I was reading on TechPB web forums the other day, and TechPB mike was saying, that paintball is dying. I find this is not true, not any where close. The sport we all love is just having a little vacation.

The 51.5 thousand players that have supposedly quit according to the Facebook page “Save Paintball” are short term players who came, saw, played and went. This has always been the way it is. People get into the sport of paintball and find that they didn’t like it as much as they thought they did.

Or suddenly have other interests that take it’s place. Here’s the kicker, they will be back, most are teenagers who have other interest at the moment. Girls, jobs, fun, friends, school. With limited income how can you have very many interests that you have to pay for. When they find there true values and get there critical thinking straightened out they will be back. I have seen it before in the 25 years I have been a player.

Every player who has been around for more than ten years has seen it too. People find out about paintball and come on like gangbusters, what ever that it. They play for a while and find other interests, no matter what those other interests are. Some people have too many other interests, motorcycles, hunting, fishing, scuba diving, chasing women and other sports. Oh…Chasing women for some is a full time sport. Forgive me. Don’t want to take away from that.

Paintball is in flux at the moment. Tournament producers like NPPL/PSP got a lot of exposure through ESPN and brought in new players. There is a player base that hasn’t gone away, WE will remain. Those falling away are mostly in the tournament side, with speedball players becoming disgusted with the current trend of everything being too expensive. This will reverse with companies like Smart Parts making less expensive paint guns and paying attention to the woods/scenario players for a change. I feel the economy has had a hand in this as well.

Paintball is not dying as some have said. It is merely in a lull at the moment. We are on a horizon with the advent of what I like to call the mini ball or .50 cal. This isn’t going to kill the sport as some have said. It will however open up a whole new player base that can not play because of there countries laws. In these same countries they can play Air Soft and do. The use of the mini ball that has always been with us is a coup.

GI MilSim is on the cutting edge of this new be it old paintball technology is going to rake in the cash. And give our sport a lot of new players in these off shore countries. I don’t feel the .68 cal. paintball is on it’s way out. I hear many people say that they will not switch. But people just like them said back in the early 90’s that simi auto paint guns would ruin the sport. Well maybe what is happening now is a delayed reaction to that major technology advancement. Like a traffic jam is caused by drives hours before slowing down to look at an accident.

Smart Parts at World Cup which I missed because my Ranger broke down on the way to it, has the Impulse that is shooting the mini ball, and GI MilSim with the Nano and the clone of the SP-1, which have the right left and center feed that I am envious of and want for my SP-1. All shoot the .50 cal.

I have not seen enough about the mini ball to make an educated guess on how it stacks up against the .68 cal.

All the talk so far is that the mini ball is as good if not better than the .68 cal. Some say that the mini ball will replace the present ammo, in a few years. I didn’t get to shoot it at World Cup because I couldn’t get there my truck broke down, Oh did I say that…hum.

I think we all know that it’s a wait and see attitude right now. One problem I feel is that lots of players who would be buying new paint guns now will be waiting for the mini balls to solidify and see what comes of them.

I was surprised to here that Tippmann is adopting this wait and see attitude on the mini ball. I guess it’s because of there former experience with the Tippmann SMG 60.

My former team Crossfire shot Tippmann SMG 60’s exclusively. Till I got one and then they started to switch to the larger cal. The .62 cal. supposedly cut the brush and was more aerodynamic than the larger .68. Well the SMG 60 faded into history. Back then a case of .62 cal paint cost $250.00 for 2500 rounds. You players today think the paint manufactures are raping you. Yes that was the amount of paintballs you got in a case of paint way back then. We all were mad when they changed the amount of rounds per case. But it didn’t spoil it for us we just kept on trucking, and playing. Having just as much fun as we always did.

Don’t Panic! Paintball is not dying! We have merely lost some of the new comers who would have skipped on us any way. They are young and fickle, and have other interests at the moment. I have no fear that most if not all of them will return after a short hiatus. Of course no one can predict the future. But I will say this for the record.

People come and go some stay some flow, what ever will be will be. The future is for us. We’ll see.