Hope?

[Robbo]

A lot of you people might have read the posts I made several months back concerning the state of Brit Paintball.
I attacked our site owner's short sightedness and greed as two of the main reasons for our demise and also our (player's and team's) mindset with regard to professionalizing our attitude.

Over the past few months I have, leastwise down south there, seen a marked improvement in terms of how some teams have responded to the new demands of modern tournament Paintball.
The D7 site plays host to a lot of these teams and most weekends you can go there and see the UK's pro teams training and of course quite a few amateur and novice teams which does bode well for the future ...but only for a very small proportion.
Nexus, Tigers, Shockwave. Jags, Steelers, Method (Ducks), Halloween and Swarm are all regular visitors with Kelly's also making the occasional trip down.

My question is this because I have really only seen this type resurgence in the south; Is a similar response going on elsewhere?
If so, what teams and where?

Do people see any positive rumblings across the board?
Will it be sustained?
Will it make any difference or has the locking down of the CPL in the Millennium proved to be a disincentive rather than an incentive?

Is there any real hope for UK Paintball or are we only really seeing a rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic ?

Comments?

 

[Fat-Frank]

I`m not from the UK and maybe not supposed to answer, but i`ll respond to some of your post anyway (And there for sure will be more stupid postings in a couple of days anyway )
What i will respond to is that my personal impression of the UK teams is that they all has stepped up a level of the game. Compared to last season i think they all have improved their game, and played really good. Most impressed i was of Shockwave, they definately will be a team to consider all season long.
Uk has several teams of high level European (and US ) standard now, and i think you will keep on improving. But the most important thing is that you all keep together, (keeping personal stuff under the bed) and share your experience, and match each other. That is in my opinion the best weapon you have against other countries: You can always keep your scrimmage games on a high level. The only other contries that has a similar opportunity is France & maybe Sweden.
This is based on what i saw during CPL in Marseille, but you also have several teams knocking on the door from D1.

I`m really looking forward to see the new Nexus in Bitburg, so good luck too you all!

 

[Dark Warrior]

With what Markie C is doing at The Northern Quarter and with what is going to be happening @ Elsham over the next few months. The North is doing something, may not be to the standard of the South in some aspects, but we are certainly not sat on our arses

 

[Paul_Mardon]

Maybe We could get a nice training area near cardiff , im sure all us welshies would really appreciate that? not really any local in wales , nearest one is bristol i'd say.

 

[M1ke]

Maybe We could get a nice training area near cardiff , im sure all us welshies would really appreciate that? not really any local in wales , nearest one is bristol i'd say.

Cardiff is practically next door to Bristol. A lot of people travel a lot greater distance than that to train. Your complaining about a 40 min drive

 

[CAMPBELL]

Whats going on at elsham ??

 

[Lucky]

I don't know about the rest of the country, but i believe the step up in the quality of the south's game, is purely down to two factors.
The stirling work of Dave @ Dartford and Warren @ Ashford !
These two guys at their well respected sites are i believe the ones that are responsible for the encouragment that the sport is recieving in the south.
From my place in rochester i can be at a quality site within half an hour, all i have to choose is whether to go north or south. Anyone in london can be at dartford within 1-1/2 hours and there are hundreds of players that can and do get to these great sites regulary
I don't know about the rest of our fair land, but if the sites are not there, then players won't travel unless they have too.
Dave and Warren will be the first to admit that it's been a long and slow struggle getting the investments into their sites, but now as you have seen Robbo, i believe their efforts have been worth it.
So what's going on up north? surely if us shandy drinking southerners can sort it then everyone else should be up for it?

 

[Lucky]

Cool, two posts from one entry, now there's value for money

 

[Markie C]

We are still trying to make a difference Pete.

we are moving to a new place soon so we can have 3 fields up all the time.

we had twizz down for a newbie day which went down a storm and made a reel impact on some players.

Plus we have Dynasty coming over if they all stay together

I think the catchment area for the south is a lot bigger than here but since your comments last year i have seen a lot more players trying to get there siht together which is a good thing.

I think the Kelly's are going to make it this year as well and they are putting the effort in now as well with closed training sessions at ours and going down to D7's.

So yes pete i belive there is hope...

 

[Oli HPG]

Looking at the way team are finally to start to work together, I think we might well be on the right way.

Dave with his DF7 is trying very hard to offer you a good training site. You ask him to set up a few bunkers for snap shooting...he goes and does it.

Teams are more friendly with eachother and are planning trips to events together to reduce cost.

Maybe it will become a united paintball world at one point!

And maybe I will manage to stop pi$$ing people off too...