Just before play gets under way at HB 2010, I thought I would throw a few thoughts out onto here and get your opinion.
I'll split this first post into two:-
1. Tournament Paintball in the USA
A few years back - say, from 2002/3 onwards - Dynasty was winning pretty much everything, and we wondered if that would ever change.
Nowadays, a greater spread of teams is winning the major US events - so why is that?
Has everyone copied Dynasty's style of training? And wasn't Image the blueprint for Dynasty?
Is having two competing leagues really the way forward? Nobody likes a monopoly, but having one league makes financial sense.
However, paintball is all about choice, and playing the format you like, be it woodland, scenario, walk-on, 7-man or X-Ball.
2. Tournament Paintball in the UK
I would say that the "Golden Age" of tournament paintball in the UK was between 1990 and 2003.
In that time, we produced world-beating teams, saw a UK company invent the future of paintball, produced the Sterling, the Angel and the E-Blade, and had a healthy tournament scene.
Now - what do we have?
We have only a handful of UK teams playing the MS, with Nexus leading the way. Note that the number of German teams attending has declined as they prefer to play their own domestic leagues.
We appear not to have any clearly defined path to the top, but as far as the North goes we have teams like The Firm and Method - both of whom train heavily - making an assault on the MS.
Would an alternative circuit to the MS attract more UK teams?
Who has the financial muscle to compete against the MS?
I'll split this first post into two:-
1. Tournament Paintball in the USA
A few years back - say, from 2002/3 onwards - Dynasty was winning pretty much everything, and we wondered if that would ever change.
Nowadays, a greater spread of teams is winning the major US events - so why is that?
Has everyone copied Dynasty's style of training? And wasn't Image the blueprint for Dynasty?
Is having two competing leagues really the way forward? Nobody likes a monopoly, but having one league makes financial sense.
However, paintball is all about choice, and playing the format you like, be it woodland, scenario, walk-on, 7-man or X-Ball.
2. Tournament Paintball in the UK
I would say that the "Golden Age" of tournament paintball in the UK was between 1990 and 2003.
In that time, we produced world-beating teams, saw a UK company invent the future of paintball, produced the Sterling, the Angel and the E-Blade, and had a healthy tournament scene.
Now - what do we have?
We have only a handful of UK teams playing the MS, with Nexus leading the way. Note that the number of German teams attending has declined as they prefer to play their own domestic leagues.
We appear not to have any clearly defined path to the top, but as far as the North goes we have teams like The Firm and Method - both of whom train heavily - making an assault on the MS.
Would an alternative circuit to the MS attract more UK teams?
Who has the financial muscle to compete against the MS?