Tourney thoughts...

(from T-Square's Forum page)

no tournaments are scheduled at this time.

i also want to go on record - it will be a cold day down under before i ever hold another tournament that allows electronic guns. the paintball "rate of fire" race is totally out of control.

i seem to be the only one in the world who thinks the possibility of 10 or 15 or 20 balls per second into the back of the head is insane... so i will continue my one man boycott against high rate of fire guns on my own. occasionally i will run a special event tournament such as our "keep the gun tournaments" or "hopperball" mechanical guns only tournaments.

T-Square Paintball Field is a "rec" ball field and will remain so.

i have no patience for "indy car" drivers on my "go cart" track.

hope that clears things up for you.

mick gray/t-square paintball


i should point out that i don't like feeling the way i do about tournament play.

i enjoy competition and i love paintball...but paintball is going to destroy itself if this quest for "high rate of fire" and "win at all cost" is allowed to continue.

there are "small" tournaments out there. but you will not find one that isn't SERIOUS! no matter where you go, where you play, there is always one or two teams looking to knock you on your ass with guns that ramp or bounce or magically increase in FPS.

yes it's a shame a few ruin it for the many. yes it's tempting to say, "just throw the offending teams off the field". problem is it's getting harder and harder to detect cheater boards and assisted triggers. add to that the wipers, punks, overly aggressive players and win at all cost attitudes....and, well...do i sound cynical?? maybe.

go to Orlando and watch the "PRO's" act like 4 year olds. go to a local tourney and watch the local refs throw a tourney to the local team. go to the IAO in Pittsburg and listen to rookie and amateur teams use language that would fry a sailor's hair. go to any tournament and watch the refs get treated like crap because they couldn't instantly make a call over three circumstances occurring simultaneously in a thousandth of a second.

Who's to blame? How do we return sanity to the game?

kids see "paintball" on ESPN and want to shoot like the pro's without ever knowing what "rec" ball is. Manufacturers take rec ball guns and turn them into cheap, paint slinging versions of a tourney gun cause that's what kids tell their parents they NEED! new teams cheat cause they want to be pros. pro teams insist on 26 balls per second because their opponents just got a marker that shoots 25. pro teams cheat cause they have to win to attract sponsors. sponsors put up with the cheating cause they want their logo seen on ESPN.

and all the while I’m typing this I’m realizing that on any given rec ball day here at T-Square there is always one or two players trying to overshoot a buddy, wiping, cussing, trying to get over on the ref and generally doing all the knucklehead things i can't stand tournament players doing.

the difference is these knuckleheads are just a small part of the 95% of paintball players that play because it's fun. i put up with them and deal with them (some days are harder than others) in order to bring the thrill and challenge of paintball to the masses!

the clock is ticking down for tournament players. someone is going to get hurt bad (there have already been some serious, but not "major", incidents). whether as a result of overshooting or from a bench clearing throw down it's not going to matter. what's left to find out is if paintball in general is riding on that same clock. one to many votes by your city council or state legislature could send it all down the tubes for all of us.

I’d say that's my two cents worth but i probably rambled on for fourteen or fifteen cents worth...

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The original "Mean and Grumpy" post!

Someone recently suggested I not be so mean and grumpy.

me??

bah! humbug!

i do need a vacation. i've been a bit short tempered lately. with success comes more - more good, more bad more stress, more fun.

let me tell you what makes me mean and grumpy.

i won't sell crap in my pro-shop. there is enough inferior, not worth the price of the plastic, paintball junk out there already. i sell equipment that i spend money and time on testing. when someone comes in my shop cussing at a marker i sold them that has been abused, misused, trashed out with cheap paint or doesn't work because "their friend lost some parts" i get mean and grumpy.

people getting ripped off on the internet (EBay!!!) makes me mean and grumpy. the dilemma... do i get mean and grumpy with the person who let themselves get ripped off or do i get mean and grumpy with the faceless seller behind the computer screen? usually i get mean and grumpy with myself (and take it out on my daughter behind the counter). i blame myself for not being able to convince everyone that "the buyer should beware"!

people who shoot their gun plug across my safe zone and say the marker "went off by accident" will make me mean and grumpy. A PAINTBALL MARKER (AS WELL AS FIREARMS) CAN NOT GO OFF BY ACCIDENT. PERIOD! oh? what's that you say? the trigger is set so close on your high tech electro paintblender that it goes off if you breath on it??? well then it didn't go off by accident. it went off because you set the trigger so close it goes off if you breath on it!!

same goes for when my refs get hit "by accident". YOU CAN'T HIT ANYTHING BY ACCIDENT. paintballs come out of the marker and go in the direction that the barrel is pointed. if you hit a ref it was because you had your barrel pointed at the ref. and, of course, as we covered earlier, markers can not go off by accident! hitting my refs always makes me mean and grumpy.

people who turn their marker on it's side while shooting, or shoot while running and bouncing, or try to get 15 balls a second out of their rental (or 30 balls a second out of their electro-blender) or who don't consider that it's pouring rain or 30 degrees outside, AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT I HAVE CRAPPY PAINT make me mean and grumpy. and hey, does anyone know what a spit ball is??? once you do break a ball it's not the marker's fault or the paint's fault for balls flying in circles. it's your dumb lack of luck! ask a ref to clean your barrel!!

same goes for players that dive into a bunker, doing a couple of flips before they crash HOPPER FIRST into the dirt! saying your paint broke in the hopper BECAUSE IT'S CRAPPY will make me mean and grumpy. oh yeah, and trying to shoot my field paint through your $150 tight assed tournament barrel??? duhhhhhhhh! crappy paint???

four or five players complaining because i stopped a game when they only have one opponent left, people wanting to play tournament level play on my rec-ball field, one of my young players coming off the field with 6 hits stitched up his back, a Dad playing with a bunch of 10 year olds who has to capture the flag himself every game, walmart guns that players expect me to fix RIGHT NOW!, that dumb look i get when i ask someone if they know how to chronograph their marker, 2 or 3 in a group of walk-ons who ONLY WANT TO PLAY SPEEDBALL or who ONLY WANT TO PLAY IN THE WOODS, the player that gets hit, stands straight up, and then cusses at other players for hitting him again... yeah baby... these are things that will make me get real mean and grumpy.

so by now are you asking yourself, "why in the heck doesn't this mean, grumpy old man get out of the business."? (by the way, i'm just getting warmed up!)

i can tell you why.

when Dad (or Mom) comes to me at the end of the day with a kid grinning from ear to ear and says they had the best time ever all the other stuff disappears. corny, but true. paintball is fun.

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