Now don't go thinking I'm going to start writing every day. Good lord I do have a life...I think...yea...I checked...Judges say it qualifies but only just barely.

So last night Spiro from Black Cat Paintball revealed his new game format, Scavenger Paintball. I had been working on the site for the project all week so I THOUGHT I had a pretty good handle on it. While I understood how the game was to be played I wasn't quite sure on how the players would react to it.

Well, react they did and in a very positive manner. The audience that was participating in the discussion seemed to grasp the idea pretty well and were very excited about this new form of paintball. The more I listened to Spiro, the more I found myself getting amped up about it too. Looks like we'll have to wait until late spring though before a game comes out this way and even then it will be a 6 hour trip to Pheonix. I'm sure the temps shouldn't be much higher than 110 by then so it will still be fairly cool...for Pheonix.

Even so, Spiro did mention that there may be an event coming to Cali shortly after the AZ game so maybe that one will be a little closer to home. If history has taught me anything about these games though it will probably be held in the northern part of the state...which, ironically, is further than driving half-way across another state for the Pheonix game...go figure.

Lots of questions were posted last night and the big one seemed to be team size. Listeners were curious as to whether they could still keep their traditional scenario teams in tact. The answer is yes so long as the team size is the same or smaller as what Spiro sets each Scavenger Team size to. So if you got 14 players on your team and Spiro says the team sizes for the event will be limited to 10 then you get to play with MOST of your team, but not all. I don't know how this will be recieved by some of the larger teams but I think most of the time teams will not get too seperated.

Also noted on the show was the new "Fisrt Strike" Round from Tiberius Arms. This new type of paintball has a finned skirt on it that improves aerodynamics and results in better range and more accuracy...or so Tiberius Arms claims. (Pictures of the new round can be seen here.)

The idea is not exactly new. The FN303 Less Lethal round is almost identical in design and I wouldn't call it a stretch to say the two probably are related.

So will this work? I don't see why not. It has been used in less lethal systems that have proven to be accurate. Range should be greater because of the added aerodynamic benefits. (I could go into this but the last time I did it turned into a three part series on paintball accuracy...)

All this comes with a price however...litterally. At a rumored $.75 per round the new paint isn't cheap. Because it is marketed to the Tiberius crowd who is already used to having only eight rounds in a magazine while the rest of us run around with 200 paintballs in a big plastic bin the extra range and accuracy would be welcomed benefits that would definately offset the cost. Also, as was the case with paintballs back in the late 80s where a horribly made, oil-filled paintball would cost $.50 per round ($.90 per round in 2007 dollars) the more people started playing the more paintballs companies could sell thus they could produce them in greater bulk and prices dropped as production costs dropped. So too could it be with these new rounds. If more players start using them and they become cheaper to produce the price per round will drop and it will be more cost effective to have markers that have higher capacities fire these rounds.

Time will tell whether or not the Tiberius round will be a success or just another paintball flop. The idea is sound and the theory is good but it will be up to the paintball public as to whether or not this technology, and the limitations it currently has, will be embraced or not.