Thoughts Please ...

[jahlad]

there are loads of formats out there that are great for attracting new players, they just all seemed to have died out a few years ago

no battle pack
limited paint
fixed bill events - pay your entry and get given 5 boxes of paint to play the day with, make the players think how they are going to use the paint thru the day.
the 'simply the best' idea was great, 4 tournies which each one played differently, one leg woodland, one leg 5 man, one leg 7 man etc......
random draws for who plays who......there used to be loads of events where there was no seading.

but one thing that is missing from all events these days seems to be an outright winner.....i remember back in the day you would play x number of random teams then the top teams would play finals untill the last team was crowned winner of that event and it wasnt always the same team each month because the rounds were randomised and the 'best' team could get pushed out.
wheres the insentive for a complete noob team when at the end of the day their mum/mate/guy in the pubs asks how it went and they 'came 8th in division c' instead of ' they came '12th out of 15 teams but we played a great game against the winners!' these days a player isnt even likely to do more than watch the 'top' players till they have played for a year...back in the day you went in the deep end and had a hell of a blast doing it.
all the events these days (at least domestic uk ones) are leagues and you only see the winner at the end of the year.
im a firm believer that you learn from your mistakes and defeats, you wont get any better playing the same teams once a month. bring back some of the old formats and the enjoyment will come back and that will keep new players wanting more

....ive probably gone way off topic now

 

[Robbo]

http://www.p8ntballer-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39231



deja vu...?

No not really Tom, because I am suggesting, or rather trying to nudge you guys into realizing the problem lies a lot deeper than Chrissie Edward's initial suggestion ... we seem to be getting there but we have taken the scenic route maybes

I think people have to realise, and I will repeat myself again, features such as leagues are just symptoms of the overall paintball business and as such are hostage to more basic forces .....

And that is, we need to generate enough new blood (transition from punter to tourney) and the rest takes care of itself.
It is of little use creating a league with the demographic we have now, in fact, it is absolutely pointless.
All this talk about this league, that league, this format, that format is .....just talk ...and pretty much meaningless in the present state of affairs.

I am pleased we have generated this degree of debate because i think it flushes out some good points but I wanted it to go this way because it makes people realise that most of us have little idea as to what's really going on and radical ideas are needed to remedy the situation.

The question now is, even though we can all sit back and decry the sad demise of our tournament scene, does the paintball business really need tournaments?
Of course companies like Dye, SP and a few others besides do because they focus a lot of their products on the tournament side of paintball but the bigger companies?

Think about it ...could it be, we, as remnants of a bygone halcyon period of tournament paintball, are just anachronisms and indulging in nostalgia coz from where I am sitting, and donning the hat of a CEO in a company like Kee or Tippmann, I think i might not lose much sleep if tourney paintball rolled over and died.

In other words, are we just trying to push some life back into tournaments when the overall flow is maybe coming the other way?

Just a thought ......

 

[kirk-lazarus]

Just to enlarge a little on my earlier post, I can think of about 30 teams which play Millennium events regularly, across all divisions.

These teams must represent the best of UK ball, as they are willing to practice, travel and put their hand in their pocket to compete at a decent level.

Add the teams which play the existing UK series - Masters, Ionman, Freekz, etc - and you are looking at over 60 teams.

Now, if we took all the good ideas in this thread and put them together for one big event at the start of next year, how good would that be?

 

[Dusty]

It is all to easy to forget that tourney ballers are vastly in the minority of paintballers worldwide, and locally. Maybe tourneys in the woods are the way to go? Doesn't mean you can't have ramping and silly fast guns or silly uniforms........

 

[Tom Allen]

tournaments in one form or another will always be there, and as we've evolved from woods to speedball/sup-air, i doubt tournaments will go back to the woods.

It's the ballers that need to look at thermselves and their support for the game, then the site owners/big names/sponsors will see that there is something to invest in.

I've always believed that a central structure/league will improve the state of play in paintball, but it must be the only way.
No masters/pa/bully's/koth/d7's, or any others to confuse the potential player. The current site owners can participate within the league keeping the same if not more business through their sup-air sites. After all they're not loosing the players, just the kudos of their own tournament series.

 

[kirk-lazarus]

I realise that supairball tournaments aren't the be-all and end-all, it is just the format I prefer. Rec-ball is where the big money is for the industry.

That said, I have played big games and woodsball, and I think we just need to embrace all formats of paintball.

To me, paintball still is and will always be a sport where anyone, regardless of their age, sex or size, can pick up a marker and play, then form a team and compete, and for me that is what makes it unique.

 

[Tom Allen]

It is all to easy to forget that tourney ballers are vastly in the minority of paintballers worldwide, and locally. Maybe tourneys in the woods are the way to go? Doesn't mean you can't have ramping and silly fast guns or silly uniforms........

the reasons to come out of the woods are still just as valid today as they were then. Woodsball is 90% boredom and 10% speedball.

 

[Markie C]

Robbo i have sooo missed these posts.


I think if you haven't already robbo you should phone wendy, she has told me some of the ideas she has for next year and with the right backing it will work.


I think you should try and get smaller tournaments to run to get new people into it.

 

[Tom Allen]

Site owners will have you believe that woods-ball is the new sup-air, and why not it'll save them a fortune.

C'mon smell the grass guys, you won't get spectators in the woods, no spectators, no sponsors, no money, no future, no sport, basically nothing.
We've not got these now, but it's going to be easier to attract these things in a format that can at least be seen with the naked eye.

Tournament paintball needs to make itself people friendly, not geek friendly.

 

[Robbo]

Robbo i have sooo missed these posts.
I think if you haven't already robbo you should phone wendy, she has told me some of the ideas she has for next year and with the right backing it will work.
I think you should try and get smaller tournaments to run to get new people into it.

Mark, Wendy has PM'd me and has called me but she had been calling my old number, we shall speak tomorrow some time.
I am already aware of what's going on re leagues etc, and have been all along, but I wanted to provoke some debate and input so we could all maybes learn from it.

I just got this awful feeling we could just be rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic here ..... I sincerely hope not because tournament paintball is in my blood as i realise it is in the blood of many who have posted in this thread but the way it's going at the moment doesn't exactly comfort me.