Scratch that he already hasHere comes the Turks .. has Darron signed up yet so he can start commenting
A chance to play ..
- Thread starter Robbo
- Start date
I'm not so sure the Turks ethos of play reconciles all that well with the way Marc wants to structure the new Preds but I could be wrong, he may well have a spot for some of you guys.Scratch that he already has
There's no doubting your talent, and of course, you're all nice guys [Darren excluded
] and so throw the dice and see what happens.
Actually, It`s a Damn Fine Video and Good to watch !!!
>>> Bluey
>>> Bluey
Hi Pete,
I'm Dave from the Woodland Masters events. I do think there is a lot of interest in woodsball tournaments that we have not yet tapped into - folk in the UK but also abroad have noticed what we've been doing, not just in terms of running events but also trying to promote woodsball generally with articles, event reports, photos and videos.
The two things on my mind in terms of growing woodsball events and making this more than a flash in the pan are first - how well we can communicate the selling points of playing these events to folk who have never tried them (whether they are new to the sport, existing sup'air teams or play more scenario type events). We are doing what we can here but word of mouth is really powerful and hopefully our teams are advocates of these events.
The second thing is getting more people than just me and Twizz involved. 2017 looks really exciting as Ged from NPF and Kayleigh from Bristol Activity Centre are set up to run some events in the overall Woodland Masters series. Ged will be hosting a two day International Woodland Masters event as part of Paintfest and we've already seen interest from outside of the UK in terms of teams looking to come play that. We've also worked a bit with folk from the industry and woodsball tournaments look like they are starting to get noticed from that angle. Lastly, it looks like events are popping up in other parts of the UK outside of the woodland masters like Battlezone, Warped 10 Man and Skirmish Nottingham.
I think we've seen nearly all of the old school players who are going to return, already return to play, and a lot of the growth we saw in 2016 came from teams who played big games or other sup'air events.
I don't know how it will all wash out next year but we are committed to give it our best shot! Appreciate the coverage on here too, not only through the video but also through the competitive woodsball forum.
Hi Dave, thanks for the message - I think there are possibly three mechanisms at work in respect to this apparent resurgence in woodland tournaments.
Firstly, the old guard making a reappearance though I'm sure you realise, this isn't sustainable.
Secondly, as a result of a backlash from Sup'Air, I've no real need to document the pluses and minuses of Sup'Air other than to acknowledge there is a market for the 'disenchanted' ... it's not so much getting the message out to Sup'Air players, it's about giving them an option ...
And thirdly, I think 'curiosity' ... and this is an emergent property of what people have read in the media on forums like my own or indeed heard on the grapevine.
To reinforce this recent resurgence, you rightly suggest we need a positive message going out from woodland event promoters like Ged and yourself backed up by a positive press.
We have to also look at the product itself and make sure standards such as safety and value for money are upheld.
I know what the woodland game can offer especially when it comes to 'bang for your buck', and I know there has to be a comprehensive and co-ordinated program of development but I also know we are in a position where we can hit the ground running and thus there is a good chance we can help grow the sport.
I'll do whatever I can but there's inevitably a fly in the ointment for me and so I'm hoping it will be different this time.
Pete
Firstly, the old guard making a reappearance though I'm sure you realise, this isn't sustainable.
Secondly, as a result of a backlash from Sup'Air, I've no real need to document the pluses and minuses of Sup'Air other than to acknowledge there is a market for the 'disenchanted' ... it's not so much getting the message out to Sup'Air players, it's about giving them an option ...
And thirdly, I think 'curiosity' ... and this is an emergent property of what people have read in the media on forums like my own or indeed heard on the grapevine.
To reinforce this recent resurgence, you rightly suggest we need a positive message going out from woodland event promoters like Ged and yourself backed up by a positive press.
We have to also look at the product itself and make sure standards such as safety and value for money are upheld.
I know what the woodland game can offer especially when it comes to 'bang for your buck', and I know there has to be a comprehensive and co-ordinated program of development but I also know we are in a position where we can hit the ground running and thus there is a good chance we can help grow the sport.
