First PSP Experience

August 16-19

Coming in to this event, our team was extremely confident. We had practiced our brand of paintball. We went against decent teams in our area and we found weaknesses in our strategy and worked on it. I personally started running long distance two months before the event to boost my stamina and I event incorporated drills that improved my physical capabilities when it comes to paintball. I worked on snapping, switching hands,shooting weak hand, kneeling, shooting while moving, etc.

The day started like any other event we went to. We woke up a couple hours before our first match would start.  We got to the Ab Brown Sports Complex and set up our gear at the spot we had chosen. Everything was pretty much routine as we went on our day prior to our first match. Unfortunately for us, we were not prepared for the format in which the matches were being held.

A couple months back, we were under the impression that it would be like AFPL: we would be matched against one team, play until the match point, and then move on to the next scheduled match. Nothing in the PSP site said anything otherwise. We were inexperienced so we were not aware that there was a different way of doing things in this event.

At 11am, our first match started. Almost immediately, we broke down. The refs were telling us that we needed to get on the field asap or we would start with what we had on the field. Two of the 1st string players were not ready all the way. So, since I was prepared, I went out. We started with 5, but not the 5 we planned to start with. It was a massacre. We could not even move past the first bump. So we shook it off and expected to come back in for the next point. We didn't. Apparently, they were doing a round robin format. Teams would play for the first point and go up against the teams they were scheduled to go up against, the only thing was that they were not playing til they get match point. This caught us off guard.
Had we known this was going to happen, we would have had our pit coach look at every team one by one and asses their strategy so we can counter them and/or fix our own shortcomings on the spot. Unfortunately, it was not that simple. We did not even know who was playing and we had to get our hands on the schedule that the announcers had to keep up with what was going on. By that time, we had already lost a couple matches and morale was down.

That's another thing that we were frustrated about: no announcements. We were so used to the loud announcements hat AFPL was doing that we were somewhat lost when it came to PSP. All we would hear most o the time were refs telling us we needed to go.

We were horribly unprepared for the competition. They were getting up the snake in less than 20 seconds while we were working on getting into it still. They were highly aggressive while we were reduced to defensive plays. We played it too safe. As a team, we were slower than every other team. Our lack of physical fitness showed. Among the 8 of us, only Jeremy and I were able to keep up as far as speed was concerned. Our second string team was also a disappointment. Granted, I was part of that team, but our main snake guy was not moving up. By the time we switched up, it was too late. I understand that he's 11, but we trained for this and he was not doing what he needed to do. He failed to get into the snake every time he played.

We also did not communicate well. Although in hindsight, we were getting eliminated so fast that we were not given to opportunity to actually communicate G counts or R counts. As I said earlier, we were massacred. Or as Cindy described it: a bloodbath. It showed how unprepared we were for the PSP event.
Lessons learned would be that we need to have better physical readiness. We were too slow and too complacent with our current physical standing. We should start running as a team and working on more agility drills. Our snake side has to move faster, get up the snake in record time all the time, every time. We have to dominate the snake side no matter what. We need to adjust to the way the matches are held. We need to get there when our division starts and not when our first match starts. We need to observe the teams that play before us and create a strategy based off of what we see. This isn't AFPL.

One other weakness we need to work on (and it's a personal weakness I also have to work on) is communication. We got complacent because we performed well in AFPL. That's a small pond compared to PSP. We need to play more aggressively and not get stuck in one place and get pinched.

All in all, our team is good in many ways. We were, however, incredibly horrible in PSP. I can't stress enough how unprepared we were. We should have drilled harder. We should have tried to dominate the snake. I can't blame it on the event since the event has been done that way for so long and it was not just a sudden change. We should have done more research. I can only blame it on how me were complacent.
I'm done.

-X-

AFPL Chaos Ball #3

July 7, 2013

Prior to the event, we were told that IE Unseen dropped out of the event so we were bumped up from third place to second place. Which was good news. We just have to place well in the tournament consistently.
I will not delve into detail as far as each match went. I'm just going to outline what I noticed as weaknesses that we needed to work on.

The first thing I noticed is that 2nd string main snake guy was not moving up fast enough. In all honesty, if we failed to lane out the opposing team's snake, then we would have been dominated in all of our games.

Luckily, though I don't want to take all the credit, I was positioned at the 30 can bunker so I would always take out their snake as they come into it or as they move up. So we contained their snake side pretty well. But in the end, it just evened things out and we had to rely on our dorito side. Jeremy and Sammy were powerful players so I didn't have to worry too much.

Our second problem was that we, as 2nd string, were not talking as much as we should have. Though we succeeded in winning a lot of our games, I still could not shake the idea that the only voice we relied on was the sideline coach's. In the end, we were strong enough to overcome that shortcoming.

