Todays Formula Five paintball event

[WingNut]

Played in the Formula Five event today down in Colchester.

I feel I have to just tell everyone else what a fantastic event it was. I have been playing tournament paintball for 20 years now. I've seen our sport move from pumps to semi's, woods to sup-air, machanical markers to electronic markers, etc etc......

I'm really sick and tired of playing in regular events. Don't get me wrong, I really do love the game and the events I attend are always run very well. When you think about it, if you play an average of 8 games in a day, how much ACTUAL paintball do you really play??? 8 games @ 5 mins each, potential 40 minutes paintball. After getting shot on the break at least once, then either winning or loosing within the first 2 minutes, I average it (without a calculator, just a guess) at approx 16 minutes (and that's being generous).

I can tell you that today, out of a potential 60 minutes (4 games of 15 minutes), I would guess that I played at least 40 minutes ball.

It was great to actually PLAY and not spend most of the time in either the dead box or waiting in the centre of the field to be checked.

The field itself was easily twice the size of a regular field. It meant that you could actually MOVE around a hell of a lot easier.

For those of you unfamiliar with the format, Formula Five paintball is just a regular game of sup-air paintball, with 5 players on each team, played on a larger field, cut into three sections. You can actually have up to 10 players in the pit. As soon as one of your team are eliminated, they have to race back to the pit and once they cross the line, another of your players can leave the area. This menas that you should have 5 players on the field at all times. (apart from when the dead player is travelling back to the pit).

The 3 sections of the field are colour coded, so you can't make a mistake. Outside of the pit, the first 2 rows of bunkers are yellow, from each end. Then the remainder of the field is red. You cannot move into your opponents yellow section. You can only play within the red, or your own yellow section.

Air is limited to 3000psi to avoid people leaving the pits with a hideous amount of paint. Once you've shot all of yur paint, or air, you need to eliminate yourself and return to the pit, releasing a new player.

Points are scored by using an electronic score board in the centre of the field. In order to activate the scoreboard, you have to press the button located on a post directly in the centre of the field. One button on each side of the post. This starts the score for your team. You score 1 point on the board for every 10 seconds your team is in control of the board. It's the opposing teams job to then make their way up the field, press the button on their side, without getting eliminated, stopping the score for the opposing team and starting their own.

Each game is 15 minutes long.

It leads to some really interesting play......

Excellent day, keep an eye out for the next event if you fancy trying out this new format. You wont be disapointed.........


Wingy...

[Scotty J M]

sounds good love to try it hope it turns big! anyone taking photos? love to see how its all set up and everything! reading how its set up all good but im rubbish at visualising stuff!

[phil-boy]

Sounds like it was a good day, bit gutted that I missed it.

Bring on the next one.

[Ninja]

I would just like to say a big thanks to all involved. Was a great day lots of fun.

Guys if you want to play something a little different were you spend most of your time playing rather then standing around get on board!
I would say does'nt matter if your a woods baller or a tourney baller get your name down for the next one

[ShelleyHicky]

I haven't played for 6 months, so when Storm coaxed me off the hockey pitch to try this, at first I said NO, but they explained the new format and I thought... I'm up for this!

Yesterday was awesome

I really hope this Formula 5 picks up, its brilliant, and I agree with WingNut, you never play so much paintball at an event.

I'll be at the next one.......Good Times

Please read http://www.formula5paintball.com/ and Hope to see you there

[NitroBall]

Anyone got a vid of these events ?

Colchester , some distance away when you got to rush back to work for 5:00 hope this event is on in Jan/Feb/March when i have some time off.

[DANIEL]

just to add to the previous comments.

I played so much more paintball than at any other event and it's a great format to play and enjoyable to watch. The need to control the buzzer brings out some great moves, it's great to watch the come backs and the format brings in some interesting tactical decisions.

Everyone there had a great time and the organisers welcomed input from everyone afterwards. They are really keen to make it an event that the players want rather than enforcing their ideas.

I really hope this grows and grows, with the central focal point of the buzzer and continual game format it makes paintball much more fun to watch.

Dan.
Mk Storm,

[OddJob]

Let me know if it happens again, it's my neck of the woods so might be able to arrange some photography coverage.

[BORIS]

I went along on Sunday i did not play i watched almost all day my thoughts are why did someone not think of this before .
I am talking as a spectator here what i saw was people playing paintball and unlike normal supair paintball this was actually good to watch the buzzer and scoring system in the middle gives you something to gauge the game by and an objective to achieve other than shoot everyone out in 30 seconds then game over.
You could see teams fighting tooth and nail for control of the scoreboard and i found myself willing one of the teams to get ground back and retake the board,
what i am trying to say is when you watch normal tournament paintball all it is people shooting then maybe one guy runs down the field and game over once you see this happen 3 or 4 time normal paintball becomes boring because it happens so fast the spectator only sees the move which can easily be missed but this gives spectators the opportunity to see whats going on and see players trying to grab angles and cut off other angles its action all the way through for 15 mins.
The field was massive about 70 by 40 meters it must have cost a bomb to put together and looked really good i will be putting a team in if this thing kicks off next year paintball needs to freshen up and i personally think this may be the way to go i hope this thing takes off.

[mhr33]

Hi Guys

Big thanks for the invite to play that day was a awesome event and I really hope this takes off as I went back that afternoon to do some normal sup air training and it just wasn’t the same this event brings paintball back to life.

My friend Mike was taking photos that day I will have a chat with him to see what he has regarding field setup and general game photos

Big thanks again great teams, marshals and game setup.



Cheers


Mark

[ninjasam]

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to play this event and i must say what a great day it was! Big thanks to everyone involved, I really hope Formula Five kicks off as it is by far the best format out there and hope to play it again soon. Ive got some pictures of the day here, taken by a fellow Gunsmoke team member when he wasnt playing







Showing the 'Endzone'

Buzzer on the 50


Thanks,

Sam

[mertlesnertz]

I was there I played I had a great time its a shame all paintball is not played this way ,
When i got home it really hit me i had been on the field probably around 40 mins actualy playing i was so shattered i fell asleep on the couch and its a long time that i have played a tourney and felt i had got that much playing time in and my moneys worth.
Well done to the organisers i hope this Format becomes the norm imagine watching Dynasty v Joy playing this fighting for control of the scoreboard it would be fantastic and the sort of paintball that could acutaly be televised and not be boring to watch.

[Hawks]

Well i was there with the lads from the Hawks and even though we have not played much sup air we loved it, we decided to pull out of some other tournys due to getting 10 mins trigger time and haveing to wait up to 2 hours before we played again but this is different, 40 mins paintball in sup air where else can u get this trigger time.

I would surgest that anyone who wants to get a fantastic sup air day for there money then they should come and have a try, me and my team will be comming back to play this whenever it is next played and i myself will be telling everyone about this.

Count the Hawks down for this anytime even if i am on hoilday i will come back to play.


Thanks to all those that made the day happen and see u all at the next one.