Edmonton Impact recently hosted a skills clinic, and CBC News was there to bring paintball coverage to the mainstream media. The news piece brought speedball and tournament paintball insight to the viewers right at home.
In addition to covering the Impact clinic, the coverage also spread buzz about the upcoming CPPL Canadian Nationals tournament which will be taking place January 27-29th, hosted on the stampede grounds at the agriculture building in Calgary, Alberta. The event will include an industry trade show, an X-ball All-Star Game, and tournament play across 4 divisions of skill levels. Admission is free for spectators, and there will be a free webcast for the people who want to watch from home.
This past Monday night, I had the chance to throw down some practice with local Windsor paintball players. We played on a modified speedball field at Windsor Rush Paintball, which is for the most part, a rec field with air bunkers in the middle. For ease of setup, we simply started the matches farther up which took the majority of the wooden bunkers and buildings out of the playing field, with the exception of two huts on each side of the field. A good turnout of 16 players came out, with us running a lot of back-to-back 4 on 4 matches and a bunch of 5 on 5s.
I brought my GoPro to the field and got some video, but I didn't fully charge it before going and it died about halfway through the scrims. As usual, the videos have been uploaded to my YouTube channel.
I let my friend use my GoPro barrel mount for a few games, here's a quick run through.
Good news for the future of Windsor speedball players, Rush is ordering a new NPPL field and these speedball practices will soon be held on a full tournament-style airball field. To find out more about playing speedball nights at Rush, check out their website or talk to their staff and find out when you can come out for some competitive practice.
I stopped by Windsor Rush Paintball, the local indoor field on Saturday. I was having quite a busy day, but I did get the chance to stop by to hang out for a couple of hours and played two games of recreational paintball.
Since I've only played tournament-style speedball all season, it was refreshing to play some relaxed paintball. Rather than using my Axe and electronic gear, I played low-tech using my trusty old plastic Tippmann Triumph marker and a gravity feed hopper. Rush's field setup is a large field with a mix of wooden walls and huts,
as well as a bunch of air bunkers. Since I've been playing on air
bunkers all season, I decided to blow right past all of the wooden
bunkers and head straight for the airball bunkers that I know how to
play properly. I focused on movement during the games and getting good angles to pick players off, and I shot a couple of players before getting shot out in each game. In total I shot about 100 balls in the two games I had the time to play.
My Tippmann Triumph marker, complete with a custom Dynasty Ion body as front grip.
The mix of players was great, with a few renters, a few couples, a few employees, a bunch of members and field regulars. It was definitely cool to have a chance to reconnect with local recreational players, and see that paintball is thriving in Windsor, since my team practices are out of town in London and I rarely have the chance to play locally because of my busy work and school schedule. From the large player base that Rush has, there is definitely the potential for these players to become successful tournament players. I would really enjoy seeing a Young Guns team of local players from Rush playing in the ESPL next season, and it would be a great compliment to their successful Rookie division team.
I also had the chance to speak with the field owner, who told me that they are planning to order a brand new air field setup to cater to tournament players, and they are planning on hosting a tournament in the coming months. When details are finalized, I'll be sure to share and help make this a successful event. I would really love to see Windsor host a speedball tournament, as it has been years since there have been any local tournaments in the area.
All in all, Windsor Rush Paintball is a great indoor field environment that is great for paintball players of all skill levels.
A video from Windsor Rush Paintball's summer paintball drill camp, which helped teach newer players the basics and finer points of playing paintball.
World Cup is over, Halloween has passed, and I haven't played paintball in about two weeks. Yup, it's that time of year again: the offseason.
All across North America as the weather changes, outdoor airball fields are being taken down. Our local air field at DieHard went down two weeks ago, and the airball field at Flagswipe's outdoor has been down since Day of the Dead last month. This means it's now harder to play speedball and get team practices in, all teams are going to have to fight to schedule practice time on indoor fields.
