Published News » View from The DeadBox

Posted by pbguide Posted   5 hoursago

It seems FOV (Friend of VFTD) and renowned paintball photog Gary B. is gonna be participating in a paintball photography clinic in Thailand. (Is that what you're really doing in Bangkok, Gary?) At first blush I confess I thought maybe this was a bit over the top--but then it occurred to me we already have player clinics and referee clinics--so why not? (Except of course we already have too many p » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   1 day 9 hoursago

The diagram is the first practice layout delivered to the public by Sup'Air. The use of the new snake bunkers mirrors the original photos and should be accepted as a reflection of Sup'Air's conception of how the new snake will play generally--although other configurations are possible. My objective isn't to claim the new snake bunkers are unplayable--they aren't--but to clearly demonstrate that t » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   2 daysago

VFTD has never done a field analysis for the kids down under---at least I don't remember doing one so here it is. But before this goes any further this is absolutely and categorically the last one--for now. And now means for the foreseeable future. (I try to get out and you keep pulling me back in.) There are plenty of breakdowns of past major league events (and others) in the archives. While not » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   3 daysago

I liked it so much the first time VFTD is doing it again; dueling polls. As before you will get one vote per poll. And this time you're not going to want to miss out on casting your "extra" vote. This week's The Monday Poll dueling poll questions are: What was the BEST off season move in major league paintball? & What was the WORST off season move in major league paintball? And yes, there wil » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   5 daysago

Spirit of Paint (SOP) a French website has the skinny on the new bunker kit being foisted on the PSP & Millennium Series this year--and not so incidentally on the local fields that support competitive paintball and on us too! (Link is the title.) In the recent post, Supporting Adrenaline Games, VFTD takes the PSP to task largely for past sins as it turns out the Sup'Air people have intentiona » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   6 daysago

VFTD has discussed the Virtue chips in the past (for example here & here) and while I had intended to leave it at that until something new developed--and there are plenty of ideas in the pipeline--it seems that with the recent NPPL announcement of their intention to use the chips across all their non-pump divisions of play to enforce the ROF cap it has created--if not a firestorm of » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   7 daysago

It's that time of year again--apparently--when the PSP supports Adrenaline Games by sticking it to the local field operators that support the PSP and Race 2. Was that too harsh? Upon re-reading it sounds pretty harsh. Unfortunately it's also true.Confused? Here's the dealio. Every year or so it seems Sup'Air adds some new props that the major tournament leagues incorporate in their event layouts » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   8 daysago

Let's begin with a quick review of the layout. It's nearly an archetypal Xball design except there's little value in attacking up the center and none of the corners offer any significant wire control. Each corner section of the field is made up of a triangle of three props; the insert, the feed and the corner. The value of playing the corners is largely to command edges from an advantageous posit » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   9 daysago

There is an announcement about the NPL in the News section at PBN. There is also the NPL website here. First order of business is to suggest perhaps a less generic name for the league as it turns out lots of nations have national paintball leagues. Just an observation. Second, I want to separate the NPL vision into two parts; the game format and league structure. Let's begin with the ga » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   11 daysago

You didn't ask for it--but then you didn't need to 'cus you knew it was coming, eventually. We got some field time in yesterday playing with the BA rules and to be honest the jury is still out. I'll explain in a minute but first I'ma outline the rules.It's very simple. There are two flags. Each team begins with a flag at their start position. Anyone (live player) can possess the flag to begin the » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   13 daysago

This is a critique, not a criticism. Short history lesson: In the early months of this blog I likened the then UCP to Logan's Run and suggested the system (and the league) was unnecessarily driving players up and out of competitive paintball. Which was true. Since that time the classification system has been adjusted a number of times in ways that (intentionally or unintentionally) fell in line w » Read More...

Posted by pbguide Posted   14 daysago

Okay, fallacy is probably a bit strong but it sounded so good I couldn't resist. Not unlike 'The raehl Solution' 'The Brockdorff Fallacy' does have some merit and deserves consideration as a viable option in the quest to preserve the game and reduce costs (and produce better players in greater abundance.) On that score I think Nick's idea for reduced ROF is more widely applicable than raehl's res » Read More...