My personal weakness was that I was not moving away from the 30 can. I was there just making sure that the snake was covered. I was ignoring the dorito side all day long. Though we were never really dominated on that side, I probably would have better served my team if I had moved to the center 50 after I took out their main snake player. I have to keep in mind that I have to move up when we are up in bodies.

All in all, our team performed well enough to place third again. I wanted first place but we were pitted against Str8shooters and lost. We won our one on one games to place third. So we are known as the one on one specialists.
Things to work on: communication, training our 2nd string snake to move up faster, taking more ground when we are up in numbers.

I'm done.

-X-

The Return of the TipX

My first paintball pistol was the Tippmann TipX. It was fun to use, reliable and I liked the fact that it was extremely light even with 8-10 magazines on me. Playing with limited paintballs was a great feeling and increased my awareness of the field. My head was always on a swivel. Always making sure my next move was practical and that I would not be an easy target.

It fit my style of play and I was able to utilize my parkour skills on the field. Rolls, diving rolls, speed vaults, dash vaults and mid air gun battling were possibly with this setup.

But as good as the TipX was, I wanted to try something else. What if there was a better pistol? What if another pistol suited my style more than the TipX? So I sold my TipX and bought a Tiberius 8.1.
I liked the concept of the T8.1. The barrel was easy to remove, the magazines were pushed out by air if you still had some left in the cartridge, it had 8 rounds per mag, and the design was pretty cool. I even ended up buying another one to dual wield.

But, after a couple weeks of using it, I began to notice everything wrong with the T8.1. The pistols were heavy. Even if I just went with just one pistol, the magazines were still heavy enough to bog my speed down. It was annoying. Eventually, it made me not like using them and I would resort to my Axe. So after a couple more weeks of giving more chances, I decided it was not the pistol for me. I went back to the Tippmann TipX and here’s why:

The TipX’s unique first-trigger-puncture was very air efficient. I did not have to twist anything to puncture air and waste time and air. In order for me to just drop a mag and load a new one and be able to fire with the T8.1, I would have to have the mags pre-punctured. Which means, I slowly lose air as it leaks out of the magazine while in my holster.

Going back to the TipX, I immediately felt the difference. The weight no longer bogged my speed down and it did not take away the fun of using a pistol. Since I’ve used it before, I was still familiar with the technique to draw and holster it in mid-battle. I was still as quick as I was before and I was able to move much easier with the setup I have for it.

A word of advice for those who want to use dual pistols: If you want to take things slow and you do not care about being a forward player or do not plan on doing too much running around, a T8.1 setup is for you. However, if you care about getting to a certain place before anyone else does and not have the weight bother you, TipX is your pistol. There are a lot more factors to consider when you are going to buy two pistols, but I think weight is the main one. Neither pistol fails on reliability and they both have their own ups and downs. It’s just a matter of how you are able to adapt to the shortcomings of both markers.

I’m done.

-X-

My First AFPL Experience

I’ve had my share of scrimmages when I first started playing speedball. I got a taste of a type of competitiveness that just was not present in big recballs games. Players in speedball know what they are doing and are adept in the play-style that requires quick reflexes and exceptional field awareness.

When I started playing, I only went to bunkers that were standing. I did not want to dive into the snake or stay kneeling for a good amount of time at the dorito side. My abilities were limited and I wasn’t about to try to learn how to slide. I wasn’t until I was watching videos of snake players that I became interested in learning a forward role.

I started training myself on how to dive and slide properly. Having no baseball or football growing up in the Philippines, I wasn’t familiar with proper sliding. Diving was not really a problem for me since I practice parkour a lot. Eventually, I started working on my sprints and timing my dives into the snake. Eventually, my team would drill me with snake plays and teach me important things about being a snake player.

After I accumulated skills in speedball, I was itching for tournament experience. The nearest and most convenient tournament was the AFPL Chaos Ball. I was not able to make Chaos Ball #1 due to work responsibilities, but I was able to make the second one on May 11, 2013. Man, was it a blast.

Coming into the field in San Diego in the morning of the tournament, I was hyped. Unlike most other sports, I was not nervous or panicky. I was calm and composed. That’s when I knew this sport was for me. I did not think about failing or making an embarrassment of myself, I was thinking about how I would make it harder for the other team to win against us. I was pumped and I wanted to win.

Preparation was just the same as when we would just be scrimmaging. My routine was no different and this made me even more comfortable. The only disappointment to me was I was not going to be going to the snake as much as I would like because we had added a player smaller than me and was perfect for going into the snake. So I ended up being his corner guy for majority of the time. It wasn’t a big deal for me at the start, but it did later on when I started noticing significant things. More on that later.