I'll do whatever I can but there's inevitably a fly in the ointment for me and so I'm hoping it will be different this time.
Pete
Competitive woodsball appeals to me because it doesn't suffer the same level of repetitive grind of modern sup'air ball. Modern xball style fields are all the bloody same, snake side, Dorito side, rinse repeat rinse repeat. In the woods, even if you play the same fields (as we did this year at holmbush) they still evolved and changed with the seasons as well as during events. There are so many variables in the woods, you can't take everything into account and drill fields to the same level as sup'air and they'll always be this awesome opportunity for improvisation.
I burnt out on sup'air a long time ago, and each time I've tried it again in the last couple of years it's bored me so very much. Woodland tournaments feel so much fresher and interesting. I especially like how Dave and his team have gone with the more traditional tournament format, seeding in the morning and afternoon games for the trophies. This means along with the variability of fields there's always good chance for an upset where a young team plays better and beats the big boys.
I burnt out on sup'air a long time ago, and each time I've tried it again in the last couple of years it's bored me so very much. Woodland tournaments feel so much fresher and interesting. I especially like how Dave and his team have gone with the more traditional tournament format, seeding in the morning and afternoon games for the trophies. This means along with the variability of fields there's always good chance for an upset where a young team plays better and beats the big boys.
The way we have the seeding has worked and has provided great value for money for all involved.. those that want to be at the top can still get there and those that maybe havent reached that point yet can get there without being curb stomped all day.
Have a hard initial draw, do badly, well you'll be with reseeded with teams who are in the same boat. This gives you a chance to learn from that hard morning bracket and maybe come on top of that division in the afternoon.
This also stops teams ringning an event, by entering in the lower division.
The amount of game time you get at UKWM is also excellent. There's no way in hell I'd drive 3+ hours each way and stay in a hotel for the seconds of game time you get at a sup'air event.
Just to clarify something - when I wrote 'the old guard not being sustainable' in my last post, this older returning player demographic has a natural ceiling and therefore new blood is needed.
Now, whether that's young players or older players who haven't played paintball at all, it matters not - it's crucial we keep this resurgence growing.
I genuinely think we need a group of like-minded people from within our industry to get together and try to come up with a route-map for 2017.
I'm talking about the likes of Ged Green, Rob Hollington, Jimmy Frensham, Tim Taylor, Doug Setters, Dave Simpson and Twizz and last but definitely not least, Ledzy.
Within that fraternity, you have EVERYTHING you are gong to need in terms of qualities to make the right decisions.
Alternatively, we can do nothing - we can just sit back and observe the fate of this resurgence unfold before us ....... or we can get involved and try to steer this recent phenomenon in the right direction where we all benefit on one level or another.
It's much better if we take a pro-active role in pushing the woodland alternative more so than at any other time in our history.
There is a curious irony here, during the past 7 or 8 years or so, the industry have been responding to an erosion of growth and have had to cut back and streamline accordingly.
But what the industry really needed was real growth, not back-foot consolidation.
New market areas seemed to be the answer hence the East European and Far East markets being exploited but there was a significant market hiding right under our noses; All the time we had been looking for virgin territories to nurture/exploit when right under our noses was the very source of growth we needed ..... the woodland tournament scene, the birth-place of our modern game thought to be a spent market but it was lying dormant waiting for nostalgia to resuscitate.
The mentality of our industry had settled upon Sup'Air and punter-ball, the weekend warrior type market - two completely different markets with no real connection other than hardware.
The prevailing belief was to try and grow the sport using Sup'Air as its vanguard to new geographical areas around the world.
This commercial strategy is teetering on the edge as our industry now encounters this recent woodland team resurgence and I don't think, they quite realise what's in front of them in terms of significant growth potential.
Males are just grown up boys and even then it's debatable if indeed we ever do grow up but I know this much - males like competing, males like shooting and above all we never really lose the love of playing cowboys and Indians .... Enter paintball - a legitimate way for grown men [And of course, Emma and Lemon] to run round the woods playing cowboys and Indians.
