Paintball Journal

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.

I believe I’ve done a post before on the RAP4 grenades, well, the grenade launchers. I don’t play milsim, so I’ve really never had the chance to actually see how they work, but this video was very revealing. It surprises me that it didn’t actually ‘launch’ anything at all, and the whole aspect of the grenade launcher turned into a paintball shotgun more than anything else. Take a look.

I’m not at all crazy about Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. The plot seems fine, kind of like the Dodgeball of paintball, but it’s really not representing professional level paintball at all. One, it just looks downright hokey, like it was homemade or something. Two, we all know that professional paintball is played on nice, rolled out turf, with high end guns (Shockers, Egos, Dms/Pms etc), but this doesn’t even capture that. It looks like a run down field on the edge of the woods where players are playing woodsball.

From what I can tell it’s just not a great image that paintballers like to see. I’d like to see the hardcore I’ll mow your face side of it, but that just won’t happen in a big movie. I think it will be a let down, like one comment had mentioned on the last post, so I doubt I’ll ever get around to it.

The Mid Atlantic Open has an interesting field this year. It’s the standard PSP, but the snake side is pretty different with the very close, angled rolls. There’s also a dorito sitting right on the fifty that pretty much guarantees to block an angles a player might get from the first section of the snake, and even some of the second.

But I think I like the 07 layout a lot more than the 06 MAO Layout. That one just looks too crazy with the first snake portions being offset just a little.

I just picked up the March 2007 issue of Paintball 2Xtremes from the local Wally-world, and wow, what have I been missing? This is a whole new level of paintball publication. Other paintball magazines I’ve read before seemed so airy, fluffy, lacking in depth support, and by this I mean that they are simply missing that passion that paintball is.

I dropped the latest issue of Action Pursuit Games that I’d also picked up, and when I opened Paintball 2Xtremes I was blown away just by the editor’s message! Right then, I felt the passion, and I could tell that it came from the gut. I can tell when an article is breezing over a topic, and when one has had much time and effort poured into it. PB2X does a nice job at digging into the subject matter, and this is what a magazine needs.

I don’t mean to slam on APG, because they have a nice gig running, and they bring a lot of different aspects of paintball into one place. And perhaps this is part of the problem, trying to meet the needs of woodsball, big game scenarios, and tournament speedball all at the same time might actually take away from it. Too much is lost, and nothing is focused on any one point.

Sometimes I really just want something deep to sink my teeth into; I want to engulf paintball in its full intensity. I want opinion, not a news report. I want controversy, not neutrality. I want something focused and in depth, and not just a Joe Anybody story of their day at the field. Stop giving me monthly tips and step by step procedures, and give me what the pros say in such precise detail that we can’t possibly get anything confused. Let me see what they see!

Give me a paintball magazine like that, or give me death!

What is JT thinking? What is the deal with these new jerseys? I don’t know what it is, but it’s like they’re caught between retro and somehow relatively modern. The color is bold, and that’s a good thing usually, but it’s just too bold. It’s locked in a fierce battle with all the black, and something needs to give way. Paintball is a finesse sport, and these jerseys just don’t portray that for me. But I do like the camo JTs, I think those are fine and work with the design.

I like paintball jerseys that have a lot of design elements in them, like the Dynasty jerseys. They’re real flashy with lots of curves. And if the company wants a simple design, take one out of XSV’s book. They’re simple, but incredibly good looking. Nothing is clashing, but it’s still a strong design. Any thoughts?

Well I received Greg Hasting’s Tournament Paintball Max’d as a gift for Christmas, and I’ve been slowly working my way through it a little at a time. This is for PS2, and I’ve hardly played the others so I can’t really compare them except that I do know that the graphics for Xbox kill the PS2 version. No surprise there, right?

It’s actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I’ve been playing all the way through on normal and the competition is tough in some areas. The first match I may totally slaughter the opposing team with something like six survivors, and then the very next round I get slaughtered and might not even get an elimination. It’s very unpredictable to say the least, which makes it a great challenge.

