"And thank you for sharing"

I was going through my youtube comments today. What a lot of people may or may not know is that when you post a video, and someone comments, youtube sends you e-mail. Well I've been hella-buzy for the last few days, so I haven't had to check until now. And on the video for FPS 5, someone left this lovely comment.

chaimy49er

wow ur a fucking jew whos gives a shit if someone says ur coming up thats only illegal in toynament and that movie suck and u suck at paintball... i work there

...

You know, I have more than a few ways to go with this, but I'll simply say this. History has proven to me that if you ignore people who hate based on religion that they only tend to get louder and more violent until you pay attention to them. And I'll also say that this isn't the first time that I've had to deal with people in this sport who bash based on religion. And reading the feedback left for this guy is enlightening.

And I would like to publicly let the people at Chicagoland Paintball know that they have someone on staff who seems to hate Jews for whatever reason.

So "Chaimy49er", thank you for sharing. You can go back to your desk now.

The modern attitude

I'm going to chalk this up to a generation gap.

I was going through the vids I maintain over on myspace, and found that in my several weeks absence someone actually found a video on there and commented. The video was FPS 5, the one that's still controversial several years after it was released. The commentary was, well, rather rude.

" hahaha congrats faggetu got blown away on a runthroughby danny tiljak...... . ITS PAINTBALL!! people will wipe like all sports people CHEAT... doesnt meanu have to go around bitching about every little mishap that rapes you..... get fucked"

This from a 17 year old player named "-=Tom Plays russian Roulette=- 68 StaTe".

Has the game really gotten that screwed up? Everyone knows I'm old school, I've been playing longer than this kid has been alive. But, well, being told that it's "ok" to get "raped" on the field, and being told that it's expected that opponents cheat? I'm still amazed to see that, even though it's nothing new.

It's funny, actually. The game of paintball had been, for a long time, a sport of self-imposed honor and integrity. When it was underground, the only way to get into the game was to know a guy, so everyone knew everyone else. Most people played clean, and if they didn't they were quickly shunned at best, lit up by their own team at very best and simply not invited back next time. If you were accused of cheating, you worked to clear your name. I remember the fun of Oh Pawlak trying to defend himself on Rec.Sport.Paintball when ESPN aired video of him playing on with an obvious hit on his goggles. This was 1995.

Now, it's almost frowned upon if you don't cheat. "If yer not cheatin' yer not tryin'!" Hell, players are celebrated if they can actually injure other players in the process of playing, and the slang has changed to inflect violence. I find it funny in a way that players claim I got "raped" when, in reality, he had to receive off-field help to know I was coming. And "bitching"? Hardly. What happened was what happened, I simply posted the video of it as it happened.

What I see here is people will defend disposable heroes because they're defending an ideal. The industry has given open permission to the younger players to do what they want on the field of play. Let's face it, there's money in giving people what they want over what they need. Sell the image, let the players beat the crap out of each other, and even when they leave the sport in 3-5 years it doesn't matter because "we'll get more players". And that image is what's being defended by people who respond like "Tom" has.

And the response by "Tom" is fairly typical of any given paintball player who takes the game too seriously. Hell, PB2X published in its pages "Cheating is here to stay, get over it." The attitude is loud and clear to anyone who steps back and listens. "Cheating is ok in paintball. Cheat and you'll get ahead." That's what the players want to hear, and want to do, and the industry is more than happy to oblige. Anyone who thinks differently? They can go to hell, right?

If you don't think cheating is a big deal, let's play "follow the money". Where's Coke? McDonalds? Budweiser? PepsiCo? ANY of the office supply chains? ANY tech store chain? They're still not advertising in paintball after 15+ years of trying to attract them and there's a good reason. They want nothing to do with the attitude. Oh sure, TEAMS may get sponsorship but that's more of a "who you know" situation. But as far as the league goes, you'd think that after 15 years or so, and millions of participants, paintball would do better for itself than buying 60 minute time slots on ESPN to be aired opposite of larger venue events? Thats not a sport, it's an infomercial.

No, major companies will not sponsor a serious sporting event that condones cheating by its participants or supporting industry. Nor will they support any sport that uses terms that are outright vulgar to Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. Tell me, when was the last time you heard a player in the NBA say "Oh yeah, we totally raped that team! We made them our bitches! And yeah we cheated like bastards but you know it's what you can get away with right?" You won't. Plain and simple. Paintball should learn this lesson, but it won't.

What happened in that video speaks for itself, as it always has. The commentary to it speaks even louder.

"Woods" and "Speedball" guns

I first heard the phrase used by Maggie Estep way back when on MTV's "Spoken Word" episode of unplugged. Her spoken-word piece was not only biting and satirical, but also bloody well hilarious. And it ended with her saying "I don't have anything against men, just stupid men."

I've modified that a little, and so has a lot of the western world. "I don't hate people. Just stupid people." Stupidity comes in many forms from outright lack of intelligence to willful ignorance of the way things are. Some people are willfully stupid, some people don't know better and appear stupid.

