So much to answer so little time!
Right let’s start with the fact I am a committed scenario player so you can take my comments with a pinch of salt if you want. But lets not turn this into yet another scenario v tournament thread (so boring).
I like Tournament paintball to watch and was at Campaign this year. I have yet to play on a Supair field; although I would like too, but I do take issue with the fact that you think scenario players are not good enough to play Tournaments. We still have to be fit because we play all day as opposed to short games, and we usually carry more kit than your average tournament player, so to say we choose to play scenarios because of a lack of fitness is wrong at best and to some, insulting.
The original point about the US having more fascination with military looking paintball markers is a social one. The gun culture in the US allows these markers to be far more socially acceptable. They do, as has also been mentioned, add to the realism of the game for the individual that owns them.
Scenario player’s kit, just like Tournament players, is designed for the environment you are in. Bright clothes and bright markers look great in a tournament environment but stand out like a sore thumb in woodland during a scenario game. Wearing camouflage isn’t about wanting to look like a soldier, it’s about giving you a tactical advantage, I’m sure even hardened tourney players understand that. Having a marker that is black also helps. Making it look like an MP5 is down to an individual, and I said earlier, too some it adds to the realism of what you are playing.
You all make a lot of generalisations about scenarios and their players; I don’t intend to do the same about tournament players. I can’t answer for all scenario players as for why we play scenarios. For me it’s the tactical game plan that you can execute, you have to use your brain and all your senses to play; shooting fast doesn’t need to be necessary requirement (so if you think that means I have no game then think it – I really don’t care).
I do not play to be a soldier. I play with ex-servicemen who all say that if they were playing just to get the buzz of combat or the training exercises they had been in before they would have stayed in the forces. They play just for fun, like we all do. In a controlled military environment it would take you all day just to take the equivalent size of ground to a tournament field if there was an enemy in front of you. When real bullets start flying ‘mugging’ someone doesn’t come into the equation. I’ll be the first to admit that in a real war situation I would probably be dead in the first five minutes. Scenario paintball does not replicate combat, it can’t do. If you die in combat you stay dead, you don’t get to walk off field and wipe yourself off. Even I’ll agree that those that think scenario paintball is combat and are in it for the military feel are wannabe Rambo’s, they even do scenario paintball a disservice!
As for mocking Tippmann markers, whatever they look like, don’t do it. If someone comes into paintball because they like the look of an A5 but soon learn about other markers and tournament paintball, then Tippmann has helped your side of the sport as much as ours. As has been so rightly said “Tippmann really understands their consumer base. It really does look like an MP-5, but it sells like hotcakes.” It does a job and does it well; and as we all know the Rec side of this sport allows the tournament sport to continue in the way it does. (And for reference I use a Black Angel 04 Speed although I intend to buy an A5 when the tax man gives me back some of my hard earned!
It's all horse's for courses.
Peace.
