Friendly X-Ball (game ideas)
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Category: Tippmann Paintball
Forum Name: Paintball Ideas / News From Tippmann
Forum Description: Got a new idea or a way to improve something?
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Printed Date: 17 July 2025 at 2:55pm
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Topic: Friendly X-Ball (game ideas)
Posted By: County
Subject: Friendly X-Ball (game ideas)
Date Posted: 09 November 2006 at 8:59am
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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 ------------- http://www.EZOfficePool.com - Free NXL and NPPL Office Pools, pw: 'gogged' http://www.CountySports.com/shop/news.php - Newsletter - Coupons |
Replies:
Posted By: carl_the_sniper
Date Posted: 09 November 2006 at 1:25pm
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ugggg.... too long yeah sounds good to me been wanting to get into that for a while but no money ------------- <just say no to unnecessarily sexualized sigs> |
Posted By: hybrid-sniper
Date Posted: 10 November 2006 at 1:21am
| Is this semi X-ball, or does everyone somehow have guns with an NXL mode? |
Posted By: i type slow
Date Posted: 10 November 2006 at 1:32am
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i read all of that, it sounds entristing and kind confusing, but new at the same time. heck id try it  ------------- ^^correct me if im wrong^^ search before you post! 
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Posted By: Yomillio
Date Posted: 10 November 2006 at 6:45am
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the thing about skill-split lines would be difficult. who's deciding what skill levels people are? A smart team would still split them up, so that the line thats supposed to be low level can have more expirienced players and get a better shot at winning. All i am saying is that, you need to find a way to figure out skill levels and be sure to enfore it. Teams left on their own to make lines im sure would mix it up. ------------- 
http://www.tippmann.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=172327 - Forum XBL Gamertag Collection |
Posted By: County
Date Posted: 10 November 2006 at 7:37am
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Good point on the firing modes. We play semi-auto at my field. We'll keep that rule for the friendly x-ball format.
As far as splitting the lines, we have a pretty close group so I think we can pull that off at our field. Other places with a lot of unknown players might have a harder time. I'll have a little control over this as well to make sure the teams follow it as closely as possible. There could always be the unknown superstar who plays in jeans and boots, that you mistakenly put on the lower line, but that would be a rare thing at my field. Also, once we realize the mistake, we could switch him to the top line. ------------- http://www.EZOfficePool.com - Free NXL and NPPL Office Pools, pw: 'gogged' http://www.CountySports.com/shop/news.php - Newsletter - Coupons |
Posted By: Thanatos
Date Posted: 13 November 2006 at 5:06am
that was pretty much i only concern. if your feild is full of "regulars" then it would be quite easy. though as pointed out there are players that have years of experience and none of the "apearance". by only question is eliminations, one per person or are there anychanges to that as well? keep us updated it sounds like a great start and even a better game. BTW how did the first run go? ------------- U.S. Air force PJ Apprentice Proud Member of Team.Tacticalmarkers.com ------------------------Being original is overated. Love, Peace, And Chicken Grease!!! |
County wrote:Posted By: County
Date Posted: 25 November 2006 at 9:29am
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We ran it last Sunday and it worked really well. It would have been better if we had more people though. We ended up with only 14 players so we had two lines (A) line had 4 players and the (B) line had only 3. That actually worked out OK since some of the B players weren't as aggressive, so with only 3 it helped that shift move a little more quickly. Also, having the coaching that X-Ball allows helped the beginner players move more, instead of getting into a stalemate of two beginners afraid to move against each other.
The biggest problem was when someone had gun problems. That would force their team to play short. That's fine in a regular x-ball game when you show up with your own team, but when a player is assigned to your team, then he has gun problems, you could feel a little ripped off. Hopefully we'll get enough people to run it again tomorrow. ------------- http://www.EZOfficePool.com - Free NXL and NPPL Office Pools, pw: 'gogged' http://www.CountySports.com/shop/news.php - Newsletter - Coupons |
Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 25 November 2006 at 6:56pm
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TL;DR!!!11!!one!!!one+shift!!!11!!two!!1 But really, it's not a bad idea. Just a thought, our local field is trying out what's called a "3man Pick up tourny." Where you register yourself at the begginning of the day, and then draw numbers to see which team you are on. I think you could possibly work this in to your idea so that kids can't form up a team with say 10 good solid players and have both lines be stronger than their opponents. Also, how are you working penalties into it? Just curious. ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: County
Date Posted: 04 December 2006 at 4:09pm
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We've run this a few times now. I'm the one who splits up the teams, so there's no question of people stacking their teams. Granted, there are sometimes a few new people at the field so I have to guess what line to put them on, but all the games have been really close. So far, I've been guessing well enough.
We're having our 2006 Grand Finale game this Sunday. I've got some tournament teams coming out that will represent the "A" lines and I'll make "B" and "C" lines out of the rest. Yes, we're expecting enough people to have 3 lines per team. This will give everyone a little more time between their "shifts" to get ready. It also gives us a better range of skill levels while still keeping every player in a more fair situation. It definitely keeps the action going. Normally, we play a game and then I have to get everyone off their butts to start the next game. Also, with normal pick up games I split them evenly but I have tourney guys on the field at the same time as beginners. The friendly x-ball keeps the tourney guys from blasting the newbies off the field. Thanks for the input. It seems to be going well. ------------- http://www.EZOfficePool.com - Free NXL and NPPL Office Pools, pw: 'gogged' http://www.CountySports.com/shop/news.php - Newsletter - Coupons |
Posted By: Capt.Jonesy
Date Posted: 04 December 2006 at 4:31pm
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County, Where is your field? ------------- 
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Posted By: County
Date Posted: 05 December 2006 at 9:19am
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5378 Route 49
Millville NJ 08332 If you're in the area, check out our forum for event info. http://www.countysports.com/forum (then scroll down to the club area) ------------- http://www.EZOfficePool.com - Free NXL and NPPL Office Pools, pw: 'gogged' http://www.CountySports.com/shop/news.php - Newsletter - Coupons |
Posted By: Capt.Jonesy
Date Posted: 05 December 2006 at 10:30am
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I'm a little too far south for NJ. Mississippi! -------------
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Posted By: buck wheat
Date Posted: 11 December 2006 at 7:12pm
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