Friendly X-Ball (game ideas)

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   Greetings paintballers!  I realize what follows is a bit long but I appreciate you reading it.  After reading it, if you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it.

If you’re anything like me, you’re obsessed with paintball.  I play about once per week and never get tired of playing.  I also spend a lot of time thinking about paintball.  When I drive past an open field I imagine it being used for a speedball field.  When I go through a wooded area I imagine some scenario games being played and ways to make them cool.  Since I also run a paintball store and field, I have business ideas on my mind at all times.  When it comes to the field, I’m always trying to find ways to keep the games fair and exciting at the same time.  My latest idea is “Friendly X-Ball”.

For those of you who aren't already familiar with x-ball, it's basically a game format that really makes a legitimate sport out of paintball.  I like to think of it as a cross between paintball and hockey.  Every flag hang is worth one point, like scoring a goal.  Each team is split into lines.  After a goal is scored, I mean a point, the next line comes on to play.  

In typical x-ball, a 2-minute break follows each point.  This gives the next line a little time to get onto the field, ready to go.  That means, when one line is playing, the other line is filling pods, cleaning off hits and doing whatever else they need to be ready for their shift.  The game is timed, so clock management is also important.  If you're winning the game, you might want to stall to burn some clock.  If you're behind, you need to push the action and try to get a point as quickly as possible.  The game clock only stops when a point is scored or when a team throws in the towel.  A team can concede the point and stop the clock by throwing in a towel.  This comes in handy when the losing team is not in a good position to score the point and the team with the lead is stalling the action to burn clock.  Another key difference is that coaching is allowed.  A coach, spectators and teammates can all yell out positions and advice with no penalty.  When I first heard about this, I was against it.  I liked the idea of making a sneaky move and then surprising your opponent when they didn’t know you had changed positions.  After playing x-ball and hearing all the people yelling and cheering, I’ve changed my mind.  It definitely gets the spectators into the game more and speeds up the overall play of the game.  People don’t sit back because they’re unsure of when to move.  The coaching definitely speeds up the action.

The full set of x-ball rules can be found at this link:

 http://www.nxlpaintball.com/XBALL%20MANUAL%20(rev%208%20Tour ney).pdf

I love the x-ball format for the excitement it brings to the game.  However, at my field we have a large variety of skill levels.  I want the excitement of x-ball without intimidating the newer players off the field.  So, I've come up with some modifications to keep the excitement of x-ball in a more friendly manner.  I'd love to know what you think of my ideas.  If you have any suggestions of your own, I'd love to hear them.

1st modification: 5 minute break between points.  Since the teams won't have pit crews to help out and the players aren't used to getting ready so quickly, they'll have an extra 3 minutes.

2nd modification: Lines are split into A and B levels.  The top 5 players will be on line A.  The 5 with less experience will be on line B.  The game will be split up so each team has their A line on at the same time.  Same for the B lines.  That way, players are going against people of their own skill level.

3rd modification: 10 minute game time.  5 minutes on each side of the field.

We could have a "first team to X points" or a mercy rule where a Y point lead ends the game but I think we'll just play out the full time for now and see how it goes.

4th modification: If we don't get enough people for 10 v 10, we'll just shorten the lines so it's 4 v 4 or whatever.  Even 5 on line A and 4 on line B would work.

What do you think?  Do you like my ideas?  Have any suggestions to make it even better?  Our next game day is this Sunday, November 12th.  As long as the majority of people are interested, I’d like to try it out.  If you live in the southern New Jersey area and want to join us, come on out.  You can get directions to the field at our club website:

http://www.countysports.com/paintball

Thanks

Mike Everland

CountyPaintball.com