To all concerned...

[b32-v6]

Ring Ring,
Hello police please.
Yes there's a man in my local woods with a gun.
Don't worry miss, we'll send the tactical nuclear firearms unit to shoot the feck out of him just like we did on the london tube recently.

Wakey Wakey

well i have only just started paintballing but the lads that i will be going with have been doing this for the past 3-4 years and have never had a problem !

So exactly how responsible is the kind of parent that allows there parents to have guns.

Besides, my parents were strict and banned me from owning a gun. So that's why i went behind their backs, bought myself a gun and got myself a firearms conviction. That was 25 years ago before the era of easy money and internet ordering!

how the hell do you expect people to start playing how many 12-16 years olds have paintball guns ! the responsible adult would only let there child use there gun while they are there ! you dont have to watch them ! play the blood sport with them ! and besides were talking kids here there not going to be running around with £800 markers that fire 30-40 bps just use a little cheap one ! that is not so powerfull but still gets them in to the game !

 

[SAMUEL.D.RYAN]

hmmm might be pissing into the wind here but i play scenarios with a couple of other guys and we were just idly chatting about tourneys and realised we knew sod all about them! (whats involved where to join up etc)
Perhaps at these 100 pound tourneys there should be some sort of walk on for people who have never tried it? A six weekly newbie league with restrictions on gats to keep the startup costs down. Coz i'm not going to buy an ego or dm just to see if i like sup air and i'm damned sure my a5 is a wee bit big 'n' heavy for sup...?.
Plus it can be a bit daunting going someplace where you havent got a scooby whats going on and there's a bunch of guys all kitted out with top of the line gear......
i don't have the answers just questions

I completely agree, however, good solutions have been offered in the form of the KOTH league and small 3man tournaments at training sites. In such a 3man tournaments, you can even rent an Etek from the site!
Check the masters section for more info about the 09 season's KOTH league. I think it's time we had a master thread containing all the unbiased info about getting into tournament play.

 

[biigjim]

I completely agree, however, good solutions have been offered in the form of the KOTH league and small 3man tournaments at training sites. In such a 3man tournaments, you can even rent an Etek from the site!
Check the masters section for more info about the 09 season's KOTH league. I think it's time we had a master thread containing all the unbiased info about getting into tournament play.

To quote Tony the tiger that'd be grrrreeaat! and thanks for the info. Would not have looked in the masters..... not being a master at, well, anything really....sniff, sniff

 

[Buddha 3]

A few truths we need to accept...

1) Starting up as a player is cost prohibitive compared to other activities.
2) Playing is cost prohibitive compared to other activities.
3) Look around you and be real honest. Despite wearing our pants halfway down our asses and trying to speak the latest Ebonics, the game is full of tech nerds, beached whales and God knows what else. We are nerds. Plain and simple. And to make it worse, we dress up as power rangers come game day.

Not the easiest sale you'll ever have, but good luck with it.

 

[Ceicj]

Thank you for your reply, you input is well noted, I will follow with interest whenever I see your name mentioned, it's a start, and if everybody follows your example, be it in the good way, then tournament paintball will grow!

What team do you play for? And what division?

Bluey
Care Bears

i play for No Limit Bridgend and we currently play division 2

 

[Care_Bears]

In answer to all that responded to the quest to make tourney more favourable to all, e.g :- 1 umbrella to which all teams, no matter who or where you are, become visible to the nation, if all team names have a tag to which county they represent, and they in turn have, being the owner / captain a telephone No. available. We can make sequacious table for the country to follow. At the moment, you have 5 mates, just to have fun trying to be the best of 15 – 20 teams, then you hear them cry out “Yeah we’re the best!!”, this could be so much more if players had a wider vision. If this takes off, “all” that play now would be King Kong and heroes to all new comers because you know how to use the guns at an alarming rates…they wont!
You have strategic defence and attack…they don’t!

I’ve just had 3 more people come to me to ask if they can play tourney paintball, all I can say is to them is to come to a practice to see if they might like it, only to be asked who else or teams they may go to. I then ask what area they live in.
This is the problem…Who is in that area?
So after practice, they feel obliged to join your team, then after a while, after a lot of money / time spent on them, they decide to jump ship where they think the grass is greener.
So your team goes back to zero rating and you start all over again from scratch!
Not everybody as I have found wants to improve their ability or have team spirit, they just want to shoot people. If they can and they usually suck at it, but these people make up the teams…However, the majority of players want to expand.

We are in a recession right now and it has come to pass the fee of £40 per player, per tourney + paint is too much ! !
With the rates of unemployment, no-one has the money to pay these prices! Now would be a good idea to halve, the fee, the site owners still get a lot of money

£20 x 5 = £100 per team
20 teams = £2000
10 refs x £50 = £500

So site owners, still get £1500
Multiply by 8 summer months, it gives the site owners £12000 alone
So, who set it at £40 in the first place? Whose pretending this to be so expensive?
I have my own sup’ air and field to practice on, so I know what I’m talking about. We go to other sites for community spirit and learning curve.
How many sites do you know of?
There are too many and no players reaping the rewards.
Look towards the big boys holding sites, get it together, form a professional league, unless you want to continue giving a t-shirt and a pair of gloves for prizes, maybe some booze and some paint.
Something has to be done!


Bluey
Owner / Manager
Care Bears

 

[Ceicj]

In answer to all that responded to the quest to make tourney more favourable to all, e.g :- 1 umbrella to which all teams, no matter who or where you are, become visible to the nation, if all team names have a tag to which county they represent, and they in turn have, being the owner / captain a telephone No. available. We can make sequacious table for the country to follow. At the moment, you have 5 mates, just to have fun trying to be the best of 15 – 20 teams, then you hear them cry out “Yeah we’re the best!!”, this could be so much more if players had a wider vision. If this takes off, “all” that play now would be King Kong and heroes to all new comers because you know how to use the guns at an alarming rates…they wont!
You have strategic defence and attack…they don’t!

