Event looks tight. Been here for most of the day, but I didn't go to the event cause it wasn't fully set up yet. It's 3 fields and not all of the trailers are here yet.
Went over to the event last night but there wasn't much of a point. Just a few verndors, saw KM and Bob Long forsure, but they weren't letting people through to get on the fields at all and field 2 didn't have the bunkers in place yet.
I think our team is going for practice at Vegas Xtreme later tonight.
Well, I just bought a **** ton of SFT parts for a new project.
Eigenbolts are almost ready too. Gonna buy one for my shocker. Dunno if I'll get to use it soon, but with how long theyre taking to produce its better safe than sorry.
Recently started looking into making a return to paintball after a rather long break. I played from 99-07.
Looks like a lot has changed since I bailed. Namely, the sport has really declined in numbers. AB used to have a vibrant paintball scene but it looks as if it's all but dried up. There seems to be little in the way of open practices or vets nights (zero here in Red Deer, I'll have to travel to Cgy or Edm).
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Are there any fairly active boards any more? Calgary Paintball is pretty much flaccid haha.
Recently started looking into making a return to paintball after a rather long break. I played from 99-07.
Looks like a lot has changed since I bailed. Namely, the sport has really declined in numbers. AB used to have a vibrant paintball scene but it looks as if it's all but dried up. There seems to be little in the way of open practices or vets nights (zero here in Red Deer, I'll have to travel to Cgy or Edm).
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Are there any fairly active boards any more? Calgary Paintball is pretty much flaccid haha.
Heroforaday, Me and Moir are the only Calgary guys on the Canadian OT im pretty sure. CPF is pretty dead. also there is edmonton paintball but im never on that, Only things are vets night at RC in calgary which are finally picking up with colder weather. i tried to go a few times to play and like 4 of us would show up. last thursday brian said there was 19 people out. So hopefully something picks up soon.
Ahh bummer. I can't really justify driving down on weeknights, even a weekend for 19 people is pretty iffy.
Where do the competitive players go anymore? For the teams on MR rosters, do they just take it easy over the winter and not practice? Just boggles my mind to think that there are so few practices anymore, when we used to be able to get so much good ball in a month
The competitive teams practice somewhat sporadically and then show up tithe organized practices at Bragg and such, honestly speedball here feels like its on its last legs. To me at least.
People just seem to be quitting left and right or just moving to outdoor recball which appears to be growing. Lol
Perhaps I've waited too long to come back. I'm playing @ Bragg at the end of the month. First time I've picked up a paintball gun since 2007. Will you guys be there?
The huge move to woodsball kind of baffles me as there's a better alternative for that sort of thing. I mean, airsoft has seen a huge increase in #'s in the past couple years (many being ex-ballers).
I think it has to do with cost vs reward these days. The cost to play has gone up even though the paint we get is ****, and the facilities are aging - I mean we really don't have any true full sized field in Calgary and a lot of the Vets simply don't turn out very often. 19 people for a vets night is meh, I remember when there used to be 50 no problem. The tournaments are generally struggling to garner new interest, you get the same select group of players and few new bodies - take Brawl as an example. The cost to play has gone up every year, and the quality of the event hasn't, perhaps people have begun to realize this.
So I see more people turning to woods ball as an alternative where ou can still play somewhat competitively (think UWL) at a fraction of the cost. Plus it attracts renters much quicker.
Sorry, been out forever, but what is UWL? A woodsball tourney league? Cause if there's like, 10 man circa 1998 style tournaments I'd be all over that haha.
I bailed at what must have been the high point for AB ball I guess. When we (Outcast) were holding open practices in Olds we'd get awesome turnouts. Hell, when I worked @ Paintball Busters the Wed night walk-ons would push 100 most weeks.
We knew it couldn't last though, I remember talking to some of the vets at the time about how the game would have to get cheaper as a whole or face the sort of situation it's found itself in.
Man, I'm starting to sound like a grey-bush here. I'm only 26 and feel like I'm ancient haha.
Haha it's kinda similar over in Ontario. I got out in 2009 until last Winter and there's less tournament series running, CXBL basically dominates the player base and is bleeding it dry for 3 events a season with pretty much no reward at all.
We run a 3man and 5man series at my team's field which has been picking up this year which would be cool to expand, but now we've pretty much reached the limit of how many teams we can handle in a one day event and still have time to clean and teardown the field afterwards.
We run a 3man and 5man series at my team's field which has been picking up this year which would be cool to expand, but now we've pretty much reached the limit of how many teams we can handle in a one day event and still have time to clean and teardown the field afterwards.
I think if anything you may see a "grass roots" movement with events like this. Fields or teams running one-two day events instead of year-long series'
UWL for further clarification is the Ultimate Woodsball League, and it's fairly competitive in some areas (mostly the USA) where a lot of pros go out and play old school CTF and such, I think 10 man teams? I would have to look it up to be sure.
Derp - thay have a site. All the info you may want is in here: http://playuwl.com/
Honestly, I wish we had that up here - it would give me something to play competitively again.
UWL for further clarification is the Ultimate Woodsball League, and it's fairly competitive in some areas (mostly the USA) where a lot of pros go out and play old school CTF and such, I think 10 man teams? I would have to look it up to be sure.
Derp - thay have a site. All the info you may want is in here: http://playuwl.com/
Honestly, I wish we had that up here - it would give me something to play competitively again.
I kinda got bored of normal "woodsball" but holy ****. why cant we have that up here?! looks like so much fun.
I think if anything you may see a "grass roots" movement with events like this. Fields or teams running one-two day events instead of year-long series'
I've even been toying with the idea of putting together some kind of regional "fun-day"/streetball kind of event, to just have a bunch of people show up and put them into random teams(3man or 5man depending on turnout) to do scrims for the day. This would mix newer and experienced players together, help build connections between players, and try to get more people interested in tournament ball who otherwise might be put off by not having a team to play with or being scared of getting rolled by teams when they want to give the air field a try.
Then again I'm sure there would be players who already have teams or groups they want to stick together with that would be put off by the idea.
I think if you could get a few fields involved from around the area and have them all promote the event, possibly give free t-shirts with all the fields' logos, there could be a great turnout and a chance to get a larger airball community going.
The biggest turnout at my local field (not my team's field) for airball has been about 15 people, but I remember back in 2005-2008 there would be 20+ people out on any given Sunday. I know it's a combination of people leaving town to play for CXBL camps, as the closest is about a 3-hour drive, but there are so many other local players that it seems have just disappeared.
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