I did not start well enough on the first game. I decided to run and gun to my corner off the break, but I got laned out. So I was not able to actually play. Nevertheless, our team won, 3-0. My next game was a little better because I was able to stay in all the way. The first thing I noticed about myself was that I was using a lot of paint than I would be if we were just scrimmaging. I ran through 3 pods in one game. I was surprised to have used so much, but my instinct in the game a corner player is to tuck the enemy in so that my snake can move forward.

Another one is that I can maximize the power of my legs because the traction is excellent. My main training regimen is leg strength and max agility. I run at my top speed and train my legs to stop at a dime. I’ve been taking fish oil to help with maintaining my joints in order for me to be able to do this consistently. In every game, I was able to go from 0 to top speed in less than 2 seconds and from top speed to 0 in less than a second. I have trained my body to lean a certain way when I stop so that my momentum would not carry my body forward and be open to enemy fire.

When I do need to slide, though, I can slide much earlier because the turf allows me to go further. It has less friction when there’s no treads to provide traction on your jersey. All in all, I was comfortable moving around turf and was able to utilize my speed and agility training to my advantage.

As the day progressed and we played games of “race to 3”, I started to notice that most of our wins came from the dorito side. Our snake side would be shut down because we could not or would not move forward. Many times did the coach tell our snake player to move up, but he did not. I was trained for the last 2 months to respond to either my corner player or my coach when they say that I can go forward. I have built up the confidence in my teammates in order for me to be able to just look in and not worry about my tape because I know I am covered. My field awareness has improved since I started and I usually know how many people we have left on the field. So I was kind of frustrated that our snake guy was not moving when he was told to.

Even though our snake player was good and was hard to hit, it was his reluctance to move forward and to make critical moves that held our snake side back. That was my main problem. I’ll be honest; I did not drive down to San Diego to not win first. I was hungry for that win.

We made it to the quarter finals at second place. Then I started seeing different flaws in our hybrid team. To explain, our hybrid team is a mixture of the first and second string players. They are used when we definitely need to win. If I had been in the team longer, I would have suggested putting me in the hybrid team instead of one other person. Not that he was not any good, on the contrary, as a paintball player, he’s probably better than me and would win in a one-on-one gun battle. But he was out of shape and was getting winded. I wanted to take his place because I noticed how much he was slowing down compared to the first games of the day. Had I been put in his place, I would have been able to make faster and decisive moves.

I’m not saying I would have been able to make the team win. I just noticed that some of our guys were clearly tired and no amount of skill will remove exhaustion from the table. I did not say anything to the team. I decided to just tell them that the next time our string was playing that I was going for the snake and have our original snake guy be my back up; just to prove something to myself. When the game started, I made it to the snake, was able to crawl up further than anyone on our string ever did the entire day, and I crossed out their dorito side, making it easy for our dorito guy to move in for the kills and close the game. At that point, I was convinced that I should just play snake for the rest of the time. But, I was never able to because we sent out our hybrid team because we feared losing.

Would it have made a difference if I replaced one of them? Maybe. We’ll never know. But the next time we are put in a situation where we need to win, I think I’ll speak up. I was highly upset that we got 3^rd place. I wanted first and we could have won first. We were clearly a stronger team and we made very little mistakes in the first games of the day and we could have continued. But I guess that’s what experience will teach you: nothing goes the way you think it will go. Case in point: the team that was undefeated in the prelims got 4^th place.

All in all, the experience was great. It taught me a little more about the competitive nature of the sport and I was able to get my first tournament under my belt. I’m happy to have participated and learned from it.

I’m done.

-X-

Airow Gun

At first glance, the Airow Gun looks awesome and easy to use. Yes, it looks cool and will probably grab the attention of the field when you bust thins badass out. But this marker has very significant problems.

One problem you will have is the fact that this is only good to be mounted on a compound bow. Now I know it looks easy when you watch it on TV, but if you have no prior experience in wielding a bow, even a 45lb draw weight will be hard for you to pull and you will quickly get tired after a number of pulls. You’ll have to make sure that the string does not leave the cams (pulleys) or else you will get whipped by your own bow’s string (which is not fun). I suggest that you go to a nearby archery range and rent a compound bow and try shooting some arrows to get the feel of a real bow. Because, let’s be honest, the package for the Airow gun comes with a real compound bow made the Diamond.

Next would be aiming. If you are an experienced hunter using a bow, you know that you can use sights, quivers, etc and attach it to your compound bow. With the Airow attachment, you may not be able to attach the same things. More than likely, you will be trying to aim down the barrel like you would for a speedball marker. Even then, it’s still not very accurate to do it that way. So it’ll be up to you to find that sweet spot for aiming.

