Opus Finale .... A Warts an' all Exposé of Paintball's Very Own Megalomaniac

[Abbottsmead]

After 28 years in the paintball industry I rarely, if ever, get involved with any issues on a public forum.
Obviously, the main reason for this is that I don’t want to endanger any possible business interests, the other reason is that, to be honest, rarely have I felt compelled to do so as there are always two sides to a story & normally nobody is totally right either way.

However, having watched the latest episode in the current soap opera on P8ntballer.com, and being the victim of ridiculous claims from this person’s organisation, I feel compelled to agree with much of what has been written.

Thankfully it has been a rarity to come across such a strange and wholly self-centred megalomaniac during my years in Paintball.
I know of nobody I’ve dealt with that hasn’t made mistakes, including myself, the difference is, we can recognise this & even sometimes admit it & apologise if necessary.
This man must be better than the rest as he never makes mistakes, certainly never admits them and God forbid apologise.

He uses very underhand tactics to try to gain an advantage; currently I am watching claims he is making to teams that are totally misleading at best.
The people who will suffer, will be the players & teams.

At the end of the day you can’t fool all the people all of the time & time will not be his friend.

 

[David Jack UK Mercs]

i have kept quiet for a couple of years now and got on with my enjoyment of our sport following the exposure a few years back of this distasteful man and his antics.

Following my simple questioning of him i was bombard by abuse and threats of violence by a number of his inner circle.

As recently as six weeks ago i cracked a joke about shoreline and was immediately threatened by people within his inner circle. It still goes on.

All i will say is well done to the posters on here for being brave enough to come out of the shadows and expose the man and all his trappings.

Together the paintball community will hopefully over come these issues and become a stronger more cohesive community for it.

 

[Robbo]

The post above [from Abbottsmead] has been written by Steve Baldwin, owner of the Millennium League series, GiMilsim, Mayhem and several other paintball interests.
He is been in paintball for 28 years, he knows what he's talking about.

He is one of our most important industry figures in Europe; I'm glad he felt as though he needed to post; it's not often, in fact, I cannot think of anyone of his position in our sport who has gone public in such a way before.

And he makes a genuine point, normally commercial interests tend to override any desire to go public on a forum in the way he has done, and so all credit to him for that, most people in his position decline to go public with their thoughts - Steve's got the nuts to do just that !!

He obviously feels that barnett is an exception to any commercial interests and has realised that barnett is a big threat to our sport in the UK and Europe.

However, Steve's post will be used by barnett to direct attention away from himself and erroneously accuse 'the big fish in paintball are out to get me, it's a conspiracy I tell you'.
t-b has used this ridiculous claim several times before and not one of those occasions is even remotely true.
It's the only defence he can make even though it is a lie and he knows it - come to think of it, he probably does believe it because his psychotic personality truly believes he's important in our sport and what better way to reconcile all this negativity than to fool oneself into believing it's one big conspiracy?

His only other way of reconciling it, is to acknowledge these people are telling the truth of their own accord.
barnett really won't be able to admit that to himself, his ego won't allow it and so he deludes himself that everyone's out to get him, well, they might be but not because of any collusion but because he really has fuhk'd over or pissed off soo many people,

Post after post has laid waste to Barnett's reputation not as a derivative of any conspiracy but because soo many people have been negatively affected by barnet's actions.
There is NO way barnett can accuse anyone of conspiracy here, it is all barnet's own [wrong]doing, no excuses, no conspiracies, no bullsh!t, it's just that people have had enough of this as$hole and that is why this thread has endured and enlightened.

There is more to come, some particularly nasty stuff as well, I hope the people in question find it within themselves to go public with regard to what they've experienced with barnett.

 

[Robbo]

i have kept quiet for a couple of years now and got on with my enjoyment of our sport following the exposure a few years back of this distasteful man and his antics.

Following my simple questioning of him i was bombard by abuse and threats of violence by a number of his inner circle.

As recently as six weeks ago i cracked a joke about shoreline and was immediately threatened by people within his inner circle. It still goes on.

