NVA Dominated

 

I got several really surprising bounces. One was a shot right on my head, and not from any crazy distance, smacked my skull and happily trotted away. I thought I was hit until I heard a teammate behind me say "Seriously!?!?" and start laughing. From the impact and distance, I'm cconfident in saying that it definitely SHOULD have broken. I agree that paint sitting in the sun must have been an issue. A lot of people don't realize that the same principle which makes for brittle paint in the winter makes for paint-filled hi-bounce balls in the sweltering heat. Never hurts to bring an extra cooler (even one of those soft, free miller lite ones you get with the beer in the summer) to toss your case of paint in.

 

All that established, of course there were some people who would get hit and not call out, or not go all the way back to respawn, etc. It's an unfortunate consequence of playing a shooting game in which people don't die: tough to verify kills. It's been around as long as paintball and there's no way to stop it. You can, however, mitigate it. Good reffing helps, but in large games it's logistically impossible to have refs on everyone, 1:10 is even a heavy-reffing ratio. Easing the penalty for getting hit helps by decreasing the incentive to cheat. Battlefront's constant respawns achieve this to great effect, IMO. Finally, and most importantly, cultivating a culture of honor and respect at a field will, over time, greatly reduce the population of the wrong kind of player. I've been playing ball for almost 17 years, at dozens of fields, and I can honestly say that the culture at battlefront is among the best. Bounces happen, wipes happen, immature or dishonorable players happen. The best we can do is encourage fair play and makes the game so fun to play the right way that cheating isn't an attractive option.

I have to disagree severely on this statement.   Tourney grade paint is designed to be more brittle so you get a break on your target every time.  As far as markers go the more expensive "Space guns" are designed to be a little easier on the brittle tourney paint. 

That's not entirely true either. However I should have stated "This tourny grade paint..." Formula 13 is designed with a regular shell (Read thick) and a thick fill. Besides does anyone remember Marblizer? I still have headaches from getting hit with those at tournies.

 

Still a great game. I think everyone had fun.