A major problem, in my opinion, is the FPS. The bow that comes with the package is a 45lb – 65lb draw weight. At 60lbs, the FPS goes up to 240 if you’re lucky. I used Empire Premium paint to test this marker and it never went over 250 FPS. If you’re fine with that, then it shouldn’t be an issue. But you have to keep in mind that this was at 60lbs of draw weight at the longest string pull which is at 29. Shorter people like myself are going to be uncomfortable drawing it that far to get it up to 240 FPS. Plus, you have the fatigue factor. You WILL get tired pulling the string back.

The package comes with an 11 round tube as your stock loader. If you want more paint to fire without having to reload too often, you will have to buy a small, gravity-fed hopper. I bought a 50 round hopper and a feedneck because it would not fit in the Airow’s feed tube. But you don’t buy a hopper, you will be stuck having to lower your bow and insert paintballs one at a time through the small “speed feed” (which are really stiff and sometimes will pop brittle paint).

Another issue is the stability. If you look at the set-up, this is front heavy. The barrel protrudes so far out that you have to use your strength for pulling and stabilizing. When you carry this bow around, even just walking to the field, you will get tired. You will probably have to switch hands every now and then while carrying it, then switch again when you’re about to fire since it’s not an ambidextrous set-up.

The plus for this is that you can actually take the Airow attachment off the bow and use it as a normal bow. This means that you can buy a stronger bow and attach the Airow Gun to. Or if you already have a good compound bow, you can just buy the attachment and go from there. You may even get it up to 290 FPS with a compound bow that has a draw weight of 70lbs and above.

You also never run out of air. The air chamber underneath the barrel acts like your normal bike pumps. As you pull the string back, the plunger inside the chamber moves back and fills it with air. When you let go, the plunger goes forward and pushes the air through a small tube and to the barrel to propel the round out. Pretty useful in long scenario games where you have to ration your air to be able to stay in longer.

Even with all the negatives about this set-up, it is extremely fun to use and it will catch a lot of attention. I remember walking into a game and people were saying “I want Hawkeye on my team.” It certainly will intimidate newbies, but veterans know you will not be able to snap them out. You’ll have master a certain rhythm to be able to even post up on someone, let alone snap them out. You do score coolness points and it will increase your field awareness, but don’t expect to get many people out or anyone at all.

This is definitely a marker that will make you celebrate when you hit someone. I have had this marker set-up for over 5 months now and I have only gotten 18 people out with it. That’s how difficult it is to land a hit with this. You’ll have to maintain you barrel, have good paint, have enough strength for the maximum poundage as well as stabilizing while firing, master a certain rhythm to be able to pull and shot smoothly, and be able to snap in and out effectively when needed. That’s a good number of variables to consider when using this marker.

Other than that, it’s a cool experience. I won’t guarantee that you won’t get frustrated. I won’t even say that it’s worth your money. If you think you will like the act of using a bow full time on a paintball field, by all means, buy it. If not, I suggest steering clear of this marker. I have it for my collection, but I barely use it. I mostly use the bow for hunting than for paintball.

I’m done.

-X-

Goblin Deuce

Ran out of paint in the middle of battle and you can hear someone about to run up and flank you? Need a one-time side arm that can enable you to trade shots with the one doing the flanking or, better yet, try to eliminate him and survive? Look no further than the Goblin Deuce.

Think smaller version of a sawed off shotgun. Able to fire two rounds from each of its two barrels. Or one at a time, your call. This marker has saved me from elimination a couple times. Because it is one of the lightest markers out there, you can freely maneuver to snap someone out at closer distances unlike traditional pistols. And since it can fire both rounds from its barrels, you have twice the chance of landing a hit at close range.

One thing about this marker that I have a problem with is the holster it comes with. It’s only for right handed individuals. They do not have a left-handed holster for it. It’s a little frustrating to have to twist your left hand a certain way to get a grip on the handle and be able to use it in conjunction with, let’s say, a Tippmann TipX. There are no custom holsters for this marker unless you can find one at a local gun store. I’ve tried and could not find one. I honestly wanted to mount this on the back of my left shoulder.

Now for those of you who think you can just load this thing with two paintballs, fire then reload, repeat, I have some bad news. The cartridge takes enough CO2 to fire one shot per cartridge. That means once you use one cartridge, you have to use another one that has air in it. So you’ll have to have more cartridges than the ones it came with (I bought 4 extra). Each cartridge has to be individually filled using the adapter that comes with the marker. Slide a paintball on the underside of one of the sleeves, use the cartridge to push the paintball further into the sleeve, load in the barrel, and you’re ready.

I’ve tried using HP air on the cartridges, but it wasn’t really effective. CO2 is the prime source of propulsion for this marker. That’s a con for me because some fields charge per fill when it comes to CO2. So instead of having just one type of tank, I need a CO2 tank to use this to its full potential.

