Paintball Journal

From PSPEvents.com :

“World Cup is like the Super Bowl of paintball. Whether you’re a player, a vendor or a spectator, this is the event of the year you don’t want to miss.�? -Shane Nugent, Encounter Sports

The World Cup draws over 400 teams from across the nation and around the globe each year to compete in the most popular formats for their share of over $100,000 in cash prizes. Nowhere else is the competition more fierce.

“World Cup is THE event of the year in the paintball world. The whole year leads up to Cup and every new year begins at Cup. It’s what we look forward to every year.�? - Robin Niehaus, Dye Precision

“DXS considers the World Cup the ultimate opportunity to experience the best paintball in the world.�? -Graham Pritchard, Draxxus

The event is also host to the largest tradeshow in the industry. From the largest companies to the newcomers, everyone will be in attendance. Whether you’re looking for the latest gear or the hottest new brands, World Cup is the place to get it.

“I look forward to the PSP World Cup all year long. The World Cup is paintball at its finest. The best products on display, the best teams competing in the awesome Xball format. Combine that with the best venue in the world - Disney World, and what more could you ask for?” - Chris Williams, Virtue

Stay tuned to www.pspevents.com for all the latest updates on the 2007 World Cup. Check back often as we continue to add even more information for THE event of the year.

For more information on becoming part of World Cup’s massive trade show, please contact Keely Watson at keely@pspevents.com before September 25th.

Check out this ridiculously sick layout, though.

The space! The lanes! The snake! The sickness!

Looks like the popular retailer that we all know and don’t really prefer is targeting paintballers, if you’ll forgive my pun.

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Sweet! A non-photoshopped version emerges! I’m actually really digging the anno on it now that I’ve seen it without the heavenly glow and adjusted colors and such.

It’s that time of year again, the sidebar on this blog is getting updated. That means I’ve now got direct control of some of the things happening there, including the blogroll. If you’d like to get your site added, talk to me and we can work something out.

All of the sites I’ve added there (not the sponsored links or paid for links of which I have no control) have been added because I like the sites, not because they’ve been paid for or anything. I just want to let you know that I genuinely recommend all of the sites there, because of my personal experience on those sites and with the people who run them.

Paintball USA is stealing my stuff! And, I’m pretty sure they’re stealing from other sources as well. It’s not just an aggregator, because they definitely don’t link here on purpose. Just a warning, if you’re seeing my stuff elsewhere on the web that isn’t being posted by me.

A most excellent idea, spawned from a double run-through seen several months ago by Evan and me, is the Kill Train.

Something that’s fun to do is to have your whole team take off down one tape side, preferably the right tape is everyone is right handed. This can be done right on the break, or immediately afterwards and usually works best against inexperienced people who enjoy running to their bunkers off the break without looking up.

The lead-man or “Engine” shoots straight, aiming at the outside corner of the right back bunker, or whatever other bunkers are occupied along the right tape. The “Freight Cars” gets to shoot at a forty-five degree angle, in and across the field. The “Caboose” is in charge of shooting straight across the field, perpendicular to the tape, making sure everyone gets mopped up.

That’s about all there is to it! Now go try it, and be sure to yell “Kiiilllll Traaaaiiiiin” while running down the field.

Seriously. No, seriously. Stop laughing and read this.

Sadly, apparently there were winners at this tournament. Okay, I’ll admit, I’m not that great of a player. In fact, I’m inferior to many. That doesn’t mean I play at this level of “tournament” paintball, though.

But not really.

Here we go with this week’s random new crap that really isn’t worth the money, but people will buy anyway.

Well, it’s an interesting design, but I’m afraid the Aurora pattern might get played out. There are going to be around 100 of these produced, selling for a rather decent $800. I’d shoot one, as it does come with plenty of features, but really for $800 I’d rather get… well, a lot of things. This seems most likely to be a ploy to get rid of 07 inventory to make room for the 08 line. And honestly, this will probably work.

