Guide to Speedball

okay, im not gonna lie and tell you that i came up with all of this, because i didnt. unfortunetly, there are too many sources to mention, from both ariakon's forum, and the archives of ours, so if some of this is yours, thank you...

p.s. the phrasing may be strange because this is a guide i was making for a team mine is helping get started.

Speedball


49% of speedball is Communication, so if you can communicate good, most any combination works except 3/5/7/10F's or 3/5/7/10B's.   the other 25% is getting a good break off the start, 20% is skill, 5% is what Type of gear your wearing, and 1% is luck.



Without practice this is the best that can help.


Here’s a whole list of things that are useful in speedball.
1) Speed-- In speedball you need speed. without speed your just a slow moving target.
With practice you can practice hitting small targets with quick shots. Sliding, running while shooting.
2)Movent
-when you  decide where your going to run to have your teamates give you cover fire and run as fast as you can.
-decide where your going to run to then have your teamates give you cover fire. *have your teamates fire at the people who are the greatest threat to you.  
-once you get to the bunker again check your angles to make sure your safe on all sides of your bunker. if there is someone who has an angle on you and is a threat to you try to either eliminate them or have a team mate eliminate them.
-before you make a move to the bunker take a look at all your angles
-have a teamate cover you while you move
Most important thing is just don't be intimidated. If you play scared, you'll lose. And if you hesitate to make a move or a bunker, chances are you missed your shot and now you blew it.
Snap shoot, make sure you shoot out both sides, and don't get bunched into one side, spread across the field. If it's airball, lean into the bunker and push the barrel into them to stay small.
3) Bunkering
bunkering an opposing player.
-Before making a bunkering move tell your teamates that your going to make a bunker move.
-once they understand tell them to give you cover fire. have some of your teamates shoot at other enemies on the field while one or two shoot at the guy your going to bunker. this will hopefully keep his head down so he won't know your coming.
-when they give you cover fire run to the bunker and shoot the guy.
being bunkered
-When your the one being bunkerd the last thing you want to do is stand up behind your bunker and start shooting at the guy charging you. its a better idea to try to find out where he is coming from,wait until he gets almost behind you, then run out from the opposite side  . heres what i mean. lets say the guy is charging from the left wait until he gets almost behind you, then run out from the right side of the bunker and get him from the back. this takes practice and spped but if you practice this with your teamates it will really help. its a good idea to practice both bunkering and getting bunkered 1on1 with your teamates
4) Tactics on moving after the break and Using tapelines to flank
(your behind the dead box...the ref says 10 seconds...3..2...1 go go go!)
-on the break is a good idea to have your back players shoot as fast as they can and shoot as many lanes for you as possible. when the front players are moving up try to get as far as you can which will most likley be the 50 mark.
-Once you get as far as you can try to use the tapelines to move up farther and flank the opposing team. this might take awhile and the going might be slow at first but DONT rush. rushing will only send you back to the dead box.
-once your on the field and the game has started watch your sides and angles at all times. getting tunnel vision is a players death sentence and it will most likley send you back to the dead back saying "i never saw that guy there."
5)Snapshooting amd other tactics on shooting
-snapshooting-popping out of your bunker, shooting a burst quickly then ducking back behind your bunker
try this with your teamates during practice. if you can master this it will be a huge advantage in tourneys
-shoot in "X"s. what i mean is people on the right side shoot to the left and people on the left side shoot to the right. also if each person covers 2 bunkers you double your effectiveness on the field.
It's going to take a few games to get a feel for it. Don't be afraid to move, if you're playing anywhere but the back you should be running like hell.
a drill i do myself in my room or somewhere is find a mirror and get ur gun and turn the safety off, NO AIR or if ur tank is empty screw it on. snap out as to where u see ur self in the mirror, pull the trigger as though u r firing at someone, and then snap back in or out of ur sight in the mirror.

another thing is dont get tunnel vision. if uve been playing out of the right side of the bunker, go see whats happening on the left side of the bunker so u dont get bunkered urself.

one last thing is to do is go practice shooting ur gun with ur oposite hand, like i shot with my right so i practice with my left.

