since I'm doing a demo for NPPL in a few months, I really don't want to give too much away, but:
what makes it 'cheaper' is the fact that the format emphasizes manuever over shooting.
During PaintFest, we watched a steady decline in the balls used per game as the teams learned to use a small amount of paint to suppress opposing watchers (guys over the top of their bunkers communicating) and rely more heavily on moving for one or two shot eliminations.
There are no points for eliminations, just for scoring a goal, so a team that outmanuevered their opponent could leave a fair number of players on the field and still score.
The field itself is 200' x 120', and there are only 30 bunkers on it. Defying conventional wisdom (and proof of concept was there at PaintFest) a wider, more open bunker arrangement also promoted movement and less fire.
The flag, being a mobile flag, also added tactical options, again, less reliant on shooting and more on moving, further reducing the balls required.
If you are familiar with woods ball from the pump era, you'll remember games in which the field was virtually silent as players on both teams crawled and repositioned themselves, or just waited in ambush. Although we're definately not using pumps in this format, one of my goals was to bring the flavor of that style of play out onto the arena field, and we managed it quite nicely.
A typical paintfest game had one or two jack-in-the-boxes popping up over the bunkers, taking a read of the field, communicating, while their teammates manuevers. There would be a brief flurry of bunkerings, followed by more manuever.
The anticipation felt by the crowd, who could see the 'ambushes' forming was tremendous.
And, the fact that we stopped play for penalty assessment (and checked all players on the field for concealed hits when play stopped) also, quite frankly, allowed the players to relax tremendously with the confidence that opponents weren't playing on, and this alone, I am sure, reduced the incidence of bonus balling and over shooting (no need to light someone up because they couldn't turn and take one with them).
The physical contact aspects of the game also contributed.
what makes it 'cheaper' is the fact that the format emphasizes manuever over shooting.
During PaintFest, we watched a steady decline in the balls used per game as the teams learned to use a small amount of paint to suppress opposing watchers (guys over the top of their bunkers communicating) and rely more heavily on moving for one or two shot eliminations.
There are no points for eliminations, just for scoring a goal, so a team that outmanuevered their opponent could leave a fair number of players on the field and still score.
The field itself is 200' x 120', and there are only 30 bunkers on it. Defying conventional wisdom (and proof of concept was there at PaintFest) a wider, more open bunker arrangement also promoted movement and less fire.
The flag, being a mobile flag, also added tactical options, again, less reliant on shooting and more on moving, further reducing the balls required.
If you are familiar with woods ball from the pump era, you'll remember games in which the field was virtually silent as players on both teams crawled and repositioned themselves, or just waited in ambush. Although we're definately not using pumps in this format, one of my goals was to bring the flavor of that style of play out onto the arena field, and we managed it quite nicely.
A typical paintfest game had one or two jack-in-the-boxes popping up over the bunkers, taking a read of the field, communicating, while their teammates manuevers. There would be a brief flurry of bunkerings, followed by more manuever.
The anticipation felt by the crowd, who could see the 'ambushes' forming was tremendous.
And, the fact that we stopped play for penalty assessment (and checked all players on the field for concealed hits when play stopped) also, quite frankly, allowed the players to relax tremendously with the confidence that opponents weren't playing on, and this alone, I am sure, reduced the incidence of bonus balling and over shooting (no need to light someone up because they couldn't turn and take one with them).
The physical contact aspects of the game also contributed.
)