There’s no velocity adjustment for this marker since the air is in the cartridges themselves. So it will depend on whether or not you’ve maxed out the air in those small things for it to fire up to 270 fps. I’ve had mine chronoed to 255, nothing higher. It’s good enough for close range. The cartridges hold the air for a couple hours before you notice a significant decrease in its velocity. Pretty good for a small thing.

You’ll be happy to know that this marker is easy to maintain. Not much in terms of parts for you to maintain. The one with the most parts are the cartridges if you disassemble it, which you should not really need to. Other than those minor complaints, I have no problem with this marker. It does what it is intended for: a one-time launcher. You either hit or miss a close range shot. You won’t have enough time to reload when the enemy catches on to you.

So if you need something like a “last chance” type weapon, the Goblin Deuce is for you. It’s light, barely noticeable when you carry it around, and fun to use. It’s definitely one of those markers that you have to do a celebratory yell after eliminating anyone with it.

I’m done.

-X-

Tiberius T8.1

Upon opening the case for the Tiberius T8.1, you will be greeted with a sleekly designed marker that you would like to immediately use out on the field. The marker’s design is awesome. From the edges of the upper receiver to the roundness of the handgrip, there was no detail ignored. I honestly felt like I was an action hero once I started wielding this marker.

The first thing I noticed when I first held the marker is the weight. I did not like how heavy it was once the mag was inserted. The mags are made of metal so it adds to the weight. If you plan on buying more mags, be sure the extra weight won’t bog you down. I made the mistake of buying 8 mags, and I could not run as fast because they were bouncing up and down in the holsters while I was running, severely affecting my speed and agility when I wielded this gun. One way to solve this is by Only carrying 2-4mags and using paintball tubes to reload the mags with.
The marker is back heavy, since the weight of the mag adds to it. This helps with stability, I guess. One other problem I had with this is the fact that the handle is rounded to fit the magazine into it. My hands are not that big. It was just enough so that I did not have an awkward grip on the handle. But I did have to turn the marker to press the mag release button.

There’s an optional rail that you can attach at the bottom of the barrel so you can add a laser pointer or a flashlight if you want. It makes it look more intimidating, but I never really used it. Aesthetically speaking, I did not like the fact that the rail was not mounting on straight. It would leave a gap between it and the receiver it was mounting onto, which made it look a little off. And, if you’re utilizing a holster, the gun gets stuck every now and then when you draw it.

The marker’s safety is on the receiver and is easily adjusted by use of your index finger. I have no complaints about the safety.

Now for the barrel. The barrel is easily taken off by pushing it in and twisting it. It’s good for on the go maintenance. The only problem I had with this was the fact that the detents were attached to the barrel. When I put a swab through the barrel front, I broke the rubber detents. I had to buy new ones to replace the two detents I broke. So when you are running a swab through, make sure to run it from to the back to the front so the detents won’t get broken.

The magazines look well made and very detail oriented. I’m not sure what the indents on the side do, maybe to reduce the weight of it, but whatever. The magazine comes with regular springs when you receive them. It has optional First Strike springs that you can use when you purchase First Strike rounds. Keep in mind that the First Strike springs are painted red and will most likely pop regular paintballs are they are fed into the gun’s chamber since the springs are a little stronger. You can replace the springs by opening the bottom of the mag and switching them out.
The backside of the mag has the chamber to put in the CO2 cartridges in. You can puncture the cartridge by twisting the half-moon shaped knob at the bottom. The mag will be a little harder to seat into the magazine well when it’s aired up since the air pressure will try to push back against the puncturing needle located in the gun. When you press the mag release button, you will hear a small amount of air come out and it will help push the magazine out. That feature is pretty cool because you do not need to worry about it getting stuck in there. The only time that this small air push will not happen is if you run out of air.

As far as using the gun out in the field, it was a great experience. Sure there were problems when I used the rail once (it got stuck a couple times when I was drawing it), but all in all, the gun performed well. It’s accurate enough if you have decent paintballs loaded and it never chopped a ball on me. With First Strike rounds, it’s deadly accurate. The iron sights work well enough to place the FS round right where you want it. All you have to do is arc it.

Reloading is a breeze. Once you run out of paint in the mag, you have two options if you have the equipment for both. One is to eject the mag, let it hit the ground and insert a new mag OR eject the mag, get a tube of 8 rounds and dump it in, then replace the mag into the well. The latter will be more efficient when it comes to air since you will be utilizing the same magazine. I’ve never had a problem reloading this gun. The magazines are durable enough to be dropped from 5 feet without breaking.

