Thanks for that matey exactly the info i was wanting , why did it phase out ( people just not wanting to play it any more ?)I'd love for 7man to come back. When I started playing 10man was being phased out in favour of 7 man. Fields were larger and games were slower than the 5man/xball formats that came along later. In 5man, if a team loses a guy or 2 off the break then they are almost instantly stuffed. In 7 man a team that lost bodies could regroup easier and change tactics mid game. In my experience, even with smaller fields, it's a bit trickier for a 5man team to spread the field offensively. In Xball you either hit snake side or you go for the other tape, rarely both. Whereas the extra players in 7man and the larger fields with more bunkers allowed teams to approach the field in many different combinations at the same and have numerous smaller battles around the field. Also as the fields are longer it's generally easier for the back players to make their corners, back in the 7man days the back corner guys were often the, well, 'larger' gentlemen. Whereas in 5man/Xball formats, as teams start closer the back corner guys must be very quick to make it to their primaries.
Xball was pushed in a big way as it was the 'future'. Around the 2004-2006 a number of companies were chasing the dream of getting Paintball on TV as the next big sports sensation. For a variety of reasons, all these deals fell apart and the TV dreams died (along with a number of companies who'd pinned their hopes on the idea). But the 5man/Xball format has stuck around even though it really isn't in the best interests of playersThanks for that matey exactly the info i was wanting , why did it phase out ( people just not wanting to play it any more ?)
Xbal is by far the most expensive, participially in it's original NXL full length format. As well as the high consumption of paint you've got other factors such as having a large roster, coaches, pit crew and of course the costs of organising an event (extra air stations, scoreboard etc) If you're doing just standard 5man CTF one off games then that's the cheapest, with cost rising if you take on more Xball 'lite' elements. 7man wasn't cheap per-say, games were longer and back guys used to frequently go out with upwards of 8 pots on their back and typically shoot through that.What about cost wise ?
Lowest to highest ?( for 5man,7man,xball)
I totally agree that Xball is insanely fun, although I've not had that much opportunity to play full matches in a tournament surroundings. But the issue is that I don't think the format is in the best financial interests of players and teams. I'm a stingy tightwad and used to baulk at the costs that I used to hear about from players and coaches in the NXL a few years back.No offence but depends what best interest angle you are coming from
If you mean fun to play xball dicks anything else ive tried
(5 man, 7 man, 3 man, that gimmicky 1 on 1 thing) admittedly not tried F5