Paintball Influencers

[jokers]

So I was reading Dye's write up on the new Paragon Bolted DLS and noticed that they referred to paintball influencers. I am curious who everyone thinks of as an influencers in the paintball community. We all know that DocsMachine is the biggest here but I know that MCB does not necessarily represent the real paintball world. If it helps I would love to hear your favorite influencer for twitter, instagram, Youtube, really anything that a person posts images, videos, rants, podcasts, or whatever else could be done. The person can be a force for advancing the paintball community or if it helps paintball maybe airsoft, I would like to hear what they are doing right and wrong. If there is someone or some place that you feel is a detriment to the paintball community I would like to hear about them as well, but I would like to hear what they are doing wrong, if applicable previously and today.
The one item that comes to mind for me for wrong, is the media's coverage of the gang paintball wars, seeing as they are shooting people without wearing masks, chronoing, and quite likely hitting innocent bystanders. While I applaud the gangs and other individuals for doing something different and saving their and innocents lives by not using real guns I think they should be taking it to the field or somehow including masks. I think the media is wrong for covering it in a favorable light since it glorifies paintballing outside of controlled areas, and gives the wrong ideas about paintball.

So I have seen many Youtubers posted and I think the best way to make sure and help make sure our community is represented is to make sure the people who post here get recognition. So I am posting here all the youtubers that are part of this community if i forget one or need to add one let me know.

In no particular order our MCB Contributors:
MCB Member : Their Youtube Channel
zinger565 : Zinger565PB
baccipaintball: BacciPaintball.com
superman : Bearded Works
ChuckLove : ChuckLove
DocsMachine : DocsMachineShop
kevin qmto : qmto
Diomedes : DarwinZDF42
cockerpunk : gerglmuff
Meleager7 : Mel Eager Prod

MCB Member : Webpage
cfos00 : Have Paint Will Travel
DocsMachine : Doc's Machine Shop
bacci paintball : Bacci Paintball

Not Members but some say informative

DocFire Paintball
WillBallForSoup
ZDSPB
Punishers Paintball
Nova Paintball
PBRML
WebDogPaintball (Tyger)

[gabe]

WillBallForSoup is a big one on Youtube but honestly I just cringe at every video. Dude is probably the worst segment of paintball in terms of the crowd he's pitching to.

[zinger565]

The "TMZ" of paintball.

[blitz121]

I don't mind Paintball ruined my life. WillBallForSoup is eh.

[MrBarraclough]

I find Scotty's (Soup's) speech cadence and tendency to dramatically emphasize every over phrase tiresome. He sounds a bit like a 12 year old sharing the, most, shocking, gossip, EVER. And as with all gossips, you get the distinct impression that his whole point is showing off how special, important, and connected he supposedly is by showing off his oh-so-special secret information. And often he is simply full of it.

[Cyberpyr8]

Love him or hate him, Wolf is an ambassador for paintball in different forms of media. He reps equipment and has a lot of followers. Some of his stuff is pretty good. Brad from Paintball ruined my life also comes to mind. He does a lot on YouTube and his reviews are ok. It's more of a personal preference on what he likes and dislikes, but he covers stuff pretty well. I really like the Behind the Bunker podcast but I don't think of them as influencers. They aren't reviewing products or pushing anything really. But they do get views on their podcast and are consistent for sure. They promote big games and report some news.

[Brokeass_baller]

Wolf is completely obnoxious.

[MrBarraclough]

I appreciate that Brad appears to genuinely believe what he says. Sometimes I wish he would figure out what he thinks before the camera starts rolling, though. Some videos have an awful lot of "I guess" and "I don't know" thrown in. Maybe he thinks scripting out what he intends to say or reading off a teleprompter would come across as less genuine somehow.

[Cyberpyr8]

My only thing with PBRML is that he likes markers with contoured front grips and he has mentioned several times he has big hands. That's not everyone's taste or situation so he doesn't like certain brands or markers due to that. I guess when you're a one man show you're only going to get one opinion. But the stuff he puts out is really well done. I can look past that stuff and see he does try to do really thorough reviews. The live stuff is fun to watch once and a while.

[Erase]

I enjoy the guy from paintballruinedmylife, he managed to create a high quality production youtube channel when paintball was suffering, i value his opinion he has the tendency to trim away all the fat . I really like the guy from Defcon paintball in Canada too, i appreciate the effort he puts into testing products. I just enjoy the personality of the people I have mentioned, entertaining to watch.

On the flip-side I have come across individuals who start to get a little bit of attention from large manufacturers, a little bit of a reputation and they begin to move in a way that is only hurting themselves and the sport. Particularly in an environment where the rest of the community are quick to help each other. When their bottom line becomes profit I find it difficult to be supportive, all I see is failure.

