Balling Accessories - Tactical or Tacticool?

Don't be a 'Noob':

Unless you're me, cause that's my job.

No but seriously, I noticed a lot of people who'd loaded themselves up with pounds and pounds of ear, most of which was either ignored, or ineffective when it came to the majority of the Fight for Asylum fire fights. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for all sorts of attachments and upgrades, but when you're putting "sights on sights on sights", the whole thing becomes a little ridiculous.

I saw a couple of people working sights on stock guns without so much as an extended barrel, and this seems a little off to me. I managed, with just a new barrel, to barely dial-in my shots. Remember folks, that unless you're working with a rifled barrel, and even then sometimes it won't matter, that you're effectively using an old-school musket so be sure to treat it like one. Unless you've spent hours zeroing your gun in on a target using one scope and First Strike rounds, there's not going to be a huge difference between your scope-modified marker and the guy working the stock variant of your gun. 

A Sniper's Best Friend:

Ask Valyrie if these work ;) Our badass medic could tell you from first-hand experience how deadly these little puppies can be.

I wouldn't recommend these to my fellow noobs, that would just be insane. They're much more costly than standard ammunition, they require a decent amount of set-up time and you need a marker that's reliably accurate enough to make the most of them (not to mention that they don't work in every marker). If you have the time and money however, these can drastically improve your on-field performance if sniping is what suits you best.

I managed to get a chat in with one of my team's 2 designated snipers, a Mr. Dan Greene who gave me this much about his experiences firing First Strike rounds:

"For tactical games/scenarios they're awesome. You can reach out and touch people at twice if not more the effective range of a traditional paintball... The quality of first strikes has fallen off greatly in the last few years. Now you pull 100 rounds out of a case and 30 of them are underweight and 50 of them have burrs on the nose which affects trajectory on longer shots."

As with anything that goes from being manufactured for a speciality market to mass-production there will be some inconsistencies and growing pains. How well FS rounds do in the future will depend heavily it seems, on how the manufacturing quality is maintained.

Frequent Faux-Pas:

I posted a question on Facebook about what people thought were either the most common, or just the downright worst "tacticool" mistakes made by players. Sometimes you're just doing something to be cool, but every now and then a noob like myself sees it, thinks it's somehow functional and lays down money on it in the hopes of improving their game. This is how the voting broke down:

Unnecessary scopes...
This is what you look like.

1. Unecessary sights and/or scopes: "Scopes in paintball are essentially useless considering we play at ranges generally under 200ft." - Paul Williams. He makes a good point, and since a standard paintball is practically an old-school musketball fired by air and not gunpowder the accuracy of a stock marker with a scope is still the same as a marker without the scope. Remember, First Strike rounds give you a reason to work with a low-power scope but they're costly!
2. Flashlights: They're a bitch to play against under perfect circumstances, but unless you're playing a lot of night games, or you're using a strobe light in a dark hallway to disorient your attackers, it's essentially a waste of money and dead weight on your gun.
3. Overspending on clothing: Should have been in 2nd place but the voting got divided between the general clothing shopping spree and ghillie suits. I saw a lot of people with so much gear on them when it served NO practical purpose at the Fight for Asylum game. Does it make you look cool? To me it's not cool to sacrifice mobility and functionality just to look neat. To me, cool means being able to move from bunker to bunker, making mad dashes to and from cover and bunkering your enemies. You can't do that as well when you're bogged down with gear.

There were more options on the poll, but these were the top three, and very clear leaders of 'tacticool' status.

Disclaimer:

I'd just like to toss this out here in case of any potential trouble...

This blog is not about insulting anyone, though I anticipate there are some people who will get their feelings hurt. If you have the money to blow on gear and style upgrades by all means knock yourself out but whatever you do, don't go telling new or prospective ballers that they need the gear to play better, look better, etc. I know a few friends who've had people tell them that they need tonnes and tonnes of gear and upgrades to play better ball or have more fun and it turned them off of the sport. I've managed to repair some of that damage (and might even be bringing a coworker to Skirmish Paintball's Invasion of Normandy in Pennsylvania this summer) but I'm sure there's more to be rectified. So, if you like being tacticool and you can afford it, by all means have fun, but this is a cautionary post for noobs like myself so that money isn't wasted on the frills rather than the thrills.

With all of that said I'd like to apologize for taking so long to write this post. I kept promising "tonight, tomorrow" etc etc, but life got in the way and frankly... I have my extremely lazy moments. 

Until next time folks, remember to keep calm and throw paint!

Joshua J. Taylor - The 'N00b' Baller

Fight for Asylum - Prestigious Paintballers

And the Awards Go To:

I told y'all that last weekend was going to spawn a whole series of posts... Hope you're prepared because there's a lot to get through over the next week or so.

I'm writing this post to pay homage to a couple of ballers who I witnessed running the field like they owned it. These guys (and girls) held their own, kept their squads in the fight and -when necessary- were willing to lay it all on the line to push the enemy back even through walls of enemy paint. It takes a certain something to lead others in battle, and don't get me wrong that's precisely what it is out there. It's a battle and to be able to get others to follow you and carry out your orders is a very special skill. It's because of his leadership that my first award goes to:

Smash:

Bringing home the briefcase.

Our general for the weekend, and my official 'ballin brother for life, Smash rallied our team and turned us into a paintballin' meat grinder at times. He worked the XOs to make sure that everyone knew what the objectives were, employed runners to get the messages out to the front lines when his NCOs were unavailable and kept all of our spirits up with pep talks and even came up with little personal missions carried out by splinter cell-like squads.

