What about returning to the sport?

[Sottyman]

Finding a good field is definitely a huge part of it. At my local field, I've seen quite a few kids or father-son pairs come out for the first time with their own gear after their birthdays or something, never to come back because they got obliterated by the overcompetitive jerks. I've even stopped playing as much because there are so many guys now that just sit in the back row of bunkers and shoot 3/4 cases per game without ever moving until there are two renters left on the other team, then run down and bunker them. I've tried suggesting to the staff that they implement a "gravity hoppers only" rule, or maybe even "no pods," but they don't want to lose the paint sales from the guys who need 3 cases to play one day.

I think that the best thing for new players is to find a field that splits the experienced players from the newer/less competitive players entirely.

I feel the sport has changed/evolved immensely since I first played back in 2000/2001. Back then the average rates of fire were lower, and I didn't feel it was as intimidating (especially as a newer player). Didn't matter if you had a stock tippmann 98 or an Angel LCD. No one had breach sensors or force feeding hoppers, so I feel everyone got to enjoy 6-8bps unless they were in actively in a tournament. Of course that all changed once the aforementioned technologies became mainstream AND relatively cheap. Thinking about what $300 would buy you in 2000 compared to today, it's absolutely incredible. Back then you were very much still in the mechanical gun budget realm, but now that same $300 will get you eyes/breech sensors, circuit board(s) with multiple firing modes, fewer moving parts, lower operating pressures/greater efficiencies, and arguably more reliable/lower maintenance platforms. Heck, weren't 12v revvies $75-80 when they came out? Spend that now on a basic halo and get at least twice the feed rate with zero hiccups until the feed tray runs dry! I really feel for the new players these days. The learning curve seems so much steeper when everyone and their grandmother can shoot machine guns for less than $500 and the new guys with rentals are using the exact same tippmann I used when I started 20+ years ago.

I guess that why I latched onto my stock class phantoms. Those have always been a constant for me while the paintball world seemed to always put out something faster, lighter, smaller, etc. I'm personally glad to see rates of fire coming down, especially in tournament play/organized events. Playing stock class back in what I consider the wild west (mid-late 2000's), when you saw all the uncapped semi/ramping, was a hell of a time. Fun but definitely tough on the newer/less uninitiated crowds. Anyway, that's enough old man ranting for now I guess...

-Mike

[Martin]

CCI is still running and was taken over by another company as Mike retired from it. They seem stable as a company and are producing parts and guns. WGP and Angel are gone.
NXL (and a host of others smaller localized tournaments) are the main leagues now. 50 cal is considered low impact and mostly marketed to younger kids and families. It's not huge and 68 still is the main size paintballs at a lot of fields. I know a few that are almost all 50 cal but I think that is a rarity. FIeld limits are now 10.2 or 10.5 at most fields. A big switch from 2005 and unlimited fire rates.

The funny thing is a lot of stuff from the 2005 era is popular still. People still show up with old equipment every weekend at our field. There seems to be a resurgence from that time frame and players that quit playing are looking at coming back.

If you are looking to buy a new gun Planet Eclipse is the big company these days. All of their guns are top notch. You can still get Smart Parts but now they are split up into Gog, Freak, SP Shocker and Luxe. Tippmann is still around. Dye is still making guns as well. HK Army is the new soft goods and private label gun company these days. Exalt makes a bunch of good soft goods as well.
Gear: PE Emek | Axe Pro | LV 1.6 | 16" Sly CF Barrel | 48/4500 Tank | CTRL | Evil 3+4 Pod Pack
Clothing: Blood Red CRBN X Push | Exalt Bounce Cap | Carbon SC(Summer)
| Jerseys Clinic Jersey(Winter) | CK Platinum Red Pants | Exalt Arm Pads | Salomon XA Pro 3D Shoes
Extra Weight: GoPro Hero 3+ | HK Mask Mount | PE Rolling Bag | Guru Gun Stands
Projects: Evil Pimp

That will pretty much give you a crash course on Paintball in 2020. Welcome back.

I agreed with this...LOL

[Dalep_rc]

Finding a good field is the most important part. Fields that let teams of "pro" oriented players destroy renters and newbies and father son combos are pretty much trash fields in my book.

Have you got out since the end of Jan?

