Paintball on TV

**fullofpaint** · 12-30-2023, 10:30 PM

Originally posted by martix_agent

Things like you're talking about do exist in short form on Youtube... the best content is done by airsoft guys, though.

Interesting anecdote on this; My cousin works for a big time marketing agency and recently hit me up because they had a new client in a paintball-adjacent field and wanted to use paintball influencers to promote the client. They knew I was big into the sport so were looking for suggestions on who to reach out to as they'd been struggling. They wanted a Mr. Beast-type vibe with minimum 50k followers ideally on TikTok or Insta and it wasn't till I started looking that I realized how small the pb world's social media impact is. Almost no individual player met that requirement, only the major brands, media channels, a couple fields, and review/store channels like PBRML or ANS.

Not sure who they ended up reaching out to but thought that was interesting, especially compared to some of the airsoft guys out there.

**DocsMachine** · 12-30-2023, 11:12 PM

They wanted a Mr. Beast-type vibe with minimum 50k followers ideally on TikTok or Insta and it wasn't till I started looking that I realized how small the pb world's social media impact is.

-That's because there's no money in this sport. Even the "big names" aren't exactly throwing money around these days.

No money to spread around, no influencers. Simple as that.

Doc.

**fullofpaint** · 12-30-2023, 11:28 PM

Eh I mean yes, but how do you explain airsoft, other than it just being the hot thing with a younger gen compared to PB? They face the same issues we do for the most part, but have a HUGE social media presence in comparison. Dudes like Novritsch, Silo, Dutch, House, are all in the million follower range and I regularly see them pop up on my socials even though I don't follow any airsoft stuff. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen any even mildly viral paintball stuff and it's almost always that clip that aired on Sportscenter or something like that.

**Trbo323** · 12-30-2023, 11:55 PM

Originally posted by fullofpaint

Eh I mean yes, but how do you explain airsoft, other than it just being the hot thing with a younger gen compared to PB?

Well you kind of answered your own question right there

I've called it the COD mentality. On screen, airsoft looks like a video game just with actual people. Not that I'm trying to find them but most of the videos I see are the through the scope sniper ones. It's basically "look at this noob getting shot" those are easy to understand from any viewers perspective. Other airsoft videos I'm sure look much more "realistic" than paintball. When these kids are playing COD there's no hoppers on top, no remote lines, no paint splatter.

To the viewer it doesn't matter that kids have died playing airsoft when they got shot in the neck from a sniper who was too close, what matters is the look of it all. It looks like they are "fantasy military" which is what all their video games are anyway, fantasy.

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**Morgenstern** · 12-31-2023, 03:09 AM

The airsoft thing is a good point. Paintball could have been a war game and that idea is what got most people out in the woods originally. Heck, even an article written about the first games of survival and pursuit will pull you in. But In its infancy, partially to fight laws at the time, the sport’s leadership decided it was going to look like this and now we have something that most people who normally would be interested can’t relate to:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=er2bne...luNWFsbA%3D%3D

**Trbo323** · 12-31-2023, 03:19 AM

Have you guys seen this? Pro 1v1. Much much easier to follow. The point system is a little complicated but it kind of makes sense, potentially you can keep shooting the other guy every round and he can still score more points than you.

The really nice thing is you know where each player is shooting, there's no wondering who got that elimination.

Honestly the worst part is hearing the players talk crap to each other.

https://youtu.be/InINOeOkedc?si=l3Df3HABesx0q8OZ

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**DocsMachine** · 12-31-2023, 04:32 AM

Eh I mean yes, but how do you explain airsoft, other than it just being the hot thing with a younger gen compared to PB?

-Easy: Airsoft is considerably more popular than paintball.

And for a variety of reasons: It's cleaner to start with, it's cheaper to both get into and to play, it's less painful, more people like it for the "realism", there's more people in other countries that play it (places where real firearms are prohibited or restricted, but an incredibly realistic airsoft is allowed) the aforementioned "COD mentality", etc. etc.

Like it or not, more people play it, which means more money, which in turn means more advertising.

Doc.

**martix_agent** · 12-31-2023, 09:19 AM

Originally posted by DocsMachine

-Easy: Airsoft is considerably more popular than paintball.

And for a variety of reasons: It's cleaner to start with, it's cheaper to both get into and to play , it's less painful, more people like it for the "realism", there's more people in other countries that play it (places where real firearms are prohibited or restricted, but an incredibly realistic airsoft is allowed) the aforementioned "COD mentality", etc. etc.

Like it or not, more people play it, which means more money, which in turn means more advertising.

Doc.

I absolutely see the appeal in airsoft. I played one day and realized that while it was just as fun as paintball for less money, the amount of cheating is rampant and it was going to drive me insane. Most of the common videos about people playing airsoft include cheaters being at least a part of them. The cheating culture has got to go for me to be interested in playing it.
There's a lot of REALLY good video content that a handful of airsoft players continue to crank out all over the world.

**SignOfZeta** · 12-31-2023, 10:05 AM

Originally posted by fullofpaint

Eh I mean yes, but how do you explain airsoft, other than it just being the hot thing with a younger gen compared to PB? They face the same issues we do for the most part, but have a HUGE social media presence in comparison. Dudes like Novritsch, Silo, Dutch, House, are all in the million follower range and I regularly see them pop up on my socials even though I don't follow any airsoft stuff. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen any even mildly viral paintball stuff and it's almost always that clip that aired on Sportscenter or something like that.

How do I explain the popularity of airsoft? White supremacy. Do you have anything as popular as white supremacy to offer paintball? Probably not. Next question?

Paintball is obviously fun as hell to play and boring as hell to watch. When there were 30 channels and the game was at its commercial peak they couldn’t make it work. Now that there are 1000s of channels and watching paintball still isn’t popular enough to be a show. Keep this in mind though…it may not matter. Paintball has essentially outlived the traditional definition of “teevee” and is still fun. Maybe TV is what sucks and we don’t have to worry. I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment from Paintball YouTubers, way more than any pro produced paintball thing.

**Daltech** · 12-31-2023, 12:17 PM

Originally posted by redsquirrel

There are so many hyper-niche shows out there, especially when it comes to competition shows. How in the world is there not a paintball competition show? Seems like an easy pickup for a streaming platform if it’s produced well. Would think there would be a decent enough audience surrounding it and could pump some interest into the game/sport. Likely only a 1 season show but who knows.

Now I’m not talking speedball. My idea would be a group of competitors already familiar with many aspects of paintball (you know like a group of MCBers). Could have different competitions each episode on interesting fields. Mech/pump (OC/SC)/single shot/speedball/ctf/build your own marker/etc. different game types and other shenanigans.

Throw in a decent amount of comedy, a monetary/custom marker prize.

Seems very absent in a world where I’m seeing cornhole and mini golf on tv.

Anyone think there’s a market for this? Any ideas on the show you’d like to see?

Long story, this is what’s popular on ESPN these days. Mock combat sports aren’t popular right now, you know, guns kill people, cars crash them selves and pens misspell words.

**martix_agent** · 12-31-2023, 01:22 PM

Originally posted by SignOfZeta

How do I explain the popularity of airsoft? White supremacy. Do you have anything as popular as white supremacy to offer paintball? Probably not. Next question?

Care to elaborate on this? It seems pretty outrageous.

**k_obeastly** · 01-01-2024, 08:30 PM

Rewatching x-fire on YouTube now, probably the closest to a good pb tv show you’re going to get.

Paintball on TV

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