The good old days

[timmyh007]

having read so much of about the decline of tournament paintball and the industry in general ...what were the good times really like? Were companies making millions and pro players actually making a living?
Where did it all go horribly wrong?

 

[Tony Harrison]

The good times: Lots of people got free stuff.
The bad times: Many of them used remote hoses.

 

[John C]

having read so much of about the decline of tournament paintball and the industry in general ...what were the good times really like? Were companies making millions and pro players being actually making a living?
Where did it all go horribly wrong?

You could turn up, pay a reasonable amount and play against the best in the world.

When they phased all the fun out, in an attempt to become a legitemate sport: Thats when it all went wrong IMO.

 

[Robbo]

having read so much of about the decline of tournament paintball and the industry in general ...what were the good times really like? Were companies making millions and pro players being actually making a living?
Where did it all go horribly wrong?

Hmmmm, don't get me started ........

 

[Lump]

You could turn up, pay a reasonable amount and play against the best in the world.

When they phased all the fun out, in an attempt to become a legitemate sport: Thats when it all went wrong IMO.

QFT

 

[Robbo]

QFT

I agree .. but let's get something straight here, it wasn't so much the attempting to legitimise our sport that really caused the problems in my view; the real problems ensued when we tried to position our sport in accordance with what the 'powers that be' thought necessary to give us the best chance on TV ... this is where it all went ass up for me.

 

[willg]

I dont know if any of you play many online games but a couple of years ago they tried bringing a few to the limelight and created this whole thing called the Championship Gaming Series, basically there were teams of video games players from around the world. They actually got paid salaries and everything was shown on mainstream TV.

Guess what? After only the Second series it suddenly shut down and all the players left hanging. Since then one of the main games, CSS (something i have been invloved heavily with for the last 7 years), has taken a massive downturn in activity and will likely be forgotten about in the next couple of years.

When people with lots of money and not much knowledge of the sport, or more importantly the community behind these "fringe" sports then they are doomed to failure if they try and bring them into the mainstream.

The only way sports like paintball and to an extent online games are going to come into the mainstream is becoming more popular and the communities growing, as that is the most important thing behind a sport, community.


TheCGS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_Gaming_Series

 

[Missy-Q]

For me, one of the problems started when teams decided they needed to have 'kids' play for them, in order to be more competitive.

While it did make the teams more competitive in many cases, it also started an incredible drain on the sport, because as good as these kids may have been, they couldn't actually afford to play, so others, be it sponsors, team-mates etc, had to pay for them. With the funds being spent on subsidising younger people to play for free, that meant there was less money to be spent on product.

 

[John C]

I dont know if any of you play many online games but a couple of years ago they tried bringing a few to the limelight and created this whole thing called the Championship Gaming Series, basically there were teams of video games players from around the world. They actually got paid salaries and everything was shown on mainstream TV.

Guess what? After only the Second series it suddenly shut down and all the players left hanging. Since then one of the main games, CSS (something i have been invloved heavily with for the last 7 years), has taken a massive downturn in activity and will likely be forgotten about in the next couple of years.

When people with lots of money and not much knowledge of the sport, or more importantly the community behind these "fringe" sports then they are doomed to failure if they try and bring them into the mainstream.

The only way sports like paintball and to an extent online games are going to come into the mainstream is becoming more popular and the communities growing, as that is the most important thing behind a sport, community.


TheCGS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_Gaming_Series

Although this same concept in Korea has spawned a multi billion dollar entertainment industry, with the best compettitors earning 6 figure sums to play computer games.

 

[willg]

Although this same concept in Korea has spawned a multi billion dollar entertainment industry, with the best compettitors earning 6 figure sums to play computer games.

Yeh but its like a national sport over there, ive been there a few times and its utterly mental, everywhere you go there are gamers, with internet cafes in nearly every built up town. Think of the UK, apart from the major cities internet cafes for gamers are very rare.

Edit: Sad example of gaming in the far east: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm