I found this at the LAPCO forums, and it struck me as an incredibly well written piece of literature... Enjoy!

 Woodsball™ Manifesto
By: Tyger

We are Woodsball™ players. We are the core of paintball. Over 90% of the players play paintball in the woods, and yet 90% of all in-paintball media coverage ignores us. We play not for prizes or money or fame, but for the passion of the game. We play because the challenge is there; every weekend, all around the world. We just need to show up and accept it.

We are not the pretty-boys of speedball. We are the anti-heroes of the mainstream. You won't see us on posters or in videos sliding into bunkers with names like "cans" or "snakes", and that's fine by us. The real game isn't spit shined, groomed and polished or made for TV. It's down and dirty, in the literal trenches. Our fields are not well maintained lawns; it's terrain that both teams overcome. We don't complain about sand or dirt or uneven fields, its part of the world we play in. Scratches and dings in our equipment are displayed with pride, and we can tell you where they happened, and how deep in the crud we were when we got it.

We are the roots of the game that have been abandoned by much of the mainstream industry. We don't throw aside where we've come from to make the game more palatable for an audience. If nobody sees what we do, it does not make the effort or result worth less. We drive through back roads to fields that nobody knows about but ourselves. We know we're there when we lose our favorite radio station and the cell phones won't work anymore. We play under the media radar with no reward other than bragging rights because we want to play. There are no prizes, no million dollar checks, but that makes neither our tenacity to win no less fierce nor our games less meaningful for us.

Our chosen uniform is camouflage, not because we want to be militaristic but because it works. We use our clothing as a part of our game, something that escapes many of the "firefight specialists" that play only arena games. The paintgun is only one tool of a well rounded player, not the only tool. We know this; as we use all the skills and tools we have every weekend.

Based only on our clothing, our gear, and our chosen locations of play, we are looked at as inferior players. We are told we would never stand a chance in a "real game" of paintball. We understand your arena game; yet you refuse to understand our woods game? We are not throwbacks to a long dead game. Yes, we are living history, but we have evolved. We honor our roots, but we do not abandon them to follow the next "promise" in paintball. Long after the "flavor of the month" arena game has worn out, we will be playing in the woods. To know the past is to control our future, and we embrace both.

We are told that we should abandon the woods, for the better good of "the future of the game". Our presence threatens those who never have, and probably never will, understand what the origins of paintball are. They think we will scare away the media by looking like "militia members". Not that fist fights and blatant cheating will attract any better media attention in their games. Not that terms like "Bounce Engineered" or "Ramping Technology" mean anything to the true roots of what paintball started as; what paintball should be. Are the arena players scared of us or ashamed because we remind them what they should be?

We are woodsball™ players. Any given weekend we'll be playing our game with a grasp on the past and an eye on our future. Players that don't understand will come and go, we know this. They can play under the bright lights in front of audiences and pretend to be rock stars all they want. We'll be in the woods years after you retire, playing the game of paintball the way it always had been played; with honor, with integrity, and with friends. All 90% of us.

© 2005 Panther Free Press
http://www.tyger.us/ - http://www.tyger.us

Open permission to print / distribute / repost on other personal web pages as long as this disclaimer, my web site and my name remain attached to the text. "Share and Enjoy" Any use of this article in a paid media (Magazines, paid or sponsored e-zines / paintball field pieriodicals or newsletters, and so on) is permitted ONLY if permission is given first from the author.

^^ It is.(Frozen Balls)  You know we're tough when we can dive through sticks and brush and not slow down.  We don't need $1,000 guns to get someone out.  We play because we love it and that's that.  Sure speedballers say, "Yeah you guys don't know the meaning of real paintball.  You can't stand there and take it or get bunkered."  Trust me we do.  We have all had those close range encounters.  Then you have those speedballers that couldn't use stealth-like tactics to sneak up on an enemy.  They'd be the losers trying to dive over logs and end up yelling, because they landed in the brush.  I know not all paintballers or speedballers are like this.  No I am not an anti-speedballer.  I have been out and set up bunkers in fields, but it sucks.  It's not like the satisfying feeling of sneaking up on your enemy and not having to unload of them to hit them.  You can take about five shots and have that awesome feeling of watching them flip out and not even know what hit them.  In speedball you know where almost everyone is almost all of the time.  It's not as fun, but that's just my opinion.  I know most people here won't feel this way, but I don't care.  I just had to get this off my chest about speedball and woodsball.

From what it sounds like at the Webdog forums, Webdog won't be "normal" for quite some time. In order to run as much bandwith as they need, it's lots of money... Lots of money that Webdog doesn't have. So, all we can do is hope for the best

I have been playing paintball since I was 13 in my backyard. I am 22 now, and have only stopped playing for a couple years in the middle there. I play woodsball almost exclusively, and I have tried Speedball and I rec ball quite often. To ONLY play speedball as we now know it, wouldn't you have to be a little kid. The electronic markers haven't been around forever.

Speedball is relatively new on the scene, and a long-term fad, and here is why. SPECTATORS! Also, I believe that there is great fun in speedball. What you are doing is basically evolving the equipment/strategy/field around the firefight in the game. For most people there is more skill development and enjoyment when there is more to the game then just the firefight. This is where Woodsball excels and why it will always be better. 

I just recently saw the NPPL Super 7 while they where in my city. It was fun to watch some pros play speedball, but I would have rather seen them walking through waste deep water on the tow of a bank like I did last weekend, or enthusiastically work an 8" tree for cover.

An experienced woodsballer can always go play speedball and do well. Throw someone who exclusively plays speedball out in the woods and they may hurt themselves.

cdacda13 wrote: Im a hardcore speedballer. But, I respect woodsball.

Ditto. 

What speedballers need to know is that the Very first paintball game was woodsball on 12 acre's of heavy woods. Played with a Nelson 007 thats a 10 shot marker. The first man win a game never fired a single shot, thats right not a whole case of paint, never shot his marker.

AMEN!!!

by the way u ever hear of the SPPL?

http://www.scenariochallenge.com/ - http://www.scenariochallenge.com/

brought tears to my eyes... u will love this ^

ia hve heard the first paintball game a million times, never said anything about firing one shot

Let me be the first to say that i agree that woodsball takes skill, and i am a hardcore speedballer(in the making) and i think speedball takes skill too. They both take skill in their own way, woodsball is stealth and accuracy. Speedball is fast paced adrenaline(sp) and speed, in both the gun and the person. I admit that i understand where the hardore woodsballers see us as pretty boys that have parents to buy us everything. And we think you all are old people who still have military dreams, i will admit i once felt this way. But both of these thoughts are wrong. Each game type will include different people and different thioughts. In speedball we have expensive equipment, but not because our parents bought it for us, but because thats what our side of the sport calls for. Our sponsored teams and box per rounds tactics make it a fast paced, adreniline(sp) packed game. And i will admit that your tactics work for your envirioment also. This just shows that you may not like speedball and I am very sorry for all of you that have ever been offended by a speedballer who thought he was too good for you, hopefully each of our groups can learn the others point of view.

I would share a beautiful poem with all of you, but....

 there are none

thats not what i meant, because I know what you mean, i have played woodsball before and know the feeling. I guess I worded it wrong. I just meant that speedball is more up in your face and non stop adrenaline while woodsball has it's little breaks in between where you can think through your strategy and some people like it more that way. Sorry if you misunderstood me.

Edit: This is just my opinion and mabye you see the two sides differently and im sorry if im wrong.

Paintball Grunt wrote: i like it....but it was realy against speedball playersi like both speedball and woodsball

It is great, but I believe a strong combination of woods and speed skills makes a good player, so I play both.