Players and Attitudes on the Field
by Sean Takeda, President

        I recently played at "The Jungle" paintball field in Southern California.  It was the first time that I have been to this particular field and must say, it was pretty impressive.  When I talk about "impressive", I am not only talking about the field, but atmosphere, playing environment, players, refs, etc.  It was a pleasant experience being that I felt relaxed playing there.  Games are run at a comfortable pace to where everyone can get ready for each game with ample amount of time.  Refs do a good job here, and were handled things very professionally, and catered to the demanding customers needs.

        The first thing that caught my eye (as I was putting on my gear) was the amount of younger players out on the field nowadays, and man, where the hell do they get money for these awesome guns?.  Many "father and son" players.  I noticed that probably about 75% where no older that 16, maybe a little older.  I also noticed a good number of player which were probably no older than 12 years.  As I was loading my paintballs, 2 kids came up to me and started asking a bunch of questions about my guns like "is that a full auto?" or "how much did you pay for your gun..."  I smiled and anwered their questions (while catching a glimpse at their $800 custom minimags with nitro), and walked to the field (with my new fans follwing close behind).  I thought to myself, these kids will probably playing on some team we play in the future, maybe they will remember me as "that old timer that we lit up on the field when we were kids..."

        3..2..1..GAME ON!!!  As the game started, I see the kids flutter frantically for cover.  As one of the players is going for cover, he is hit in the arm and is eliminated.  The other makes it to his bunker and starts exchanging fire with a few other players.  He is screaming profusely as he continues to shoot, and hold his ground.  He kills a few players, screaming "player get out!! I killed you!!" after each kill.  After a couple of minutes, he is hit in the goggles, eliminated.  He walks off the field talking to himself about how he shouldn't have died, almost sounding because he was too good.  Towards the end of the game, I overheard a few of the old players commenting about how this kid actually came up at the end of the game to tell them that he had shot them.

        It's now lunch break, as I overhear a couple of the old players swearing and commenting about what a "jerk" this kid was for thinking he is such an awesome player and that they are going to punish him on the next game.  Soon after that comment, the kid comes walking by, again reminding the old player that he had killed.  They players smurk, and turn to each other, and smile.  They get their stuff and start walking to the field, mumbling plans about how their going to obtain payback.  The rest of the  players are now walking onto the field.

        The next game starts as players dash all over the place.  I spot the kid running out, yelling orders to everyone around him.  After about 5 minutes, I see the older players on the opposing team making their move towards the kid to grasp their sweet revenge.  The kid flanks right trying to get a better position as a group of the older players on the opposing team make their move.  "I'm hit I'm hit" the kid screams painfully as previous victims become the victors shooting the kid down like a wild animal.  "That should shut him up"  comments one of the players as they are walking away from the crime.  The kid gets up with his head hung low, gun down, limping, sheltered in disgust from the enemy and thier shrewd tactics.  In the back of my mind, I was thinking was wow, it must have been gratifying to get payback, while at the same time thinking, what if the kid had gotten hurt.

        I have seen many of the of these "kids" with the attitude on the field.  It enrages alot of the players, including myself, but you have to realize, they are just kids.  I noticed alot of the more experienced players invitie an opprotunity such as this to "teach" them a lesson when they find players like this.  Many kids and younger players seem to be ignored because they are just that, young kids.  What I am getting at is, though young, they are still people (and paintball players).  As more experienced players, we should try to help them out when we can (especially because they (or their parents) are spending so much money in
the paintball industry, and are keeping the industry going strong)).  I try to help out when I can, because though they may be spoiled, nieve, whatever, don't forget they are minors.  All it takes is one incident of something going wrong to cause a dilema which could hurt paintball.  Let's try and keep it at the professional level, not forgetting, it is only a game.  Try and have some fun!

Sean Takeda
President, The MPN 

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