Idea !!!

[Kitty]

I am in a fairly strange situation here.
You see paintball on Oahu is massive, it wouldn't surprise me if per capita is was bigger here than the other states. But here in hawaii the Aloha Spirit has kept the game almost how it was. On Oahu their are 4 sup air fields and 5 other fields, all within an hour of anywhere, a, fields are always busy when they are open.
You won't find 5-man fields here, it is all 7-man, you won't find ramping, however it is uncapped semi on the tourney fields and over 70% of players play open class pump as primary and mainly tear the ass out of the semi players on field.
Paintball out here in Hawaii is thriving...

 

[SAMUEL.D.RYAN]

Well jolly good for you Kitty

 

[Kitty]

Thats not what im saying lol.
Its more..... Hawaii never brought into the 'hype' so to speak.
It grew without massive changes.
Perhaps part of the issue we face in paintball is to much change to fast.

 

[NitroBall]

7 man was fun to play, bigger fields, but nowhere near as aggressive or the fast pace of xball.

5 man can be fun to play, depending on how well the field layout is set. When i enter 5 man, i see a shoddy field layout first thing at 7am, i say to myself, total waste of effort to get up so early.

Personally, i dont think the format should change .
Xball is tense (specially when the points are close), very competitive, a great challenge of not only skill but also fitness.
5 man is fun, many teams can easily roster 5 players. change the fields. Bigger xball size fields for the 5 man series.

 

[RoryM]

Yep, 7-mans, true semi (with manufacturer sealed boards, as was my suggestion years ago when that whole debate started!) mixed divisions for qualifiying, the best of 3 Finals, long weekends with my mates, beers if you did not qualify, beers if you did!

And big fields, dead mans, all those thing that made a weekend. Bring them back and you stand a chance of bringing back a generation of players that thought they could no longer really fit into a team.

The Campaiogn DVD is somewhere in the house!! Classics are Big Glenn wondering round the field as he had lost count and the now infamous '***kin hell Rodney' from Giles M!

 

[Robbo]

Surely we should be concentrating our efforts into consolidating the format we have, making the most out of the format that has evolved over the years, seems a lot more sensible than re-inventing the same old problems again and again.

Evolved??????

Or forced upon us ????

And has now become a monkey on our backs I would further....nah, make that a gorilla !!

All sports will evolve due to the varying influences bought to bear but XBall didn't evolve in any natural way, it was thrust upon us because the industry people at the time believed we were going on TV.
And it served the interests of those very same people to create a format whereby they would directly benefit from a format that would have made it easier to get mainstream TV interested; this isn't evolution Tom, nowhere frikkin near.

And to suggest we just revisit the 'same old problems' mate is ludicrous because if you had read my initial post it would have introduced you to the notion that the problems we had then paled into insignificance to those that we have now.

If we had managed to secure the Holy Grail and got paintball on TV then all would be well and good but it ain't; the truth is quite simple, tournament paintball cannot support XBall..... ignore it at your peril !

 

[Robbo]

7 man was fun to play, bigger fields, but nowhere near as aggressive or the fast pace of xball.

.

Aha !!!!!
That much used word when looking back to 7 man; and now ponder this guys ...

Think about the reception waiting for some poor schmuck wanting to try his hand at tournament paintball after playing in the woods ......

The transition from woodland to tournament paintball now is a fraction of what it used to be when 7-man was king, why do you think that is????

It's because XBall is ......... well, just imagine some guy/girl trying their hand at XBall after starting in the woodland game like most of us did ....

It's just too much for them, too much money, too 'in yer face' and not too much fun.
No wonder the take up figures have been dropping ever since we adopted XBall as our favoured format.
The only guys who are gonna really kick up are the pros who are getting supported to play anyway ....... blimey, if the masses can't play XBall, let them eat cake instead

I'd love a pro to come on here and justify why XBall is of benefit to the vast majority of tournament players and if they do, their post will absolutely reek of self-interest.

 

[Sid85]

I've played pretty much all formats, 3 man, 5 man, 7 man, 10 man, X-Ball and X-Ball lite.

From them all they all have positives and negatives, 3 and 5 is a good starting block for smaller teams, not in stature but in terms of players required, the jump then to 7 is not massive. X-Ball lite require 7-9 players then pit crew, coaches etc then jump to full X-Ball is about 10 players plus pit crew. I would say from them all 7 man is the best, I'll be honest, in my 21 years playing I have enjoyed 7 man the most, especially back before they locked leagues etc, there was nothing better standing on a field with Avalanche, Ironmen, Aftershock etc etc etc, ok the odds were stacked against you, but even getting beat and walking off thinking we've just played the best in the world and shot out 4 of them is a better feeling than getting stuffed 5-0 against a higher ranked team, it takes the thrill of the chase out of it when no matter what you do you can't score a point. I have enjoyed X-Ball lite this year, hard going, but I have enjoyed it, however, I would still say the best paintball I have actually enjoyed is 7 man millennium when you play prelims saturday, then reseed sunday. Sometimes you got a crack at two pro teams in the same weekend, I beleive it was 1 pro, 2 am, and balance novice teams to make your group, usually taking a pro scalp was what dreams were made of, taking an am scalp was something you had a chance of doing. Then waiting to find where you had finished, if you made the final 4 for the finals....thats where it's at, that's where the buzz was, how many people remember PRO teams not making the final 4 for the finals because a novice team knocked them out, great feeling eh, not for the pro, but sitting in the bar thinking, we knocked out X pro team....I honestly think the UK like with so many other aspects of life have tried to mirror the US....I agree we should go back to what we enjoy, back to what works for us, and maybe WE as the UK should be setting the benchmark of what tournament paintball should be all about, instead of being sheep and trying to mimic and look at others, maybe if we did it, maybe others would follow us for a change...

Again just my opinion, but why do we always look to others for guidance in tournament paintball, instead of doing what WE as a Country knows works?

Sid

 

[Kitty]

x-ball was a great idea (except the ramping), but its totally different and more intense than other styles. I think personally would have been more fun to play a game like x-ball with markers capped really low, more movement more to watch. Tv worthy? nope I get bored watching games that don't involve teams I know or love........ How can you expect people who don't play to go OH WOW i must do that, if you don't know paintball its tough to keep up or even understand what is going on.

My mother once came to watch a match and she said 'to be honest kat just looks like a bunch of jumped out power rangers playing tag in a kids park full of bouncy castles...'
(She did however have a go herself later on)

one thing that I miss about 7-man is the team spirit. 5-man isn't really a team, most people put two pairs of people and a back center, very rarely do you see a team of 5 actually work as 5.

The **** swinging has also got out of hand and perhaps in the land of over inflated egos people have forgotten what PB is actually about....... fun!
The game has become too intimidating for people to come out of the woods onto the speed ball field, lower the ROF and shake up the attitude of players, encourage more movement, more teamwork and bring back tactics.

 

[Dusty]

Exactly how much per head does it cost a "pro" baller to play a millennium CPL event? And by that I mean, how much comes out of his own pocket, and how much is picked up by sponsors?

I'd wager the lower divisions pay more of their hard earned per head.