By Dale Ford
Mar 4, 2005, 10:18

I’m so conflicted right now.

Normally I’m a pretty decisive guy. I mean, once I commit myself to something, I see it through to the bitter (or sweet, depending on the project) end.

But this whole business of capping ROF and a partially legalizing ramping and bouncing really has me in a dither. I just don’t know what to make of it. I suppose one way of looking at it is to say that it’s the direction the sport is taking, and I should adapt or retire.

But it’s not that simple, is it?

See, back in the day that would be just about the only option I have. In the year of our Lord 2005 it’s not quite the same…with the blistering success of the NPPL, which doesn’t put caps on how fast the players can shoot, there’s a place I can go and compete without having some arbitrary rule put on how fast I can shoot. Now I’ll concede that 15 bps is fast. It’s faster than most players can pull without assistance. But I’m in the happy minority that can pull faster than that without assistance. Hell, I’d debate the veracity of the claims that most players top out at 12-13 bps. Today’s markers do everything they can to make the players shoot as fast as possible. I’m not just talking about bouncing microswitches here…I’m talking improved trigger geometry, advanced materials, and the magic of magnetism here. Today’s players have the option to do away with springs in their triggers and with the advent of delrin and carbon fiber triggers…well. It’s pretty easy to shoot fast these days. Today’s players obsess about it…they walk their fingers on whatever is available during a free moment in order to maximize their trigger walking speed.

But I digress. I was talking about options, and I went off on a tangent about marker engineering.

Here in Florida, PSP is still king and this is indeed the land that Smart Parts built. In some ways, this place is a time capsule. Just about everywhere else in the US the 7 man format is taking off (Thank you Laurent!) and the handwriting is on the wall that 5 man is on the way to becoming an also-ran in the world of competitive paintball. I don’t think 5-man will go the way of the Dodo bird like 10-man did, but it’s my opinion that 7-man will be the dominant format for the future. But here in FL, there are a plethora of 5-man events to go to, with producers like Crush, Pure Energy, and BPP all putting on 5 man events in addition to the major players like PSP and those wacky guys doing the IAPTE in June.

Anyways, back to my conundrum. It was announced recently that WDP will be offering Software version 3.9. Big deal, right? Well, it is. And this announcement has really thrown me for a bit of a loop. 3.9 is the software that has the PSP 15bps ramping software on it, and it also has the CFOA 15bps capped software. My first reaction upon hearing this news was that I wasn’t about to infest either one of my Angels with this garbage. I figured that I could vote with my dollars and play in the NPPL, the promised land of fairness and equity in the paintball world. Who the hell do these people think they are, telling me how fast to shoot? Pfft!

Then reality hit me.

CFOA is the golden boy of the tournament world right now…seems like everyone wants to play one, and pretty much everyone is…at least the ones that aren’t ramping and bouncing the day away playing Divisional X-Ball and 5-man in the PSP. The CFOA is a poor man’s PSP experience, without the foreign refs and institutional arrogance. PSP is and will likely remain a dominant force here for some time, just because Orlando Cup and World Cup are still engraved into everyone’s minds as the events to go to. With NPPL hitting Tampa and Miami this year, Florida will be a battleground this year. Throw in the CFOA events dotting the southeast, and it’s a good thing being a “Damn Yankee”!

So here I am, a Stranger in a Strange Land, using a fine English paintgun. What the hell am I supposed to do here? I mean, I can turn my nose up at the CFOA and PSP, stick to my guns (literally) and basically be faced with warming a bench on my current team, or face the prospect of looking for another team. My team captain, a large foul tempered man, is also one of the best players I’ve ever seen, and he’s blessed with a real talent for teaching players. Even after playing 16 years, I’m nowhere near done learning yet, so that pretty much kills the idea of going elsewhere. I’m smart enough to realize that J.C. from Arsenal won’t be calling me anytime soon to go play Super 7’s with him.

Or maybe I can just ‘retire’ and go play scenarios. That’d sure make my wife happy!

Or maybe I can just grit my teeth, get the stupid ramping software put on my markers, and go with the flow. I despise the idea of my equipment doing the work for me, but I suppose if I want to play competitively, I’ll have to go with the flow. Maybe I’ll just have 3.9 put on one of my markers, so that I can sleep at night knowing that at least half of my equipment is still pure.

