X-Ball for the masses?

[Jester1]

I tend to agree with many that after a few minutes of being a spectator of Xball that it becomes boring to watch. It's the same field over and over, played the same way over and over, and there isn't much team work required to have success. I personally watched Strange in Div 1 and they got so much help from the sidelines there's no way they could have taken home anything other than first.

NXL should be something exciting and easy for the general public to watch. People say that Xball is easier to understand. How hard is it to understand 5man? "Get the flag from the middle of the field to the otherside without getting shot" is something the uninitiated can easily understand. Even 10 man's "get their flag and bring it back to your base without getting shot" is within the average Joe's comprehension.

Xball is simply five man with back to back games and a slightly different scoring system. Nothing more and certainly less with the crowds directly the players to make their moves and take their shots.

I wonder how long it will be before the new JT goggle systems with built in radios will used by NXL teams to help "coordinate" their moves on the field??

 

[Richard Kirke (DUPS Rocket) UK]

Score Board

I am undecided over the whole X-Ball thing. My concern is that it is essentially an entirely different sport that most paintballers will never even aspire to playing at a competative level.

OTOH The X-Ball scorring format means that you have a MATCH, not a possibly 30-second encounter with one of a large number of teams. When I come home to my housemates, or tell anyone I played paintball over the w/e the question they ask "Did you win?" Now if I had one a tournament, I wouldn't wait for them to ask, becuase as a (IMHO) good novice level player I don't think that winning a tournament is in my grasp. Even winning the division is looking unlikely at the moment. My response is usually "We won some games" or "We didn't come last". If we did play X-Ball matches, as Chris suggests/is going to do, then there will be a simple "Yes we won" or "No". People understand sports in terms of individual matches, this is how we need to present the sport.

Richard

P.s. I am interested in American Football and I still find it pretty dificult to watch, there is a great deal that I don't understand. The reason you guys understand it is by watching it a lot, maybe even playing it.

 

[Red_Merkin]

Hey Richard,
I don't understand cricket, either.

Just out of curosity, what is your budget for playing paintball. I'm trying to get an idea of what the average player in the UK pays per event (on the event, not the travel or accomodation)

you can pm me if you like.

What i'm trying to figure out is would players still get the same for their money if they played x-ball?

Basically it's a five man game, right? you've got two, squads that go on the field, and play for a few minutes, then you get a three minute break, and you play again with the next squad.

PSP should offer Div I and Div II X Ball if for no other reason than people want to play it. If my guys want to shell out $175 a piece to play (and they do), and book airfare at the last minute and fly in at 3 AM or pay hundreds extra to play (they did), then I'd like to have the X Ball option available.

raehl5, how much paint are your guys shooting per game?
Also, what are they charging you for entry? is it the same as 10 man?

See, i believe that x-ball can be scaled down so that everyone can play it. The old days of 10 games spread out over the day may soon be over. Play for two hours, chill out, play the next day for 2 hours then chill out, then day three ref a game.

 

[Richard Kirke (DUPS Rocket) UK]

Originally posted by Red_Merkin
Hey Richard,
I don't understand cricket, either.

People do?

Originally posted by Red_Merkin
Just out of curosity, what is your budget for playing paintball. I'm trying to get an idea of what the average player in the UK pays per event (on the event, not the travel or accomodation)
<snip>
Basically it's a five man game, right? you've got two, squads that go on the field, and play for a few minutes, then you get a three minute break, and you play again with the next squad.

£70 all in, maybe a bit more (depending on trasnport arrangements and paint deals). That's basicly entry and a case of paint per player (averages out from fornt/back players).

That's for a whole days play though. If you think that you have a format (call it X-Ball lite intil the lwayers turn up...) then I am VVVVV interested for a little project I'm working on, would be very interested to see your numbers, pm or e-mail me pls!

AS to two 5-man squads... How many 10-man squads do you think are about in the UK, not many. We are lucky if we can raise 5...

Richard

 

[Jester1]

Chis:

I for one hope that the people posting here will keep this intelligent and alive.

All:

Just a thought, but why not break the NXL off to it's own events with it's own venue? If it is so popular with everyone, then let it grow on its own rather than piggy backing on 10 man. I believe there are more than enough players to support both, even at this early stage.

Additional benefits:

1. Reffing could be traded between leagues providing better refs for all.

2. More fields could be set up for Xball, allowing for more teams.

3. 10man players wouldn't feel like they were taking a back seat to Xball. 10 man players are going to start to feel like the PSP 5 man players if something doesn't change.

4. 10 man could continue to grow rather than being stunted by the top teams moving to Xball. Plus the PSP could make even more money!!

