Is Paintball Dying in Our Arms?

Paintball. Everyones heard of it at one time or another, possibly played it. I played it as a customer about 6 months ago and that was it. I was hooked. Draw into a world of different parts and aftermarket gear, competitive teams and prizes at stake, experienced players and arrogant new kids. Being a newbie to the sport, I had alot to learn…

The first time I played one of the pros that were teaching us, Dan Maskell (Of Russian Legion and London Shock fame), told me “You’re faster then you think, you just have to make you feet do the work.” From then on I played as a frontman. Fast on the ground, fast in my mind. I learned how to think quick and evaluate situations in split second intervals. I made myself faster, not letting the marker or battlepack slow me down. I ran, then ran some more, then when I thought I couldn’t run anymore I kept going. There would be times where I couldn’t see out of my mask, but I kept going anyways. I would be the last one left, but I would keep fighting. Even when I was off the field I would be talking with my team to plan our next attack, checking angles and looking at barricades. This was all in Woodsball. In the trees with 9 other players on the field, makeshift barricades out of old trees and twigs, and everyone dressing up in camoflage to stay hidden. But then I got introduced into the new craze last Sunday….Super Air Ball.

When I first arrived it was unlike any woodsball event I had ever been to. There werer hundreds of cars, big vans splashed with the names of big name company’s and hundreds of players all dressed in their brightly coloured gear. There was a massive marque in the middle of the netted area. The huge netted area, I might add. As I walked towards it I saw the first field of yellow and blue barricades, it had 6 marshals on it and about 20 to 25 players from different teams stood at the side. As I looked on for the start a strange quiet gripped the air. I watched in a mix of curiosity and intrest. Anxious for the start people started saying words of encouragement to the two teams. The lead marshal’s hands went down and then all hell broke lose. If you have ever heard a ETEK shoot paint at about 280FPS on ramping mode through a Sly barrel system, then you have some idea of the loud ‘cracking’ noise I am talking about. Multiple that by about 100 and you get the noise of the start of a Sup Air game. Add in the noise of the paint bouncing off the bunkers and its almost deafening. I had to yell just to communicate with my team captain standing right next to him. After all the meyhem was over I heard a loud horn go off to my left. I looked over and saw what looked absolutely magical. They had a blue Millenium field set up for the division 1 teams. The feel over it was almost legendary, espically since there was London Nexus playing. But after that I was informed of some bad news.

The woodsball tournament that we play, No Battle Pack, was supposedly going to get broken off due to not many teams playing anymore. Which brings me to why I wrote this article. Is paintball a dying sport? I mean you got to a UK Masters event or a Millenium seris event in Europe and you see all these players and spectators and it will make you just go “wow”. But behind the scenes there are rumours of sales dropping, paintball fields going bust due to lack of business and players quitting due to money. Is it because of the recession? Or is paintball on the whole just not that popular anymore? Well from what I have seen it must be popular, I worked on the paintball field near me a few weeks back and there was over 100 customers. 100 people willing to play for paintball. So out of those 100 how many would go into it properly? Maybe 5 or 10 if we are lucky. I know when I went there was about 40 people with me. I was the only that I know of that turned to tournament paintball. Maybe people are worried about the costs of paint and start up gear. Maybe they have no one to play with or againest. Whatever is wrong I hope it gets solved eventually or in a few years there will be no Millenium. There will be no woodsball. No customer walk-ons, no stag dos, no birthday parties. Nothing.

In my opinion, paintball can only grow from here. More people will get into and hopefull, like me, will enjoy it to its fullest and continue playing. Is paintball dying? Not if we don’t let it…