When were you happiest with paintball

[uv_halo]

This is a complicated answer for me.

The game itself was best when the default game was a large and long format, with less cover density and more concealment.

The industry was at its best when it got so big, it allowed for a relatively small company to invest in the woodsball side of things (SpecialOps Paintball). Speedball got the industry to this point but, it wasn't sustainable, there was even the unaffiliated ultimate woodsball league.

The social side of things was really before social media was dominant. The mid 00s to the mide 10s, where big games were truly huge, and there were many forums.

The big what if question for me is what would've happened if Special Ops paintball managed to stick around until the First Strike round and, MagFed paintball.

[Maxwell]

Man I remember downloading all of the Special Ops Paintball videos onto my Ipod Classic in high school and watching them so many times. I would've died for a Tac One Longbow!

[TouchofGrey]

My peak period lasted from 1984 till about 2010. Paint was great and big. Large turnouts made days of play challenging and enjoyable. The folks I have met along the way added to the euphoria. Through the years that followed till recently I and others made the dream continue on. I never got bored but at 69 I knew it was inevitable that I had to step away from the sport I grew to love due to physical limitations. Alas I still hang to my trusty Nelspot because when the lights go out I will need to fight my way out of Purgatory.

[Socalpumpballer]

2000-2010. Loved early 2000s finding paintball through news papers, magazines, flyers, and early Internet forums. Of course being a broke kid with no parental support it seemed like finding anything paintball was the ultimate dopamine rush. Then trying to scrape together lunch money and flip gear on the forums to play one or twice a year with guns that barely worked and friends who were all in the same boat.

then there was peak mid 2004-2010 tournament paintball. Chasing the dream of the never ending summer where anyone could be the next dynasty and get paid to play paintball forever with your childhood friends

[coyote]

2003-2010

Peter Simpson (Wharfrat on the old boards) hosted a monthly pump game at his property in the Sacramento Delta. High level play, higher level warmth. Pete was a great host. It might be an exaggeration to say the Northern California pump scene was born in Pete's back yard, but it grew into manhood there.

The Palmers were regulars. The CCM crew attended. Baccipaintball, PaintballTek, oodles of old regulars from the MCB board; Gotpaiint, Relief, Casper, phantom13, playboy,Devilman666, demonbunnyman,gadget, and dozens that escape my middle aged memory.

I was part of a very active scenario team with 15 plus players that had accepted general roles at major events. We hosted the first scenario event in Hawaii in 2008.

Finding epic paint was pretty easy. You could shoot a playing card out of someones hand at 100 feet with ; Anarchy,Hellfire, Dynasty Ball, and Ultra Evil.

Those are my good old days!

[Jordan]

Probably 2002-2005ish? I still played somewhat regularly after I got married until my kids arrived, then it went on the backburner for a long time.

I started "playing" again about 8 years ago but it hasn't been the same. Other than the occasional big game or meet-up I think I'm done with the sport.

[ChuckLove]

It's hard to beat the excitement that I had when I played in Jr & Sr High School (02-06). The industry was booming. There constantly was a new gun to drool over. Paint was awesome and fields were everywhere.
I wasn't that great of a player being an overweight young fella relying on the budget I had between summer jobs and a single mother. Ultimately, I stopped playing after my Junior year because cars, booze and ladies had my attention. Although, I did still occasionally check the forums to see what was happening in the industry.

I started playing again in 2018 at age 29. At the time I was single, had cash to burn and needed something fun to do in my free time. I bought all the old electronic junk that I couldn't afford in high school. Not long after I found myself shooting up to two cases a weekend at my local field. I had fun, but it left me wanting more.

The local store had a used Empire Resurrection cocker on the wall for a decent price. It reminded me a lot of my 03' WGP cocker that I had my freshman year. The experience of shooting that cocker helped me realize how much more I preferred mechanical.

Maybe a year later (Early 2020), I saw a new face (now my friend Clayton) at the local field playing with an Empire Sniper. He didn't seem at a disadvantage compared to everyone else despite shooting a pump. We hit it off right away and he asked if I wanted to try his sniper. I agreed and it was love at first pump. He showed me that he had an even nicer custom half-block sniper and offered to sell me the Empire.

My interest in pump paintball peaked when I met more North East pump players. Meeting people who genuinely were playing for fun and the love of the game made it so much fun. I'm lucky to call these people my friends. They've inspired me to be a become a better player and enjoy the game at a deeper level. Just two days ago, we won a pump tournament up at OSG in New Hampshire.
For me this is peak paintball. I'm stoked!

[boomersruckus]

For me it was 1999 to 2004. That 5 year window was the wild-west of the tourney scene. November of 1992 was my first taste and everything associated with playing ball at that time was amazing. To me though, that time period was when everything was at its peak. Since then, its seemed to have taken a downward slope.

[cougar20th]

Some of my favorite times was back when I played with my childhood friends. Particually the small outlaw games we had. I am the last of that group to continue playing. Isnt it always remembered better then it probably was.

Over the years the groups I have played with have had people play and people stop playing.

Since 2008 or so I have played not played as a walkon. My choice I got tired of players attitudes. Only private games at fields.

