The next installment of the 10 questions article is fresh off the presses. Feel free to send in your answers to these questions also, as all are welcome to voice their opinions. This is a work in progress and we are hoping to get the voices of all sides of paintball heard. This is an article by the players for the players. Enjoy!
K.R. “Trapper” Davis
Team – Assault & Battery
Field – SplatBrothers Paintball, Hopewell Virginia
Why do you play paintball?
Been playing for almost 26 years now (April 1984) and love the game and the friendships that I have developed over the years.
What is your favorite style of play, and why?
Woodsball, Scenario play. Particularly role playing scenario games. Have a trailer packed full of props, costumes and other essentials of the master role player.
What are your plans for the 2010 season?
RAW series games at SplatBrothers in Virginia
Ronn Sternn Paintball Camps and ION at Skirmish
Fulda Gap in North Carolina
Living Legends, Chicago Illinois (Maybe)
Both 24 hour scenario events at SplatBrothers Paintball, Virginia
What is your all time favorite marker you have owned?
F-1 Illustrator – still have it, still works, though I have retired the venerable F-1 to a spot of honor on the wall of my office.
Where is your favorite field, why?
SplatBrothers Paintball, Hopewell Virginia. Home field, been playing there for the last 17 years and have helped develop the field with bunkers, writing scenarios and even directing a few games.
Who are the 3 best players in the game?
In the scenario world that I live and play in, and of course not counting myself I would say …
Spiro “BlackCat” Mamaglias
Diane “Mother” Howe
Davi “Coyote” Velasquez (my personal nemesis on the field and terrific friend)
What can be done to better the game?
Ditch the speed ball win at any costs and I’m not out till the referee calls me out attitude.
What is your local paintball scene like?
SplatBrothers is mostly recreational woodsball. Every 6 weeks we have an 8 hour mini scenario and run two 24 hour scenarios a year. Quite a few excellent fields in Virginia – Skyline Paintball in Strausburg VA, Fox paintball in Virginia Beach, Pev’s in Manassas.
If you could have a mascot what would it be?
A Goat — Go NAVY !!
Where will paintball be in 10 years?
Unknown … too many variables. Hopefully it will become an olympic sport … I mean for crying out loud you have Ice Dancing, and Figure Skating in the winter olympics, and some sort of baton waving / flag type of dance thing and synchronized swimming during the summer. At least this is a sport.
Todd “Spartan” Berens
Chicago Heretics
Why do you play paintball?
To be honest, for the people. Yes, I like the rush, it’s a great workout, it gets me outdoors and enjoying the weather, but if it weren’t for the “community” of paintballers, I probably would only play a couple of times a year. I usually ask myself this very question when I have to pay some outragious fee for a game and paint. Is it worth the cost? Because of the people I meet and the people I play with, absolutely.
What is your favorite style of play, and why?
Everything. While its easy to say “its all paintball”, and that is true, every style is different, every style really focuses on one aspect of the game and develops it. The tactics and communication of CQB and Milsim style events, the speed and adrenaline of tournaments, the endurance and social elements of scenario. Playing only one style of paintball leaves you an incomplete paintball player. I don’t like that some people try to narrowly define the sport, to say “My way is the best way and your way is fail”. There is no reason for it and it just shows an immaturity about paintball as a whole.
What are your plans for the 2010 season?
Play as much as possible. We’re planning to do several of the UWL stops this year, as well as SPPL Michigan, hopefully. We’re also looking into the MilsimCorps league, too. That looks pretty different from anything we’ve done before, and it’s a competition, so we’re down. We’ll be hitting a few of the scenarios in our area. Avatar and Training Day at Fox Paintball in Millington, IL. Some of us will be going to Living Legends 3 and some of us plan to ref the NPPL that weekend. Add in the Fox mini-scenarios and a few speedball events, and we’ll be plenty busy in 2010.
What is your all time favorite marker you have owned?