There are dealers on here who have been willing to give me a discount and even if I didn't end up making a purchase, I am always interested in buying from them for that simple reason.

[SignOfZeta]

1) The very idea makes me want to puke.

2) I for one do not “applaud the gangs”, as you say.

[Siress]

The only paintball 'channels' I follow are PaintballRuinedMyLife and a few regulars here. PRML is a pretty respectable guy with no-nonsense equipment reviews and a healthy perspective on recreation play. I don't think I'm subscribed to his channel, actually. I think he just pops up every time I look into new gear.

[Olsson]

I wholeheartedly detest influencers in any field. I will not speak for Doc as to how he views himself, but I would never have referred to him as a Paintball Influencer. In my mind, an influencer doesn't contribute with anything new, personal or original, to whatever field they are catering to. Ergo - Doc is the very antithesis of an influencer.

There are a few people in Paintball that I readily listen to, among them is aforementioned Doc, among other stand out characters such as Luke, Sandman, Tuna, XMagterror/XMT, Bacci, etc. The list isn't exclusive, but you get my drift as to what kind of people I believe any paintball player would benefit to listen to.

The next tier of people to listen to would be the well known pillars on a respected paintball site or even Facebook group. Yes, I know how a lot of you detest FB, and reasonably so. That said, just as there is a whole bunch of great contributors here, there is a similar bunch on FB groups such as Intimidator Owners, etc. As long as you can discern the chaff from the real deal, sites like MCB, AO, and similar FB groups contributes more to the health of paintball than the entirety of paintball influencers ever could.


Funny side note - auto correct doesn't think that influencer is a proper word. Thank you auto correct, quite right you are. It's not a proper profession either. Fking parasites.

[jokers]

Did anyone understand any of that all I heard was "Bork Bork Bork BOOOOOORRRRRKKK Influencers, Grumble Bork!"
Funny thing part 2, auto correct does not like influencer but Bork is good.
I completely agree with your thoughts and feelings on influencers i was not trying to be rude to doc by associating him with that plague but I am not sure what i would call him and others like him "Wise Elder" seems disrespectful and there are people like superman that are younger then me that I turn to for help, information, and work. We can't go off color and call them Greenies because they let any crazy fool into the green club look at me. I may have to go check out the facebook groups the main reason that i do not go on there was it never seemed to have anything i cared about.

[Olsson]

"Did anyone understand any of that all I heard was "Bork Bork Bork BOOOOOORRRRRKKK Influencers, Grumble Bork!"

Well that made me laugh out loud for quite some time. Aptly put, sir. Especially with the nuances in Bork.

Superman is one of those later contributors that have my full respect. Several more have been mentioned later on in this thread, and several more that fits the bill hasn't been mentioned. On MCB we know who they are, and it will become obvious with time on any website or FB-group, etc.

Actually now that I come to think of it - I find the word contributor to be a much better description of these guys, since they actually contribute, rather than echo whatever is the latest fad, in order to stay "relevant" without coming up with anything original themselves.

[Cyberpyr8]

On the bad side of "influencers" I would say the Lone Wolf guys fall in that category. They do a lot of reviews and as a store, I feel they are very slanted in their reviews. I watch some of their stuff but most of the time I would watch any other review first. They do the rate my gear and really slam some people with lower end stuff. Not all low end stuff is bad and they of course only really care about high end stuff and speedball.

Erase I forgot about Defcon. Yes I like their stuff. They do good reviews and are pretty fair. I think if you search for paintball reviews you will find them in the top results. You also have the Command Bros. I don't really follow them but I know they have a decent following. They are more in that line of influencers than reviewers or anything else.

[Erase]

Defcon has been really helpful for me to get into magfed, i am quick to support any store in Canada that isn't Badlands (even though they probably supply them). The fact they make content I find useful and entertaining makes me a fanboy for sure.

Expensive doesn't equate to best at all in paintball, the best marker is often the opposite. Theres a reason everybody is running around with Emeks so don’t let them get you down.

[Hp_lovecraft]

I didn't realize this type of thing existed. haha.

I was thinking names like Bob Gurnsey, And Fred Shultz.... and maybe early 90s Youngblood

[ATBen]

Fred has a show every Tuesday on FB with Bill Bailey of Bailey's Battlefield

[Chuck E Ducky]

I agree Hp_Lovectaft I would add Bud Orr to that list he influenced paintball a lot. But by today’s definition of Influencer I would never lump a legend in with todays Marketing Pedalers.

Jokers I think I get the question and what your trying to ask / discuss but there is a difference in product sales technique and influential people in the sport.

