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Which Format for our Future ???

  • Remain with XBall and its Locked Leagues

    Votes: 46 22.1%
  • 7 Man Model of Open Leagues

    Votes: 73 35.1%
  • Formula 5

    Votes: 60 28.8%
  • Go Back to Woodland Paintball

    Votes: 29 13.9%

  • Total voters
    208

madness

i love formula 5's
Mar 27, 2006
862
132
78
south east london
I've been playing paintball for 23 years and I've played woodland tourney seven man sup air KoTH millennium and of late and for the last 2 seasons I've played formula 5's so as you can guess this has my vote. The reason for this is not only the value for money or the game time but the amount of thought you have to put in to this format. It takes a team to win games in this format and not the actions of an individual player or move. Also the fitness required to compete in this format really does make this a sport.
So if anyone gets the chance to try this format then you should. Don't write it off until you try it. I tried it and never looked back.
 

Uriguy

Banned
May 12, 2011
1
2
0
My first post is this .
I play 2 years in Div1 spend much money one day i wake up and think i want to play more than 1 minute for a game i tell my team they all say me to so we not register this year for millennium.
I am very interested in Formula 5 format but is not here in Bulgaria so i will wait or play in England sometime.
 
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Codiak

GWC 2010 #23
Dec 2, 2004
1,110
15
63
Newcastle
www.codiak.co.uk
I voted 7 man, but would also consider a decent competitive woodland tourney.
I hate coaching.... hence why I am so against x-ball.

When I started paintball in 1990, even tho it was in the woods and we wore cammo, I never thought of it as playing soldiers, and I think everyone else thought this way too, as we didn't want it all to get banned. Thanks to the UKPSF this didn't happed!

Which is why I dont quite get scenario with all the replica gear...
 
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Aug 9, 2005
48
14
18
Northants UK
Formula 5 for me. Ive played various tournaments over the years and Formula 5 is hands down the best value for money in regards to trigger time, and above all else, the most fun ive had while playing. We need to see 2 Pro teams play it to really display what its about and use the format to its full potential, others may be more inclined to have a go then as well.
 

Gadget

Platinum Member
Jul 16, 2002
1,759
619
148
Essex, UK
I voted for a return to the woods, as I think that's where we'll be able to entice more rental customers to step up and play tournaments. I would love to see the return of 7 and 10 man woodland games, but how many teams are there with rosters capable of fielding that number of players regularly?

Of the sup air formats I'd be happy with either F5 or 7 man. The current X-ball format has little appeal. I prefer games with larger squad sizes, larger fields and longer game times. 5 man sup air is all over too quickly.

Coaching of any type sucks balls, I hate it.
 

Gadget

Platinum Member
Jul 16, 2002
1,759
619
148
Essex, UK
:cool:The problem for "the woods" for me is firstly on a personal level is I dont/cant take it seriously, not to say i dont have a laugh when I actually do play woodsball. Alot of players start there. Woodsball is good for new players, my original master/sensei told me that woodsball builds up your perception and field awareness. However the idea of "woodsball" does scream sport to me, its portrays itself of more of a hobby, camo'd up with a pretend AK47 doesnt appeal to alot of ballers including myself, the idea of sup'air, the glamour, style, the dedication etc etc and the distancing of itself from the military-esk wargames within the trees is what is appealing. So to sum up, Woodsball is fun, but Sup'air paintball is a hybrid that has now has its own identity and existance and to return their would do more harm than good for the growth of the sport. :)


P.s Camouflage totally clashes with my Lighting-Pink and Neon-Orange marker :eek::cool:

The full scenario style of play with replica markers & military style camo doesn't appeal to me either, however there's no requirement to goto that extreme when playing woodland tournaments, although camo tends to be a good idea simply for obscuring movement, rather than for militaristic posing.

I think you're giving sup air far more credit than it deserves. It's nothing like a sport, despite the best efforts of the industry for 10 years. In the eyes of the non-playing masses, it's still people playing soldiers, regardless of the gaudy colour schemes and bouncy castles. A gun is still a gun to the man in the street.

There is also bugger all glamour in sup air. No matter how awesome the PBfashion videos may make HB look, for 99% of us it's still a muddy field early on a Sunday morning followed by aching limbs and welts - zero glamour, just like woodsball.

It's time to accept that paintball will never be mainstream, it will never have widespread TV coverage and it's not a sport.

As others have pointed out I'd also disagree that a return to the woods would harm the sport. There were lots more tournaments back in the early 90s than there are today and it was far easier to attract new blood - after a punter day it's an easy transition to a woodland tournament, you're playing the same style of game. Moving from punter day to sup air is like moving from rugby to football, different rules, different pace, different equipment.
 

Phoenix

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2008
502
74
63
Kent
We crossed over to the tourney scene this year having spent multiple years in scenario to varying degree's for most players in the team.
I think alot of players in the tourney scene don't realise the the amount of players in scenario or the money that is spent by players there.
As a team we love the accountability of tourney ball but we have all noticed that our trigger time has taken a massive hit. Value for money has nose dived since we swapped over.
I have limited experience of the formats available in tourney ball admittedly but I do know that value for money is key.
Teams like the Scottish warriors, Renegade Rebels, Shoreline rangers would all be well suited to a format like formula five. You will never get them out of the woods as it stands currently.
However run a formula 5 event on the Saturday before say the super 6 events....
That is the way forward. Banter between the teams, they would inevitably end up playing. Plus the tourney lads are there aswell to maybe stay on and have a laugh the next day at the super 6 event if they choose.
I don't think it'll happen or want it to but a I personally could not imagine going back to the woods full time. The supair way of play is to much fun also as someone has said you can't play full on in the woods for long without injury.
One thing I would say as a relatively new player to tourney ball, whoever introduced coaching needs shooting! To my way of thinking all it does is dumb down the game for the team on the field. Surely it takes away a major part of the game and for what gain exactly?
Run them side by side and make it formula five. That's my vote.
 