That’s hard to say. I really like my CCM J2L I have right now, but we’re getting some new Bob Long Victory’s and from the few times I’ve played with my teammate’s Victory, I think that is going to really be at the top of the list. Definitely the best electro, but I think its hard to really compare a pump and an electro, so I am going to leave it at that.
Where is your favorite field, why?
Fox Paintball is my favorite field because it is our home field. Its huge, as a lot of soft cover, several speedball fields, a village and a huge hill that adds a lot to a game. Plus, the guy who runs it, Ray from Splatterzone Productions, is one of the craziest guys you’ll meet. He throws a mean scenario. We went to SC Village in California for CA UWL last January, and that place is magical. Imagine CPX here in Chicago, only three times as big. And don’t get me started about the average walk-on player in Cali. They are definitely at a different level out there. Must be the water. I can’t leave out Hell Survivors in Michigan. That place is…well, if you ever get a chance to go there, do so. It doesn’t even matter what game you play.
Who are the 3 best players in the game?
Good grief, who knows? I can tell you that I think the best players in paintball, as a group, are the tournament players. Competition drives excellence, and where there is no competition, the players aren’t going to be as good. There are always exceptions. I know scenario players who are competitive naturally and drive themselves, and I know Milsim guys who take what they are doing very very seriously, but for flat out gun skills, your average tourney player rises to the top, be it speedball or woodsball. However, this kind of question really needs to be based on more than just gun skills. I know some players can shoot the wings off a fly, but I can’t stand to be in the same room with them. They aren’t the best player, too me. I know guys who struggle with hitting a target and can barely make it to a bunker that I would take a bullet for (or at least push one of my teammates in the way of it) that would come closer to being the best player in the game. I can tell you based on my experience (because I haven’t met everyone in paintball) that I think very highly of Tom Cole. I know him personally and he is very helpful and friendly and man, can he play paintball.
What can be done to better the game?
Bettering the game depends entirely upon us, the players. If you look at one of the biggest struggles paintball is facing right now, its lack of growth. New players aren’t getting in and staying in. The industry can make affordable gear, the fields can try to keep bps down, but the fact is that if a player doesn’t feel engaged, feel like he or she is part of something (especially in scenario), they won’t stick with it. Now, if they get overshot, cussed at, cheated or otherwise disrespected, its definitely game over for them. They won’t come back, and that is no one elses fault but our own. And I’ve heard the excuses. “There are always going to be cheaters, you can’t watch everyone all the time” etc, etc. But most of the cheaters are on teams (I don’t know why that is), so we can police our own teammates. I know that if we, as a team, see one of our guys get hit and he doesn’t notice (say a hopper or pod), we’ll call them on it. And we’ve had to talk to teammates before about losing their tempers or cursing at people, and it doesn’t happen again. We have the power to grow this sport, but too many of us sit back and expect the industry to do it. That’s a lot of ask.
What is your local paintball scene like?
Haha, I am going to have to bite my tongue here. Chicago paintball is…interesting. For the most part, all the players who are competitive are in tourney, and all the players who aren’t competitive are in everything else. We’ve been doing woodsball tournaments since 2007, and up until this year, we have NEVER been able to get another 10-man (read: scenario) team to even practice against us, let alone compete in woodsball tournaments. This year has been great so far. Scenario powerhouse The Hellions are fielding a UWL team for the first time. Aftershock, playing as BBT Ninja’s, have offered to have a practice before Chicago UWL. We’ve talked to other teams who’ve expressed interest in competitive paintball, but not followed through yet. We’ve begun asking speedball teams to play in the woods, but there seems to be this idea that there is something “wrong” with the woods. The only thing wrong with the woods, from a tourney perspective, is it is hard to get a TV crew in there. That’s the only reason tourney left the woods in the first place. But I digress. I think that what surprises people the most about Chicago paintball is just how big it is! There are several fields and hundreds of sceneario, tourney, milsim, pump and social teams here. Chicago paintball is huge.
If you could have a mascot what would it be?