Dual wielding is also good with this gun since you can puncture the mags before the game starts, unload on your opponents, drop the mags, reload and get back into the fight. The only limitation you have is the amount of magazines you are carrying. With two pistols, your movements are somewhat hindered. I know I would think twice about diving or rolling with the pistols and the mags on me. The metal mags or even the markers are guaranteed to give you some kind of injury when you hit the ground wrong. So just be careful not to apply too much gun-kung-fu.

All in all the T8.1 does not disappoint. It does its job. And you look cool with it. It's a great feeling when you eliminate someone who has been dumping over a hundred rounds on you and you only use 2 shots.

But if you want a marker that is reliable and will do its job as a pistol, this is one of those pistols. It’s sleek, accurate, easy to maintain and it’s First Strike ready. It’s a good package.

I’m done.

-X-

What Paintball Marker Should I Get?

There are many factors in play when you are picking your ideal paintball marker. Each person has a different way of playing. In many cases aesthetics has a good deal of influence when picking out a marker. All in all, your main marker represents how you play and who you are as a paintball player.

One question you have to ask yourself is: Do I want to play speedball, woodsball, scenarioball or recreational? This may be the most important question since your marker will be based off of any of the 4 choices above. You need to know the difference between the four types of games so you can better understand what kind of marker you need for the game.

Speedball is what it sounds like. It’s fast paced and will require your marker to fire fast and consistent. You will most likely be going up against players who have markers that can ramp up to 20 bps. So your marker will need to keep up. As far as I know, there is no limitation to what kind of marker you want to bring out on the speedball field. But keep in mind that the heavier your marker, the harder it is to maneuver. The one thing that separates speedball from any other style of paintball is snapping. Which is the act of popping in and out of your bunker to do check-fire-and-post. It requires quick movement of your upper body to be able to tuck in and out to either shoot people out or tuck them in their own bunker so you can post. If you have an M16 replica paintball marker, it will be much harder to do this and since most milsim markers have their hopper feedneck offset to the right, it’s hard to hide your hopper from enemy fire as you are popping out.
Typical speedball markers are your Planet Eclipse Egos, Empire Axes and Bob Long G6s. They are light, electronic and are designed to be wielded ambidextrously. These markers will pretty much require that you have a hopper that can keep up with its rate of fire. Otherwise you’re stuck with a high rate of fire marker and no paintballs being fired because they can’t make it to the chamber fast enough.

Woodsball and Scenarioball can be one and the same depending on what game rules your are playing with. Woodsball, however, is just as it sounds. It will be mostly in woodland areas. So camouflage is great for this type of game. I have seen people with elaborate setups like MP5 replica markers and ghillie suits to match the surrounding terrain. Scenarioball can be anything. You can be in the woods playing regular elimination, or you can be indoors rescuing hostages. In each type, you will need a marker that suits the situation.
It’s a little easier to find a marker for woodsball because it doesn’t demand too much like speedball. You can take it slow and steady or you can be fast paced and rush. If you like sitting and waiting, camouflage is your friend. Any marker will do for woodsball as long as it matches the terrain so that it will be harder for enemies to spot you. But in any case, as long as the marker fires, you’re good to go.
As for scenarioball, it varies from mission to mission. I suggest something lightweight and easy to maintain on the field. I found that an Empire BT TM7 is the best choice for me. It’s small and reliable. You can use it for large scale games and/or indoor small scale games. It’s very versatile. If your marker is an MP5 size or smaller (except of pistols), you should be fine for any scenario.

Recreation is pretty much whatever. You can bring a high end marker that is designed for speedball or you can bring a Spyder MR5 with a scope, flashlight, laser pointer and grenade launcher for all I care. It’s recreation.

Keep in mind that whatever you choose to go for as far as game type will also dictate what gear you will have to go along with your marker. Typical speedball players have a pod pack, full set of paintball padding gear, paintball pants and jersey, and cleats. Woodsball and scenarioball can use speedball gear as well, but is more versatile when it comes to additional gear. Some have pod packs that can carry their tanks and use a remote line (which limits you to using your dominant arm and won’t be able to switch. Some players wear ghillies suits, tactical body armor, a sidearm, add-ons on their milsim markers, etc.  Don’t forget that the more serious the players the more elaborate the set-up. In those cases, grendes, trip-wire booby traps, mines, mortars, tanks, etc. come into play. In many ways, large scale scenario games can get expensive.

As long as you know what you want to be as a paintball player, you will have an idea of what kind of marker you need. But if you really need an opinion, here is what I have so far for all types:

Speedball: Empire Axe (I have 2 because I need a spare for tournaments)
                   -The Axe is reliable and consistent. It’s up to par with most speedball markers and is cheaper than most

Woodsball: Spyder MR5 (I use first strike rounds for my magazines)
                   -a combination of weight, intimidation factor and dual loading capability makes this a good milsim woodsball marker for your money.