6)playing bunkers tight
-this is something that you definitly want to work on. you only have to lean out just a little bit to far and POP! shot right in the loader.
-the tighter you play a bunker the harder it is for the other team to hit you. the only problem with playing tight is that the tighter you play a bunker the hard it is to see all angles.
-try to keep your body as much behind the bunker as possible. get your gun and also place that as tight as you can to the bunker.
-when you are shooting from the side of a bunker remember to tilt your loader in so the only thing your opponent has to shot is your barrel and the bottom of your Co2 tank.  Also make sure if you play snake to always have someone cover you.
7) Communication
before a tourney take a look at the field where you will be playing. with your teamates name the different types of bunkers. heres some examples
small round sup air bunker-piccahou
large sup air triangle-well my team just calls it the triangle
small triangle sup air bunker-dorrito
large cylinder sup air bunker-shotgun barrel
small cylinder sup air bunker- beer can
these are some examples of naming bunkers. there will most likely be more then one of these types of barrels so you need name them by where they are (center, right left) color, and name. so when you on the field you'll probably here something like this...
"enemy behind front center orange beercan"
"enemy behind yellow center dorrito"
"enemy behind left blue piccahou"
you also might want to make names for other things like when your reloading. one example would be something like this "steve im on hangover cover me"
also you should make code names for bunkering - "tim im goin in for the move cover me"
-always know where your teamates are and talk to them at all times. this is EXTREAMLY important.
You have to communicate with your team.
Just make sure you guys are talking
Know when they get out.

8) Formations whatever works...

My old team didn't use a 2F-4M-1B

One team used a 2F-3M-2B   It worked wonders off the break...  but that was on a short field so, it really varies on Size...  --this is my personal favorite

if its a large go 2F-4M-1B...  or you could try and expirement with...  1F-5M-1B...

I'd say we try out a few different line ups, and see what feels best. Since we're new to speedball, we may want to play a bit more conservativly and hold our ground. ß only for short period’s of time




FRONT MAN:  Fronts job is to get up there and stay alive. If the fronts can grab some ground, they can keep the other team from moving up, and can make the kills and grab more and more ground. Push our fronts up the tapes off the break.

MIDMAN: The mids job are to try and keep their fronts from advancing, and if a front or a back gets hit, the mids need to go fill their spot. Our mid guys need to take their time and watch the front guys, and have their backs, just keep shooting and talking. We’ll use the mids to help relay info to the fronts, and help support them.

BACKMAN: Make sure the back guys are standing up at all times, that way they can see the best. They're job is to watch the field, and tell the rest of the team where their guys are, what their doing, and to protect the front guys. . Your backs need to always be telling everyone whats going on, they can see a whole lot more than the fronts can, so it's their job to be the fronts eyes. Rear is a player with good multi tasking.  You need to be able to cover the whole field. And spray to lay down covering fire for players advancing. 

Great job on a great post

 sticky worthy

Hmmm... I'll question what you said about the mid guy...

Mid guys are The Main Artery of the team... They Keep the communication from Backs to the Fronts... They also will Adjust if one of the backs or fronts is taken out and they "Have" to fill the spot, a Good middle man will have Skills in both front and Back, so he is usally your Best player or your most expirecned...  Middle guys job also has a "Moron, He didn't do that!!!" Shout...  They clear up any False signals a Back may give a Front.  A Mid guy will carry anywhere from 3-6 pods with him... Never more, or less... Some instances where a front is knocked out, and you Really need to control the snake the mid will cry out to the Back center or the closes back to him, He Has to dump off some of his paint so he can Get lighter, and less of a target, So then he will either A)Throw the paint for the Back or..  B)Dump it off where he is and Say "Take this Bunker, and you'll have what you need!" or ...  C) He will ask his back(s) to give him some cover fire so that he can run back Drop off his load, and then book it for the snake(in this case it is risky, and takes time, so this will be only used if the Back cannot move, or He is much to far away for you to throw the pods at him....

Well hopefully that Helps....

MIDMAN: The mids job are to try and keep their fronts from advancing, and if a front or a back gets hit, the mids need to go fill their spot. Our mid guys need to take their time and watch the front guys, and have their backs, just keep shooting and talking. We’ll use the mids to help relay info to the fronts, and help support them.

^you dont look that fat...youre jus short for your weight.