Ironically, we are asking ourselves this very same question right now. And we have no answer.
Where will paintball be in 10 years?
Its hard to say. I think firing speed has reached its logical peak. Not that it couldn’t get faster, but that I don’t think anyone needs it to, so why invest money into it. Most markers already shoot twice as fast as they need to. I think Bob Long will continue to lead an industry wide rush to make markers more efficient, allowing tanks to get smaller and lighter. I think tourney will become more popular in the woods, but will never completely leave the airball fields, and I think this will be largely facilitated by fields who want to lower their overhead and cost of filling and maintaining an airball field. (Go ahead and slide spikes up into that tree!) I think scenario event technology will move forward. More fields are starting to use GPS and exotic weapons more every year. I think we’ll see more “alien” looking milsim style markers as the real gun makers threaten to sue over markers that look like their guns, but I don’t think the technology inside them will dramatically increase. Guys who like those kinds of markers seem to like them cheap and dumb…uh, I mean, reliable. And, I think that once this economic crisis passes, our numbers will increase. How much so depends on us, the players.
Todd “Coolkid” Davis
Captain
Maltese Militia Paintball Team
Why do you play paintball?
As a way to relieve stress and for the friendships of fellow teammates and players.
What is your favorite style of play, and why?
I prefer to play scenario and big games. I like the teamwork that is used in this type of event, and the challenge of something more than “capture the flag”.
What are your plans for the 2010 season?
Playing at least one event a month with the Maltese Militia and finding ways to get new people interested in the sport of paintball.
What is your all time favorite marker you have owned?
I would have to say it is my current WGP VF Tactical. Very accurate, different from what most folks use, also easy to maintain. No batteries needed is also a bonus.
Where is your favorite field, why?
While I like many different fields as they all have things that I like about them. I would have to say that EMR paintball is my favorite. When playing at EMR, you feel like part of a family. Even on my first trip to EMR Myself and my son were welcomed “into the fold” like we had been playing at EMR for years. The home team and staff are the best anywhere I have played.
Who are the 3 best players in the game?
This is way to subjective to answer. I have played along side of multiple players that I would consider very good, but it would be hard to day “so and so” is the best player in the game. All players can bring something to the game. I can’t even say who the best player on my team is. Each player brings something to the game and wold be considered best at that part of the game. We have guys who are great at stealth, bringing large amounts of firepower, good at tactics and some who are best at just following orders. Each of them would be the best at what they do.
What can be done to better the game?
At the player level, players need to remember that this is a game, it is to be played for fun. Except at the level of tournament play, no one is playing for money or blood. Cheating needs to be removed from the game (yea like that could ever happen). I cannot understand why a player would wipe a hit. At most the next game/insertion is only a few minutes away. I guess we all need to be reminded that “poor sports make for poor sports!”
At the “company” level, less emphasis on “fast” markers and more emphasis on “quality”, not that the equipment made to day is bad quality. We need to get back to a game that promotes accuracy by skill and technique rather than accuracy by volume. I take a much greater enjoyment from a single shot taking out a player than the one I eliminate with multiple shots in the general direction of the player.
What is your local paintball scene like?
It is actually pretty good. There are several stores and fields in our area, and so far they all seem to be doing pretty well. The key to this is for all players to take the time to go to as many of these stores/fields as they can. Kind of a “spread the wealth” kind of attitude. That is needed to make sure they all stay in business.
If you could have a mascot what would it be?
Grim Reaper (see our web page)
Where will paintball be in 10 years?
That is hard to say, with the economics we are currently faced with, no business is safe. Hopefully we will all come out of this recession and keep most of the fields/stores/manufactures in business so that when players have even more disposable income, they have somewhere to spend it. The other problem is getting new folks into the game to replace those who are leaving. We, as “veteran” players need to embrace the newbie, help them to understand the game, and to play in a way that we want all players to play. Paintball will die a slow death if current players, of all styles of play, do not take the time to educate and befriend the new players. We all meed to remember we were a newbie once too.
