Coming out of retirement

[HamerTime]

It's been well over a decade since I sold off most of my equipment and retired from paintball. Just didn't have the time and money anymore. Recently though, I've been missing it a lot, and decided to invest in a new (to me) set up.

When I quit, my main whips were an Ego 6 and PM6, I vaguely remember the Geo had just come out. Capped ramping had been slowly permeating the tournament scene.

From poking around, it looks like the speed (rate of fire) wars are over with, since most (all?) tournaments switched to capped ramping. What else have I missed? Who's top dog in the tournament scene these days?

[cstx_pb]

I'm also recently back from a long break and by far the most interesting thing to me is the resurgence of mechanical events and the return of 10-person tournaments in the past ~5 years. This also brought about a lot of new mechanical markers of both old and new styles. Most high-end electronic guns are spool valves now, Planet Eclipse is the dominant gun manufacturer, and paint is small and often pretty inconsistent.
I don't follow the NXL (basically xball/psp format) super closely, but Dynasty has been pretty dominant in the past few years. And, yes, there are still some familiar names from the early 2000s on their roster.

[Cyberpyr8]

Welcome back! If you can find a PE setup that would be your best bet. Their stuff is rock solid. The Geo R5, CS3, LV2 and 180r are the latest offerings. I would say look for either a LV 1.6 or higher or 170r or Geo4 to get started. They're going to serve you well and keep up with anyone else on the field. A Spire IR2 or CTRL1 hopper and a tank and away you go. A used 170r will run you around 4-500 and a IR2 new is around 100. The tanks are going to vary depending on hydro, size and regulators installed. I would pick up a used tank with 2-3 years+ left in hydro.
If you want to play mech too, I would look for a 170 or 180r with a mech frame. You also can get CS3's with mech frames. The CS3 also has the option for a STEF (single trigger electronic frame). All depends on how much you are going to play and how much you want to spend. You can look around here or look for used stuff on mazens paintball, Punisherpb.com or Goddards paintball for used stuff from a real store. There's a lot more but they are the big sellers.

[HamerTime]

Welcome back! If you can find a PE setup that would be your best bet. Their stuff is rock solid. The Geo R5, CS3, LV2 and 180r are the latest offerings. I would say look for either a LV 1.6 or higher or 170r or Geo4 to get started. They're going to serve you well and keep up with anyone else on the field. A Spire IR2 or CTRL1 hopper and a tank and away you go. A used 170r will run you around 4-500 and a IR2 new is around 100. The tanks are going to vary depending on hydro, size and regulators installed. I would pick up a used tank with 2-3 years+ left in hydro.
If you want to play mech too, I would look for a 170 or 180r with a mech frame. You also can get CS3's with mech frames. The CS3 also has the option for a STEF (single trigger electronic frame). All depends on how much you are going to play and how much you want to spend. You can look around here or look for used stuff on mazens paintball, Punisherpb.com or Goddards paintball for used stuff from a real store. There's a lot more but they are the big sellers.

Thank you for the recommendations!

I have a Geo 2.1, Spire 3 and 68/45 with 3 years left on hydro currently in transit to me (along with a few other items). Looking to get an Ego and some sort of pump down the line. To clarify, I don't intend on playing competitively anymore so I don't need a top of the line setup. Just something I can hold my own with. I'll mostly be playing walk on.

[Cyberpyr8]

Honestly, with that setup I would just go play and see what you feel. If you want something more modern, look around at what others are using and maybe try it out. Your setup will work fine and as long as it's solid, you should be fine.

[EvilCreature]

A Planet Eclipse marker (anything within the last 10-15 years especially) with a Spire (ideally 2 or better, or IR) hopper and a decent HP tank, with everything properly maintained, will be just fine for almost anything. I play competitively with a CS1, partially because I don't know that anything under $1,000 performs better than an IV core. Yeah, it won't go mech like a Gamma Core, but that is what my EMF100 is for. At 10 BPS you don't need to upgrade everything every year to be competitive like during 2000-2015 or so. I think marker choice now comes down more to budget and ergonomics, but that is just me.

[Trbo323]

I would have encouraged you to get a less expensive marker to start with and play at your local fields a few times first. Not like what you have won't work in general but at my local field for instance, it's kind of overkill. The like 3 local fields I have if I go as a walk on it's about 40% rental players, maybe 25% milsim players with blowbacks. 25% self equipped with maybe a spyder, rail or something similar and the last 10% either a pump or something more "speedball" but the player themself are laid back.

The "tournament try hard" players all typically go to one field and then only play the speedball field that's basically in the back corner and the refs don't even bother taking the walk on groups over there.

I find it much more rewarding to play pump or mechanical with these groups because I definitely don't want to be bonus balling the rental/new players. I'd like them to have a good time and come back next time.

I have a few higher end (in their day)markers, dm6 and vanguard Creed but they don't really come out of my bag anymore for general play. I just didn't find them as interesting as they were back when I got them. I find myself shooting the emek, automag or sniper (pump)

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[HamerTime]

I would have encouraged you to get a less expensive marker to start with and play at your local fields a few times first. Not like what you have won't work in general but at my local field for instance, it's kind of overkill. The like 3 local fields I have if I go as a walk on it's about 40% rental players, maybe 25% milsim players with blowbacks. 25% self equipped with maybe a spyder, rail or something similar and the last 10% either a pump or something more "speedball" but the player themself are laid back.

The "tournament try hard" players all typically go to one field and then only play the speedball field that's basically in the back corner and the refs don't even bother taking the walk on groups over there.

I find it much more rewarding to play pump or mechanical with these groups because I definitely don't want to be bonus balling the rental/new players. I'd like them to have a good time and come back next time.

I have a few higher end (in their day)markers, dm6 and vanguard Creed but they don't really come out of my bag anymore for general play. I just didn't find them as interesting as they were back when I got them. I find myself shooting the emek, automag or sniper (pump)

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That's a good point, but at the time I bought the Geo, I thought I still had my old sniper pump that I had converted to stick feed tucked away in my mother's garage I was going to grab. Turns out, she mistakenly threw out the box when cleaning... T.T

That's why I intend on getting another pump in the near future. From what I hear though there are still plenty of competitive players who play walk on at some of my local fields.

However, if I find myself playing against the kind of players you're describing, I would at the very least cap my gun at 10.5 or something.

[Psycho91]

I cap all my electros at 10bps unless they can't, I find that at 10 bps you can also use any firing mode and they all seem to shoot the same it's just personal preference at that point

[Trbo323]

Even 10.5 for a new player is pretty intimidating. I'm not saying cater to them alone all the time but just put yourself in their shoes, a rental that they can get maybe 5bps out of with a terrible barrel and likely a mask they can barely see out of.

But yeah, get a pump, I'd encourage you to try one of the newer mechanical designs. Anything that is not a blowback is pretty good honestly

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[Cyberpyr8]

Maybe pick up an Emek since you already have a pump. You can get one upped for 2-300 and it's what some fields use as rentals. But a stock one with a better barrel is fine. I use my Emek when it's mostly rentals. Our field has some days where it's rental heavy and others where it's mostly electrics. I like having the Emek to play slower with rentals. But I have gone through periods where that's all I owned and played it against everyone. It's also great on days where I don't want to churn through a ton of paint. Throw your hopper and tank on and away you go. I can't say enough good about an Emek. Even an upped Emek is only going to max out at about 6-8bps for any type of sustained fire.

[Psycho91]

Another option if you don't want an emek or want to try something a little cheaper you can try a gog enemy, can usually find them for $100 or less with a couple upgrades, kinda feels like shooting a spool valve autococker if that makes any sense