We have made it out probably 3 more times, even had the wife out playing! Picked up a 2005 superstock electronic framed cocker and she was doing very well! I agree with the 5.5 bps or all mechanical would be awesome! When we played with the team guys, we were asked and we knew what we were getting into. They were done practicing for the day but 2 or 3 still wanted to play. It was a good time, it would have been better if they were playing mechanical too, but I didn't mind. Punching above your weight is good at times for getting better. I would NOT have wanted to do it all day though!

[August West]

Seems to be a few of us. I started playing in about 93/94 and played consistently up until about 2010 then stopped. I was active army, I am retired now, and did a back-to-back deployment then 14 months in Korea and after that just never started playing again. That is until a couple of weeks ago.

Cruising around the web I happened to see that one of my local fields, Black Ops Paintball, had a 2-day scenario game going the next weekend. I told my wife that I was going to go out and check it out, not to play, just to see how many players were out. I even told my wife if there was not much participation I was going to sell all my old mags and cockers. Well, the place was freakin packed! So I bought a new tank aired up my old gat and played the next weekend. I had a freakin blast!!

I can officially say at 54 years young I am officially back! LOL

[AndrewSaintos]

I am going to the gym at the moment, but I think to switch to running outside, what do you think?

[Brokeass_baller]

Why not do both?

[Jonnydread]

I'm with Brokeass_baller . I like to run outside and do weights in the gym.

[Brokeass_baller]

That's how it should be. I jog, sprint, and hill sprint outside. Then workout to build mass in the gym.

[lew]

I am going to the gym at the moment, but I think to switch to running outside, what do you think?

Stick to the gym, but add in sprints. That'll help ya big time with paintball.

[vijil]

Another thing that happened was magfed. Both Dye and PE now make magfed markers (both use the same magazines too, which is nice).

I feel like there needs to be a new version of paintball, with a bunch of fields signing on. Something like 50 cal mech only, with "pro" teams using those exact same markers but playing competitively at events set up between the fields that sign on, to use as promotion. The next competitive level up, rather than high ROF, would be something like 50 cal magfed speedball, or pump, or pistols only, or something that's specifically NOT ROF based. Stream free on twitch (charging for live streams is one of the stupidest ideas in paintball. Better to not stream at all.), have national and global championships and festival events where you run everything from recball through speedball and everything in between alongside the tradeshow. That way the folks showing up with their "pro" markers wont be blasting the newbies off the field. In fact it'll be the opposite.

The key: ignore the old school players. Forget about the existing market, stop caring whether people "graduate" to 68. Start the whole thing from scratch with new players. That way they wont bitch about the flight characteristics of 50 cal. That said everything above could be done with 68 as well, the main point is the lack of ROF based mechanics.

Then the old school players will see how much of a great time everyone is having and join in anyway.

[Ironnerd]

I agree with getting the fields on the same sheet of music, and a series of competitions with fairly standard equipment. We do, however, diverge a bit on standard equipment.

Mech-Semi (single-finger trigger)
Non-agitating Hopper-ball
0.68 Cal

A combo that is basically "Rent-a-ball". It limits BPS to something reasonable for noobs and offers a challenge to Old Schoolers (who like mech semi anyway), almost eliminates light-ups, and keeps the game affordable since you can't burn through a lot of paint. While pump is fun, Mech-Semi is better for noobs.

Also, we can't just sit around hoping "someone" does something to save our sport. Back in the day, Kingman actually paid to have Paintball magazines on the shelves in High School Libraries, and even had a College Scholarship in 1999. The paintball industry should do something similar. Perhaps not Magazines in Libraries, but certainly a darn nice presence on the WWW/FB/YouTube (and just accept that it will be demonitized - bonus, no stupid ads!). Check out the Global Cycling Network or Global Mountain Bike Network for something kinda like where I'm going ... The Global Paintball Network?

And a bit of good will could not hurt. I remember long ago when tourney winners got Bragging Rites and the proceeds went to charities.

[vijil]

Oh definitely. Disc golf is growing massively because, in part, every pro event is streamed free and post produced free.

Monetizing your primary promotional channels is stupid. It's like McDonald's charging you to watch a hamburger ad. It works only once you've got a decent non- playing fan base (like traditional sports) . It would work for McDonald's if they had a huge non- eating fan base too. But they don't, and we don't.