[BrickHaus]

To me an influencer is a fairly loose term. Anyone with a following is essentially an influencer.

Influencers are people like Wolf, Akimbo Assassin, Bea Paxson, Greg Hastings, theres many more but I personally met the above list. . All of the above have been at big games and or charity events I've attended. In that regard, they were all being paid to be at the events I was attending. They all also contribute/ed to the sport in some way as well, from making the best paintball video games available, to running a YouTube channel, they all grew our sport in some way.


I dunno i have mixed feeling about the concept. On one hand, I cant really hate them. Anyone the contributes to the dying sport should be viewed as a plus in my eyes. Anyone that can get paid to show up to an event deserves a " Get it girl." Too.

On the other hand. It can really conflate ones ego and end up being the snake that eats their own tail.

I can say Greg, Bea, and Antonio were all super nice people in person. And as a 20 year old nobody, i really appreciated them being as cool as they were.

I was a huge fan of Wolf back in the day. Meeting him made me stop liking him. Yet hes still an influencer for the sport.



As of late Im not on enough social media to know any current influencers, but i think they can be a net positive l.

[Siress]

Found this while doing the research. Pretty cool to find these relics.

Popular Paintball Channels.xlsx

Password is the name of the God of Old School paintball, and all things brass. Velcor


I've never heard of ~75% of these channels.

edit: Top 10 for those that don't bother viewing or contributing

[Nish]

+1 for you.

[pirhana92]

Mike Phillips, content type, scam lol. Thats funny.

[zinger565]

Might as well add mine...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWkZCRmti_dAxQFog4-lqmQ

Still very small, but it's the long game, right?

[Tinman74]

I like “Behind the Bunker” in whatever category they fall into. I’m not sure they’re influencers but they are entertaining and as a collective have a pretty good base of knowledge. Is that an influencer?

[Toestr]

Not a fan of Wolf. He shows up to fields and expects everyone (including the renters) to know who the mighty Wolf is. Like bro, your fanbase grew up and left their Tippmanns to rust in their parents' garage a decade ago. Sure he has 80k+ subscribers but he gets maybe 1k views a video. His equipment setups and editing were good in 2008, but just don't cut it today. It amazes me that fields/sponsors will still cover his event entry let alone his travel expenses or hotel.

WillBallForSoup is interesting. I have little interest in the segment of the game he covers, but his stories and rants are entertaining. He's also very engaged with his audience. He reads most if not all comments and responds to many. He's responded to every PM I've sent him on other socials. His personal life is a bit of a roller coaster though...

Bacci is great. Really cool interviews and his dry humor is hilarious.

ANS and Defcon are actually pretty decent channels for being 'corporate'. ANS' tech videos are especially good.

My favorite Paintball YouTuber has got to be QMTO. His reviews are probably the only paintball videos I'd drop everything to watch.




Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Tinman74]

Forgot about QMTO but fully agree. Love that guys videos

[bellicose]

Have played with Bacci before, and shared a campfire. Great guy. Benji (PaintballDNA) is awesome too.

[Erase]

Bacci always has some educational content, definitely somebody who is a wealth of information.

[Nish]

Going back and forth on how to answer this. Let me start by saying I I think that there are 2 types. Those who want to be influencers, and those who want to share there passion only to realize one day that they are influencing.

I'm going to attempt to keep this list to the second type in no real order.

Not Doc, we can't say Doc his head will get way too big.

Carter - I mean... Here we all are Chappy and HP Lovecraft - Liquid CO2 Matters
Simon - need I say more?
Slim - SC resergance in the North East. Even if he's wrong about most everything
Oh fine.. Doc. - mostly because I am behind on the comic and feel bad for that

Honorable mentions
Walz - single handedly started the holiday tradition named after him
Collectively - the ambassadors that show up and work to provide positive experiences for new people online and on the field. You bums... I salute YOU

[Cyberpyr8]

Yeah Simon is really an influencer within the industry. Heck, he invented the Omen!

[Siress]

Omen? Simon invented the first force feed loader. The only other paintball-specific invention to empower the sport to such a degree would be antichop eyes - which a certain, quiet individual that drops in here once in a while invented on a whim and never cared for the spotlight.

[Cyberpyr8]

The Omen comment was meant as a joke. Everyone seems to hate on them and Simon did create them. Though I loved my Omens and didn't have issues with them. But he does do some innovative stuff and I own (and for some reason continue to re-buy) the Emek bodies and other parts. He goes to events and is very helpful. Jack Wood also should be mentioned. He is great for the sport and is on PBN and FB commenting directly to people. I think he is definitively an influential person in paintball.