Scenarioball: Dual Tippmann TipX or Dual Tiberius T8.1, Empire BT TM7
                      -I usually go dual Tippmann TipX because they are fun to use and light as far as dual wielding goes. The TM7 is great if you want to have more ammo rather than go magazine per magazine.

Recreational: Any of the above depending on my mood
                    -My choices range from any of the above to rocking a goblin deuce marker to a homemade paintball sword for fun. Recreation isn’t supposed to be serious, so go out and just have fun with it.

Spyder MR5 Semi-Auto

From a scenarioball point of view, I often wondered which marker I would need to have in order to look intimidating and be accurate at the same time. Of course, accuracy depends on the barrel-to-bore aspect as well as the quality of paint you have in your hopper.  So I went around and tried different milsim markers to find the perfect combination of the two. There are other criteria like weight, ease of maintenance, etc.

I tried many scenario type markers from the Tiberius Arms T9.1 to the Tippmann X7 Phenom. But I found that the Spyder MR5 was the best choice for my preference and wallet.

First off, the Spyder MR5 isn’t as heavy as it looks. I was actually surprised at how light it was considering the fact that it looks like an AR15. Don’t get me wrong. Prolonged use out in the field will tire your arm out. But this marker will let you hold it up longer than most markers its size.

Another thing about the MR5 that I like is the dual loading system. All you have to do is twist the barrel to switch from magazine to loader. Pretty cool if you ask me. Unlike other DLS markers, you don’t need to fiddle with internal parts if for some reason you DLS fails. This also makes taking the barrel off very easy on the field. You don’t have to waste time unscrewing the barrel off the thread, wasting precious seconds and increasing your chances of getting flanked. All you have to do is twist the barrel and line up the arrows, pull out, swab, replace the barrel and twist. My record is currently 4.8 seconds when it came to removing the barrel, swabbing it then replacing it.

Next thing I like about this marker is the First Strike round capability. Yes, this marker is has the capability of using the highly accurate FS rounds. This is what I meant be accuracy. Sure, you can get the best quality paint to help with your accuracy, but nothing is as accurate as FSRs. The marker comes with one (1) 9 round FS magazine out of the box. I have fired a couple mags worth of FS rounds. No chops, no malfunctions, no misfeeds. Transition from mag to loader was also flawless even with paint in both loading systems.

Another cool thing about the marker is the charging handle. It’s similar to that of an M4AR. When you air up the marker, you won’t be able to fire off a round unless you pull the charging handle back. It adds to realism of this milsim marker.

Out in the field, the combination of First Strike rounds and advanced grade paint works great. From afar, I snipe out people with the First Strike rounds. The only variables you have to consider when using FS rounds are wind and arc. This is provided you have a clean barrel. Otherwise, prepare to be disappointed when using FS rounds. As my team went in, I provided sniping cover fire. When I saw that we lost a couple people, I switched to my hopper and moved up.

The only things I do not like about the marker are the stock length and magazine release button. The buttstock, even when it’s collapsed all the way, is too long for my liking. An inch or two shorter would be great. It does not affect the performance of the marker, though. As for the mag release button, it’s on the right side of the marker and you’ll have to take your hand off the grip and press it. The mags also won’t just drop down after pressing. It seems like you need to pull it out of the magazine well and drop the mag. That wastes time and is uncomfortable for players like myself who are short. Releasing you grip from the handle to change mags isn’t really a good way to keep positive control of the marker.
One other (insignificant in my opinion) problem this marker has is the optional iron sights. Once attached, they are next to useless because your mask getting in the way of properly aligning it. You’ll need a riser if you want to use the iron sights to be able to have a good sight alignment and sight picture. I decided to just mount a red dot sight on mine. Even with that, I still have to tilt the marker a little bit counter-clockwise to be able to fully center the red dot in the lens. If you plan on using any sighting apparatus on this marker, you may want to get a riser first.

And, because I’m used to maintaining my M4, one other thing I did not like was the fact that I needed to use allen wrenches to unscrew the receivers and open up the marker. It would have been better if it was like an M4. Just pop some pins out and flip it over. It’s a convenience thing on my part. It does not affect marker performance in any way.

Other than those minor (personal) issues, the marker does what it was made for. It does not disappoint when put to use out in the field. It’s durable, reliable, accurate (when conditions are met) and intimidating. For $200, this marker can perform equally with the more expensive Tiberius T9.1 of T4.1.

So if you’re planning on buying a good milsim marker, look to the Spyder MR5. It’s cheap, durable and can do the same things that most FSR markers can do at a cheaper price.