The current group I play with at Reaperball games is a mix of people who Ive played with since around 2008 and newer people that starting coming around 2020. There was a influx of players that really saved the game. This combined group are the best people I have played with. So I am extemely happy currently with who and how I play.

[Levi]

Late 90's through early 00's. Outlaw ball in the woods... good paint... walk-on play 15 minutes from home. Lots of good memories. The gear was interesting and highly differentiated. For me that was peak paintball.

[Pyrate Jim]

Let's see, I first played the day before Father's Day in 1988 at Strategy Plus in CT.
So, from then till now?

Of course, there are certain games I remember more fondly. Everybody has their anecdotes, and I've got a buttload.
Which does not change the fact that I have always been happiest when playing paintball with friends I would have never met otherwise.

[Jonnydread]

Well said

[Pumps4ever]

1987-1990

Woodsball at Field Games, War Zone and SC Village until the beginning of speedball at SC Village but it was speedball with pumps....
it was a magical special time.

[Glovebox Operator]

Anytime I get to play. 98 to about 03 was incredible, being my main hobby as a broke teenager I thought of myself as quite the airsmith doing questionable things to my Spyder TL Plus. I could still get friends together to play in the woods and at Paintball Adventures south of Denver. We took summer motorhome trips around the country, and dragged that Spyder along, and got to play at some cool places. I forgot how much I loved this sport and everyone I've played with since jumping back in had been awesome. And I love showing new people how to play. It needs to be more popular in NM.

[homerj]

Probably sometime between 2000 & 2005. Had a good group of guys that i played regularly with & i was B/S/T guns & gear every other week. Almost every time i showed up to play i had something new & fun to try. Not long after that everybody just fell off & scattered. Except me, of course. It’s never been the same but, even though I’m solo now, i generally still have a lot of fun.

[latches109]

1987-1990

Woodsball at Field Games, War Zone and SC Village until the beginning of speedball at SC Village but it was speedball with pumps....
it was a magical special time.

100% 89-95 at SCvillage was "magical" RED paint! Mostly playing monthly in a private group organized but Peter Clark and occasionally Earon Carter, along with the pro that always wore the duck hat.. getting smashed in the summer tournament by the Grizwalds shooting PGPs when we had fresh automags. The joy I felt when autococekers would blow a hose and start leaking. Let's not forget the 110* F days when 9oz CO2 tanks would rocket across the parking lot.

03-08 nppl was also fun for different reasons, but the early days reign supreme.

[Magmoormaster]

I think I have 2.

First was 2010-2011. I had just moved to Utah and got a job at a then-tiny paintball store.I had only been playing for a few years at this point, and working at the store taught me a lot. It was a real romatic period for me; I wasn't in school, all my high school friends were in another state, so my life was the job. Which is to say, paintball was my life. All my friends were from the store, a lot of my free time would be spent at the store. It probably wasn't healthy, but I was obsessed. I started geting real gear, replacing the nonsense I played with starting out (I made a pod pack out of duct tape). I started to get somewhat decent at playing, and actually good at teching. I left on a church mission at the end of 2011, where I was pretty much detached from paintball for 2 years. By the time I got back, the romanticism had died a little bit. My interests had diversified, though paintball was still at the forefront.

2017-2019 was the second. I went back to the old paintball store as soon as I got back from my mission in 2013, and It was still my life in a lot of ways, but in 2017 we moved to a much bigger store and my relationship with my boss changed from a more normal boss/employee thing to more of a mentoring role. I conned my way onto a team with acquaintences from the store (they had just ordered new jerseys, and I was like "where's mine?" They said something like "why didn't say anything in the group chat?" And I'm like, "I'm not in the group chat" (because I wasn't on the team) and they were like, "wait you aren't? Let's add you" and thus I was on the team lol). I also started whoring guns like crazy, using the profit to pay bills. I think I bought 30 guns in 2017 alone? I also acquired some real unicorns that year (like an Avratech Falcon). 2018 we started building a field, and I was playing the best I ever had. We were practicing with the best teams in the state, and I felt like I was able to keep up with all of them. In 2019, we won the Las Vegas NXL 3-man novice event. And throughout this whole time period, I was slowly converting most of my team to shooting cockers, and I built some really cool guns for them. And in the fall of 19, I left the store to start architecture school. School, then covid, then getting married, then most recently moving to Arizona, all combined to the slow decline of my playing and activity in the hobby. And lastly, the store I worked at permenantly closed at then end of last year.

I miss it, in a lot of ways... not so much the game itself, since I still have the gear and still play from time to time. But I miss how much I used to enjoy it. All but one time I've played since getting married was just ok. Some of that's been gear related, some of it's been skill related, some of it's been the people. But I don't really have the urge to play and certainly no desire to buy/sell/build guns anymore. Helping a teammate rebuild a G6r in 2023 I think? really killed that for me. To be fair, my life is so much better than it was back then, so I don't reeeeally miss it. Like I said, I miss enjoying it.

Maybe it’ll get better when we move back to utah, but with the old store gone I’m not so sure.