Cool, but… whatever. I’ve never been into paintball clothing, as I see better ways to spend my money as a paintballer. Instead of advertising what a great player I am, I prefer to actually get better by buying paint and going out and practicing. Weird how I get more respect than some kids wearing these awesome Hybrid shirts.

A custom edition of what I consider the best paintball pistol ever is something that I will sit up and take notice of. I do want to see one of these in person, because I believe them when they say that it is hard to see the true colors in just a picture.

That said, no need for a price run, hopefully the “special color” will only add a couple bucks.

In the nine months that I’ve been here, there have certainly been some interesting moments. Who could forget the first time Evan scoffed at my insane drills and inventions, or the first time that someone I didn’t know laughed at something I wrote! Ah, what good days.

Here are some of the best… er, most fondly remembered ideas that have been produced and found by the brilliant writers here at Paintball Journal.

Most Useless Mod
An amazingly useless mod for a hopper.

Awkward…
Ten extremely awkward places to play. Give ‘em a try sometime, let me know how it goes.

Get With It!
Where I tease pro paintballers about their lack of keeping up with the Joneses.

Safety Tips
Top ten gun safety tips, including one of my favorites, “Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, such as at a hippy or communist.”

Potato Sack Paintball
I don’t really know how to describe this one… I really don’t.

Confuse Thy Enemies
“8. Affix a ‘bayonet’ to the end of your gun. Signal the charge. Entire team charges the enemy’s position with paintbrush bayonets.”

Cheapest Ion Body Ever
Coincidentally, also the most cardboard Ion body ever.

To help me design the team logos! Feel privileged, because I wouldn’t let just anybody do this.

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It’s that time of the year again. We’re re-designing our team from the ground up. That means name, jerseys, logos, sponsors, and more.

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Evan and I finally got to hit up the new indoor place, Splatz Indoor Paintball. First thing I noticed was the ride, 20 minutes is better than any other ride to a paintball field that I’ve ever had, due to uhm… length. So, no complaints so far.

We rolled in, unloaded our stuff, and threw down some fightin’ words once inside. The staff seemed a little shocked, so we took it down a notch and introduced ourselves. Prices for everything were about average, with really cheap air fills due to a lack of a compressor. They’re still filling off of scuba tanks which isn’t too bad, all day air is $5 and each fill is like $1.50, but they only fill to 2k - 2.5k PSI. Whatever.

What you care about is the field. First of all, let me say that the owners certainly are ambitious. Eric Coblentz, the guy in charge, told us about the two or three fields that they’re going to set up in the near future. It sounds like eventually they’ll have a multi-level urban combat area, an X-ball field, and possibly another scenario-esque field. Like I said, ambitious for a field that currently consists of one small airball field.

The turf isn’t all that great, more like indoor carpet than anything. It’s very similar to the old Friendly Fire turf; good for sliding, and not much else. The bunkers are merely okay, NPS isn’t known for awesome bunker concepts (thus why they aren’t widely used). Still, I can’t really complain. It was fun and the field set-up was mildly competitive. The field isn’t wide enough to create any decent lanes, but you don’t really notice it much. The competition at the field the day that Evan and I went was very low, and JP and Ben, the other two constant members of No Trace had a similar experience the weekend before.

They’re hosting a 3-Man tournament in September, something that we are almost certainly going to rock. With $500 on the line, a live band, a rock-climbing wall, and more, it seems like the event of the year for No Trace. $40 entry and FPO isn’t much to pay for a chance to compete in an event of the caliber that they’re advertising.

Overall, Splatz is definitely worth checking out. I’d recommend them to anyone from a team who wants a little indoor practice to new guys who just want to check out what paintball is. The staff is very friendly and more than willing to do whatever it takes to help you get the most out of your day there.

Worth checking out if you’ve got some spare time. They’ve put a decent amount of work into this, and it really is interesting if you’re a fan of the teams, or just want a tiny bit of insight into what an event is like for these guys.

Pretty interesting, and good for a poor, paintball footage starved individual like myself. It gives some life to those scores that seem so dang boring on paper.