Paintball

[Diomedes]

So I was reffing today, which is not something I do regularly, or I might have caught this sooner. It was a big game that my team put on, straight up flag control. I was in the staging area by one of the flag stations, off the field coordinating flags and watching the players in the immediate vicinity (along with a couple of refs on the field). Well, a couple of players in the area had roters with crazy color schemes, and I realized at some point that is was darn near impossible to tell if this or this has been hit, or if it was just the color scheme.

Then the bigger problem hit me: That's the point.

I don't use electronics. Ever. I don't even use gravity hoppers. I'm all stick feed, all the time, so I don't keep up with the hopper designs out there. That being said, this seems to me like the institutionalization, if you will, of the practice of plastering one's loader with stickers with the objective of obscuring hits. Am I reading too much into this, or am I late to the otherwise very obvious party?

[Lohman446]

Yes thats the point. And its been the point for a long time.

[Fubarius]

One could say the same thing of the old splash anno jobs.

But really, just about any aspect of the game could be boiled down to "might hide a hit, or cause a bounce".

Why do some players wear jerseys 3 sizes to big and always lean forward when playing? Well, ever shot a towel hanging from a clothes line? Same thing.

Sometimes it's a more practical "less likely to break" issue, such as wearing pods on your back instead of in front of you, but it does seem more often to be more deliberate, such as wearing soft forearm pads (you know, for sliding), under a jersey with padded forearms (you know for, um, really really sliding, not for bounces at all, I swear).

[tiny]

It's been that way for quite some time, IIRC the last time I read over a tournament handbook it restricted equipment colours, sizes of stickers/patches allowed on hoppers, the types of covers allowed, etc.

[-=ArchAngel=-]

i dont tourney ball at all or watch it very much, but wouldnt it cause Refs to do paint checks more often and giving your position away or hindering your movement?

[thumper]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

..
Then the bigger problem hit me: That's the point.

Col. Hans Landa: [giddy] Oooh, that's a bingo! Is that the way you say it? "That's a bingo?"
Lt. Aldo Raine: You just say "bingo."
Col. Hans Landa: Bingo! How fun! But, I digress. Where were we?

[PistolRogue]

Actually, I'd have to argue that it's not really the point, at least in the big leagues... NPPL and PSP last I heard have restrictions on certain colors of guns/gear/clothing specifically so that players can't pick gear that will make spotting hits more difficult. So if the paint fill for NPPL is yellow, players aren't allowed to use yellow gear. Although, that line quickly gets blurred at walk-on events or big games.

[The Inflicted]

Good luck with something like this:

[Droop]

Originally Posted by The Inflicted

Good luck with something like this:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/100_0986.jpg

Dear god i want that jersey

[Jaccen]

Originally Posted by Droop

Dear god i want that jersey

......then buy it?

Kohn 2013 Old School Jerseys

http://www.kohnsports.com/estore/cat-JERSEYS-878.aspx