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August is our only month off this year as
in September we’ll be back for The Valken Big Game Staargate which is the UK’s
oldest paintball event and currently voted
by players as the best in the UK. We’ll also
have another UWL to run in September
and the year will end with the UK Paintball Awards in November.
esting to see what happens with the APL
and whether they can reproduce the past
glory days of the NPPL. I hope its successful because as I’ve already said, competition is a good thing, it drives innovation
and value and the market is undoubtedly
big enough to support two series.
Scenario is in quite an interesting place. Its
Over and above all of our own events, our fortunes depend on where you are looking.
retail stand will be attending all the UK
In the UK, after five of six years of almost
tournament events, some other scenario
exponential growth, scenario is currently
events as well as events on mainland Euin massive decline. Events are going pop
rope. So my team will not be getting many left right and centre. There is no one sinweekends off this year! It’s a really heavy
gle reason for this, but lots of factors have
come together to almost create a perfect
The move from forum usage to
gative side to paintball is storm.media has contributed to the fragsocial
mentation of the scene making it harder
droves of players leavfor promoters who did not predict this
very year, it ruins lives
happening to market their game to a fragmented community. Where as in the past
they could just put a post on the forum
and everyone would see it – now you have
schedule but this is what we do.
to go looking for teams, research and work
hard for their business. Not all promoters
In your onion, what is the state of scenar- have adapted to this new reality and 2013
io and/or tournament paintball?
saw lots of events go bust and I predict
Tournament is doing great. Its growing
even more will go that way in 2014.
massively in the UK at the moment and
there is a real buzz and vibe around it.
Many teams after a decade of playing sceOutside of the UK there are some really
nario are moving to woodland tournament
interesting things happening. I’m a really
and Sup Air to get their excitement fix and
big believer in competition so in Europe
of course the same old paintball problem
it’s great to see the CPS series starting to
of politics and factionism has also helped
take off. The Millennium has been the only push the game to decline. However, in
game in town for the past decade but I
Europe, arguably a less developed and
think the CPS will provide some genuine
competitive scenario market than the UK,
choice for teams who want to take part in a scenario is still going great guns and EuEurope wide series. So that’s really positive. rope is a big growth market for us in terms
of our scenario events.
In the US the webcasting of the PSP has
been a fantastic vehicle to spark interest in
the top level of the game. It’ll also be interWWW.PAINTBALLX3.COM