From: henryc@panix.com (Henry Chan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.paintball
Subject: The Big Game; post review
Date: 26 Jul 92 03:51:30 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC



On Saturday 25, 1992 Skirmish USA hosted a Guiness record attmeping event.  One
of the referees told me that Skirmish USA was expecting 4500 people( based on
the number of registration/waiver sheets sent out).  Judging by the amount of
people on the field I think the 4500 figure refers to attendance for both days
of play.  By 8:30 AM, the time I arrived at Jack Frost Ski Area, the 6 parking 
lots listed on the map were completely filled.  Parking lots 7-12, of equal size, were opened up as well though didn't quite fill to capaciy as the first six
because of the extended walking distance from the field and staging areas.

Trying to meet up with people at a designated time and place is a nightmare
In a chaos such as the Big Game, joining up with friends, who arrived in 
different cars and parked in different lots, took a greater part of the day.

The Good
Skirmish USA provided well over 30 Co2 fill stations, using NSPE weigh it
scales, which also served as information center and referee/armband center.
The short lines and CO2 fills ranging in price from $2-3 was something to be
appreciated.

National Paintball Supply East Vendor's tent.
NSPE brough out barrels (I mean the left the stuff in barrels) of stuff to
sell and for people to gawk at.  NSPE brought out an airsmith to deal with 
player's gun troubles.  

NSPE raffled off a Tippmann Pro-Am and a gun bag.

The chrono stations were all equipped with Radar chronos.  Radar chronos are
supposely unaffected by light conditions and most players were able to pass by
firing just one or two shots.  Sometime with a chrony I have to fire up to 10
shots or more just to get a consistant reading.

In the parking lot my friend's car was parked we bumped into members from Team
Genocide and met up with Bernie Kuo. 
Team Genocide, in the morning, pulled 3 flags.  Kudos!!!

The weather was perfect.  The cool morning climate was marred slightly by the
humidity which seemed to dissapate by mid-day.
The last two weeks were absolute scorchers.  The cool weather of Friday and the
Paintball perfect day of Saturday is proof that God plays P-ball.

5 cents paintball sales, $2-3 Co2 fills and free admission.  This is what paint
ball should be not $35 admission fee, $12 for a 20 oz fill and $1 a tube.


The Bad

The referees needed coordination on when to send in players.  Maybe next time
Skirmish will provide radios to their refs.  If they did I didn't see any in use
.  All too often during the day there would be a massive band of players mowing
down everything in their path with a solid wall of paint.  :(

There was no clear distinction for people who passed the Chrono and for people 
who didn't.   If you didn't feel like chronoing in or you knew your gun was hot
you could easily walked over to the pass side.  As the day wore on having a 
separated group for people who passed the chrono for the ref to lead out was
also phased out.  The majority of players I saw chronoed in because of concern
or out of habit.

Some of the NSPE sales people didn't know squat about the stuff they carry or
sold.  The only reliable source was the airsmith who was swamped with a line
longer than that for the porta-toilets.  I wanted to buy some clear elbows for
my Bushmaster and for a friend's illustrator.  The person who served me didn't
even know they existed let alone had it in inventory.  


The Ugly

I saw a argument turn into a fight in the late afternoon.  While two groups
of players were arguing some dimwits started firing on them aggravating the
situation.  There were one too many people who didn't look prior to firing
at anything that moves.  Groups of eliminated players often ran into such
ambushes on their way out of the field.

The refs.  While the argument was turning into a fight, there were two referees
within 20-30 feet who failed to notice until conceern players alerted them to
the situation.  Too bad the refs didn't pay attention to the smucks who were
firing on the arguing parties.  

Zap paintballs
At a nickle a shot it sounded great until you found out that you could only 
purchase it in 1/2 case and full case quantities at only one location.  Skirmish
thoughfully provided numerous CO2 fill stations, could they not also provide
just as many paint sales outlets?
The Zap paintball were round and red-pink.  They remind me of Cal Mags.  The
Zap balls had nice clean seams and a even color.  The shells were thin and rare
ly bounced.  This is good and bad.  Good in that the long distance shots worked
but for some semi and pump users the balls were too soft for their guns and
Skirmish along with NSPE had a field day selling squeegees.  I think the soft
and thin skins would be perfect for indoor paintball.  No matter what I shot at the paint always broke.  This also worked in reverse as I found out.  One round
landed on my shirt collar eliminating me out.
Accuracy:  NSPE had a shooting contest set-up.  Shoot 50 rounds at targets ranging from 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150' distances at five galleon container lids.
Looking over the shoulder of the judges I saw that quite a few of the players
had no trouble hitting the 75 and 100' range.  Virtaully no-one was able to hit
the 150' target.  One guy with a Razorback manage to hit the only hit I saw at
the 150' target disk.  The Judges told me that the gun which shot the best 
score was a PMI-3.  (remind myself to look into the PMI-3 when I save ebough
for a real semi :-) 

All in all I had a great time and hoped we help put paintball into the Guiness
book of records.  Maybe Skirmish would be willing to try and break the record
next year.  I wouldn't mind helping out in setting a new record.  :-)
Other netpeople who were also there, please post your impressions on the
Big Game.
a 
-- 
Thanks to Bush, Saddam still has his job.  Do you?
Volvo, there is no substitute.        Henryc@panix.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.paintball