General

[Winnebago]

Originally Posted by stevedavidson

and that wasn't done to kill the market for Angels?

doubt it.

1) by the time the ion was released, Angels weren't agg any more. WDP's flagship pro team Dynasty were already hired away by SP.

2) ions weren't in the same market as angels. $1000+ market vs $200 market. I would say the ion killed the Wrath, lots of Spyders, and other low end electronic guns.


WDP lost momentum when they lost Dynasty. Shockers were around $600ish. And having upstarts like PE and Dye (with their newly acquired Matrix technology) didn't help either.

[scrounger]

After reading all these posts here and other places (man my head is about to explode ), I have IMO found the real reason and who is most scared of SP going out of business.

ITS THE TOURNAMENT PLAYERS AND EVENT PROMOTERS .

The biggest people defending SP and saying things like "the majorly promoted the sport" seem to be from these two groups.

Anyone who has been in the sport over 3+ years (24+years for me and druid) (and cares to open their eyes) can see tournament play/events have die hard members, but overall a minority (conservatively 10% vs 90% woodsball/scenerio players) in the paintball comunity.

Yet it gets in magazines, ESPN, and press a dispraportional amount of time and event funding. The only exception to this I have seen has been Tippman.

The harsh reality is player amounts have not increased very much, so the multitude of tournament events (PSP, NPPL, ECT) have needed more and more money from a shrinking pool of companies to stay afloat. Right now SP is the major sponser of these events.

If they go (It is not done yet, but it ain't looking good) or reduce the sponcership, it means the tournaments will have to support themselves. The reality of this is they can't.

So it is why you see the "nashing of teeth and wailing of tears" by alot here that "a major sponser of the sport" is going away.

When in reality the hardest hit is tournaments and not the general paintball public (unless you need warranty work). There are PLENTY of after market parts for SP products. Also if they go out of business, just like the airlines, others will pick up the patents and customers.

IMO tournaments need to get over themselves and realise that "your sugar daddy" is no longer here to keep you afloat. It is now time (and in the long run a good thing) to restructure yourself to be self sufficent. Every other industry has had to do this, now its your turn.

Just like SP if tournaments ended today, paintball would still go on and inovation would still be happening.

NOTE my deepest sympathies go out to the employees who lose their jobs due to the mistakes, missmanagement, poor planning, and arrogance of the companies owners.



Scrounger


NOTE BEFORE THE FLAMING STARTS I think there is a place in paintball for tournaments as a sub type/version/method of play. Just as there is for stock, pump, scenerio, ect.

[DFSniper]

i agree 100%. and tourney ball can die in a fire for all i care. its just an occasional distraction for me. i stopped paying attention to professional teams when they started adding cities to their names.

[FatalBigBird]

I lost interest in competative paintball when hyperball came out. People would be so covered in spray you couldn't tell if they got hit. Air ups seemed to fix this but the additude of competitive tourney players has also changed. It became about owning people,bunkering people in the head and thinking its cool and "hella savage" these same idiots think using a black gun in the woods is evil? I donk click with most airball players,unless they pump,or are older just out having fun.

[Winnebago]

looks like SP isn't going to pony up sponsorship money to Dynasty next season. PE picked up that tab.

Dynasty gets an Ego - PbNation


edit: adding press release from PE. thanks! Dirty Deuce.
http://www.planeteclipse.com/site/enews.asp?newsid=647

[Deuce]

A more reputable link than a text pbn post.

[ta2maki]

Originally Posted by heinous

both of you need to stop thinking ion is a "pro level performance" gun.

What makes it not pro level performance? I can see that its not pro level quality, but the numbers are there.

[HurtCow]

Originally Posted by FatalBigBird

I lost interest in competative paintball when hyperball came out. People would be so covered in spray you couldn't tell if they got hit. Air ups seemed to fix this but the additude of competitive tourney players has also changed. It became about owning people,bunkering people in the head and thinking its cool and "hella savage" these same idiots think using a black gun in the woods is evil? I donk click with most airball players,unless they pump,or are older just out having fun.

The latest copy of Facefull Jungle has an interview with Bob Long where he claims that pro speedballers enjoy shooting each other in the head 20 times when bunkering, and that his guns would shoot 30bps full-auto in tournaments, that he'd 'blow people in half', blah blah. What an *******.

[heinous]

Originally Posted by ta2maki

What makes it not pro level performance? I can see that its not pro level quality, but the numbers are there.

well if you put it that way almost any gun with eyes can be "pro level performance."

let's use the perceived definition of it when it was being used as a sales pitch. when it first came out the ads brag about it being high end performance for low end price, right? they were referring to the spool valve design specifically. well it's actually not high end performance because high end spools are balanced, the ion's dumbed down to the level where most of the benefits (less recoil) is lost. it doesn't kick like a sear tripper but it's not smooth like a dm either.

[FatalBigBird]

I heard sp was bought by another company. Should be interesting to see what all was true in the future. Is it just me or has gimilsim disappeared? Their is some probably long ago paid for adds in new mag issues,but not much else. Wasn't it soposed,to be used for some major tourney series in 2010?