yellow balls

are always more visible to me. shooting them, and vice versa.

could a visible paintball (seen from your couch) make the sport TV-capable? all I've gathered from paintball on TV is that people need to see the balls, badly, if anyone is going to actually analyze the game in real time. the balls are the "ball" in paintball, and if the audience doesn't know where they are, coming or going, we are left with a couple commentators narrating the entire thing for us.

so, has anyone else noticed the magic of the yellow paintball? or, thought about what I think about? think highly visible paintballs.

(extra idea: what about indoor lighting+blacklighting+white balls, huh? maybe not so practical, but people would probably have a blast watching the battlefield. maybe something for an indoor owner to consider).

the 50 caliber salutation

Maybe all hope is lost. in GI milsim's attempt to "bridge the gap" between airsoft and paintball, perhaps all hope is lost for paintball to be seen as a serious sport one day. the minute we bridge that gap, the game is a hobby forever. no one will ever get paid (exaggeration...or not?). let me share some opinions.

-the 50 balls are too small. something I had always been fascinated with was the action of 68 paint flying through the air- from behind my gun, or the fact that I can see paint coming at me and can potentially dodge it. it's large enough to be tangible. it's large enough to bomb a lane like it's artillery. I can watch people get freaking barraged by paint. at 50, people will still get blasted, but it won't look as much like they've been murdered. don't feed me bullshit about how the mark will be just as large.

-second complaint about the small balls- you can carry way too much paint. not enough reloading going on, not enough little potential breaks when people are reloading.
and the weight issue. at fifty cal, am I going to carry far fewer pods, that weigh far less? I don't think anyone is sure how much they will weigh, but at the current paint consistency I hear they should weigh in around 1.5 grams. the strength you needed to carry those (fewer, now) pods will be reduced. and the tiny light guns and 45/45's all around. talk about mobility. that means less athleticism. are you an athlete when you dive around in a game with your three pound equipment? I'm definitely not considering airsoft players any sort of athlete. a move to less weight is a move twords "hobby."

and here's one more unrelated complaint. Xball fields are too small. it's like i'm playing starcraft (a strategy game) with no fog of war. and it sucks. i want a larger field. keep coaching, it's too much fun to take away. but it will be diminished somewhat by a longer field, which is exactly how i want it. It's the special things about paintball like communication that keep me coming back. the simple elasticity of the paintball player. the real-time strategy, the real-time planning. the ability to be sneaky. yeah...

one more. i fear now that big paintball has given up on paintball. maybe no more support. maybe that's why they don't call it paintball anymore. they call this new game GI milsim.

paintball as a "park."

I think the newly established Paintball Parks llc. could be on to something- a standard for fields. which, I guess, is what it's about.
going to a paintball field could and should be an "experience" for a casual player or someone who has never played before. PP LLC will probably do that- so that lil' baller (pardon my baca) will be like "wow, so this is a paintball field" instead of "wow, we're playing on that dirt flat?" With so many "backyard" fields and so few "professional-style" fields, people probably wonder if we ourselves are even taking the sport seriously.
A sort of standard to a paintball field could really help the public to respect what we do.

An example might be multiple fields. if our sport has two formats, offer both. also, offer some sort of scenario course. I'm thinking "full package," after all, it's a paintball "park."

now, the key to everything I'm saying is professionalism- your speedball arenas should be on leveled ground and seeded grass. take it a step further and use turf- everyone will be amazed by turf. turf is professional. turf takes out the fear of sliding, diving, rocks, bunker stakes, holes, what have you. plus, it's a blast to play on when it's done right (multiple layers). if a newbie is afraid of getting shot he/she is probably also afraid of diving on what could be rock hard dirt. hell, let's make turf an industry standard so that pro snake players can last more than five years before their bones grind away into dust. spend some time on the scenario field(s)- build bunkers, forts, trenches, hills, whatever. just make the place a "war zone," it shouldn't be just woods. people can play woods in their backyard, and do, instead of going to a field and paying and entry fee, despite it's accomidations. people can get paint at wal-mart and CO2 fills somewhere in their area.

so quite frankly, I'd much rather have fewer, better parks. let's make ourselves look professional. I know it's a lot of money, maybe it's "impossible," what have you, but if paintball is a great outing, let's act like it.

percentage pro

physical skills: 5%
experience: 30%
whoIknow: 35%
steez: 30%



but, seriously...

paintballs.

come to think of it, paintball players have been getting screwed for years, right? when you go to a field and pay $45 for the cheapest paint and $60 for something you can actually lane someone otb with, man, it's like, can't all paint at least be decent? such as medium quality? shooting rocks is in no way a reflection of an actual tournament experience. taking 10 bounces in a day of play isn't exactly making you the best player. the average cost of playing a day of paintball is sixty bucks- and that's for the cheap shit that's hard as a rock. maybe the big deal Richmond Italia is making is that medium quality will become the standard for "tournament" paintballs, or perhaps that producing slightly smaller paintballs makes "good" paint the same cost as the presiously "bad" paint.

