Highlights 2009 Part III

Here we have the 3rd installment of the Highlight Reel for 2009, we hope you enjoy this.  In this edition of the Highlight articles we talk to editors and tournament producers to get you information and ideas from a different view, rather than the standard player only view.

Joshua Silverman – Associate Editor Paintball X3 Magazine

What was the best memory/highlight of the game from 2009, for you personally?

2009 was a rough year for paintball and a year of change for me in a great deal of ways. John Amodea and I started Paintball X3 and kicked it off in early 2009, which was an amazing thing from the perspective of someone who has watched magazine after magazine fall by the wayside and die in paintball.After watching so many magazines, like Paintball 2Xtremes, PGI and Paintball Sports pass away, taking more than one of my jobs with them, starting a new magazine was scary for John and for me. As jobless editors in the paintball world, John and I started X3 with lofty goals and to see it grow and become a respected part of the paintball journalistic world in such trying economic times has been amazing. It’s still not easy on a day-to-day basis, but it’s special and we pour our hearts into it on a daily basis.  I’ll never forget how it’s felt to watch X3 grow as 2009 progressed.

Another great memory from 2009, for me, was the USPL DC event. After moving back to Virginia, where I grew up and started playing paintball (back in 1993), earlier in 2009, the DC event at Pev’s was an hour from my house and wound up being a veritable reunion for me. I literally saw dozens of wonderful, amazing people I hadn’t seen in years up there and it was great to be able to walk around that event and catch up with so many people that were friends and influenced my life.

What are your future plans for the 2010 season?

As scary as it may sound, I’ve been asked to play again in 2010 by one or two different teams, with varying levels of seriousness. While I really don’t know if that’s going to happen, what I know is going to happen is that I’m going to make an effort to play more paintball in 2010 than I did in 2009. Between moving and changing jobs and a generally down economy, I didn’t play nearly as much in 2009 as I have in past years and I miss it. I love scenario paintball, big games and woodsball in-general. The most fun I’ve had in my entire 16 years playing paintball has been in the woods and while I’m not opposed to playing paintball on airball fields, I’m not in the shape for it nor do I have the time to devote to it. So my goal is to play more.

From a professional perspective, my goals for 2009 are to continue to grow the entities that I work with and work to help paintball climb out of its slump. We, and I personally, have to work hard to re-educate the store and field owners to run their businesses better, to re-educate individual players to want less for free and be better ambassadors for the sport, and re-educate this industry to take better care of its stores and fields. I’m going to work hard to help our sport and our industry grow.

What do you think next season will be like with the economy?

I think that paintball is going to continue to be in a “rebuilding” state for 2010. The world economy isn’t just going to randomly spring back to its pre-recession status overnight and neither is paintball. It took the world, and paintball, years to get ourselves into the economic situation we currently find ourselves wallowing in, so while it may not take us as long to dig our way out of it, it’s going to take time. Paintball will rebound, but it won’t be the same as it once was. Our industry needs to be leaner, smarter and better than its ever been if we hope to return to the days of consistent year-to-year growth and I feel like we might see our industry begin to position itself there by the end of 2010.

What team should everyone keep an eye out for?

There are a lot of teams in paintball that could rock the boat a little bit in 2010. The better question at this time is which teams will even be able to play in 2010?  Big companies are going to have to look very long and very hard at their budgets to determine what sponsorships are worth having and I feel like many well-known teams may struggle to stay in the money and be able to afford to play from event to event in 2010. If I had to specifically pick a team that people ought to keep an eye on in the new year, I’d put the new-look Aftershock at the top of that list. Those guys are hungry and working hard to be a force in paintball like their namesake once was in the old days. With the new talent Jeremy Salm has on that team, 2010 could really be a big year for Aftershock. The Ironmen are always going to be there, willing and able to win, as are the Russians and Dynasty, and hopefully Philly should things with their financiers work out for the best, but the Aftershock team I saw at World Cup turned my head and if they keep working and learning, watch out.

Lane Wright – Chief Operations Office PSP

What was the best memory/highlight of the game from 2009, for you personally?

I actually watch so little paintball at the events, I have few things to draw from. I will say that watching the Russians dismantle Philly, who were playing VERY good paintball at the time, 7-0 at World Cup was maybe the single greatest sustained playing of the game that I have seen in 18 years in the sport.

What are your future plans for the 2010 season?

Steadying the ship in troubled waters. Reaching out to regional leagues is a big part of the agenda. Finding a way to pay for the webcast is a huge issue at the moment. Other than that, its simply to try to improve on running good events. Same as every year. Take lessons learned and apply corrections.

What do you think next season will be like with the economy?

Not much better than this year. The downward turn has seemed to cease. But we aren’t about to turn upward anytime soon. It may take the industry 2 more years to get back to where it was in 2007. And even then, things will be tougher for tournament series and teams as the industry will be wiser with their money.

What team should everyone keep an eye out for?

Again, I get so little opportunity to actually watch paintball, I couldn’t say. Maybe the DefCon team from Canada. They came in and kicked a little ass right away. That isn’t an easy thing to do.

John Amodea – PaintballX3 Editor

What was the best memory/highlight of the game from 2009, for you personally?

My highlight for 2009 was definitely Oklahoma D-Day and the highlight moment from that game was the game start. When the game on horn sounded I was flying over the landings in a helicopter just a few hundred feet above the game. It was an amazing view of an epic event.

What are your future plans for the 2010 season?

Like 2009 I expect 2010 to be a very busy year for me and for Paintball X3. We’ll be attending more than 50 games as a team (writers and photographers), and I’ll personally be attending somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 games. We’ll continue to publish a monthly digital magazine, a quarterly print magazine and the Paintball Business Journal, and we’ve got a few surprises coming.

What do you think next season will be like with the economy?

It’s going to be interesting. I think team and event sponsorships will be down and that will force a change in the game to some degree. I think there may be more “haves” and “have-nots” in 2010 than recent years. I also see a continuation of the trend of playing more in the woods for 2010.

What team should everyone keep an eye out for?

Not sure how to answer this one…

Memories made through the bond of little round balls of paint, a bond shared by all of us no matter what level you play at or where you play.  Who would have thought a game as simple as paintball would give us so many memories for so many people across the world? I am sure no one who played this game back in the day in the woods of New Hampshire would have envisioned all of what has happened in such a relatively short period of time.  Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters all enjoy this game. This is not just a game, but a lifestyle as I have said before, for those of us who cannot wait to get out on the field we cherish the memories we build on the weekends.

Paul Forcier