angle where it can't be seen as anything other than good for the game, good fun for the people having a go and the person who has set the session up may get their logo on a bit of footage as well. The day I claim the person who breaks the record is the Worlds Best Paintballer is the day the project can be torn apart.....but until then......lets just let these kids have their jollies, 5 mins in the spotlight and a certificate on their wall. It's not harming anyone and is arguably doing paintball in general a little bit of good.
I hope that clarifies what it's all about and the motivation behind why we're doing it. I'm a pretty straight forward bloke so if anyone has any questions they can just fire them up and I'll answer if I can. I'm sure someone somewhere will see a dark side to this and think that somewhere there is a scam and I'm raping thousands off it (people in paintball usually get accused of that when they come up with new stuff), but I'm afraid the reality is a lot more mundane than that. I appreciate that there are better tests of a paintballers prowess, but this particular exercise isn't designed to do that job.
Ultimately, people can like the idea or not - and forums are designed for those sorts of discussions to take place. What can't be argued with is the queue of players who were lined up for hours having a go or the smile on the lads face in the video. Paintball can sometimes be a pretty humourless place and when times are tough (like they are now), anything that gives a player a smile, isn't taking a penny out of their pocket and isn't harming anyone is worth doing in my book.
If anyone has any questions, they can ask about and find my number easy enough.
Cheers
Tim.
Tim, I ain't read the above yet but I wanna thank you because that post is one of the longest I've seen on here and now people can't pick on me for overdoing it when posting on P8nt, ... you are now King of the Posters ... I'll ring up the Guinness guys tomorrow to come confirm
I'll read above post later on mate and respond but thanks for replying anyway.
I'll read above post later on mate and respond but thanks for replying anyway.
In official terms, the post must be at least one inch longer and contain a maximum of 4 quotations.