Paintball Never Came Out Of The Woods

There’s been a lot of talk recently about where paintball is heading and where it came from. Now, I’ve played a lot of paintball over the years, but I never really keyed into what was going on with the push for speedball to be the focus of paintball. Apparently, it went a little something like this.

Paintball started in the wood. Paintball was guys dressed in camo, running around, and playing war. The problem was that many thought the “image” of paintball was to militaristic and wasn’t attractive to many. Add into this that the paintball guns were looking more like real weapons and the godfathers of the paintball industry were worried that with the political climate the way it was, all it would take was the scrutiny of the media or some other group and it would halt paintballs growth dead in its tracks.

So paintball came “out of the woods.” It went to bright jerseys and was played in small courts with primary colored blow up bags. The guns became “markers”, and were also changed in style and color. The people who still wanted to play in the woods were left behind to play there while the speedball players looked to TV to make them rich and famous and take the sport to the next level.

They almost succeeded in this. Paintball was getting onto TV, with stations like ESPN picking up tournament play. Paintball was the fastest growing sport in America at one time. Players rose in the ranks and were become more known in the industry. The problem was that with this extreme level of competition and high rate of fire markers, new players were left in the dust. Many have a tale of going to a field only to be given a semi-auto rental gun and paired off against players with high ROF guns with huge price tags. The speedball tournament scene was very difficult for new players to get into and it started to wane a bit in popularity. Paintball came off the television and things continued the way they were going and fewer new players stepped up to fill the ranks. Businesses that had put everything into speedball were losing business and closing up shop. (For a more detailed and insider look at the woes of speedball, check out John Amodea’s “What Have We Done To Our Game?” series.)

The thing is though, that while the intention was to get paintball out of the woods, it never actually left. The woodsball scene was still growing. In fact it was quickly adding new players all the time. I know from my personal experience, most of my friends have played woodsball at least a few times in their lives, and most have never played speedball except a few when going to a pay field.

For awhile Tippmann was the main woodsball marker. Now that is no longer the case. Companies like Smart Parts and even Planet Eclipse are all pushing into the woodsball market. Now, you can see a shift in paintball coverage. Sites like www.paintballx3.com has made a large effort to bring attention to woodsball and scenario play. Their new magazine has it pretty much cut down the middle. TechPB .com is putting more emphasis on woodsball markers and gear and the big paintball news sites are adding more and more woodsball content.

In my opinion, even though it was kicked to the curb for fear of being too militaristic, most guys (and some gals) have always played war or have picked up a stick to make it a gun and fought off countless foes in their imagination. In working with kids, when I give them blocks, they make knives, guns, and robots of destruction. This kind of play is ingrained into most males and woodsball taps into that. Some are alarmed with how close the paintball guns look to real life military weapons, but most people I’ve met only do it for fun, not in training for a coup of the government.

Again, in my opinion, the reason why woodsball has succeeded so well is that it is the perfect place for new players. This past weekend, my paintball group had a small group, around fourteen players, as the weather had showed rain and scared quite a few off. The weather ended up being perfect for play and we got into some great games. There were some newer players with stock Tippmans or BT’s, with the CO2 screwed right into the gun, and they did fine against players with Mini’s, SP1’s, and Ions. These new players had a blast, and our guest from the state of Texas thanked us for letting him play (really it was our honor) and said he was planning on picking up a gun when he got back home. That day of fun, fair, and honest play hooked him, as it had the rest of us.

We’ve seen this sort of thing over and over at our field. New players keep coming, get hooked, become a part of our community, and end up being a contributor to the health of paintball as a whole. I’ve got nothing against speedball, but I do think it’s funny to see all this attention coming back to woodsball. We woodsball players were shuffled off to the side and all but ignored for quite some time. Paintball never came out of the woods, in fact, it flourished there, and now that there is money to be made and the fate of paintball seems uncertain, we’ve been welcomed back into the fold and the spotlight has been turned onto this aspect of the sport that so many of us love. Paintball started in the woods, and it continues to be a major part of the paintball industry. It’s just nice to see others finally take notice.

Woodsball continues to grow, while speedball is starting to see some growing pains. The fight for TV stardom and pushing speedball to become a viable professional sport has slowed the growth of new players. The tournament scene (woodsball and speedball) is all well and good, but for this sport to continue and be healthy, it needs fresh blood. There needs to be effort on both sides of the paintball fence to continue to grow and welcome new players. I personally feel that woodsball has done this marvelously, but could have some problems with all the speedball type guns entering the market. It will be up to us players to enforce low rates of fire at a target, limit overshooting, and help new players feel welcomed even if they don’t have the latest and greatest gear.

In the end, paintball never “came out of the woods.” The spotlight is coming back to woodsball because it has been so healthy over the years and focus needs to be put on this great part of paintball if this sport is to continue to grow and prosper.