The big diff is the format it will be played in. It is argued that in the way X-ball is played, it will allow people who are not too familiar with paintball , to understand it better, thus opening it up for a larger audience. This could result in TV networks hopping on, and forking out the big cash, along with outside sponsors.
At the moment, since there is no real fan following in paintball, x-ball needs to lift along with established torunaments, in order to provide the infrastructure to play the games. But it is hoped that in the near future x-ball can stand on it's own feet, and teams can have proper home fields to run their games from. Meaning that team A would travel to team B's field one week to play them, with team B returning the favor as the season progresses, just like it happens in 'real' sports.
In case you are not too familiar with the rules, with x-ball a game does not end after the other team is in the deadbox and the flag is hung, but after a set amount of time. This ensures that anyone that shows up to watch will see a good amount of paintball, which would mean that once people start paying to see it, they get value for money. They way standard paintball is played, if you'd show up to watch Dynasty play against whoever, it could just as easy be over in ten seconds, hardly value for money.
Now, the big question is will x-ball be exciting enough to the non paintball audience? Some people are sure it will be, and are betting large sums of cash on it, while others argue that paintball, like most other extreme sports, will always be a 'highlight' sport, meaning that only the tasty fragments will be aired.
Either way, it seems that Chuck Hendsch, with his NPPL S7 has made a large dent in the confidence of some of the powers behind x-ball, proving it is possible to draw crowds with traditional paintball, and aquire outside sponsorship too.
We'll see where the future leads us.
