What needs to happen to speedball to keep it relevant?

[skibbo]

some kind of player tracking and bright paint should all be priority one.

Agree about bright paint. PBN posted a video recently comparing different shell colors with regard to videos/visibility. Much much easier to see brighter shelled paint.

In addition to player tracking, I'd love to see first person views or even third person, similar to driver cams in NASCAR. Be interesting to swap from player to player showing gun battles, great moves, etc. A HUD on the screen during those times showing stats (% of paint left in hopper, air, approx paint left, etc.) Would be interesting. Easier to integrate sensors then show on screen rather than player based mask HUD.

[Florypb505]

I've been a fan of regional tournaments.

Played a series last year that was fun we won and I ended up only losing out $400 to play 4 events which isn't bad.

There are a ton of problems with the tournament scene right now. The biggest one especially with nationals is it is just not worth doing if cash is at all a concern. There is no chance you are going to break even when you win if you need to put your money in for everything. A ton of regional events are the same way around here but it's a lot less money lost and time spent.

Paintball seems to be dieing where I am, the speedball scene is taking the largest hit though.

I don't care myself rrally I will play speedball regardless of if there is a tournament series to play for or not, the woods are just to boring for me most days I'd rather play a point in under 5 minutes pod up and go play another for a few hours.

Food for thought. I played 2 points of mech cocker xball at the last top gun old school day and it might have been the most fun I have had playing in a long time.

[vijil]

So if I were to sum up the responses so far:

Too expensive/too much paint involved. Flawed business model.

Not enough game time per event.

Needs better watchability - bright paint etc.

Too much travel, need a feeder system to one big nationals event



I suppose I'd add that the current team elimination DM format (flags are token at best, let's be honest) gets very samey.

What have I missed?

[fullofpaint]

I wish there was a reliable way to do gun cams for the pro teams. I think PBAccess has done a really good job so far with upping the webcast, but it's still fairly unaccessible to newcomers. I think having that first person view would be a nice addition, but it'd up their infrastructure requirements like crazy.

The feeder leagues that are already in place are so divergent in quality too which make a big difference. NEXL/AXBL/PGPL are all very different leagues with various levels of quality, even though they're all technically PSP feeder leagues.

Locally too, there's a lot less beginner level tournaments. I remember when I got started every field had at least one 3-man event every year. Now there's 2 main fields for all of New England with one or two small fields running some tournaments.

[Simon]

I think PBAccess has been fantastic, but I don't believe they were able to cover their own costs, and the rumour is they are looking for a serious cash infusion to keep operating.

It's tough to see that with all the pull back being discussed for next year, and the financial struggles of some of the major companies that it will still exist in the same way next year.

[fullofpaint]

I'm actually surprised they sustained the quality level they did for as long as they did. It wasn't perfect, but they were well on their way. Maybe it's just cause I work in that industry, but I couldn't believe how many people threw a fit over paying for the webcast.

[PBSteve]

I get that paintball is expensive, but people really do want everything for free.

[YOUNGSTOWN]

So if I were to sum up the responses so far:

Too expensive/too much paint involved. Flawed business model.

Not enough game time per event.

Needs better watchability - bright paint etc.

Too much travel, need a feeder system to one big nationals event



I suppose I'd add that the current team elimination DM format (flags are token at best, let's be honest) gets very samey.

What have I missed?

I'm on the fence with game time...
Mostly because of the interpretation of what the players are paying for.
( example: you win in 5 min by dominating a team in a race to 4,5,7 match.... You could have used more but the game ends before that.
So...If we're talking "potential time" vs. "Actual time"...in relation to what you're paying currently in entry fees ...then yes, I would keep it on the list.

[reaper_6]

I get that paintball is expensive, but people really do want everything for free.

Agree 100% ;
Are too many wild lowballs out there, they are making non sense deals, because of them the sport in general is slowly bleeding. Their prioritys are very cheap prices (near to cost), no fees nor shipping expenses.

[vijil]

Part of the issue may be that it's a team sport. It's easy to find one person willing to drop mad $$ on a sport - see: skiiing, mtb, etc. It's much harder to find a stable team willing to spend similar amounts per person. Expensive sports are best when they're primarily individual pursuits. Note how the vast majority of team sports are extremely cheap to play.