Collegiate Paintball

[shotgunneeley]

Anybody here play college paintball or just tournament speedball in general? A club just formed at my school to play intercollegiate paintball and I decided to join almost without hesitation. I've never played speedball, but have watched it many times. If you have any tips involving equipment or tactics please post back.

Quick Background: I've played woodsball with some local friends for 8 years now and own three tippmann's: an x7, A5 and 98 custom; a tac-one q-bow (probably the closest thing I have to a tourney gun); and a PMI pistol as a sidearm. I had the opportunity to attend Oklahoma D-Day 2009 in Wyandotte, OK this summer (was part of the 1st ID, Allies).

[branch37]

As far as i know my college dosnt have a paintball team of any kind.  I really wish they did since paintball is by far the most intense sport on the planet 

How do you like that X7?  I always wanted to try one but dont have the money.  I have owned a 98 custom and a A5 and they are both really great guns.  i have been using my A5 for almost 5 years now and she still works great.

[bongaroo]

So this will be your first jump into Speedball?  How much Speedball have you watched?  Has it just been during rec play when it is random teams or have you observed any actual tournaments?

Just to give you an idea of my experience, it's been almost 4 years since I played much and more like 6 since I was playing in a tournament scene.  I played in the CFOA for a few seasons and had a blast.

I'm probably way out of the loop as far as gear goes but I'm sure you can pick up a rather nice used electronic marker in the $400-600 range that would of gone for $800+ retail.  An electronic hopper is also a must.  Besides that I'd look for a good compressed air / nitro tank and put it out on a drop forward to keep your marker as compact as possible.  Pick up a pack and some extra tubes (people probably still yoink these like crazy).  Your set on gear.

I played tourney ball successfully with an old school MiniMag that was at the time almost completely outdated by a lot of the electros I was playing against.  But I'd still tag plenty of fools with Angels or Shockers since I had a reliable, compact, and very accurate setup.

The biggest tip I can give you for getting started in a team is to practice together a lot, and at first the most important thing you can do as a team is standardize your communications and work on effectively communicating.  Once my team had a few tournaments under our belts and had our signals and calls worked out we saw drastic improvements as far as the results we were getting.

Any other questions?  I'll try to help you out as much as I can remember.

I got to play the other day here in Raleigh and had a blast.  Borrowed a friends Autococker and pwned all day long.  Accuracy in my mind is just as important as ROF.  Spray and Pray isn't the end all be all.

Oh and another tip: Have someone fast and brave ready to try to dash as far forward as possible at the start each and everytime.  Field position is incredibly important when your playing on a symmetrical field.

[indy007]

Accuracy is not dependent on the gun. It's only dependent on a good paint & barrel match. The single best investment you can ever make in paintball is a Freak Barrel Kit. I've owned Spyders, Mags, Cockers, Angels, Shockers, Ions, Excaliburs, Timmys, Bushmasters, etc, etc. I've competed at an Amatuer-B level in tournaments, and regularly practiced Am-A teams. Scenario is more my cup of tea though.

[saggs]

I played for the Montana State University club for 2 years, and played on other teams for 7yrs before that.  I love the sport, but haven't played for 2 yrs now, sold most of my gear last spring.  Maybe sometime I'll get back into it, but at the moment it takes to much time and money.

Like bongaroo said the most important thing in team success is communication/teamwork.  A good team can do well, even against a team with more personal  talent and better equipment, if they communicate better.  You'll need to come up with a standardized communication system that works for your team.  Most teams name all the bunkers, so they can easily call out opponents positions.  It is also important to have a team strategy in place before whistle blows.  (who goes where at the start, who's shooting what lane, etc.)

For best accuracy you'll need a good barrel kit like indy recommended, I used a Custom Product kit with 5 different bore sizes (though I think I only ever used 3)  But you also need consistent air output to be accurate, that means a compressed air setup with good regulators, both high and low pressure.  A good bolt is needed as well, but I think most stock bolts are pretty good now.  And a good forced hopper (i used a Halo B) is necessary so you won't chop paint.

As for a drop forward ASA, I tried one and didn't like it, but I used a pretty small 45/45 air tank.  I think most of the guys who use bigger tanks prefer them, it is just a matter of preference.

[Reschke]

Branch all you probably have to do is get the ball rolling to start a club team like most of the other schools have done and things will happen quick.

[Selino631]

Accuracy is not dependent on the gun. It's only dependent on a good paint & barrel match. The single best investment you can ever make in paintball is a Freak Barrel Kit. I've owned Spyders, Mags, Cockers, Angels, Shockers, Ions, Excaliburs, Timmys, Bushmasters, etc, etc. I've competed at an Amatuer-B level in tournaments, and regularly practiced Am-A teams. Scenario is more my cup of tea though.

