London Tournament Scene

[JcKa]

Hello,

I know this may seem quite out of place, but I'm confused as to where I should place this and I felt this was most suitable.

I'm currently considering going to the Univ. of Richmond, and I have a number of questions about the paintball scene in the London area and in the UK.

1. What fields are in the London area? The Richmond campus is located in Richmond Park area (fresh & soph) and Kensington, and I was wondering what are local fields that those areas that feature tournament grade play and airball fields?

2. What's the typical price of paintball & tournament paintball in the UK? For practices, we typically pay $35 a case for practice-grade paint and $15 for entry and ADA, and tournaments we pay $55 a case and entry based on the tournament. What are tournament and field prices in the London area?

3. Is there a London paintball community? How many players from the London and surrounding counties play competetive paintball? Also, what type of tournaments are inside the London area? I know there is the Millenium series, but what other tournaments or tournament series are in the London/England area?

I'm coming from the DC area, and we have the CCPL, AFFM, PTS, GPL, CFOA, and MAO in driving distance, so I'm worried that there won't be the scene that I'm looking for. I'm a d3/d2 ranked player, and I'm simply curious as to whether or not the paintball scene in the UK is readily accessible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if this thread is located in the wrong forum I sincerely apologize and ask that you would move it for me.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[mike_measures]

talk to the london tigers

 

[JcKa]

Who are the London Tigers?

 

[Robin Hood]

Hey there Jack,

I've lived in VA and London, playing in the PTS, CPPL and local tourneys at my US home field at Skyline Paintball along with training and tourneys in and around London so maybe I can help you out a little.

I lived in the South Kensington Area of London for a couple of years. There are a lot of teams with members based in and around london, but obviously due to the nature of the sport there's not a whole lot of events that take place very central to the city.

The most central training area will be The Paintball Centre (TPC) in Canary Wharf in London, home to the team the Iron Lions. They have a warehouse and indoor training facilities there where they used to practice every monday night and some other times. This place is accessible by the tube system (Canary Wharf stop, then about a 10-15 minute walk. About an hour door to door from Kensington). They did hold the odd tournament there a while back, but I'm not sure if they've done it in the last year or so.

The most popular training and tournament venue outside of that would be Dartford 7's (D7's), which is located in Dartford on the Eastern outskirts of London. Some of the best paintballers in the UK train there most weeks of the year. They have a few supair fields and regularly hold tournaments, from 7man to 5man to Xball lite. I do believe that some of the NSPL series events will be held there this year too, which is the main series in the South. You can take a tube/train combo to pretty close to the site, but then you will need a cab or lift to make it the rest of the way.

The NSPL also hosts events around the Reading and Bristol areas which is past the Western edge of London, which will be worth checking out.

Expect the price of paintball to be rather expensive to extortionate compared to some of the prices you may have been paying in the States.

Average entry to a tournament over here is £35-£40 per player (Up to $80). Training paint can be found for about £25 a case on average now ($50), but expect tournament paint to be more like £30-£35 (Up to $70). Walk on tournament training sites charge from £10-£20 ($20-$40) for access to the sup air fields and air for the day.

Hopefully there's some helpful info there to get you started. Paintball is a pretty small scene over here in relation to the States, but there's some good places to visit, more and more good teams and lots of great people. So hopefully you can get some good trigger time in over here.

 

[JcKa]

Thank you very much! I've got a few more questions, but for now, what's the issue with Dot-e tanks? Are they fillable in Europe or do I need to purchase a tank certified by the European standard (can't remember the name for it)?

 

[Robin Hood]

Technically DOT tanks aren't legal over here. You need to get a Pi rated tank.

If your going to be spending any length of time over here I highly recommend you grab a 'Stako' tank. It's the lightest (68ci) tank on the market and only legal in Europe at the mo . So you probably haven't used one, well worth checking out. www.planeteclipse.com sells them in the UK along with quite a few other places.

You can keep your reg and just replace the bottle, or just get a whole new preset.

 

[JcKa]

Ya, just my luck, how's MacDev doing in Europe?

Since you're from and have played in the US and Europe, how would you equate the level of tournament ball between the two?

I've yet to play an euro-ballers so I'm wondering how I'll match up. Do you think I would have trouble finding/starting a team out of the London area?

 

[Robin Hood]

It's hard to compare the level of ball straight up, and I can't speak for Europe as a whole considering some of the best teams in the world come out of mainland Europe. But from where your coming from, I'd say that if your a competent Div 2 or even 3 player in some of the series you've mentioned, and your able to hookup with a half descent team over here, then I'm sure you'll have no trouble holding your own in Div 1 of most of the regional tourneys here.

I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding a team in or around London too, there's plenty of all standards. So hopefully you'll find one that suits you.

Edit add: Not sure about Macdev really. I know a few people who are really into their Cyborgs over here, but they're still few and far between. You get the odd Ignition one floating about. But what with WDP and Planet being based in the UK, I'd say the ego is the likely to be the No. 1 shot marker over here, followed by lots of DM's, Shockers, Angels and Ions.

 

[JcKa]

lol ya, I'm most certainly a macdev fanboy, so I was just wondering what kind of a hold macdev held on the euromarket.

That's great to hear though, I'm really excited to see what it's like. I think my biggest challenge will be supporting my habit, and to find a ride to these fields/tournaments.

Is Xball big over there yet?

-Also, are there any rules surrounding in Europe regarding paintball equipment and the transportation of paintball equipment that aren't in the US? I'm sure the university would have it's own laws about the posession of equipment, but does England have their own laws about them?

 

[Robin Hood]

Hehe, yeah paintball in the UK will have you selling yourself on the street to fund your habit if your not careful.

Xball is definitely becoming more popular. Dartford held quite a few Xball lite tourneys last season which were a blast. I'm sure some of the other sites will be doing the same this season. I think that the PA series is doing something with Xball, but I haven't been following it. If you check out the rest of the tournament forum you may find out more.

If you end up venturing up north then the Northern Quarter is where it's at up there. Just so you know for lingo, I think there's only 3 main leagues over here now off the top of my head, the NPSL (mainly in the south), UK Masters (mainly in the middlish) and the PA (Not really sure where they're held, lol)