As some of you may have noticed (since I lurk around here all the time posting this and that and making a semi-nuisance of myself), I've pretty much settled down here and consider PBJ my "home forum." I visit other forums but let me assure the Admin and Mods that those visits are purely platonic. They mean nothing to me... honest. You may have also noticed from my endless "still recruiting" posts over in the Scenario Junkie area that I and a few others recently formed another Scenario Team (insert shameless Palmetto SwampCats still recruiting plug here). Which brings me to reason for this post:

Having recently reformed a team, I'm suddenly getting some soft offers from different suppliers/manufacturers asking to fill out sponsership applications, usually in emails with a link to an online form. On these applications it asks the question "Team Type" and the options are: Rookie, Novice, Amateur, Pro.

What classification do you think is appropriate?

My bio covers 23+ years of playing and reads like this:

Team: Warriors; woodsball; NSG; 15 man woodsball; Lt.
Team: Regional champions 3 years; including record for fastest game (2 min 45 sec on a 15 acre field), record for longest winning streak (30 games)
Personal: Record for most kills in 3 game series (30); 1 of 2 players (we were on the same team) to have an actual cash bounty on their head by all other teams in our region.

Team: DragonRiders; Speedball; No league; Captain
Won every local/regional tournament we entered.

Team: DragonLords; Woodsball, Scenario; No league; Captain
Awards: 1x- MVP (myself) , 2x- Team Special thanks/Honorable mention
(This was before Most Valuable Team awards were standard)

Team: Palmetto SwampCats; Woodsball,Scenario; No league; Captain
New Team.

I've helped setup and run a field (speedball and woodsball); Reffed; Ran local tournaments; Air smithed, Gun smithed, custom built: LAW's, Claymores, Grenades, created all manner of modifications from a Nelspot 007 PVC pump handle to milling a BE Raptor to use Tippmann ball detents.

At least 3 of my teammates have 7 years of experience and played on the DragonLords or the Riders or both...


In everyone's humble opinion...
what is my classification? What is my teams classification?

Rookie-Novice-Amateur-Pro?

Right now all I tell a potential sponser is "sure.. send us whatever.. we'll write your name on a legal pad and tape it to the truck window".. sponsership at this point is a collar I would rather not wear... too much like real work.

Give an honest opinion.....because I sure don't know what classification we are.. some of us are barely human.....

call sign: Reaper

Captain, Palmetto SwampCats

Shooting folks in the back since 1984

"Thats the way we did it back in my day, and since I'm still alive, its still my day."

It is really hard to classify scenario teams in the whole beginner, rookie, novice, am or pro thing. Most of those forms are generally designed with the tourny teams in mind & now that scenario ball has gotten more attention in the last couple of years sponsors are now approaching scenario teams to represent them. Though a lot of them just offer slight discounts, every once in a while you get an offer of something substantial.

If you decide you want their sponsorship then I'd list your team as amateur and add a note about your experience and the fact you are a scenario team not a tourney team.

I personally want nothing to due with sponsorship. I want to play when I want to play, wear what I want to wear and use what I want to use. The last thing I want is some corporate wheenie telling me what I can and can not due, "I'll pay my way thank you". Sometimes I think the all the corporate advertising/sponsorship is killing the fun of this sport for many of us. I understand the appeal of sponsorship to help defray the costs but with what you potentially sacrifice , I think, is too great to make it really worth it.

"Qui tacet consentit"


"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."
-Sophocles

yup - gman and shrub nailed it

I (and the team) agree wholeheartedly. Like I said in my post...sponsership is a collar. We have NO interest in hard sponsers who dictate gear and game schedule.

I really was just curious after looking at the apps and they got me pondering IF we were to classify our team status what would it be. We already have "sponsership" from some suppliers for discounts, and the only thing we agreed to do for them is fly a banner when we play (if they supply the banner). The interesting thing is they said "we can't list you as an officially sponsered team, we already have a long list of teams ahead of you... but we want to do this for you...etc". We used to call that "soft" sponsership.

We'll fly a banner if the discounts are good enough and we are doing business with them. They're getting advertising for the cost of a banner and a few points off the profit margin, we're getting better prices on items we would buy anyway. I see that as a win win. Anyone who tries to dictate will be invited to go pound sand.

call sign: Reaper

Captain, Palmetto SwampCats

Shooting folks in the back since 1984

"Thats the way we did it back in my day, and since I'm still alive, its still my day."

It's really a difficult question. I would suggest a write in of "Scenario __ yrs. experience" for that part of the form as the ranking system is completely tournament oriented. I don't think it's a question of experience as much as it is a matter of exposure. The tournament world is all about winning or placing high at the end of the event. In a scenario it's not the same motivation. At the end of the day winning or losing the game doesn't have much effect on how the players(the market) perceive the "value" of your squad. Not nearly as much as having a good reputation does anyway.

It's hard to measure how much work your team has put in. And X number of hours of game time/practice does not equate to a certain ranking, not even in tournament teams. It's like deciding which type of apples taste most like a banana.

I've played tournament ball for many years at all levels and it really is like work if you want to be good at it. So much so that I've pretty much retired to just having fun again. It's great to have support but it always costs you in the end. Usually sponsorship forms also ask about team accomplishments, years together, etc. these would be a much more accurate description of your team. Besides, once you mention that you are a scenario team most potential sponsors are going to ignore the fact that you listed a ranking at all.

Train like you fight. Fight like you train. Then fight like a train.

I'm gonna give you my heart felt here...I've only ever played for 2 teams, but I wouldn't count myself short on experience from that.

Sponsorship, takes paintball, and very easily drags all of the fun out of it.

Basically it sucked much of my enthusiasm out of the sport.

Anyway, this is my humble opinion.

It works out for some teams, but i would suggest that you not invest yourself TOO seriously in it.

Yours,

Drew

I think it depends on the team and the sponsor. We are a sponsored team and all out sponsors have never made it so where we could only wear their goods. Yea there is some sponsor duties with our field (reffing, cleanup, and so on) but there's no such thing as a free ride. I think its an individual team thing and I wouldn't say yes or no as a broad answer.

USMC 1996-2004 0311/0321
Tippmann X7 Flatline Barrel / J&J 12inch with Apex /Barska Acog Scope / Tech T Vortex and Squishy mods
"Marines, no better friend, no worse enemy."

My team is sponsored, and its not about having to "use their gear only"

In fact we've only approached companys whos gear we use already, and part of our association with them is when they make new products, we get a good number of the new item first run to test for them, review, give input etc. Thats where the benifit comes from, plus if the improve a product we already use, they send us the newer version to swap out in exchange for giving our reviews and feedback.

Our team has been approached by several big name company's over the years and we have always said no. I don't like the fact they say you are "sponsord " only to still have to buy their products. It's a hell of a marketing tool. We have one company that we decided to go with and that is TechT . With Tim and Tod (TechT) it was a no brainier it's been the best group of people we have ever done business with and a great sponsor !! I feel the word sponsor is thrown around to easy in this sport, the result is a bunch of people killing themselves to get a "sponsor to look at them.

SMOKIN WAGON!!!