Show your name as: DefaultRealnameBothNickname

E-Mail address (eg: joeschmoe@aol.com):


Show your e-mail address? DefaultYesNo

Your Password:

Don't have a password? CLICK HERE - Forgot your password? CLICK HERE

Subject:

Subject:Message:
: : I've never had any exposure to tournaments and 3- and 5-man team play. What kind of role does each member play(back players, forwards, etc.)? Aside from the usual "Capture the Flag" types of competition, what else is there? What sets it apart from regular out-in-the-woods games? : First off, it should be said that I'm not a hardcore tournament player. Skyball and IAO with team PPIG is just my way of adding a little variety. I generally prefer woods play and big games/scenarios because of the larger strategy problems involved and being able to use stealth, maneuvering and dirty tricks. : Standard tournament format is a variety of CTF on a small artificial course with a short time limit. Most tournaments have minimized woods play for various reasons in favor of the "speedball" format. Most high-end tournaments are using inflatable bunkers on a grass field anymore. Basically it takes out the elements of suprise and uneven ground and boils the game down to pure speed, accuracy and technique. A die hard tournament player would say that it gets rid of all the bull<i>marshmallow</i> and just measures skill. To me, it brings paintball a step closer to WWI attrition-style trench warfare. It's a serious adrenaline rush to play this type of ball, just don't expect much variety. : 3 man and 5 man - Center flag CTF where you have to grab the flag and run it to the other team's starting point, along with eliminating all your opponents and keeping all of your team alive to get max points. : I think for 5 man (the most common) it's usually 25 pts for first flag grab, 50 for the hang, 4 for each opponent eliminated and 1 for each teammate alive at the end. Total score of 100. Different size teams changes the points, but the emphasis is always on the grab and hang, and on eliminating the opposition rather than just staying alive. : 7 and 10 man - 2 flag CTF, have to grab the opponent's flag and return it to your starting point. I don't know the points system, but like I said, the emphasis is on the grab and hang. : Once in a while, you'll also see plain 1 on 1 straight elimination tournaments. : As for the roles, almost every format will have a player on each tape line that plays aggressively and tries to flank. The rest is up to the format and how your team strategy works, but there's some general positions after that. Middle players usually move down the center or off-center slightly. These guys usually act as organizers and to help fill in gaps that develop. They help communicate front to back and side to side, and make moves to shore up whatever side seems to be having trouble, or help break through. Back players lay down suppressive fire. Usually this means hosing a lot of paint downfield. : A lot of people think that pumpers work well from the back as a "sniper." In my personal experience, by the time you see somebody, react, and the ball travels to your target, your target's already tucked back in. The solution to this is what's evolved in tournaments, raining paint so if they do stick their head out, there's already a ball in the air. If you're playing mixed, leave back play to one of the guys with an Angel and a case of paint in their harness. If you're playing pump, your best person with autotrigger goes there. : What worked well for us at Skyball (5 man) was having our front guys basically go for the flag grab right from the start, playing more toward the middle than the usual "tape runner". Not suicide-rush style, but bobbing in and out of bunkers on the way for protection. The player who got the flag would then basically tuck in with it and stay alive until the rest of the team moved up to help them out. One player would take a midfield spot, and we had two in the back laying cover fire. : Getting the flag off the break puts momentum in your favor and gets you a nice lump of points even if you lose. It also means that their entire team is gunning for that player because the flag station is usually a rather small bunker, and you're right up in their face. This means they're not paying as much attention to your teammates as they should :). Basically, it was a classic case of throwing the other team completely off balance so they get sloppy, then taking advantage of the easier shots. A big part of winning as much as we did was because we used a plan tailored to the field we were playing on instead of the generic speedball plan.