Maybe I’ll indulge my dark sense of humor and have my Adrenalin flashed…I mean what the hell, everyone thinks it ramps and bounces anyways, so I may as well set it up so that it does and keep the confusion down with the refs on the Shocktech field….

Dale I have nothing against either side of the paintball whether it be tourny, recball or scenario players... However I don't do politics and all these rules for this and that and that and this can be avoided...

Each of us are entitled to our opinions so I'm going to go with your on this one... Get a pump and free youself! Don't worry be happy!

Personally I think that this whole rule change deal is a marketing and sales ploy! It is a conspiracy designed to make players think that they are trying to solve the "cheating" issue (by changing the rules to allow it at a cap); while in reality they are instantly creating a demand for a new product. I say we revolt and storm the towers of their corporate headquarters and let them feel the sting of our pure 15+pbs!

Sorry man, thats the wrong way to think of it. Its acutally the insurance companies, they've been screwed over 1 too many times by people shooting 15+ and its not that they can shoot that way, its that when sombody goes to bunker another shooting 15+ a goggle system as a LARGE chance of comming off with the 1st 3 shots, so that leavs 12 others to blast a guy in the face, when that happens, the field gets suied and the insurance company gets to fork out more money! We are all in a different world, its not that the field owners that want the cap, but legaly many of them have to.

You may be right, but I think it is the fields that losses out, not the insurance companies. In my experience (Multiple peril, Casualty loss and Workers Comp), the insurance company always makes up whatever it had to pay out via the premium assessed for renewal. So the field must pay more to continue being covered if the have an accident on their field. I also believe that most players can not shot over 15bps, so by allowing ramping the chance of an injury like the one you described is greatly increased. I do not know what the actuarial tables indicate as far as whether <16pbs is safer (or even if the insurance companies would be able to accurately say at what rate someone was firing when an accident occurred). Most tournament players average 9-11bps (Source: story 04706 by 68caliber.com), as proven by the NPPL’s ballistics chrono, and only a handful of players can sustain 15+bps for any length of time. So it would be logical to conclude that the new ruling increases the risk of injury (not the cap, but the ramping). I believe we can agree on one factor, and that is that money is more then likely a key part of the ruling. Be it to try and reduce liability costs as you suggest (though everything I have read indicates that insurance costs would increase), or to try and end the cheating by making ramping (even at a 15bps cap) legal and make every player have to go out and get a new board.

I think some organizational "restrictions and professional codes of conduct" are signs that our sports is maturing. If we leave the limits to the manufactures, many newer players will always play to the limits and well into the grey areas of safety for the thrill of the win - and the illusion that winning brings respect. Its a shame the manufactures dont take a more responsible role by default. (greed is such a tough monster)

Respect is born from "how you play" and in this area, it is organizations and their restrictions and professional codes of conduct that add legitimacy to the sport at the tourney / scenario and rec ball levels and some guidance for the safe and honorable growth of the sport.


I salute the restrictions, codes of conduct, and the organizations behind them.

my favorites organizations to date:

The Scenario Brotherhood -- http://www.scenariobrotherhood.com/

The Limited Paint Players Club -- http://www.gbsu-usa.net/shartleycustoms/lppc.html

The IPPA

and of course the teams of players that self impose a professional code of conduct on their members.

...but as we all know, many immature teams play to win at all cost - practice cheating, could care less about overshooting a novice, and cuss each other like babies.
Its no wonder the insurance companies are concerned.
We as players should be more concerned and support the emergence of some restrictions - even if they are awkward.

my two.

team little girls- Were ok at paintball but we can drink and camp like nobody else!

WELL SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well said indeed. You bring up a major short coming of some tourney player; sportsmanship. I do not know how many tourney DVD's I have seen, but it seems that in every one there are at least two or three scenes of players exchanging colorful explicatives on or off the field (one or two actually come to blows). I even remember a 68cal story about a pro (or semi-pro) player who struck another player with his markers air tank (not during a tourney, but at a practice) and gave the player a concussion. The old standard of 20% of the people cause 80% of the problems seems to fit right in here, and I am very glad to know that there are organizations that promote a strong code of conduct. Paintball is a great sport and if ramping and caps are the direction it is heading in, then so be it. If the format is done with 10-man then so be it. It is progress (I guess), and as long as no one gets hurt let it grow let it grow let it grow.