What needs to happen to speedball to keep it relevant?

[going_home]

I think the "I hate speedball" crowd within paintball tends to be relatively loud, and gives a false impression that most players indeed hate speedball. What I'd suspect more is that the real majority of players are unaware or indifferent about speedball, because they don't play at organized fields. As for those who buy high end gear, most of them are likely willing to play just about any style, be it speedball, woods, scenario, one-v-one, magfed, pump, whatever. They want to PLAY.

There was a guy a handful of years ago who had a platform for his views through a video series, and a chip on his shoulder about "mainstream paintball". He'd rail against anything having to do with tournaments or the industry that were anything but how he thought paintball should be. I don't think he's been seen anywhere in the game in a few years now, and even those sightings were more like "oh, look who crawled back to the game he hates".

Pretty sure you are talking about Gordons Canadian buddy on that one.

Follow the money.

Theres only so much prize money, and it takes a lot of money in plane fares/practice paint etc, win or lose.

Could it be that salaried players and national events are on the decline ?

Maybe smaller localized events with unpaid players paying their own way are the future of paintball.

I posted that about this subject exactly here :

http://inceptionforums.com/showthrea...ll=1#post20855

[Lurker27]

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.

Clearly you aren't a hockey player. Gear and ice time are incredibly expensive. I agree with your overall point but I think that's a pretty minor issue.

Speedball is great fun to play and has a lot of utility as a sporting endeavor, IMO. The bottom line is that it's been completely mishandled in terms of generating revenue outside the industry, which puts the very concept of professional play on shaky ground.

Culling and rebirth, gentlemen. If there were a bunch of competent regionals with a big Vegas tournament on the ocho at the end...

[cockerpunk]

If the PSP wants themselves to be relevant to spectators, in my mind the goals are faster-paced, more visible and more athletic. To that end a bunch more bunkers, paint limits, some kind of player tracking and bright paint should all be priority one.

the game is already too fast that the players and refs cannot keep up .... thats why they had to add coaching.

if players and refs can't even keep up, then there is already no hope for spectators.

[cockerpunk]

Pretty sure you are talking about Gordons Canadian buddy on that one.

im not friends with any Canadians ... for good reason .... hehehe

[morolen]

Regarding the bright paint thing, considering how stepped on the broadcast is I am unsure if you would be able to see the paint after the compression, certainly worth testing out though.

[Unfated33]

The only Canadian I can think of that gets nutty about speedball is Wolf. I imagine that's changed now that Dye hooked him. Was there a problem child before that?

[Pump Scout]

Pretty sure you are talking about Gordons Canadian buddy on that one.

Nope. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to be Canadian. This guy, last I heard, was in either southern Wisconsin or northern Illinois.

[cockerpunk]

The only Canadian I can think of that gets nutty about speedball is Wolf. I imagine that's changed now that Dye hooked him. Was there a problem child before that?

look no farther than the martyr himself:



which i think is sad. had his ego and his stubbornness not gotten in the way, i actually think tyger was a pretty cool guy. a pioneer in the web show paintball format certainly. but his attitude and the fact that paintball passed him by, lead to self destruction.

another lesson in the long line of "if you arnt producing new, and quality content, then just don't make content for the sake of content"

[emisnug]

Regarding the bright paint thing, considering how stepped on the broadcast is I am unsure if you would be able to see the paint after the compression, certainly worth testing out though.

We're doing a test in a few weeks regarding the Mills broadcast. Based on the Livestream 5mbs we reckon we should be able to at least see them. Then again, I'm still fighting for the camera towers to be lower and run SDI's back to a control board. It's getting there.

[Unfated33]

Huh, I seemed to remember seeing Tyger talk about the death of paintball and then never heard of him again. He mostly fits in the lost decade of time when I wasn't involved in paintball. And I'm unsure whether this should be ironic or not, but I have a difficult time distinguishing some of the stuff I see from what TB Wright was posting around the same time.