I’ve just had 3 more people come to me to ask if they can play tourney paintball, all I can say is to them is to come to a practice to see if they might like it, only to be asked who else or teams they may go to. I then ask what area they live in.
This is the problem…Who is in that area?
So after practice, they feel obliged to join your team, then after a while, after a lot of money / time spent on them, they decide to jump ship where they think the grass is greener.
So your team goes back to zero rating and you start all over again from scratch!
Not everybody as I have found wants to improve their ability or have team spirit, they just want to shoot people. If they can and they usually suck at it, but these people make up the teams…However, the majority of players want to expand.

We are in a recession right now and it has come to pass the fee of £40 per player, per tourney + paint is too much ! !
With the rates of unemployment, no-one has the money to pay these prices! Now would be a good idea to halve, the fee, the site owners still get a lot of money

£20 x 5 = £100 per team
20 teams = £2000
10 refs x £50 = £500

So site owners, still get £1500
Multiply by 8 summer months, it gives the site owners £12000 alone
So, who set it at £40 in the first place? Whose pretending this to be so expensive?
I have my own sup’ air and field to practice on, so I know what I’m talking about. We go to other sites for community spirit and learning curve.
How many sites do you know of?
There are too many and no players reaping the rewards.
Look towards the big boys holding sites, get it together, form a professional league, unless you want to continue giving a t-shirt and a pair of gloves for prizes, maybe some booze and some paint.
Something has to be done!


Bluey
Owner / Manager
Care Bears

you are completely right mate i admire you for actually speaking out. we all knew what was happening but no one chose to speak out about it whatever you do i will spread the word and help you in your task

 

[Robbo]

you are completely right mate i admire you for actually speaking out. we all knew what was happening but no one chose to speak out about it whatever you do i will spread the word and help you in your task

Ceicj, I think you maybe need to go back and look amidst a myriad of other threads that have been dealing with this subject over the past few years, there are truly hundreds of posts all highlighting these problems and for the most part coming up with suggestions to try and improve the situation.

The up and coming meeting we (UK industry) have arranged next week is going to be dealing with this very problem and so I'm extremely surprised to see you think this is the first time it's been bought up in this way.

The problems that have been highlighted are not gonna be addressed in any significant way by what's been suggested here I'm afraid, the real problems are a lot more deep rooted and varied.


A correct and wholly appropriate distillation of our present predicament is given by Buddha 3 a few posts back, he nails it utterly and completely.
Go read it, it's the absolute truth of the matter, and I'm afraid a few well meaning paintball voice-boxes ain't gonna change the situation too much, if at all.

When we have had the meeting, all we will have in any practical sense, is a better idea of the problems that face us; the answers to these problems however,will be some time in coming but at least we have the right people involved to make a start.

 

[Ceicj]

i remember now sorry robbo to be perfectly honest i read your thread but had no idea what you were talking about but when i read it it was you giving little hints to people about what was going on

i would like to read the post that you were talking about is there any chance i could have the link or possibly the name i could search for?

 

[Exile]

So after practice, they feel obliged to join your team, then after a while, after a lot of money / time spent on them, they decide to jump ship where they think the grass is greener.
So your team goes back to zero rating and you start all over again from scratch!
Not everybody as I have found wants to improve their ability or have team spirit, they just want to shoot people. If they can and they usually suck at it, but these people make up the teams…However, the majority of players want to expand.

Surely that's the nature of the beast? The whole idea of tournaments is to compete and rank yourself against others - if the team you are playing is holding you back, then you should move on to. If you want to hold onto those players then you need to get your team's commitment levels up.

We are in a recession right now and it has come to pass the fee of £40 per player, per tourney + paint is too much ! !
With the rates of unemployment, no-one has the money to pay these prices! Now would be a good idea to halve, the fee, the site owners still get a lot of money

£20 x 5 = £100 per team
20 teams = £2000
10 refs x £50 = £500

So site owners, still get £1500
Multiply by 8 summer months, it gives the site owners £12000 alone
So, who set it at £40 in the first place? Whose pretending this to be so expensive?

That's a horribly simplifed overview of the costs involved in running a tournament - what about the Land rent (whether you already run a site, or most likely are hiring the land for the event, this still has to be paid) admin staff, port-a-loos, air compressor hire/maintenance, netting hire, bunker hire/depreciation etc. etc.

Even if your figures were accurate, if I made just £12K a year profit (pre-tax), then I wouldn't bother getting out of bed, especially given the amount of grief most event organisers get!

I have my own sup’ air and field to practice on, so I know what I’m talking about. We go to other sites for community spirit and learning curve.
How many sites do you know of?
There are too many and no players reaping the rewards.
Look towards the big boys holding sites, get it together, form a professional league, unless you want to continue giving a t-shirt and a pair of gloves for prizes, maybe some booze and some paint.
Something has to be done!

I don't understand what you're trying to say here - that there are too many sites (players have a choice), but players aren't reaping the rewards?
So you want less choice and "big boys" running things - but those "big boys" are going to want to turn a profit, meaning that entry fees will more than likely go up, especially if you want a decent prize package!

Perhaps the real answer is to do your bit (as you already are), but not expect others to act quite so altruistically, after all this is probably the most consumer-driven "sport" I can think of outside of off-shore powerboat racing, it's expensive and niche, and that's part of the reason most of us love it so much.