But there a few things that just down right annoy me. Firstly, what is my team thinking when they walk through the open when the other team still has five guys in? That part is where it just gets unrealistic; you won’t even see a newbie make that mistake, sheesh! So after they all die and leave you to face off several opponents, you wait behind your back bunker for somebody to come running down to get you. But nobody comes. They might have three or four people, and yet they just sit down on their side and continue to shoot, and wait for you to come to them.

Secondly, and these are mostly minor things, but what’s up with the music? I can tolerate some of it, but come on. It’s the same songs playing over and over, and most games don’t use rock songs with actual words. They usually just have something upbeat or whatever, but this just gets old, and fast. And then how about the celebration? Your team rushes downfield with you and starts doing these gay little jumps in the air.

But ah well, I can’t put it down it seems. It takes awhile to get set up with decent gear, but once you get that Shocker or Timmy man it’s total devastation. Well I’m off to play more I think.

Finally got around to sketching this up from our practice at Friendly Fire. First off, sorry for the pic for being tilted sideways. I don’t have a scanner so I had to resort to my digital camera. Secondly, the big thing in the center is a medium X, it has a closed triangular base, but the rest is just like any other X bunker. And finally, the drawing actually needs to be a bit elongated, but it’s close enough I’d say. For a larger image, click here.

Friendly Fire Paintball is going to host a 3-man Young Guns tournament on the 28th of this month, a Sunday. They will also host a 2-Man as well. The competition is great and the field is a great experience to play on, so if you are in the Central Illinois/Indiana area, look into it. The tournaments are open to teams under 18 years old, and there’s usually open play afterwards.

The more that show up the merrier. I think we’re planning on going just to learn – there are not too many other tournaments that only cost $20 to enter. It’ll just be like a regular day of practice, so why not give it a shot.

Here’s some pics I took of the new gear, just in case anybody was wondering. I think they are good references in size because I really hate it when the online stores give some tiny little picture and you can’t tell jack about them. So here you go.

I was recently visiting our 451 Press Forums when one of the other bloggers was asking how he can improve his accuracy, because he plays with some younger fellows he knows. He said that the last time he went the paint was making it twenty feet before veering off in some wild direction, and this instantly brought back those memories when I used to have the same problems.

Several years ago (when I didn’t know any better), I used to buy Brass Eagle just because it was the cheapest thing out there. Now, if I could go back in time, I would shoot myself before I had ever done that. Here’s why…(this might pertain to the newer paintballers)

Brass Eagle is a cheap paint. It’s a fact. It’s very inconsistent in make, and most of them already have dimples in the balls when you buy them. Dimples in paintballs I guess could be comparable to a plane with one wing shorter than the other – they simply won’t fly straight.

Often times the paint is already busted in the bags they come in. This in turn gets paint all over the other balls, and in turn makes them extremely messy and oily. The best you can do in this situation is wipe them off with a towel, or better yet, throw them in the trash.

Brass Eagle paintballs are also notorious for chopping inside your gun. When paint chops, it goes up into your hopper, it fills the barrel with paint, gets in the internals. I cannot emphasize this enough, if paint gets in the barrel, you will lose ALL accuracy. ALL of it. In this case, make a suicidal charge at the enemy and shoot them point blank. If paint busts in your gun, squeegee it out before playing on.

Too make this rant short and sweet – never buy Brass Eagle paint! It’ll screw you over and ruin your day, and if you don’t believe just try it once for yourself. Do yourself the favor and buy something like Evils, Diablo, or even Premiums.

Being fairly sick and tired of my gun being called plastic, I replaced all parts ‘plastic’ with an ultralight synthetic polymer mesh… aka cardboard. It actually was fairly easy. Just taking cardboard tubes and cutting them properly covered me. I even played with it last weekend and had no problems at all. It was pretty sick.

