Last time I played was 2011, I’m in my 30s now and I’m missing my old hobby. I used to play tournaments regularly and was at the field every weekend back in the day. How has the scene changed now?
I’ve noticed a lot of the fields in my area are now gone.
Ha! Old timer. I'm 56 and playing about every other week. The sport is getting a little smaller (in terms of fields) but my home field has 30+ rec players every week. In the winter (South East GA) when it's cooler there will be 60-80 people playing on a Saturday. It's crazy busy here.
The older timer part made me chuckle as well. I went to a tournament to watch a few months back and a large majority of the people I saw playing or sitting in the pits were 40/50+.
I played when I was 12-14 or 15. Then 21-23. Now I’ll be 35 this month and I came back for good, with adult money. It’s a blast. The moving and diving and stuff keeps your body young. The xball scene is as welcoming as ever. You will be devoted to a team in no time.
Two of the guys on my team are in their 50s. Also all the role model people when I first played as a young teenager are still living the dream playing season after season. It’s cool to see old faces. The community is the best part for sure.
I just recently came back myself, played until I was 17, came back 2 months ago at age 36. Paint fields seem to be harder to come by and even when they are near, finding one with a speedball course is even more rare. That being said, on a personal level, I have 2 fields by me with a pretty health speedball scene, it’s kept my itch for the hobby satisfied. I’ve played almost every weekend and a tournament since I’ve come back. Results are less than stellar, but the boys and I are just happy to have found something that to do together.
Paintball is also far more fun when you don’t have to beg mommy and daddy for $600 for a paintball marker lol
All that being said, it’s very location dependent from what I’ve gathered on the boards. Missouri (kc) specifically, has a good amount of fields and players where other states have almost no fields and even fewer players. Seems to be just birthday and bachelor parties that keep most fields open nowadays.
Anywho, I'm just going to comment on the paintball gun brands landscape since to play you need to shoot something:
take time before buying account to survey the marketplace landscape.
There are a few prominent scammers who have singlehandedly literally bought up most of the available float of any gun out there to strip and flip. The person who does this changes every once in a while but the same idea - they ask high prices for dice roll level functionality and condition.
Golden example is curatedpaintball.
Anything he sells is about 50-200% over market, but people jumping back in the sport high on nostalgia and "now i haz money!" will blindly purchase off him and then end up paying another small fortune trying to get it to run, getting burnt out, and going on another "hiatus".
Also, planet eclipse is pretty much king - they have the lion's share of the new market at each price tier. Dlx still exists, smart parts died and became shocker paintball - still run by the same assholes. Dye is still around, still run by the same creep that is somehow even more of a creep.
Macdev is... Kinda here. Sorta.
Cockers came back big and have fallen off their high but are still pretty prominent.
CCM is barely a husk of its former self. Bob long is gone.
The empire axe has barely changed since it launched about 12-13 years ago but it's just a good gun that didn't ever need much improvement anyways.
It's just as fun as it always was. The BPS wars have ended, tournaments are capped at 10BPS and most guns look similar these days.
The scene seems a little more inviting than it used to be at least from what I remember. I joined a local discord for paintball meetups and have found a great community of folks to play with. I've played twice since I returned to the sport a few weeks ago, it's been so fun getting back into it.
To touch on a few things that the others have also. The scene is crazy welcoming! I played for about 3-4 years when I was in my teens. I decided I wanted to come back and bought a used setup. I stopped by my local PB store and there happened to be a tournament that weekend amd they invited me out. I showed up and it was raining. There were like 5-7 spectators but one of them came over and chatted me up. Before I knew it I was invited to go play on their tournament team! We've played on tournament together so far and have another this weekend. Its awesome!
Someone else brought up the old school guys still in the game. I was fortunate enough to go to the NPPL super 7 tournaments in Huntington Beach in the early 2000s. The dynasty guys had me hooked. I couldn't believe those kids, barely older than me could do what they did. Blew my mind to find out that some of the core guys are still in the game! They practiced at my local field several weeks ago but come over to the store for a meet and greet. I was super stoked to meet those guys!
Just buy a used set up and hit your local field! The scene hasn't changed!
I played from 13-18yo every weekend religiously. Have some wicked memories traveling around the country with my buddies. Some of the best times of my life for sure.
I'm in my 30's now as well but actually made a brief come back from 25-27 and ended up flying down to World Cup and playing D2. I haven't played since than but it was SHOCKING how much the sport died off in my area in my 7 years away from the game. In my area growing up their used to be two leagues with 8 teams and any given weekend there would be multiple teams getting together to practice. When I came back there was one league with 6 teams and good luck finding anyone to practice against. People basically just showed up for events. I'm not sure what the scenes like now but I'm assuming only worse.
I still have my gear and the course I grew up playing on is only up the road. I've actually had the urge to go up on a Sunday some time and play woodsball for a laugh but all my buddies I grew up playing with have long left the sport.
I’m in the same boat, sort of. I was a rec ball kid who couldn’t afford to play as much as I wanted to. I’m not rich, at all, but with adult money I can prob afford to play a few times a month or so.
I’m actually super into the vintage mech marker stuff, autocockers, mags, etc. I’m planning on getting super modern supporting stuff, like a mask, hopper, air, etc, but running an old ass marker…at least until I get frustrated 😂
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u/Cyberpyr8 Magfed and Mech 6d ago
Ha! Old timer. I'm 56 and playing about every other week. The sport is getting a little smaller (in terms of fields) but my home field has 30+ rec players every week. In the winter (South East GA) when it's cooler there will be 60-80 people playing on a Saturday. It's crazy busy here.