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Thread: Local Speedball Slowly Disappears

  1. #1
    Insider Unfated33's Avatar
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    Local Speedball Slowly Disappears

    As a further sign of the state of competitive paintball, I've noticed that there has been a significant decline in airball among my local fields. At one time, there were four major fields supporting speedball (Boss Paintball - my home field, Glory Road Paintball, Palmetto Hills, and Paintball Central Rock Hill). Boss Paintball had gone so far as to install artificial turf and stadium lighting so that their field was available year-round as well as around the clock. Paintball Central hosted the first ever Mid-Atlantic Open, sponsored Baltimore Trauma and Carolina Breakout, and at peak sported an impressive 7 simultaneous airball fields. Another field, Paintball Kingdom, abandoned their airball field at about the same time they gave up being a MacDev sponsor in the 2008-2010 time frame. Since 2011, two new fields have come in with airball: Mighty Sports Center and Paintball Paradyes. An eighth field, Behind Enemy Lines, has always been woods focused and never had airball.

    Today only 3 of the 8 locations have airball, with each business carrying a single inflatable field. Mighty Sports Center is considered an amateur location (not welcoming to experienced players, mulch instead of grass on its airball field) as well as sports a heavy entry fee. Paintball Central has space for just two fields left and only airs up one at time - the rest of the fields have been torn down for a large hardened obstacle/hyperball field. Glory Road has removed their old hyperball field but still has airball for their sponsored teams. The Carolina Field Owners Association (CFOA) tournament, which is held at Paintball Central, is a shell of its heyday, and had only a single team sign up for its October qualifier tournament. Both Palmetto Hills and Boss Paintball took out their airball fields; Palmetto Hills replaced airball with hyperball while Boss has transformed the lit turf field into storage and staging for their construction and cleanup projects. Paintball Paradyes replaced their inflatables with hardened structures less than two years into being open.

    I have to note that nearly every weekend I've been out to play is still packed with players, and the headcounts seem much higher today than they were last year or especially in 2012. These players are all choosing either woods, hyperball, or some form of CQB/Woodsy Speedball instead of traditional airball/speedball. There's a somewhat loose association between high end gear and airball, so not it's not surprising to no longer see very many high end electros on the field as well. If I'm lucky I'll see a few Egos and maybe an Axe or two during a full day of play. The rest of the players are carrying Spyders and milsim guns, with a strong showing of Magfed and FSR. Are you seeing anything similar happen in your area?

  2. #2
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    I've mentioned it to Ryan and I'll say it here.

    The requirement for bunkers to be airtight was never a great idea. Upkeep and replacement must cost a small fortune.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  3. #3
    Insider Davros's Avatar
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    Unfated: When I stopped playing I had heard of speedball in a few magazines but it did not exist here. When I returned I was curious and asked around. Especially curious after talking to one field owner and he mentioned they were permanently taking their airball field down. Apparently, every field here had one airball field for a couple of years. Every one of them has come down in the last few years. Same reason given for this at every single filed, lack of interest.

    There is a local team that organizes big games and does charity work and helps out at fields and in a very positive way dominate the scene here. They are called the Wolverines and they love their magfed.

    The field nearest to me is tiny and has a very high density assortment of human made bunkers in the centre of their woods. The crowd there is always very fast paced and it seems to be the place for speedballers. I saw more high end markers there than any other field in the area.

    So I did not witness it myself, but from speaking to everyone combined with what I have seen in the last year it seems like speedball was a fad around here for 5 or so years and is all but dead now.

    There was an women only speedball event last year. It was aimed at new players and the organizer herself prefers speedball but she told me that she thinks women new to the sport can get into speedball easier than playing in the woods because it is more clear what to do and the tournament was squarely aimed at new players.

    A brand new field that opened earlier this year that I love and is now my home field, Seabreeze Paintball told me they were very seriously considering opening an airball field. They were thinking if absolutely no one else has one maybe the remaining speedballers would all gather at their field and it would be OK. They were concerned about it hurting their intended brand as the best place to bring new players though. They were also considering clearing an area for the field and not necessarily deploying the bunkers all the time. Possibly doing pump action only speedball every once in a while.

  4. #4
    Unfated33- Im not sure who you are but im from Greenville SC and know what you speak of very well (we have proabaly crossed paths). I played, CFOA 05,06 and other series that were around then with Upstate Army. I had 4 fields within 20 minutes of my house that had atleast 3 tournament fields. My son plays for Absolute Chaos and they had to go as far as buying their own set of bunkers and set it up on some property one of them owns. The team goes out early saturday morning of practice, setup, play all day saturday and sunday then wash all the bunkers and take them down sunday night to store them. Its the only way they could get a local field without driving 2-4 hrs to practice. We have a Paintball Central In Greenville but its not what is use to be. Almost everyone that I knew in my tournament playing days have turned to Scenario play. My son and I both are looing into UWL this year.

  5. #5
    Insider
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    Interesting...I am from the same area and have the same observation but (perhaps) a slightly different conclusion.

    I have played in NC since the early 90's, excluding a brief absence to Europe. I feel like the tournament player scene peaked and is now settling down to where it was in the early 2000's. My son and I play rec-ball on Saturdays and speedball on Sundays. There is always an excellent turnout, on either day.

    What I think we are witnessing in the mid-South is the natural settling of the market. I don't think speedball is disappearing. I see new players each and every week. If you want to play paintball as a "sport" and not a "recreation" there is no other outlet for competition.

    I think fields realize the money is in renters/walk-ons/casual players and have made that the priority. There are still 5 fields within an hour of my location where I can play on a PSP airball field. This is still better than in the early 2000's and I feel it is a far cry from completely disappearing.

    @Tigwldr - If you want to do UWL/tournament woodsball this year my son and I also interested. The EPL is also putting on a "TAC5" woodsball tournament which looks interesting.

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