Edited by evil_fingers

man, hard to get a sticky for a thread that just keep straying farther....and farther away....

heres a whole list of things that are useful in speedball. i have alot on this list but if you have anything else you want to add you can just PM me and let me know.

1) In speedball you need speed. without speed your just a slow moving target.

2)Movent

-when you  decide where your going to run to have your teamates give you cover fire and run as fast as you can.

-decide where your going to run to then have your teamates give you cover fire. *have your teamates fire at the people who are the greatest threat to you.  

-once you get to the bunker again check your angles to make sure your safe on all sides of your bunker. if there is someone who has an angle on you and is a threat to you try to either eliminate them or have a team mate eliminate them.

3)Movent

-before you make a move to the bunker take a look at all your angles

-have a teamate cover you while you move

4) Bunkering

bunkering an opposing player.

-Before making a bunkering move tell your teamates that your going to make a bunker move.

-once they understand tell them to give you cover fire. have some of your teamates shoot at other enemies on the field while one or two shoot at the guy your going to bunker. this will hopefully keep his head down so he won't know your coming.

-when they give you cover fire run to the bunker and shoot the guy.

being bunkered

-When your the one being bunkerd the last thing you want to do is stand up behind your bunker and start shooting at the guy charging you. its a better idea to try to find out where he is coming from,wait until he gets almost behind you, then run out from the opposite side  . heres what i mean. lets say the guy is charging from the left wait until he gets almost behind you, then run out from the right side of the bunker and get him from the back. this takes practice and spped but if you practice this with your teamates it will really help. its a good idea to practice both bunkering and getting bunkered 1on1 with your teamates

5) Tactics on moving after the break and Using tapelines to flank

(your behind the dead box...the ref says 10 seconds...3..2...1 go go go!)

-on the break is a good idea to have your back players shoot as fast as they can and shoot as many lanes for you as possible. when the front players are moving up try to get as far as you can which will most likley be the 50 mark.

-Once you get as far as you can try to use the tapelines to move up farther and flank the opposing team. this might take awhile and the going might be slow at first but DONT rush. rushing will only send you back to the dead box.

-once your on the field and the game has started watch your sides and angles at all times. getting tunnel vision is a players death sentence and it will most likley send you back to the dead back saying "i never saw that guy there."

6)Snapshooting amd other tactics on shooting

-snapshooting-popping out of your bunker, shooting a burst quickly then ducking back behind your bunker 

try this with your teamates during practice. if you can master this it will be a huge advantage in tourneys

-shoot in "X"s. what i mean is people on the right side shoot to the left and people on the left side shoot to the right. also if each person covers 2 bunkers you double your effectiveness on the field. 

7)playing bunkers tight

-this is something that you definitly want to work on. you only have to lean out just a little bit to far and POP! shot right in the loader.

-the tighter you play a bunker the harder it is for the other team to hit you. the only problem with playing tight is that the tighter you play a bunker the hard it is to see all angles.

-try to keep your body as much behind the bunker as possible. get your gun and also place that as tight as you can to the bunker.

-when you are shooting from the side of a bunker remember to tilt your loader in so the only thing your opponent has to shot is your barrel and the bottom of your Co2 tank.  Also make sure if you play snake to always have someone cover you. 

8) Communication

before a tourney take a look at the field where you will be playing. with your teamates name the different types of bunkers. heres some examples

small round sup air bunker-piccahou

large sup air triangle-well my team just calls it the triangle

small triangle sup air bunker-dorrito

large cylinder sup air bunker-shotgun barrel

small cylinder sup air bunker- beer can

these are some examples of naming bunkers. there will most likely be more then one of these types of barrels so you need name them by where they are (center, right left) color, and name. so when you on the field you'll probably here something like this...

"enemy behind front center orange beercan"

"enemy behind yellow center dorrito"

"enemy behind left blue piccahou"

you also might want to make names for other things like when your reloading. one example would be something like this "steve im on hangover cover me"

also you should make code names for bunkering - "tim im goin in for the move cover me"

-always know where your teamates are and talk to them at all times. this is EXTREAMLY important.

unneededness of crap^^^^

he friggen said half the stuff u said

i did re write a lot of it, but like a said, there were a lot of sources, many of who are not even on the tippmann forum