Soul Doubt

Bhood!
Jul 7, 2009
579
46
53
35
South Wales
The full scenario style of play with replica markers & military style camo doesn't appeal to me either, however there's no requirement to goto that extreme when playing woodland tournaments, although camo tends to be a good idea simply for obscuring movement, rather than for militaristic posing.

I think you're giving sup air far more credit than it deserves. It's nothing like a sport, despite the best efforts of the industry for 10 years. In the eyes of the non-playing masses, it's still people playing soldiers, regardless of the gaudy colour schemes and bouncy castles. A gun is still a gun to the man in the street.

There is also bugger all glamour in sup air. No matter how awesome the PBfashion videos may make HB look, for 99% of us it's still a muddy field early on a Sunday morning followed by aching limbs and welts - zero glamour, just like woodsball.

It's time to accept that paintball will never be mainstream, it will never have widespread TV coverage and it's not a sport.

As others have pointed out I'd also disagree that a return to the woods would harm the sport. There were lots more tournaments back in the early 90s than there are today and it was far easier to attract new blood - after a punter day it's an easy transition to a woodland tournament, you're playing the same style of game. Moving from punter day to sup air is like moving from rugby to football, different rules, different pace, different equipment.


People dont seem to read my posts, simply pick up key words and make up the rest :rolleyes: Its not
taking glamour in a literal sense, we aren’t all going round with supermodels on our arms, its the idea and image that is everything, and yes HK and various others push this image of a hard athletic grind followed by nights of partying etc etc that the glamour that attracts young people. You said it perfectly with this quote “zero glamour, just like woodsball.” there is no glamour in woodsball, none of that high adrenaline, fancy jersey wanting to be a badass on the field style and image that attracts young players (there is from certain players perspectives but its far easier to sell the image of sup‘air at HB than running around the woods). I’m not saying that the sole reason for people to come and play paintball, but that image is a big factor, I work at a paintball site and when young teens come up to me asking how to get into paintball I “sell” them this image, and they are capsulated by it. Its something new and alternative to the mainstream, looking back at the woods deflating our bouncy castles wont help the sport of paintball. Im not going to get into this Sport/not a sport debate right now, because we would go on forever, but lets consider it one for the purpose of this debate, the idea of getting officially recognised which it was so close to doing, (the only problem was our infrastructure was inadequate as Robbo himself has told me in the past) would have opened up new areas of opportunity for us, did players move out of the woods and on sup’air fields purely for the pursuit of television? Area’s of that may have been engineered that way but im hard pressed to believe that was the sole purpose of its creation. Even so Sup’air paintball has evolved paintball into a new way of paintball. I understand there are far more woodsballers about, but then we need to look at how they conduct themselves in woodsball? Is it for the war simulation or the purpose of competition? Is it for the weekend enjoyment of having a laugh with you mates shooting at people with paintball markers, or a structured league of competitive teams pushing a sport that is in its infancy. Lets no abandon sup’air so easily because of a few bumps in the road, to do so would be to loose a vital part of paintballs economy, and also a lot of paintballers myself included.
You make another great quote by saying Moving from punter day to sup air is like moving from rugby to football, different rules, different pace, different equipment” Which is exactly what im trying to establish in my posts, the current path of paintball, being lead by commercialisation is not helping out sport grow. The sport needs to be established through organisations such as the federation, the establishment of academies would teach those interested the sport of paintball, if we relay on punter sites to keep our sport alive without any institutions to start regulating our players then we will be stuck in this rut. The need for creating that true sporting organisation, which has the voice of the players, and negotiates with the industry which will alter sup’air yes, but for the better.
I understand what you and others are saying also, in the past it was easier to find new players due to the similarities of punter/woodsball the transition wasn’t so much of a leap. And the value for money was better, but I don’t consider that to be the sole result of the fact it was based in the woods dressed in camo. The circumstances were far wider than that, the outreach for an evolution in paintball brought it to what we see today, I bet arguments over moving to such an idea back then were rife, but look at what it has done for paintball, you may personally prefer camo and woodsball, but not everyone does. And to cut out those that don’t want to play in the woods would be to ultimately harm paintball, people can see that right? The sup’air manufacturers, all the makers of markers and gear would have to alter their businesses, the whole image of paintball would change, companies would go out of business and people like me would look for another sporting outlet, like extreme ironing.
 

Bolter

Administrator
Aug 19, 2003
9,495
2,027
348
Kettering
www.facebook.com
I'm telling you Bolter 7 man xball with no coaching is the way forward lol.
Ive been saying this for years. We need 7man race to 2.

Bring back 8 different fields, with some massive JT or an Angel A in the middle while we're at it.

edit: and the chance to play Avalanche or The Russian Legion in their pyjamas.....yeah bring that back aswell!