Is tournament paintball heading in the right direction?

[Biscuit]

5man teams on 7man sized fields,would give plenty of movement and keep entry and paint costs down.
7man died a death as teams find it hard to get 7 players together,most teams have 7 maybe 8 players on their roster,but more often than not ,not all the players can play at the same time due to family and work commitments,so 5man has become the most popular format.
stop giving out field details and make them larger and more diverse ,than the same old fields we get at the moment
as for stopping certain teams practicing don,t think it stops you practicing drills and skills,as for it having an effect on your performance that would be minimal ,i can say this as the team i play for didn,t practice on any of the fields played this year at the cpps and this didn,t stop us doing well ,we even came fourth in the race to 2 at the fed cup.
remember if this was adopted it would be the same for all teams

 

[bbarathy]

Certainly for my team cost IS an issue in terms of playing in a higher division or playing MS - regardless of value for money. I want to play at as high a level as possible but the main constraints are financial.

As to the answers for the future direction of paintball, I don't think turning back the clock is going to be the answer. Are we all going to dust off our camos and go back to the woods? I pretty sure Niall Squires tried to resurrect the woodland tourney scene a couple of years ago. I couldn't attend the first event myself due to NSPL commitments and since then I never heard any more about the series. Maybe the timing was a bit out but surely if woodland tournies were the way to go, people would have been flooding Niall's safezone to play. Don't get me wrong. I used to play woodland tournies back in the 90's and loved it but I just can't see the serious competition going back to that style of event.

Personally I enjoy the race to ... formats as although the games are quick, you are back out on the field again very quick. I really would not want to go back to the days of waiting 2 hours to my next game!

Larger fields/more bunkers would certainly help and why not go to capped semi? Say 12 bps.

Maybe we need to be asking the pro teams what they want. They are the ones that would have more influence over the major leagues and might get their sponsors on board to back them up. Why have the likes of Joy, Bullets and Menace all gone in the last week? If we can understand their perspective we can put things right at the top, which will then filter down through the rest of the sport.

 

[Exile]

5man teams on 7man sized fields,would give plenty of movement and keep entry and paint costs down.

It should be noted that the old MS 7 man fields and the current Race-to fields are very similar in size, IIRC the 7man field is a little longer but thinner.

 

[ShimmerShot]

But if X-Ball is the format you have to play to compete at the top of the world, surely this is holding many teams back due to the cost to play it ?

If this is the case then it's a bottle neck for many teams and stunting some really good teams with perhaps not enough cash as others, from progressing and competing at the top?

If you want to compete at the top you yourself has to make it happen. People lack the will power because they can't be bothered to turn up to training because they've been out drinking the night before. I've seen it happen and these players who want to reach the top ultimatly don't because they don't train, turn up and run drills every week that is determined by the team.

I remember a post written by Tommy Pemberton in 2008 saying that players have to get themselves out there, they will get spotted and offered opportunities, this is true for every team out there looking to extend their squads. Money is not a road block, if you want to reach the top you'll put in the hours to get money in the week and spend all your earning at the weekend.

Many teams don't take the next step up to compete from 5 man to x-ball because of laziness, going out to find commited players, its really not that difficult to vet the people you don't want in your squad, but asking simple questions like how they would fund the season, what kind of transport they have, what events they can attend.

You don't need to compete in the Mills straight away, do just a single series and try to do as best as you can in your first year, once you and your team has a grasp of where they are at the end of the year financially and ability in a format then go ahead and enter yourself into the mills.

Again, a team has to be formed of like minded people, although difficult to acheive, its not impossible. I believe Birmingham Temper is proof of this as they have done rather well this season in x-ball, progressing each step of the way. Although I don't know their team structure I doubt they play for a mid table position each time they attended the CPPS, aim high and you'll acheive your goals.

 

[Robbo]

One thing is sure ... the numbers with present formats are contracting .... when 7 man was the industry standard format, numbers were increasing.
To suggest 7 man was an inferior format because players teams elected to swerve it in favour of Xball and it's derivatives is not taking into account the fickleness of players/teams and of course the reasons why they elected to play the 'new' formats.

Xball and co were the new kids on the block and everybody wanted to play like the pros for obvious reasons but none of those reasons had bugger all to do with value for money, and it is exactly this that is at the forefront of people's minds now ... kinda ironic really.

If 7 man were to be adopted as the industry format I have little doubt we would eventually be witnessing an improvement in numbers attending and also greater satisfaction being voiced from most participants.

 

[3L1TE hax]

Exile, i had no idea about that, but i'm happy for the survey to take place at the day, just at the end of the event, everyone gets a card, that how many of this series have they been to this year, then if your last was all 5's how would you compare this event in each section out of ten, then you can rate improvement on a month to month basis...

 

[bbarathy]

Money is not a road block, if you want to reach the top you'll put in the hours to get money in the week and spend all your earning at the weekend.

This is all well and good if you are willing to sacrifice everything in order to pay for your paintball but in the real world some of us have mortgages - kids etc to pay for (maybe it's an age thing).
If the price of competing at the higher level was lower, more players could afford to play.

 

[ShimmerShot]

Well, if you want to go about it like that and you're happy about where you are in a team, then stick with it

If you want to reach the top sacrifices have to be made, buy a bike, take the bus, leave the car at home, don't go out eating so much, consider giving up smoking, stop buying top branded 'finest' range foods, all good consumer advice from the credit card companies apply, if you can't do that then start saving for the season after. You can still get yourself noticed! Heck, i don't know why people don't just ref an event every now and then to pay for the green fee and paint for the next event or day after, every series needs refs, it will still provide you with an insight into how other teams play and you can still learn by watching and you'll soon appreciate how difficult it is to make a good call every time.

Paintball is a hobby, as is skydiving, snowboarding and water-skiing some take it more seriously then others as with every hobby. If you want it bad enough, there really isn't stopping you.

 

[Bolter]

One thing is sure ... the numbers with present formats are contracting .... when 7 man was the industry standard format, numbers were increasing.

Yup, when we were playing 7man, we had upwards of 40 players on the Storm books.

Now we struggle to get 10 together.

 

[Dark Warrior]

The tournie scene was at its peak just before we got ramping followed by X-ball and current Race to formats
UK Tournie player numbers have been on the decline since the introduction of ramping and X-Ball.

Wrong. XBall was first, ramping followed. In Europe both Millennium X Ball and Open X predate the introduction of Ramping. The 2 are quite different issues and often mixed up incorrectly. Ramping actually slowed down the guns being used as it introdcued a ROF Cap. Anyone who played X Ball pre-ramping will tell you Guns had never (nor since) been so fast. Un-capped Semi with loosely controlled gun rules is different to anything the tournament players today play.

In the UK did not the PA introduce ramping in 2005 then X-Ball in 2006. I cannot remember any domestic event running X-ball pre 2006 except the Fight Club with I believe was just trials for the PA X-Ball format