The Need For Speed: More Balls Per Second

April, 2006

So you want to get the fastest gun available and shoot 22 balls a second? I know what you’re thinking - 22 balls a second will make you a better player, right?

You see those guys on ESPN with their Ego’s blazin, and you want in. That’s cool – let me break it down for you in mathematical terms.

Physics, Mathematics and the Paintball.

During the break, the more balls in the air the better.

Most breakouts last 7-10 seconds – do the math; at 15 bps over 8 seconds = 140 balls time number of players shooting, lets say 6 = 864 balls in the air, for the first 8 seconds. At 300 feet per second, the field is 180 feet long…so…end to end, it would take about 0.6 seconds (call it one second) for the ball to leave your barrel and end up on the 100.

Sweet spot the snake – 90 feet or, 0.3 seconds away – at a sprint, the snake runner can get to the 90-foot mark (30 yards) in three to four seconds. If two players sweet spot the snake, at 15 bps, in the four seconds it would take the runner to get to the snake, the sweet spotters would get, 120 balls in the air. But, it would take 0.3 seconds for each ball to get to it’s mark; by the time the runner gets to the snake, 60 balls could be there waiting, with another 60 in the air, on their way.

…ok, enough, my head hurts now…

Mathematics carries the day. All a player needs to do is put enough balls in the air, delivered to just one spot – so it would seem that all you need is the fastest gun in the world – not really any aiming ability.

This would be grand, except the other guys are shooting at you, at the same or greater rate as you are shooting at them, and the other team probably has a different idea – perhaps they decide to put all 7 guns on the shooters – you.

I won’t do the math, but it is difficult to sweet spot the snake with say, over 900 balls coming into your personal space on the field.

But, with all this, it is incredible that ANYONE makes it to their bunker – that's the skill.

Accuracy against volume – Sex Sells.

There is an argument between accuracy and volume; in the old days, when cockers walked the fertile, southern California fields, Angels were the fastest marker in the world.

Angels would spit out lots and lots of paint, you’re old skool cocker, with the slide trigger, could do…say…4 balls a second. (maybe more)

The cocker was deadly accurate, easy to clean in the field, and being mechanical, not as prone to heat stroke.

Also, the fields in those days were “recreational” and HUGE. So a Cocker could accurately reach out and touch someone from a good distance.

But speed is just too sexy.

The fields shortened up and as paint prices started to fall, faster became oh so much better. As the woods morphed into an arena, the ability for a marker to reach, 50 yards became less of a positive attribute.

 I don’t need to able to hit someone a million miles away – so at 60 feet – MOST MARKERS ARE ACCURATE.

 The ability to put more paint on a bunker became more important. And more sexy.

Now, here comes the conspiracy.

I personally don’t remember, but I have been told there was a time when paintballs could set you back a dollar each. I remember paying $85.00 to $95.00 per case, for paintballs. Today, I can get good quality for $23.00 and excellent quality for around $45.00 per case. As a matter of fact, yesterday, we all shoot $20.00/case paintballs, and they were fine.

As competition brought the price of paintballs down, the paint companies began to see a troubling event coming over the horizon – shrinking profits. Fortunately, technological advancements in markers were coming to the rescue.

Just think, if you are a paint company, how attractive is it to see fire rates on markers increase from 4 balls a second to 15 balls a second? This translates into a consumption rate of:

1. If fired continuously, at 4bps this marker could empty a case in 8.3 minutes.

2. If a marker shoots 15bps, it could empty a case in 2.2 minutes.

3. This looks like a 400% increase in consumption rate.

Now if there were a way to make faster look even more sexier, say like, high end tournaments with no restriction on rate of fire…sponsored by, say, I don’t know, a huge paintball manufacturing company – interesting, no?

This is exactly what has happened. And this is what will continue to drive everything from pictures of hot chicks holding hot markers, faster high-end technology, to the rules and regulations at all levels of tournament play.

There are lots of reasons the NXL allows ramping up to “full auto”, but the top three have got to be:

1. To watch a player behind a bunker, railing on a faster gun, pushing more and more paint looks way to sexy.

2. Some poor player getting bunkered by 20 balls is way more sexy then the same guy getting tagged once on the pack.

3. Newbies watching a Dynasty player spit out a thousand balls in one game end up wanting to do the same – so they buy faster guns, and lots more paint.

Well, before we go too far down the “big-business” conspiracy theory; I don’t think this is a bad thing. I actually admire the model – it is what it is.

And this is common business/marketing/Micro Economics stuff – the new market expands quickly, filled with small one-man operations. DYE started out of the back of his car and lots of products that we all use started as a small idea someone had to make their hobby a little easier (battle swabs) or a great deal more exciting (electro-frames).

After lots of little guys get in and start to make money, the market begins to contract, all these people get bought out or go away; big companies come in and see a place to sell a bunch of their stuff. This forces prices to fall.

Just look to surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking and you will see the same things occurred in their markets as well. It is a natural progression, just like faster and faster markers.

All of this is good for paintball.

As a hobby, as a sport, and lifestyle, no matter what level you are participating, technology and the need for speed are going to affect you.

Don’ forget your skills.