2k4

2004 was a very, very special time in paintball. We could go as spesh as '02. We could get as wild as late '05. Obviously, some of these bits may have occurred somewhere inside and/or outside that timeline.
Two thousand four was probably the first time the angel was eclipsed in popularity (post when autocockers lost popularity with the autococker vs. angel debate. )

Real Quick:
The angel-autococker debate ran like this:
autococker nerds: "Our guns shoot farther. The Angel is poorly made and "lobs." We're so smart."
new school peeps with neon blue angels: "yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa trick."
end result: autocockers were slow. and the balls could just roll out the barrel.

Basically, timmy's were light, bounced a lot, and had some very agg milling compared to the plain A4 angels... with horrible 90 degree frames. So timmy's took over.
Then there was the shooting from the hip. Oh, shooting from the hip. So much cool. When the paintball crowd got younger during this population boom era, the kids brought style with them. There's not much else to say except that shooting from the hip is awesome and... yeap.
Back to the style session. Proflex's were the mask to have. With a smoke or chrome lens. With a flipped strap. With a gun (shockers were especially cool) pressed right up against the nose. With a hat on. While leaning forward. Then, especially in the earlier days, you could basically shoot as fast as you wanted. Peoples guns would blaze but it was new to be shooting that fast. Frenzy boards ruled.
Halo B changed everything. I would mention eggs but those loaders were so terrible maybe we shouldn't remember them.
Then, HK made an empire basically entirely off their style (and good players).
Dynasty started the first pro team forum on pbnation, and for the first time pro players had some decent amnount of fame and players started having names.
Next the first real run at Dynasty and getting paid happened, which thankfully we have documented beautifally thanks to Monkey With A Gun in the documentary Heroes For A Day.
The "cheater" paintball player was hated on at local fields; "cheating" became somewhat a part of the game on a mainstream scale, as well as a skill.
300 FPS came out and people loved it.
Good times...

The [Pretty] Big Bullet

.50, eh?

Apparently, shipping paintballs is a huge expense and is what's one thing really hurting paint companies (check out baca's article). So if the expense is in the shipping weight, people are saying "let's ship smaller .50 balls and lose less/ make more money." I say:

How about no, scott.

In the article above, which you have read by this point, a persons states that to shoot the smaller balls (which would be ligher...right?) at the effective same rate, they had to be shot at around 400fps. So couldn't we just fill our p\balls with a lighter substance and pump up our velocity, neverminding equipment (gun/loader) change? Maybe we would need new solenoids to handle higher pressures, and maybe that would be all. Let's put thick "sticky" foam in 'em, I guess. Or "paint" mixed with a light filler. How much harder would they be to see coming tword you... I also don't see a .50 ball breaking on anyone anytime soon. I don't want to see old school guns lose their functionality, either.

chi city open

Look at them angles.

Ignore most of these lines except the snake side MD and dorito side Temple. some of this is bogus (like the guy on D side going pylon then MD).

I could go over any bunker at request, but I basically see this layout as "get up to the good bunks/shots asap."

Snake side MD will be played every point... I think. I could see someone going to the closest D side pin and shooting under the X and G'ing their MD. Dudeski won't even see it coming. If it works. I'm playing the layout this weekend, so we'll see how goes.

I have the urge to get to 50 D then bump to their aztec. and I want to do it "early." and shoot like 3 dudes.

snake side MT will probably just lock down snake/snake side.

The M to the A to the Izzo

hold up.

I was in Rock Hill last year. the difference was the draw to the actual event.
Nah' hear.
Kids will actually want to be at the field (besides actual play) if there is a reason to be. last year, 'bout the only reason for lil' ballers to hang around the event was the TMG tent. PACKED. all day. let's do some maff:

kids at event = sales for vendors (paintball vendors, big herb's smokin BBQ, what have you) = "larger" event.

kids bleeding out of event after they play/after they watch games = less people 'round the event.

if(more peeps)
then (more sales/more people in stands/event has higher population)

TMG has about a million guns/grips/loaders/etc. every "non-sponsored" kid with disposable income was at this tent last year. and kids have disposable income. people stuck around the event last year if only to ponder trades to TMG or to buy nice used gats or tons of used products, without using the internet. TMG has BINS of random products players want.
basically, if what you want isn't at the 5 vendors that show, you're out of luck for actually buying anything at an event and will probably just go back to the hotel and drink "or whatever paintball players do." Now, I'm convinced local players (or even out-of-stater's) are much more likely to show up if there might be something to buy themselves there, even if they aren't playing. If there is even fun to have... and checking out the tons of products TMG brought to events was fun. no TMG about sucked all non-playing fun from MAO.
Nah, it's not just TMG. A friend "heavy D" does about the same thing. He's not allowed either.

This year...
you might watch your friends play after you were done... but there was little-to-no reason to stick around. people came, played, and bled out onto rock hill where kids with fireworks got the police to police your hotel... just about 24 hours a day. and that's not fun.

hey planet...

do you know why gen 3 intimidators can still go for $400? it's because they look good.

it's called milling.