I am the captian of an rookie/novice tounament paintball team.  I have been around the industry for a while now, and have played and placed in a great number of tournaments.  The players on my team are great, and I mainly consist of my close friends.  Many of the other players that we have picked up had good attitudes, skills, and were mainly, just good people.  I'm posting this article mainly from something that I observed in the last tournament we played in.

       This tournament hosted all levels of play, from rookie to amatuer.  Many of these players that I observed and had talked to had never played in a real tounament before.  Many of them were nervous, some scared.  Alot of these teams were just a bunch of good friends thrown together to see what they could do as a "team".  Another thing which I observed (and took great disgust to) were these "rookie" players getting slandered by the novice and amatuer players.  The one incident which really took me over the edge was when a rookie player simply complemented a amatuer player on his gun, and where he might be able to purchase one like.   The amatuer player responded "you are not good enough to play with a gun like this, even if you were, you couldn't afford it.  The rookie player cowered his head, put his spyder under his arm, and slowly stumbled away.

       After the tourney was over, time for the award ceremony.  After all the rookie and novice awards were given, now time for the good stuff.  Guns, masks, cases of paint, sponsorships, you name it.  Yeah it is all good, but why give out this kinda stuff to players who already have it?  Many of these teams are already established and have all of the equipment that they could possibly need.  Yes of course the entry fee is more expensive, but I ask again why give all of the "good stuff" to player who are probably just going to turn around and sell it anyways?  Why not give guns and masks to the rookie teams, they are the players who are trying to acheive better equipment, player status, whatever?

       I believe that tournaments should be more about the game.  I believe that entry fees should be lowered so more players can afford to play.  I think that the more experienced players should be playing more for the competition, rather that the rewards.  Trophies and bragging rights should be sufficient.  Sponsors should be willing to help out the players who are just starting out.  Afterall, these are the player who are buying the products, not the experienced players.  Experienced players are mainly looking for free stuff, sponsorship usage, etc.

       One last thing that I would like to mention is game fixing.  I think that seasoned players who have no relation to any of the playing teams should be the only qulified refs for that tournament.  In too many cases have I seen players either from opposing teams, affilated, whatever, reffing these tournaments and giving inappropriate or even "bad" calls during these tourneys.  I don't think that it is fair to these teams who lose to the "sponsored" teams, merely so the sponsors get to see their names in light up at the award ceremonies.

Heres where I come in:

        I too play for an amatuer, sponsored tournament paintball team.  In my experience as a paintball player, I have experienced negative attitudes far too many times.  Whether it was when I first started off as a recreational player to current day where there are teams which are better than ours. Far too many times have I observed experienced players blowing off less experienced player simply because they think that they believe that they are too "good" to talk to you.  I think that the more experienced players should make an effort to help out players who they might deem as "newbies" instead of mock them.

       During tournaments that I have played in, I have seen "first time" tournament players treated poorly not only by the players, but by the field refs and officials as well!  If these players are willing to spend their money to come and play in these often costly tournaments only to get abused, do you think that they would want to play in another?  I mean, it's really no big deal that you have the amatuer and pro teams playing because they usually don't buy their stuff in the first place.  They simply wear their sponsors in the tourneys, use their equipment, talk about their product.  That's about it.  The paintball industry can survive only people continue to buy products.  If everything were simply given away, we wouldn't be playing!

       I think that tournaments should be more about the sport, not about getting free guns and stuff.  This would also bring the costs down for the tournaments so more players could afford to play.  If sponsors want to still give stuff away, they should give it to the rookie and novice teams who are just starting out in their tournament careers.  I think that a combination of these two factors would result in a better turn out, more teams, and a better reputation of paintball within the industry.

       As for game fixing and bad calls, I think that it is absolutely, positively, wrong.  I have been in too many tourneys where one team knows the other and will side with them so they win, get more points, whatever. I also believe that it has to do with getting the "sponsored" teams to the top, so that not only will the sponsors be seen in the winners circle, but their products will be going to their own teams as well.  I think that tournaments should have outside paintball, NPPL certified refs to monitor the events.  This way, it will be fair, and based on skill, not favortism.

       Paintball tournaments should be a fun and enjoyable way of testing your skills against other players and teams, just like any other sport.  When cheating, game fixing, player abusing, etc become involved, this is when we start having problems.  The next time you are playing in a tourney, consider some of these thing I have discussed.  See how many times these issues occur, I guarantee you will be supprised.  Lets try and the games fun.

Sean Takeda
MPN Columnist