I agree with everything in this post 

[Belial]

I have a evil omen 2.0 and it works pretty good.  If your serious I'd look into a Dye or an autcocker, if your a back player you'll need the most accuracy possible.  If your a mid or front player you could probably get away with something a bit cheaper, it all depends on your level of commitment.


To be honest I had alot more fun playing woodsball than speedball and it was alot cheaper.  I found the best thing to do was organize huge 50vs50 mathces and play by moonlight, followed by a campfire and alchohol.

[saggs]

Accuracy is not dependent on the gun. It's only dependent on a good paint & barrel match.

While that is important, it is not the only thing that matters.

Extreme example:

You can shoot perfect paint, through a perfect barrel with an el cheapo $50 wal-mart marker running Co2, and your accuracy -while better than stock- will still suck.  You will chop paint, have freeze ups and have pressure spikes.  Anything running Co2 will be inconsistent because of temperature, altitude, how much is left in the tank and shooting speed, regardless of paint and barrel.  Expansion chambers can help a little, but not a lot.

Now anyone playing speedball will likely have a compressed air setup, which helps a lot, but you still need good regulators (I like CP) for consistency, and good high flow bolt, and forced hopper so you don't chop paint, which kills accuracy.

I used a CP barrel kit, but I also played with guys who used a single .693 barrel with any paint (to tight is worse than to loose) with no problems.

I have a evil omen 2.0 and it works pretty good.  If your serious I'd look into a Dye or an autcocker,

Or an ICD, Angel, Ego, Smart Parts, etc...  there are lots of great markers today.

if your a back player you'll need the most accuracy possible.  If your a mid or front player you could probably get away with something a bit cheaper, it all depends on your level of commitment.

This is true. I played mid or front, most hits up front happen within 20ft.  Many happen within 4ft. if you bunker someone, or get bunkered.

To be honest I had alot more fun playing woodsball than speedball and it was alot cheaper.  I found the best thing to do was organize huge 50vs50 mathces and play by moonlight, followed by a campfire and alchohol.

I never liked woodsball because everyone thinks they are gonna be a "sniper" (no marker/paint is that accurate) and just find a perch and wait.  The games would last for 45 minutes with only 5 minutes of action, after all the "snipers" finally give up and start moving.

[shotgunneeley]

The club I'll be playing with is the University of Arkansas at Monticello (yes, the bollweevils, like in the KGB commercial  )

Yeah my x7 is my sweetheart. Its pretty much the standard look with a reddot sight, a forward grip, commando stock and an E-trigger. Semi-auto is usually all you would need but the full-auto capability is great when you need some heavy support fire although not a whole lot of guys like going up against it. All of that cost me about $600, but I sold off my older 98 custom to make room so the crunch wasn't too bad.

Yes Woodsball/Scenario paintball is by far my favorite style. I have a woodsball course set up behind my house (about 5 acres) with a mix of natural and constructed cover (barrels, foxholes, forts and plywood boards). While at Oklahoma D-day (the worlds largest scenario game) I picked up a few more goodies like a hammerhead grooved barrel along with a fin kit to match the precise ball caliber.

To be more specific, Rec ball is probably the form of speedball I'm more familiar with. Fortunately we have a local speedball business that's sponsoring the team, so I'll have a good selection of equipment to help transition myself into speedball.

[saggs]

Good luck shotgun, I'd give speedball a try, it is completely different from woodsball, but if you like fast paced sports you would like it. 

By the way, if you do get into tourny speedball, I would lose the sight, grip and stock.  They're not useful at all for that style of play, and would just be stuff to break when you're diving or sliding.

Oh and most speedbal tournaments don't allow full auto, it's usually semi only, or ramping up to 15 balls a second.

[shotgunneeley]

Good luck shotgun, I'd give speedball a try, it is completely different from woodsball, but if you like fast paced sports you would like it. 

By the way, if you do get into tourney speedball, I would lose the sight, grip and stock.  They're not useful at all for that style of play, and would just be stuff to break when you're diving or sliding.

Oh and most speedball tournaments don't allow full auto, it's usually semi only, or ramping up to 15 balls a second.

Oh yeah I understand all of that. The x7 is my woodsball gun, i wouldn't dream of taking it onto a speedball course. The closest thing I have to a tourney gun is a semi-auto tac-one q-bow with a longbow 20 round magazine, not the best for spitting out lead. I'll just rent my tourney guns from the field store until I find out how much i like the sport and what kind of speedball marker do I want. I can see myself being a back player more than likely since I'm only of medium speed.

[branch37]

i have a Tippmann A-5 with a fold out stock and the E-Trigger system.  Ill play a few speedball games every once in a while but woodsball is by far the best IMO. 

My youth group used to go meet up with another church and have a big paintabll weekend with speed and woodsball.  i would just sit in the back out of range of all the cheap spyders and pick everyone off with my A-5

[Strip]

Speedball=Light wallet

Unless your a foward/runner and then you just keep your head down most the time.

 

[Banshee7]

Speedball is fun, but woodsball is the best