I’m done,

-X-

Empire Axe

I have played Recreational Paintball for a while now and I don’t see it wearing out on me anytime soon. It’s great to just go out there and relieve stress, have fun and have a slight workout at the same time. The games are never the same. It’s always something interesting and it’s always a different challenge.

Everytime we stop for rest or to fill up pods and air up, I always see the speedball field being populated. I hear the countdown to “game on” and all I hear is just a barrage of paintballs and people shouting out locations of enemy players. I saw the fast paced gameplay and different levels of teamwork and a different play-style.

I came to realize overtime that I can improve my skills in Woodsball if I try speedball and train to be good at it. That way I know how to make myself a more difficult target in any situation. If there is any type of training that I can use to improve my movements, speed and overall skill, it would be speedball. So I did what most people would do in order to start: try out guns from other players so I can see for myself what I am comfortable using.

After trying some impressive guns, I eventually decided that the Empire Axe was the best choice for me. Both the price and the effectiveness was more than enough to help me make my decision.

After about a week, I received my gun in the mail. I could not be any happier with my initial test of the Axe. The air efficiency was excellent, the disassembly was very simple, the accuracy with the stock barrel is decent, and the gun just looked nice. Aesthetics is a big thing with me. One thing that really caught my eye as I was testing this gun prior to buying it was that fact that it had no line from the ASA to the handle. It looked more like a gun than most high end paintball guns.

Another thing I liked about the gun was the fact that the bolt removal is tool-less and it is completely internal. Meaning: there is nothing sticking out of the frame that exposes part of the bolt. The gun looks sleek with very little near-sharp edges except for the feedneck.  It also not as loud as most paintball guns I’ve tried. It has sort of a muffled pop and I can freely maintain it in my garage without making too much of a racket and wake up the neighbors.

The ASA is another thing that I like. It’s a lever that you full back to air up the gun. You don’t have to turn dials or anything. Just pop the tank in, pull back the lever and your gun is aired up. When not in use, push the lever forward and the gun is no longer aired. Another plus because of the way this gun is aired up is that the bolt can’t be removed when the lever is pulled back (with a tank installed of course). This prevents the bolt from accidentally flying towards your face while out in the field.

At first look, this gun is extremely well made, Quite the bang for your buck. And as I have used it over the past few months, it proved to be very reliable.

Fast forward to today, I have been using  the Empire Axe for about 4 months now and I’ve never had problems with it and its internal mechanisms. Keep in mind that I have been playing speedball every Sunday since I decided that I wanted to try it. I have also joined a local team in order to fully solidify my goal to get better. I practice with them and I usually go into the snake side which is one of the more difficult areas to go to as a speedball player because you get laned hard. So I had to practice diving into the snake almost every practice. So the gun has had its share of good and bad dives. But, so far, I have not beaten the gun up to the point of usability.

As far as firing modes go, it’s very simple to switch from on to the other. The initial act of doing so may prove to be a little complicated since I have the latest version and most tutorials online are for the earlier versions. Once you figure out how to do it, it’ll be simple to switch it around.

Now onto the cons.

As an amateur in the field of speedball, I have very little complaints about this gun. If you’re using the stock barrel, the sound of its fire is low enough to NOT make an agitated hopper react to it. So you’ll be hitting your hopper ever now and then to feed the paintballs through.

I also have an issue with tweaking the Axe’s dwell, firing modes etc. Since you are looking at blinks and light colors, it’s difficult to do emergency maintenance out on the field while a game is going on. Paying attention to the lights makes you not pay attention to your surroundings. This can be remedied by buying an upgraded board like the Redline Grip from Empire so that you have an LED screen telling you what you’re doing to it. But that’s an extra $150+ that I won’t spend simply because the board is “better”. My opinion is that if I can shoot you out with a regular board, why would I need an upgraded one?

Other than that, I have no complaints about the gun itself and its performance. It has not let me down yet.

I have upgraded the gun with a derlin bolt and a Freak Barrel kit. Though the barrel kit made it so that the sound of the gun firing is louder, it still isn’t as loud as most guns out in the field. I have also tried using dual barrel kits (Freak and TechT) on it. I would sometimes use a .682 TechT sleeve and attach a .684 Freak barrel sleeve and the results would be nothing short of awesome.

I plan on upgrading my Axe a little bit more soon. Probably a different spring and a different trigger. But those will come later.

All in all, the gun is awesome based solely on the price and reliability. You’re not gonna get a better gun for the same price. It looks sleek, it fires more quietly than most other guns, it’s easy to maintain and is just the right size. I’d recommend this gun for anyone who wants to venture into speedball or even those who just want to use a good gun for recreational purposes.

I’m done.

-X-