Part Two of our interview with the Scottish Warriors in the UK …. clearly their existence has gone a long way to establishing paintball as a game to be enjoyed in that country…..keep up the great work SW!
What if any would be some of the accomplishments of The Scottish Warriors as far as furthering and promoting the game of paintball in Scotland.
We are opening new sites and pro shops. Our sites aim to cater for the regular players as much as the one-off customers. We feel most sites in the UK, especially Scotland, are very much commercialized and don’t care about the paintball player, and in some case don’t even let them play. So as a team we wanted to do something that would help scenario paintball at a grass roots level. We are aiming at players old and new. We want these new guys to have somewhere they can get good quality rental gear cheap allowing them to play regularly without the huge initial outlay. When the time is right they will then be able to buy from guys they play with and will have seen the quality of products we offer.
The Scottish Warriors were the first scenario team Europe to have a full kit sponsorship deal. We had this for 4 years with Smart Parts and our hard work for them paid off for both parties. This later opened the doors for sponsorship, with other manufactures actively seeking us out. Due to the success of what we did, other manufactures now offer deals to scenario teams. 5 years ago you a scenario team would have been laughed at if they’d asked for a deal.
As a team we bring a huge amount of respect on the field. Our guys are one of the most focused groups of players on the field. Off the field they are friendly, loud and completely mad – we always stand out from the crowd.
We attend all the games we can worldwide and locally. A common thing you will see is a Warrior offering his gear to new or younger players to try and show them how to play and encourage them. This is why I think we are so good and are so successful.
That, and we win a lot of games as well.
Paintball in Scotland…. what’s that like? Is there a strong paintball community? how many fields to play on etc?
Cold and Wet…
There are small enclaves of players around the country, and most of us get to know one another from walk ons and big games.
Paintball up here is almost exclusively Woodsball, with only a few teams playing Sup’air. The main reason for this is that paintball in Scotland is dominated by the big corporate fields with fewer fields catering for the regular players. This is something we hope to try and change. Soon we will be running three fields around the country, and our focus will to be encourage new players to become regular players, while still catering for the “occasional” customer.
I understand that Tony owns a paintball business himself, what is he doing and does this factor in to the team’s daily doings?
As a paintball business owner the way Tony does business has everything to do with the Scottish Warriors team. Over the last 8 years the team has built a great name in paintball, both for playing well on the field and as a promotional tool off the field. That has paintball companies banging on our door to use their products. Now Tony is in paintball as a business, this has been factored into the planning. The way SW Paintball do business is simple. Everything the team uses, they sell. If we don’t use it, they don’t sell it – there are plenty of bigger stores who do that. Maybe trying to cater for all players is what is causing them to struggle financially. Tony’s aim for SW Paintball and the SW team is to grow paintball through our chain of sites, by having regular affordable walk-on and training clinics and attending big games worldwide. The team is behind this 100% and we are doing so not just because we get good deals but because our guys are believers in what being a Scottish Warrior means.
I further understand The Scottish Warriors are sponsored by 
MacDev this year… what is it about this marker that makes it a great choice for the team to use?
The MacDev markers are fantastic. The scenario team will primarily be shooting the Tactical Drone, with the tournament team shooting the Clone.
The MacDev markers are all highly consistent, very efficient, and well made. They give excellent performance on the field and are easy to maintain off the field.
Programming is a dawdle on both markers. A simple multi-colour LED on the Drone and trigger based programming is really easy to get used to. The Clone is even easier with all features accessed with the OLED screen.
From my own personal use of the Drone, I was amazed at how well it comes on target for a real point and shoot feel. For a rugged looking marker the aluminum construction makes it really light so it’s great for being on field for the longer periods of time that scenario paintball often demands. It’s going to be a good season with this marker I think.
We are also sponsored by:
www.scottishwarriors.co.uk – main portal for forum, UJPB and SW store
www.macdev.net – our main sponsor
www.youtube.com/urbanjunglepb – UJPB youtube channel
www.youtube.com/riderscottishwarrior – my youtube channel
SW Paintball Ltd. Urban Jungle Paintball Dark Sports Ltd Photos courtesy of The Scottish Warriors and John McEachren