5. Players could conceivably play S7, Xball, and 10 man. And with the race to provide the best venue, we the players would reap the rewards!

 

[Gyroscope]

X-ball Lite

Originally posted by Nick Brockdorff
...

I STILL think X-ball in its current form is only going half the distance to making paintball interesting to the general public, as the problems are still the same (as mentioned by Red - not common focus for spectators).

I would like to see rules on only white shelled/filled paint and buzzers replacing flags being introduced (for starters).

-The white shelled/filled paint, in order for spectators to actually be able to SEE the paint in the air and when breaking on players.

...

Nick

Here, here!

Ever seen that glow in the dark paint from the Ricochet folks? Looks like a rope of light at night if you shoot a string while moving the barrel. The biggest difficulty IMO is not seeing the paint that's being shot. That is where the game is won or lost after all- who gains dominance of the field?

White (or yellow) shell, white (or yellow) fill, and grass. Maybe even dye the grass black with that stuff the NFL uses for football fields. Ban white from jerseys, maybe.

 

[Red_Merkin]

x-ball lite, i think this is a great idea. Of course i've never seen x-ball played, but i'm really looking forward to seeing it played in portugal by the nations cup teams.
Like i said before, shorten the game, and it will be affordable for the masses.

AS to two 5-man squads... How many 10-man squads do you think are about in the UK, not many. We are lucky if we can raise 5...

Richard, you need to do what the tigers/shockwave are doing and team up two existing squads. most 10 man teams (and 7 man) have one or two players that are dead weight. If you take the best of two seperate teams, and have two distinct squads, then you've got yourself a better team.

Costs can be the same, if you want them to be. I think my guys perfer to pay more and play more, as they've already paid all the money to travel there, might as well pay a little more to actually play, right? We'll be continuing with 10 players for the rest of the season.

If costs are in the same ball park, then it's basically down to the players to say that they want to play x-ball.

Personally i want to try x-ball. I believe that it is the best way to produce a better result than the tournament scene. x-ball wants to be league based, so players play to win a bigger prize at the end of the season. Tourneys of the past become the league of the future.

Here's (as a player) is what i would like;
I sign up for a tournament, and i get placed in the draw for x-ball. My team flys out to the first leg (Portugal) and we play on saturday, sunday, and we ref a game in a different division on monday.
If we won our game, on friday we get three points. If we lost on saturday we get 1 point, and if we tied we get two. We also get two points for refing a game.

At the end of the season at Campaign Cup, we play the semi-finals and finals to a capacity crowd, and in front of TV cameras.

I want to play x-ball because it adds a level of intensity to the whole paintball scene. I want to go out and kick @ss for a few hours and then chill for the rest of the day. I want to know who i'm supposed to be playing, and develop strategies to beat them.

I believe that if enough people want to play x-ball then it can happen. It is my belief that if x-ball is offered to american teams then they will want to play it instead of 10 man. I also believe that if pro teams are playing x-ball then everyone will want to play x-ball too. That's how the system works; if the pros have it, then the rest of paintball wants it.

Hey these are only ideas, but that dosn't mean that we can't explore the idea of x-ball for the masses.

 

[Dragons' Frontguy]

Not to piss anybody off, I love our sport - And I would love for it to go on TV, but I just don´t see it happening! And why? - because there is no center of attention, to much is going on at the same time.
Secondly I think you have to be interested in the sport, play it, to actually give it a fair chance.
I have taken my friends to practices and tournaments, and I know this isn't x-ball but it is still the same basics, my friends gets bored watching it before they know what it is all about.... So convincing people that have no relationship to the sport to sit down and watch a game they have a hard time following will be quite a task...
The first step would be to become a part of the X-games (xtreme-sports olympics)
However Paintball being the fastes growing xtreme sport in the world, maybe we don't even need "outside" spectators....

 

[fivepointeO]

X-Ball

I went to the Los Angeles PSP tournament and I was looking very forward to watching X-Ball. I brought some friends of mine who had not experienced any kind of paintball, and they hated X-Ball. I too was a little bit dissapointed. The whole time we are watching the game, there are a handful of people screaming at the players and telling them what to do. It kind of ruins the whole concept of paintball because what made a good tournament player was timing, knowing when to go and pull off a mugging. But now, its like the player just sits there and waits to be told what to do by the crowd. My friends left me and went to go watch 10 man which they enjoyed a lot more. I dunno, maybe it is just me, but I really expected X-Ball to be totally different.

 

[fearpainpitty]

Well I dont really know about X-Ball? I think that it is all a big hoax by the paintball industry... they got the big paintballers playing and they thing everyone will want to play it... think about it. 25 games a day

Thats about half a grand or more in paint. Think of the profit the paint industry is making.

It boggles the mind.