As a case in point, I would like to direct your attention to a video available online (see below). It's from a place called "Expert Village", and it features a professional paintball Orestes Guada, a player from Miami Rage professional paintball team, talking about paintball guns. And in it, he says that there are two kinds of paintball guns; Woods paintball guns and the "Airball" / "Speedball" guns.

Click here for more on "How to Play Paintball: Games, Guns & Gear"

And he points at a wall of guns, and declares after 30 seconds that "woods" guns are good for "range". And the Speedball guns are good for "speed".

Hmm.

A part of me knows I shouldn't really care. I mean this is basically this persons opinions being presented as fact, and that's really no skin off my back in the larger scheme of things. But on the other hand, it's the wanton ignorance that grates me. I mean this is a guy who's played for 6 years, according to his own biography. He plays professional paintball. He obviously has store connections. AND, the ultimate insult, he's a so-called "Expert" giving this lesson. So people will believe it.

Please, allow me to set something straight here about this subject.

There is no such thing as a "woods" or "speedball" paintgun. My e-mag, in the woods, is just as effective as a Tippmann. In fact, I know a lot of woods or scenario teams who use so-called "Speedball" guns in 24 hour games. On the other side of the coin, I've destroyed teams on the speedball field with my "woodsball" Tac-1 and A-5A2, running remote and wearing my digital cammies. I can also recall last winter a group of camo-wearing pump-toting "Wannabees" spanking the local experts at an indoor field.

It had to be the guns tho, I mean we all know pumps are more "accurate". At least that's the myth. Myth, in paintball, is more powerful than provable facts. So let's set some myths straight.

All paintball guns have the same effective range. This is because paintballs are regulated to a standard top speed on the field of play. Indoor is traditionally 250 FPS, outdoor 300 FPS. There are only a few ways to get more range from a paintball gun. #1 is to put spin on the ball, creating a version of the "Magnus" effect. #2 is to use a heavier paintball at the same velocity. The trade is it takes more energy to move a heavier ball to the same exit velocity, so you lose air efficiency. But the extra energy give the ball more range. #3 is to cheat, and crank your velocity up. But this is not only stupid and illegal, but around 350 you lose accuracy.

Or, simply put for those who don't want to read all that stuff, all paintguns shoot, effectively, the same range. So your electro-monster shoots the same distance as my pump gun when we're at the FPO field, unless you're a cheating bastard.

The argument that speedball guns have more "speed", well there's two ways to take that. #1 is the literal "FPS" translation, and if your gun shoots faster that way I have a problem with that. #2, and more than likely what he meant, is in balls per second. But here's where it falls flat on its face. I can take that gun into the woods, and play just as well or poorly as with a slower ROF paintgun. Just as I can take a pump gun into a speedball game, and play just as good / poorly as with a higher ROF paintgun.

Old timers say this many, many times. And new guys never believe it until they actually become old timers and get the point. The gun does not make the game, the player does. If someone sucks with a pump gun, they're going to suck just JUST as much with the highest ROF semi auto they can find. The difference is that the latter will cost them more money to suck than the former will. This is why a lot of old-timers will swap guns mid-day. It's cheaper to suck with a pump than suck with an electro gun, and your "windshield to bug" ratio really doesn't change.

However, I want to add something to the mix. There is no such thing as a "woodsball" or "speedball" gun. After playing a winter with my "woodsball" gear in the arenas local to me, I've come to the conclusion that you can play anywhere with anything. I can take an ION into the woods just as well as the arena, and play my game just as well. It's all about what you're comfortable with, and what you want to play with on any given moment.

The perception comes in the fact that "most" players in the woods play with Tippmanns, and "most" players in the arena fields play with high end electros. That has more to do with demographics than physical location. Most woods players are 1-3 times a summer players, or backyard enthusiasts who really don't want to monkey with their gear. The Tippmann is good for them. The "Speedball" players think they need screaming ROF guns, so they gravitate to those. In reality, they could play just as well with a Tippmann or a Spyder, but they want speed. So, they pay for it.

Reality is that the gun really doesn't give a damn where you shoot it. It doesn't know you're in the woods or on a field filled with colorful bags of air. It doesn't care if you're in camouflage or color-coordinated Grranimals gear. And it doesn't determine the accuracy of your shot. The only difference is where you're comfortable playing, and what you're comfortable wearing while you're there.

But I'd like to modify what I said earlier about "stupid people". I'm not saying that Mr. Guada is "stupid". On the contrary, you have to have some intelligence to play and maintain a "professional" career of any kind. But I will say that his commentary is ignorant, and less than truthful. In his mind, it may be 100% fact. However, I can easily point out the flaws with 30 seconds of internet searching and with some very basic common sense.

All I'm saying is that a lot of the myths in paintball are propagated by the "experts" from generation to generation of players. I would like to think that the buck has to stop somewhere on all the myths, and it stops when everyone realizes how ignorant we're all being. It may take one bastard to point it out, but it takes a community to end ignorance once and for all.

44124-070722-358376-14

© 2007 All Rights Reserved.