All i will say is well done to the posters on here for being brave enough to come out of the shadows and expose the man and all his trappings.

Together the paintball community will hopefully over come these issues and become a stronger more cohesive community for it.

Dave, with regard to his threats of violence; his tenuous hold on the word 'truth' is compromised mate - he ain't gonna do anything like that - he might be able to intimidate people who aren't used to such threats but bottom line is, to my knowledge, he has NEVER clumped anyone to do with paintball ... he's said he has but we all now know it was a complete lie.
It's relatively easy to say such things like he's hit people but the guy is a fake Dave, he's a wannabee hard-man, a wannabee industry figure, a wannabee promoter, a wannabee everything .... he has no fighting pedigree much past the delusions he has jangling around his head.
There's nothing to worry about with him on that score, especially now.

 

[Canon Fodder]

Any one threatened with violence on facebook etc may want to take note of this:

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q770.htm

I really find it hard to beleive that in this day and age people bandy about threats of violence over arguments in such an easily documented format, especially arguements about business (although I've had my fair share of threats in my day job pursuing money through the county court).

 

[H]

<devils advocate>
Pete:
I've seen the 'the big fish in paintball are out to get me/him, it's a conspiracy I tell you' excuse a number of times from him and his people. Probably because it's a pretty reasonable defence in the eyes of the ignorant. Now, do you think there is anything succinct that can be said by you or anyone else to the players out there that have drunk the koolaid and just feel that this thread is yet another rage fuelled attempt to run legitimate competition out of business?

</devils advocate>

 

[Dusty]

<devils advocate>
Pete:
I've seen the 'the big fish in paintball are out to get me/him, it's a conspiracy I tell you' excuse a number of times from him and his people. Probably because it's a pretty reasonable defence in the eyes of the ignorant. Now, do you think there is anything succinct that can be said by you or anyone else to the players out there that have drunk the koolaid and just feel that this thread is yet another rage fuelled attempt to run legitimate competition out of business?

</devils advocate>

To what end though? Of all the people who run events, sites, shops etc in the UK why would "the industry" want t-b gone? who would benefit? It's not like he's sitting on a potential extra multi million pound revenue stream to be divided out, quite far from it.

if anyone thinks there's a secret committee of industry bods who sit in darkened smoky rooms plotting the demise of chosen companies they're sorely mistaken, and i'll be sure to bring it to their attention at the secret meeting this friday evening in the Robin Hood pub based in Clacton-on-Sea

 

[H]

Your guess is as good as mine dude. From what I understand you're spot on, many people think that the people above want TB gone because they think that he's 'upturning the establishment' and that he's a threat to their business interests. And as such all the stuff is a co-ordinated attack on someone who might run them out of business.. The line that SL spout is that these sorts of things happen whenever they are pushing a promotion or event and it's an attempt to undermine them.

 

[Robbo]

H, Some people surrender any sense of morality in favour of a few quid, I've seen it all before.
Whether that 'few quid' comes in the form of team support or indeed someone like dale ford who sold his ass for a pittance, it seems not to matter that much.
dale ford is 'supposedly' in the business of telling the news but he's abandoned any sense of responsibility to his readers by defending barnett's ridiculous accusations and excuses.
How can anyone take his monthly report seriously when he's so easily subverted from the truth for a few dollars more ?...

Those individuals who stand by barnett really need to look past barnett's ridiculous accusations of 'conspiracy' etc
Has anyone in our sport ever come in for such universal disdain and attacks?
No, not even close ... this is unique in paintball, I have never seen a situation like this in terms of the sheer number of people relating their experiences with him, and of course the sheer nature of his misdeeds.
For those people who defend and stand by him?
They are either devoid of any common-sense, or they have some financial connection with him .... I think it's got to the point now whereby any association with barnett is fast becoming an embarrassing situation for people and they need to take a long hard look at the continuance of any connections with him - he's now become a social pariah, and deservedly so.

 

[H]

I think a lot of it is an ostrich mentality, they play some of his events, they like his events and so therefore why should they get whipped up in 'politics'?