"Coming home feels like surrender, feels like we're giving in.
When the shows are over, is there any other reason to live?"
Sure it was written about a touring rock band, but this really captures the feeling at the end of the tournament paintball season. Players go from grinding practices and events nearly every weekend, down to playing once a month if they can find field time. As paintballer players, it feels like we're living two completely different lives, flipping back and forth between being surrounded by paintball where everyone knows each other, to the real working world, where your paintball knowledge is nearly useless and normal things seem to feel alien. We want to be out on the road, at the field, at tournaments, hanging out in hotel rooms with our teammates. The offseason brings this drastic difference, as we go from being completely busy and our of town on weekends, to suddenly have free time to have a normal social life. This weekend coming up will be the first full weekend I've been home in Windsor in months, and it's almost overwhelming to have this freedom again. This is the time when the paintball players return to the real world, without paintball. We head back to school, jobs, careers, families and friends, and for some of us, no matter how good life on the outside is, we just want to be back at the paintball field, grinding out points with our teammates.
At the same time as this freedom comes, there's also a brand new rush to play paintball. Although the season just ended, teams across the country are already starting tryouts and building team camps to prepare for next season. As soon as we get time off from the season, we get a whole new schedule pushed on us with tryout dates and everything for the next season. It seems almost crazy to start rebuilding so early, almost before players have even had a break, but it's what teams need to do now because everyone's doing it. Paintball players want to play every weekend, and if they can't play with their team, they'll go wherever they can.
The offseason is the time of year that makes players question everything: whether they'll be coming back again for next season, if they want to stick with the same team, who they want to be at this time next year. There's also the hard questions: can I afford to play a full tournament season next year? Am I wasting my money or should I just play rec ball? They're the hard decisions that every paintball player needs to make, and everyone needs to make for themselves.
Here's a cool video from DQ Films back in 2009 from the Palm Beach Vipers' offseason.
It's a little different down there in Florida since they have nice outdoor weather, while us Canadians are heading back indoors, but it's the same focus: playing all offseason to be a better team for next year.
The first PSP event for next season is coming up in March. That gives us five months to be get prepared for the biggest competitive paintball season of our lives. We'll be grinding at Flagswipe all winter, and we will be ready to bring it.
This upcoming week marks the most exciting time of year for the paintball industry. The 2012 PSP World Cup is taking place in Florida this week and will be a time for new product launches, fierce competition and new chapters in many paintball team franchises. In addition to bringing back 10-man to the many divisions of speedball play, PSP has joined with the UWL to bring woodsball back to national paintball competition scene.
World Cup Product Launches & Vendors
PSP's World Cup has always been an important launching point for creating market buzz in the paintball industry and releasing new products for the next year's season. It is arguably the largest paintball event in the world, with the most players(over 300 teams), the most fields, and the most vendors attending.
Bud Light Carmatech Engineering:Their new SAR12 Tactical marker is an exciting looking First Strike compatible milsim rifle that is sure to draw a lot of attention.
Dye:Dye's new D.A.M. Tactical marker is expected to be released at Cup, as well as the new DM13 to continue the Matrix legacy.
Empire:A new mystery Empire marker has been spotted in the hands of a couple of Infamous players over the past weekend. Appearing wrapped up in tape to hide the looks of the marker's design, not much is know about the marker, but rumours on PBNation suggest that it is a brand new high-end marker that will be released at Cup. Hopefully we'll get more details this week.
Ninja Paintball:Ninja's air system's have been top-quality since their introduction to the market. Their new Pro Regulator has the useful feature of having a rotating collar, which allows the user to rotate their tank reg to change placement of the gauge and fill nipple. With this regulator, you'll never have the fill nipple in the way of your wrist again! NXe Paintball Media Group and Social Paintball PBLife.com PbRack Clothing
I want to take this opportunity to wish good luck to all of the Canadians from Ontario traveling down to Florida to play World Cup. New Canadian teams of note include:
Toronto Force D1:Force is a brand new PSP team that is made up of veteran Canadian superstar players from the CXBL. Take a look at this Outside the Mesh Article for more info regarding this new powerhouse team.
