Counting Coup

Played indoor last night, had a grand 'ol time. But on the way home I had a thought. I'd go play with a coup stick if I thought the fields would let me.

Let me explain. The "Coup Stick" (pronounced "coo", BTW) is a straight stick, usually painted and ornamented. It's not very heavy, and it'd probably break if you tried to use it as a real self-defense weapon. The Souix tribe (and many other High Plains tribes) would use them as a way to gauge the bravery of the warriors. Killing an enemy from long range away? No coup. Going in with 2-1 odds and winning, no coup. Being the 1 in the 2-1 fight, coup. Charging headlong into a fight, and tapping someone with your coup stick then coming out without a scratch, major coup. It's a point of saying how much more skilled you are than your opponent, that you nudged them with a stick and let them live with that knowledge.

The Coup sticks were decorated, and each thing meant something. A feather meant you were the first to reach and touch an enemy. Various symbols meant different things, and you had to earn them all. And all of them were literal badges of honor.

So, to the point, right.

Last night I asked a player to surrender. Three times as he didn't hear me the first two. He was so lost in the "shoot shoot shoot" haze it never even registered that there was a guy 5 feet from him to his flank. I ended up shooting him because he looked like he was going to spin and try to shoot, but it's got me thinking. If I had faith in my teammates not to shoot me, I would have barrel tagged this guy. On a speedball field. The ref was completely blown away to begin with, as he said I was the SECOND person he'd ever seen ask for a surrender, ever. If I barrel tagged this guy, I wonder what he would have done.

I've seen a lot of players who are skilled at gunfighting but have no clue how to move up. They're content to sit in their bunkers, far away from the action, and throw volleys of paint downrange that's all but ineffective. They may rack up eliminations, sure, but I could build a robot to do the same thing they do and get the same "kill count". But they lack the stones, the guts, whatever you want to call it they just won't move up unless they know that they way is clear and easy.

Even last night, I saw a few great moves that required the cojones to walk up the middle of the field. If you did the right combination, the other team simply didn't see you coming up on them. I even told the other players, on both teams, of the move. They wouldn't do it. They wanted to make the first and easiest position they could, and at the longest range possible throw paint rather than keep moving up the field.

What happened to the bravery? What happened to the players who would take risks and try stupid things because they work in moderation? I believe the industry has done the game a disservice. By focusing on rates of fire and keeping players "in" they took the emphasis off of making moves. The events are designed to reward camping your first spot and shooting paint at 15/second. Some tournaments take points from your team if you get shot (from the 2007 NPPL scoring rules : 3 points per eliminated opponent, 1 point for every player on your team still in, 32 for first flag pull, 40 for a hang. 100 points total), so the message is to hang back and lob paint, and hope you get lucky.

All of this has trained players to simply throw paint, and doesn't reward any kind of gutsy move. It actually punishes players for making moves up the field, as the risk/reward is tipped to the "risk" side. Sure, you may get up the field, but if you don't your team is punished by a loss of points. You can argue that there's still gutsy plays to be had mid-game, but a lot of these players play the scoreboard, not the field. If you know your team needs a max, and you see an opening, you're probably not going to take it for fear of not qualifying by a point. And I've seen it happen too many times to count.

This mentality trickles down to to rec level, and players perceive that risk taking is bad. "I want to stay in! I want to be good!" The overwhelming attitude I get is that the win isn't as important as simply staying in the game longer. A lot of players could be so good if they just grew a pair and stopped playing the points! Last night, I watched players do long-range gunfights that frustrated me to no end simply because they could have won them if they just moved! I wanted to just shake some of these people and scream at them "Get out of that lame bunker, take a risk, and make something happen!" But they just didn't have it in them.

So I want to see if people will pick up the idea and run with it. I want to adapt counting coup for paintball. It's not just about making the killer move, it's about taking the risks and coming away without a scratch. It's not just "shooting faces", it's doing so in a way that other people stop playing and just stare in awe. It's not glory-hounding, it's displaying what you really can do. Is it egotistical or "in yer face" or inflammatory? Sure. Any time that you rub someone's nose in the fact that you're better they're not going to be happy. But it's time to bring back the bravery. It's time to get the game to collectively "grow a pair".

Part of counting coups is to tell the story of how it happened, or have the story told for you. We already do this with the brigade, stuff we post on here and videos that we either shoot ourselves or have a buddy shoot for us. As it's been said, "it aint bragging if you really did it". But the thing is that you really HAVE to do it, and have witnesses to the fact to back you up.

But I want to bring the coup stick to paintball. Ok sure, it's not "safe" to poke someone with a stick, and not everyone can be trusted with a blunt object on a paintball field, but I think that it'd be a start to making paintball interesting again. Reward people who take chances, give people a chance to actually act like athletes, not robots that just sling balls.

Paintball is a unique sport, it's the only one that I know of where the objective is to take opponents out of the game. What's to say we can't do it with style as well?

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