To all concerned…
In PGi magazine, it is stated that tournament paintball is in a decline and that most of it has come before us with the old school players like me, starting in 1984 in the woods progressing to tourny’s, bringing on young and old into tourny’s.
However, doesn't make any difference what “woods” I have managed and reffed, no matter what you say about party’s going, whether it be birthday’s, stag, corporate etc. are blind to the idea of tournament paintball,, “They, and the public”, do not know of tournament paintball. If you pick anybody in the street they will say “yeah, I’ve played before…” what? Tournament? Or woods? Woods!!! What’s tournament?? Thinking it’s in the woods, not sup’ air.
I’ve been threatened with the sack many times if I talk about tourny’s. Because woodsball is the bread and butter to site owners, at £6-£8 per 100 paintballs you can see why =£120 per 2000. I have been told hundreds of times I can only talk about site guns, Inferno’s or Tippman’s or how much webbing/camo costs etc, you get the picture. Best of all is not to talk tourney to players in case they don’t come back to the woods. How many adverts do you see on tourny’s? Ask shop keepers / sales in anything be it supermarkets – garages in your own vicinity, and they still don’t have a clue that it, or you even exist! Have you ever tried explaining to anybody what you do? Guaranteed that they just look at you with a blank expression and in disbelief, until, you demonstrate. I have a picture of a field set up on my mobile phone so I can show people when talking about it, and I have to explain what sup’ air is or that the field is 55 x 45 meters in dimensions, and that it is on a flat surface.
So now I do promotions with my team members in the streets, indoor markets anywhere I can, I’ve even had the police come up to us and ask if we were motocross riders with guns, until we put masks on and talk about it. I’ve taken it to the army on Salisbury Plains to which they use Inferno’s and CO2. I’d like to mention every time we’ve played them, they’ve lost every man to our full squad remaining, and they are the professionals, even my young sons can see the difference. I would prefer to rely on paintballers for shooting.
I just love it when I stand outside entrances to woodsball sites to demonstrate and still get asked to leave by owners / staff. If there are supposed to be 30 million or so registered tournament paintballers and an annual growth of 2 million around the world, this should be doubled if people were allowed to talk.
I’ve invited the media to events many times, and even if they do, they don’t write or are gagged because it’s all about guns! How can we better this sport? And a sport it is! Ask Robbo, he’s been a fantastic emissary for the game. There should be at least 1 million of him in this country alone, instead, we hear “my guns better than yours…” or winging amongst ourselves. This can all be turned around by injecting new blood, young and old with money and enthusiasm. If tournament paintball is taken to the people in general, and not confined to 5 team members, its all bitty – UK Masters, NSPL, Freekz, D7’s and more, isn’t it about time we had a list throughout the country to show where you stand? Who are Nexus? Who are the Care Bears etc. people talk about these teams here and abroad, but who are they? If players don’t know, how is the public to know about us?
When somebody wants to join a team, they may ask who can I join, and a team player will say “look us up, we’re on the web! We have our own website” giving no options to the person, who wants to join a team, is there a shop I can see or go to? No, look it up on the internet, is there any way I can find out about it? Look it up on the internet, are there other teams to join? Look it up on the internet, in what area’s do each teams play? Oops! Now we have a problem, every team, represents an area, and it should be so stated, or at least a graph showing, who, and where, this has been going on long enough for it to be so.
Something has to be done to shake all of this up! What can we do?
I’m trying to be constructive, for business and pleasure, something must be done now!
Bluey, Owner / Manager of the Care Bears
In PGi magazine, it is stated that tournament paintball is in a decline and that most of it has come before us with the old school players like me, starting in 1984 in the woods progressing to tourny’s, bringing on young and old into tourny’s.
However, doesn't make any difference what “woods” I have managed and reffed, no matter what you say about party’s going, whether it be birthday’s, stag, corporate etc. are blind to the idea of tournament paintball,, “They, and the public”, do not know of tournament paintball. If you pick anybody in the street they will say “yeah, I’ve played before…” what? Tournament? Or woods? Woods!!! What’s tournament?? Thinking it’s in the woods, not sup’ air.
I’ve been threatened with the sack many times if I talk about tourny’s. Because woodsball is the bread and butter to site owners, at £6-£8 per 100 paintballs you can see why =£120 per 2000. I have been told hundreds of times I can only talk about site guns, Inferno’s or Tippman’s or how much webbing/camo costs etc, you get the picture. Best of all is not to talk tourney to players in case they don’t come back to the woods. How many adverts do you see on tourny’s? Ask shop keepers / sales in anything be it supermarkets – garages in your own vicinity, and they still don’t have a clue that it, or you even exist! Have you ever tried explaining to anybody what you do? Guaranteed that they just look at you with a blank expression and in disbelief, until, you demonstrate. I have a picture of a field set up on my mobile phone so I can show people when talking about it, and I have to explain what sup’ air is or that the field is 55 x 45 meters in dimensions, and that it is on a flat surface.
So now I do promotions with my team members in the streets, indoor markets anywhere I can, I’ve even had the police come up to us and ask if we were motocross riders with guns, until we put masks on and talk about it. I’ve taken it to the army on Salisbury Plains to which they use Inferno’s and CO2. I’d like to mention every time we’ve played them, they’ve lost every man to our full squad remaining, and they are the professionals, even my young sons can see the difference. I would prefer to rely on paintballers for shooting.
I just love it when I stand outside entrances to woodsball sites to demonstrate and still get asked to leave by owners / staff. If there are supposed to be 30 million or so registered tournament paintballers and an annual growth of 2 million around the world, this should be doubled if people were allowed to talk.
I’ve invited the media to events many times, and even if they do, they don’t write or are gagged because it’s all about guns! How can we better this sport? And a sport it is! Ask Robbo, he’s been a fantastic emissary for the game. There should be at least 1 million of him in this country alone, instead, we hear “my guns better than yours…” or winging amongst ourselves. This can all be turned around by injecting new blood, young and old with money and enthusiasm. If tournament paintball is taken to the people in general, and not confined to 5 team members, its all bitty – UK Masters, NSPL, Freekz, D7’s and more, isn’t it about time we had a list throughout the country to show where you stand? Who are Nexus? Who are the Care Bears etc. people talk about these teams here and abroad, but who are they? If players don’t know, how is the public to know about us?
When somebody wants to join a team, they may ask who can I join, and a team player will say “look us up, we’re on the web! We have our own website” giving no options to the person, who wants to join a team, is there a shop I can see or go to? No, look it up on the internet, is there any way I can find out about it? Look it up on the internet, are there other teams to join? Look it up on the internet, in what area’s do each teams play? Oops! Now we have a problem, every team, represents an area, and it should be so stated, or at least a graph showing, who, and where, this has been going on long enough for it to be so.
Something has to be done to shake all of this up! What can we do?
I’m trying to be constructive, for business and pleasure, something must be done now!
Bluey, Owner / Manager of the Care Bears