Alliance D3: This is a new camp that will be making its premiere at PSP World Cup this week. Made up of players from the Cambridge/Kitchener area including many from the CXBL and MXL divisions. Alliance is planning on creating a camp for next season which will have teams ranging across most of the divisional games.
SportsAgressor Moscow D3: Although this is a Russian team, there are Canadian players on the roster and it is possibly the most exciting team in the division. Coming together at the previous PSP Mid Atlantic Open event, two of my Canadian Express teammates joined up with the Russians to take on the American paintball scene. After narrowly missing making the Sunday cut for finals, SportsAgressor Moscow is returning to shoot for the top this event and will definitely be a team to watch in D3 at this event.
PSP Paintball World Cup 2012 Webcast From PaintballAccess
Continuing their great series of live webcasts for the 2012 PSP season, PaintballAccess.com will be returning for World Cup to bring live paintball to the online digital world.
The live webcast is starting off this Wednesday with a World Cup Pre-Show. This will feature paintball legends Matty Marshall, Todd Martinez and Chris Lasoya to get the latest behind-the-scenes news on teams, roster changes and player injuries. You'll also get some analysis of the past PSP season to see what teams are expected to be on top and who to watch out for during the games this weekend.
Coverage for the rest of the event will include commentary from professional paintball players, interviews with players and of course intense paintball action during the event. Webcast coverage will begin on Thursday and continue through Sunday's finals. Pro team coverage will take up most of the webcast time, but we may get a chance to see divisional teams' games being broadcasted as well. Be sure to watch the webcast this weekend if you've got some free time at home, wishing you were playing paintball in Florida!
Using the simple taglines, "Watch it. Love it. Live it."
Paintball Access is the place to be for everything paintball this week.
Living the Dream: A Series on Tournament Paintball
Video clip: Heroes for a Day: the XSV Story intro speech
Anyone who has watched the epic paintball movies from the past
decade has this idea in their heads.Everyone wants that “Cereal Killerz” moment, or the “Heroes for a Day”
season that gets remembered for years to come.It all comes back to one idea: Living the Dream, traveling the world
playing paintball with your friends.It
seems like it could be so simple, but there are endless hours of work and
dedication that go into getting to that place, to forge the connections to have
the opportunities to play paintball at the highest level.
There's a reason they call it a dream: it's hard to reach that level of competitive paintball. It's even harder to stay there.
I’m going to start posting a segment called “Living the Dream” to
highlight some of my experiences over this past NPPL season and the early years, to give newer players and
idea of the steps to take if they also want to seriously play paintball and
chase the dream.I will continue this
segment in a series of posts which I hope people will find my insight to be
helpful in their journeys.
Topics will include:
Getting into speedball and starting to play tournaments, from local series with throw-together teams, up to getting onto an established team and playing national events. The team dynamic really comes into play for national events, as your teammates will become your family during the weekends and trips out of town for tournaments.
A comparison on event scale between local single-day events, weekend-long national events, and even a few scenario days.
The lifetime connections that come from playing on a committed team, getting sponsors and working tournaments to give back to the paintball community. Opportunities to help and pit for professional and higher-level teams are also great experiences
Giving back to the paintball community: setting up, promoting an running local events.
Finally, I will raise the dark question that is in the back of every paintballer's mind that nobody wants to acknowledge: Sustainability. Is it possible to keep up a competitive traveling paintball lifestyle as life and real commitments begin to get in the way? How can players afford to keep up with costs of weekly practices and far off events, while also missing time at work to attend? Any way you cut it, if you're serious about paintball, you will have to invest a great deal of time and money.
All of these questions will be covered over the next few weeks, so check back for updates! If anyone has any requests for insight or other topics to
cover, feel free to ask!
