Tournament paintball is rubbish

[Gadget]

Stepping away from the comfy world of paintball tech for a moment, ask yourself why do you play paintball? The cameraderie? The social interaction? The technology and widgets? Sure, all good reasons, but underlying them all is a universal truth, we like shooting people.....preferably in the face.

Unless you sign your cheques J.Salm, the only opportunity most people have to shoot some faces is when live on the field, gun in hand, after the ref's arms have dropped. This 'trigger time' is therefore important and could even be argued as being the prime criteria by which the value for money of an event is judged.....

Read the rest on my p8ntballer blog here and let me know you think I'm right, wrong or a butthead:

http://www.p8ntballer-forums.com/vb/entry.php?19-Tournament-paintball-is-rubbish

 

[Gavin - 44pix]

Sounds like a step back into woodsball with the concept of domination instead of elimination

In all honestly, I prefer the M5/Xball format over Formula 5, but thats just my own opinion. Also... more trigger time equals larger paint bills, so it doesn't surprise me that the uptake on this format has been slow

 

[Robbo]

A few months ago, I wrote a post where I was advocating getting rid of XBall altogether as a tournament format; heresy?, It might have been a few years back but there's the problem, a few years back, we were still positioning ourselves as a sport and the momentum was being driven by the imminence of TV ...... well, that was until the TV bubble burst all around us and left us all looking like a bunch of Muppets in motocross outfits ..... let's be honest, we looked pretty ridiculous when the Emperor's clothes had been disrobed with the failure of the TV initiative.

Of course, had we managed to grab the TV Holy Grail, we would have had kids walking round the local malls in tournament gear but I'm afraid that ain't happened.
It's a shame of course but what's even worse is our present reluctance to let go of the TV format, XBall.

It's a bit like when some schmuck hails for a cab by frantically waving his hand only for the cab to drive right by, and the schmuck morphs the hand waving into a scratching of the head because of his embarrassment ...... we are scratching our head with Xball and it's gotta stop.

I don't give a monkey's what format we adopt but Gadget has pretty much identified the areas that need addressing.

 

[Bambulus]

Oh god, don't mention TV. Whenever that comes up it becomes an argument of 'what is more watchable'.

Personally, I'm quite content playing punter days. Playing tournies is just too large a cost that I really can't fork out.
I'd be happy as if they built a snake on one of the fields at home. Only thing I'd want to improve at this point.

 

[Liam92]

sounds really interesting. if i get to play it for myself i would know exactly what i did/didn't like about it, but like robbo said you've identified some real issues which F5 is able to resolve. from what i can judge, the paint issues could surely be balanced by the fact that the less you fire, the more points you keep due to unneccesary eliminations i.e. having to give up a point to reload on air/paint? considering that, i can see a development in more excessively large air tanks/pod packs resulting in some happy campers . however i think only experience will show us the true pro's and con's and if this is a serious replacement for the typical formats we have pretty much grown into.

 

[BubbleGumBob]

I dont understand why you would want to get rid of xball. true, it was made for tv, but its still the best format i have ever played. The reason a format came around shouldnt be the reason to get rid of it, xball is in my veiw funner than most other formats( i say most as i have not played the F5 and therefore cannot comment)

my 2p

 

[NSKlad]

It's a shame of course but what's even worse is our present reluctance to let go of the TV format, XBall.

As Bubble said.

Why get rid of it? I enjoy the concept, as do many others. TV isn't the only reason people have ever played Xball.

 

[Robbo]

As Bubble said.

Why get rid of it? I enjoy the concept, as do many others. TV isn't the only reason people have ever played Xball.

...er...... read what Gadget says and try to factor in just how much of his critique is down to Xball .......after you have done that, go ask somebody what paintball was like not so long ago when 7 man was around; it wasn't perfect but it was better and most certainly more value for money.

And after ...go back and find out who created XBall and why, and after you done that, come back on here and tell me XBall is good for UK paintball outside of your own personal enjoyment.

I enjoy driving really expensive sports cars, one slight problem tho .... I can't afford them ... getting the picture?

And one last thing, no disrepect to Bubble, but you are the only person [to my knowledge] to ever quote him .... there's a reason for that ........

 

[Gee Tee]

Quality vs Quantity

The biggest grin factor for me in the last year was getting back to playing pumps again

Many of the guys I played pump with last season, think it's got a 'fun factor' that's been missing from the regular walk-on/tournament scene for a long time. I really hope the pump scene can take hold in the UK and get better established.

 

[Robbo]

The biggest grin factor for me in the last year was getting back to playing pumps again

I think you've nailed it, in that the 'grin factor' comes back; I'm obviously not suggesting we go back to pumps coz that would be akin to trying to put the genie back in the bottle but we can look at 7 man more seriously.