Paintball

[Fubarius]

So another year has come and gone. Lets take a few intelligent guesses about the next year in paintball.

With the PSP dropping their rate of fire cap to 13.33 BPS old Revolution hoppers (expecially rare pre-BE colors) will become the next big collectible. A player just won't be 'agg' unless he has a copper, olive, or some other rare colored revie.

A side effect will be some back players switching back to a high rise feed neck.

Short barrels (4 to 8 inches) will come into style, with many players using just their barrel backs. They'll claim that it lets them switch sides of the bunker faster, and the deafening sounds will confuse their opponents when doing bunkering maneuvers.

Special Ops will manage to get a program on TV, and all us 'normal' woodsballers will have to suffer through ALL the new players, even the renters, saying they're a "Broadsword", or "Dagger", or "Ambush" and pointing at our nice guns and saying "Wow, you shoot a ____, you better be the Hammer".

Dye, following Planet Eclipse's lead, will release a "special" version of their DM8. It will perform and be functionally identical to the 'normal' DM8 but since it will have coil springs instead of bevel washers in the regs and weight a half oz less it will of course cost $600 more. All the agg'lets will claim it shoots 2 bps faster.

PE, not to be out done, will follow the pbn trend of players bakeing their guns in the oven to change the color and offer 'pre-baked' finishes on their guns, for only a couple hundred more than the normal finishes.

One of the two major tournament leagues will abandon the inflatable bunker for something that doesn't tend to deflate at the most inconvenient time. This leads to bunker designs shifting to look like something you might actually take cover behind in a firefight and spectators that know little about the sport suddenly find the game a little easier to comprehend.

A tournment league FINALLY hires a full time professional reffing staff. The number of penalties skyrocket the first couple months but then level out. Players agree that the reduced cheating is actually a good thing. (I've been predicting this one for the last couple years, maybe we'll get lucky this year)

A side effect is some big name player manages to get himself banned from the sport. Haven't had this happen since Jeremy Salm in 02.

[pizzaluvr]

Alot of those sound right...

The Special Ops effect(as I call it) is already spreading. It won't be to long untill they have their own Magazine(they already have that small one) and TV show.

I certainly hope the Revvies go up... I have an old one, that is "Super Agg". I guess I'll paint it Pink or something.

[super-cameron]

Smart Parts will sue them all claiming that they had the idea first, and those ideas infringe on their upcoming patent for a new paintball scenario style game that they haven't started developing yet.

[thkyle]

I predict that nothing much will change in paintball this year!

[Marauder_Pilot]

Smart Parts will bite off something bigger then they can chew-say, try and sue Tippmann over the concept of a 'tactical paintball marker' or some other lame vague piece of BS and get legally pimp-slapped.

[sparky]

Hmmm... random predications...

The fall of Dynsaty as a team. Not going to win the NPPL title overall again... Impact/Ironmen/XSV will take the title.

Tippmann releasing another ugly marker and pulling the plug on the 98C.

More Smart Parts bashing threads everywhere. The new SP low end markers will be sold at Walmart or other big brand name store.

A Dangerous Power marker becomes one of the top selling mid range markers.

Pump play reach a new level. More series, tournies and players. Our current local pump league in Alberta will grow, but also lose a few of the orginal 7 teams.

US ecomnoy will contiune to drop, forcing a few big time collectors to liquadate their collection on MCB.

Personally, my collection will hit 40+ markers, most of them being brass and 007's. Will try to play more bushball and go to a scenerio and WCPW in BC for the hell of it all. Will finally leave the parnets basement.

[pump]

in the Ocho......
i will ruin yet another marker as a sacrifice to my mill and lathe

tourney woods ball gets popular again, right when TV networks want to air it, again smashing the dreams of paintball becoming a major spectator sport

and gas prices rise, with more middle east worries

[Timopotamus]

Advancements in the propane industry. A smaller pump propane platform would be nice. Or a safe semi platform.

[thkyle]

After thinking about this a bit, I have a few ideas.......

• I predict that the “anti-agg” movement will become “agg.” They will have the same character qualities, just a different facade. Reverse Aggies! (not to be confused with Old Skool posers!)

• Perhaps with the above, a resurgence of DIY mods to equipment.

• The pump community will continue to grow at a slow, but steady pace. Economics will be the driving factor. Affordable but still fun.

• The “under $200 tourny gun feeding frenzy’ hasn’t peaked yet with the major manufacturers. More cheap cosmetically different designs will be offered.

• It’s about time for the company adds to include for some of the above cheapies “and now comes with eyes standard.”

• The mil-sim movement is about to peak and level off.

• The scenario movement is leveling off too. Inflation of producers to players or supply and demand is going to force some changes in the scenario crowd.

• Along with the above, paintball history is about to repeat itself. The same tensions and dislikes that drove people away from tournament level play “back into the woods” and scenario play, is going to become a growing plague in the woods and scenario paintball too. Tension with symbiotic sponsorships of “fledgling scenario teams to fledgling manufacturers” is starting to leave a bad taste. Scenario games “by invitation only” are being tested around the country. People, get ready for the return of the Wolf Pack!

[sparky]

A few more predictions:

- Crowdbuster won't be finished
- More field closures in the US, but more opens in Canada
- A "local" field acually opening
- US invading another Asian country
- The very end of another paintball company (AGD, AKA, Alien, ICD... not sure yet)