Smash was by no means a 'lead from the back' kind of commander though, as he frequently pushed up with our troops, forcing the enemy back with some serious cohones and firepower (buddy was packin' pods like they were goin' out of style). We had to keep begging him to back up as it was extra points for killing a general but there's just nothing you can do about it when Smash gets his head into the gunfighting zone. 

If it wasn't for this smashing young gun... Pun DEFINITELY intended, I'd probably still be wandering around aimlessly, getting lit up at every turn. He made sure that I was given a task, and that I had someone to tag along with so I'd never be far from support. For his first time as a general, I could've sworn that Smash had a little Patton in him. 

I like to say that "if the only balls you have are in your hopper, you're gonna have a bad time", and it's supposed to apply to pods and extra ammo but Smash has the stones to back up his 'ballin.

Valkyrie:

This next baller takes home the gold medal for persistence, attitude and commitment to the cause.

Valkyries are mythological figures also known as the choosers of the slain. In this case, our Valkyrie was more of an angel of mercy who fearlessly ran across the front lines to keep our shooters in the fight.

When most people think of a medic they may come up with this image of a person who spends their time behind cover, hiding from enemy fire but not our Valkyrie! No sirree-Bob she could be found wherever the firefights were hottest and even taking a First Strike sniper round to the throat couldn't deter her from her medic's duties. 

In addition to the typical wiping of war wounds, Valkyrie mentored a little guy that we came to affectionately call "Mini-Medic" or "Peanut". When things got really bad she kept him out of the worst of it, even though he was all-too-eager to be where the most paint was. More than once Valkyrie had to clean up my sorry, painted self after digging myself too deep into a shithole bunker and I count myself as damned lucky to have had her backing me up.

For anyone interested (that meaning anyone sporting a Y chromosome), Valkyrie has volunteered to be a victim of the dunk tank this summer out at PRZ for Operation Die Glocke which'll be going down August 10th and 11th. It'll be 2$ per attempt at dunking this lovely lady so if you think you've got the arm for it, ante-up and drop her down!

Juggernaut:

He's the Juggernaut biatch!

A Jack of all trades if there ever was one, Juggernaut spent his time with the 'Murican team as one of the most badass engineers ever to grace the grounds at PRZ. Mission after mission, as each new objective came down from the organizers Jugger'd be right out there, spearheading the effort. It didn't matter if it was a retrieval, assault or defence mission, Juggernaut just went to work ploughing through the Deimos forces.

I spent a couple of minutes pinned down inside a busted-up GMC Suburban when we tried to push out of the village to take the fallout zone during which he spent the entire time returning fire through partially rolled down windows and calling out targets for me as I leaned up into the driver's seat to unload on nearby bunkers. You tend to develop a certain appreciation for someone who you conduct 'drive bys' with from a STATIONARY vehicle haha.

Juggernaut was another one of the 'Murican officers who helped me develop as quickly as I did. As a reference, here's a little visual aide that might explain my mentality before/after the influence of all my commanding officers.

Left: Before (Photo Credit to Unshakeable Media)
Right: After (Photo Credit to Darlene St. Georges)

Yeah, the left side is from Saturday's battle with me looking hopeless and pinned down behind a tire/pallet bunker. I've got some obviously sloppy grip discipline, looking backwards and away from the fight, and I'm just generally in a bad spot. I spent probably 8 minutes pinned down in that same spot while guys made rushes right past me before I drummed up the courage to move. The left side of the photo comes from Sunday's final battle. I'm in the urban camo pants and black long-sleeve T, checking in with my squad as to where the enemy had guys bunkered down and organizing a suppress and advance move. I never would have had the confidence to start making calls on the field if I hadn't received the support from my team's leadership on Saturday and during the first half of Sunday.

Last, Littlest but DEFINITELY not Least:

Some people might know him as Wyatt, but to me and the squad this little dude was known by his Valkyrie-designated callsign; "Peanut".

Wyatt accepting his "Team MVP
award from General Smash

There was no doubt when it came time to ask, "who was your most valuable player?" We spent Sunday with half the medics of our opponents and one of them refused to run into anything except a clear field to help our troops... If that. Wyatt was a completely different story altogether.

When we started asking around the Command Post looking for volunteers for medic duty, Wyatt wasted no time at all throwing his marker into the ring. To be honest, no one really knew that much about him and I'd only just found out that although he's only 13, Wyatt's been balling for 3 years and when our squad ran into its first major firefight I discovered that 'Peanut' could sling paint with the best of them... And yeah, I'll admit, he was WAY beyond my skill set. He'd dash into rooms we'd yet to clear, always looking for a paintstorm. When I got pinned down by a bunch of snipers in front of the 3-story building he ran up to my aid, sharing the minimal cover of three oil drums just to make sure that I had a medic with me and that the enemy would have more than just me to shoot at.

The best way that I can think of to describe 'Peanut' would be a fearless, hyper-agile competitor because no matter how bad a situation seemed, he'd be the first guy to push the advance using his small stature and ridiculous speed to get around obstacles and across fields of fire without so much as incidental splatter much less any actual hits.

Well done Peanut, you earned that award and then some!

After the Applause:

Those were the 'Fantastic Four' of my 'balling experience. I don't mean to downplay the importance of any other team members, it's just that I spent the most time around these guys, got to know their playing styles and saw what they were really capable of. I suppose another award for "Craziest Baller in Attendance" should be given out to Dylan "Joe Dirt" Swann but that's a topic for another post... Maybe another Asylum Assassins-based release??? You never know.

That's all I have for the moment my fellow ballers. As always, keep your finger(s) on the trigger(s) and...

Keep calm and throw paint!

Joshua J. Taylor - The 'N00b' Baller