Future trend predictions

[markdem]

Pump came back for a while. Mech is the current trend. What do you think will be the next trend?

[Ecapnation]

Hopefully good paint.

But likely influencers as paintball celebrities paid for by the venture capitol morons in charge

[The Hobbit]

Uncapped semi/15bps ramping?

[scottieb]

No caps. The machine guns will come back.

[Jonnydread]

Normalizing eating deviled eggs under your mask while playing and maybe offering them to others on the field cause this is America

[Swedgin!!]

No guns. Just hand thrown ball’s only

[jpdgas]

So a water balloon fight? That sounds fun!

[Fubarius]

Paintball as a whole is the poster child for "Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result each time". Try suggesting that a paintball tournament would be more interesting to watch if they lost the rejects from the bouncy house bunkers and used something visually more interesting that highlighted the splats from missed shots better.

Now there are things I'd like to see, say more minimalist mag fed setups, or on the other end of the spectrum, "tactical" stock class rigs. But historically any new trend tends to be small, simple, kind of stupid, and someone will spend way too much money on it. Like any goggle strap or headband that costs over $29.99. Lets see, neoprene sleeve that goes over the back of a barrel, been done. Unnecessary grooves on the back of a grip frame supposedly for carrying the gun without accidentally touching the trigger? Snatch grips, been done. Vibration dampener on the barrel? It's called a Sniper Donut, been done (yes, really).

Ok, my prediction. A whole bunch of players will start completely wrapping their grip frames with grip tape. Front grips too. Leaving just enough space for any screens or buttons they need to access. This will first show up on a newer gun where you can recharge the battery by USB-C, so you never need to actually remove the grips. But some players copying the trend will do the same on a gun where they need to remove the grip from time to time, so they'll be constantly replacing the wrapping.

[Spaghetti Overdrive]

but this also has been a thing for decades lol

[Jsc5150]

Paint gets so small that most legacy guns can’t shoot without clipping and breaking paint

[Spaghetti Overdrive]

that's not really a prediction lol

[TF_Aloha]

I've been saying for years that Richmond never gave up on making .50 cal standard, he just realized that he needed to make the change gradual.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Stock Class dies and is born again like a Dirty Phoenix.

[Spaghetti Overdrive]

I think from a production/manufacturing standpoint, electrical engineering improvements will probably lead to different marker design/architecture.

The board size required to operate a paintball gun is very tiny, yet this is a foreign concept for PE, Dye et al.. Having someone like Morlock serve as the Method of electronics would be a healthy step in the right direction, especially because that can also imply better unit cost economics with more standardized/universal board dimensions across more platforms.

I think mechanical poppet valve markers is going to be a big deal whenever it rolls around.

Idk. I really want RX and Angel style enclosed bolt poppets to come back.

[ConradCustoms]

Some of their tech is pretty cool. Going to spring contacts for like foregrips or assembly without wires dangling is neat but it requires you to design the whole thing. Curt might chime in also but so much of that would require us to design the whole thing and not just creating/recreating the boards.
Their boards being as big as they are most likely makes mass production cheaper and easier than something like the double-sided MK4 board.

Mostly though, what would it serve really to have a smaller board? The gun is so big and its hiding it well... Foregrips as battery boards/holders, underbody boards, eye passages. And no matter what a frame is a frame, so I don't see guns suddenly becoming... not gun shaped because the board is tiny.

[flyweightnate]

Indoor play with powder balls and Roombas between rounds.

[Glovebox Operator]

Powder puff paintball!

[scottieb]

Intramural/after school paintball in schools and community rec leagues like dart/billiards leagues.

[Glovebox Operator]

Pepperball League

[ChuckLove]

Spicy

[Trbo323]

Uncapped semi/15bps ramping?

Lol. I just saw a local tourny that is billed as "street ball" with 15 bps

You might be on to something here

Of course it's the fields that will push this. They will sell a ton more paint if everyone is out there blasting at 15bps again

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[thrasher_565]

agd comes back...

[Swedgin!!]

I can hope but .689/.690 paintballs