Anyways, you can get one shipped direct to you for $50.00 plus S+H. At least, with the way all the other Ion Body kits are selling, that’s about what this one’s worth.

Well, my profilers finally came in, and oh my they feel so good. I’m actually sitting in them right now. Oh they’re so nice. I know this is going to cause problems though – like someday I’ll be out crouched in the snake and the Profilers will be feeling so soft, and I’ll have a sudden urge to just sleep. And sleep I will! Right there behind the second knuckle. It’s very possible that I have a tad bit of narcolepsy.

The Empire SS Ventz are great too. I ordered a large, and they fit perfectly even though I’m pretty skinny. They have three Velcro tension bands that you can tighten; one on the wrist, forearm, and bicep. I can already tell that the massive elbow and forearm pads are going to be picking up a ton of bounces, which is one of the more common places I get hit.

Overall, A+ for both. 10/10. Three thumbs up. Etc. Only thing now is the testing part, which I should be able to do again on Sunday. Durability is going to be the biggest downfall for the Ventz I think, because anything with stitching is naturally going to rip. But we’ll see.

There is a reasonable variety of paintball magazines on the racks these days: Paintball Sports Magazine, Paintball Games International, Action Pursuit Games, just to name a couple.

I have a great deal of respect for the publications, as they all are very similar to what Evan and I try to do with this blog. However, not all magazines are created equal.

I’ve got three of the latest issues of those magazines I mentioned above sitting in front of me. I’ve read through all of them, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a fairly decent understanding of the content in each, and I believe they are all representative of the content that each of the magazines typically publishes.

From these (and the dozens of other paintball magazines I’ve read) I’ve come to understand that there are two types of paintball magazine.

The first type is something that I loathe in all publications, paintball related or not. I’ve seen it in all sorts of magazine, from automobile mags to gaming mags. It’s that which has apparently sold out to the highest advertiser, or truly believes that everything ever made is simply perfect and only good things ought to be published anyway. When I can’t find a single truly opinionated statement in the entire magazine, I have trouble believing whatever else I read in the magazine.

The second type of magazine is one in which you can tell there are real people, real paintballers, writing for it. There are meaningful articles that actually pertain to your interests, and which contain insights into the workings of paintball on a higher level.

I certainly prefer the second type.

I won’t mention any names of magazines in either of the categories, because, quite honestly, I don’t feel like badmouthing any publications in the same industry as me.

Spyder recently released a new hopper: the Fasta Electronic Loader. Yes, that’s the name – “Fasta”. Not only does it sound lame, it also reminds me of one of those nuclear powered subs. It’s simply the weirdest looking hopper I’ve seen. But we all know we shouldn’t judge books (hoppers) by their covers (shells).

Spyder claims that the Fasta can load 35+ balls per second, weighs only one pound (with batteries), and has an incredible capacity for 230 balls. Now I’m definitely skeptical of the 35+bps, but I guess I can see the 230 ball capacity and the 1 pound being somewhat viable.

Even with those oh so incredible specs (coughs), I’ll never buy one. I personally don’t like the idea of toting a boat on top of my gun, and it really just looks like crap. Thumbs down for the “Fasta”.

From the reviews I’ve found, it has some interesting weaknesses. Obviously everyone said its looks are the first of the flaws they noticed, but some of the others were questioning its strength, the LCD, and some even reported jams and difficulty to clean because of all the nooks paint can get into. Only time will be able to tell though, but I honestly don’t think it’s going anywhere.

It’s only the latest rage! That’s right, the Dynasty Dragon paintballs are banana scented! They’ve actually been out for quite some time, and it’s the same type Dynasty uses, so I’d bet that they’re high quality. I’d really like to try some out, just to splatter banana on some foos, but for $80 a case I think I’ll spend my money on more important things like a new mask. Oh, and they don’t taste like bananas by the way…