The Sup'Air format introduction gained traction because at that time, going mainstream on TV was a seemingly viable evolution which is why so much money and effort was ploughed into the open format of the game.
We'd gone from playing cowboys and Indians running around the woods over to a one-minute flurry of paintballs whilst running around multi-coloured inflatable hippos and coke-cans - we basically lost our soul, or more likely, we sold our soul to Sup'Air ...And I'm just as much to blame as anyone because I was readily seduced by the promises of riches and TV as were a lot of my peers in the industry.
I know of only one man who foresaw this all along, he always said Sup'Air wasn't sustainable, he believed that woodland paintball was the bread and butter of our industry and whilst tournaments evolved into open formats, he kept banging the woodland drum, he never waivered in his belief, not even once ... he's been proved right, and seemingly a lot wiser than the rest of us.
His name, Matt Tudor, the guy who started PGi in 1990 and continues as a publisher of over 25 magazine titles.
Let's not fuhk this opportunity up guys, get the right people to do the right job and we can get back to where our industry and sport/game belong .. over to you guys !!
Now, whether that's young players or older players who haven't played paintball at all, it matters not - it's crucial we keep this resurgence growing.
I genuinely think we need a group of like-minded people from within our industry to get together and try to come up with a route-map for 2017.
I'm talking about the likes of Ged Green, Rob Hollington, Jimmy Frensham, Tim Taylor, Doug Setters, Dave Simpson and Twizz and last but definitely not least, Ledzy.
Within that fraternity, you have EVERYTHING you are gong to need in terms of qualities to make the right decisions.
Alternatively, we can do nothing - we can just sit back and observe the fate of this resurgence unfold before us ....... or we can get involved and try to steer this recent phenomenon in the right direction where we all benefit on one level or another.
It's much better if we take a pro-active role in pushing the woodland alternative more so than at any other time in our history.
There is a curious irony here, during the past 7 or 8 years or so, the industry have been responding to an erosion of growth and have had to cut back and streamline accordingly.
But what the industry really needed was real growth, not back-foot consolidation.
New market areas seemed to be the answer hence the East European and Far East markets being exploited but there was a significant market hiding right under our noses; All the time we had been looking for virgin territories to nurture/exploit when right under our noses was the very source of growth we needed ..... the woodland tournament scene, the birth-place of our modern game thought to be a spent market but it was lying dormant waiting for nostalgia to resuscitate.
The mentality of our industry had settled upon Sup'Air and punter-ball, the weekend warrior type market - two completely different markets with no real connection other than hardware.
The prevailing belief was to try and grow the sport using Sup'Air as its vanguard to new geographical areas around the world.
This commercial strategy is teetering on the edge as our industry now encounters this recent woodland team resurgence and I don't think, they quite realise what's in front of them in terms of significant growth potential.
Males are just grown up boys and even then it's debatable if indeed we ever do grow up but I know this much - males like competing, males like shooting and above all we never really lose the love of playing cowboys and Indians .... Enter paintball - a legitimate way for grown men [And of course, Emma and Lemon] to run round the woods playing cowboys and Indians.
The Sup'Air format introduction gained traction because at that time, going mainstream on TV was a seemingly viable evolution which is why so much money and effort was ploughed into the open format of the game.
We'd gone from playing cowboys and Indians running around the woods over to a one-minute flurry of paintballs whilst running around multi-coloured inflatable hippos and coke-cans - we basically lost our soul, or more likely, we sold our soul to Sup'Air ...And I'm just as much to blame as anyone because I was readily seduced by the promises of riches and TV as were a lot of my peers in the industry.
I know of only one man who foresaw this all along, he always said Sup'Air wasn't sustainable, he believed that woodland paintball was the bread and butter of our industry and whilst tournaments evolved into open formats, he kept banging the woodland drum, he never waivered in his belief, not even once ... he's been proved right, and seemingly a lot wiser than the rest of us.
His name, Matt Tudor, the guy who started PGi in 1990 and continues as a publisher of over 25 magazine titles.
Let's not fuhk this opportunity up guys, get the right people to do the right job and we can get back to where our industry and sport/game belong .. over to you guys !!