At some point or another we have all searched for an answer on the internet and found the answer in a forum. The answer may be from another user or someone involved in the service on the product. This is the true driving force behind forums; users, fanatics, manufacturers and everyone with an opinion can share their views and experiences. Paintball forums are no different; there are many of them out there with millions of users posting thoughts, reviews, questions, answers and sometimes just fun stuff. This has become the perfect place to visit in your search for information that will not be in a product description. Forums are about a community that shares an interest and in this case the interest is paintball.

The largest paintball forum in the world is www.pbnation.com. The Nation, as it is most often referred to, is a massive gathering of over 500,000 members from all over the world. A group of this size takes a large amount of maintenance and like all forums it is moderated by veteran members. Becoming a moderator on most forums is a “let your actions speak your intentions, not your words” kind of test. Asking to be a mod will most likely ensure you will not be one, while well thought out posts and responses will get you noticed and promoted.

Forums like www.a5og.net is very specific to players who use, own, modify and torture the Tippmann A5. This can be a great resource for someone looking for a very specific upgrade or a long lost discontinued item. While everyone on the forum may not have the same experience or skill level you can get a large spectrum of opinions from people who are in the same boat you are. Most paintball forums are not quite this specific but the A5 has been around for quite some time and the plethora of upgrades and options available give the A5 a rabid following.

Paintball is not new and neither is the idea of a paintball forum. Old school players have been sharing thoughts and ideas on www.mcarterbrown.com for years. While the name may throw some people off track because there is no mention of paintball MCB is a fantastic resource that definitely has a different pace and style than many of the other forums. This is also the stomping ground for many pump players and also has a large section devoted to the CCM pump markers.

With a new forum www.pbriot.com launching there is now a new place for players and fans to gather and share. Whether you still rock your pre-2k Autococker or shoot lasers with your gorgeous CSL Prestige you can visit with your friends and field enemies alike. The RIOT is based on the idea that a forum can be welcoming to new players, vets and even *gasp* industry insiders. So bring your Lemonade Sandana and your ghillie suit, your Tipp 98 and your 110 tank… everyone is welcome! Speedballers, woodsballers it does not matter what you carry or where you play if you like paintball or like someone who plays paintball the pbRIOT is the place where your random search will now lead you.

I will admit, when I first heard about the Techt iFit when Ethan got back from PBE last year I was skeptical, paintballs having the limitations we are all familiar with and all. Most barrel sizers seemed to be a solution in search of a problem, but with Techt having such a good track record with the Hush Bolt and their line of upgrades for various other markers, I decided to give the iFit a spin. When our shipment arrived from Techt, I was immediately struck by the excellent manufacturing quality, finish and packaging. Now it being for paintball, it was an outside toy, so I was admittedly concerned about scratch resistance and that sort of thing, after using it every weekend for the last year or so it still looks brand new, but I digress. The actual inserts come in a variety of sizes ranging from hilariously small to quite large, and they are both color coded and lazer-eteched with the internal diameter. After a few false starts* I got it on my Ego and took it out back of Hustle with a hand held chrono for some Science

While it does make your barrel about 2 inches longer, I barely noticed the change in length. I loaded up my marker with some WPN Elixir and fired off 5 balls, 290 +/- 3, so right where I had my gun set from last weekend at the field. I put the iFit on and repeated the 5 ball test, 305 +/- 2, I presumed the chrono I had was off, I did it again and got similar results. I retreated into the office and fetched Ethan’s marker, loaded it up with more Elixir and repeated the test from before… same thing, a gain of about 12-15 fps. Ok, so it makes for a more effective use of the HPA, that is something noteworthy but how about accuracy? Well I certainly felt more accurate, but that might have been a placebo, so in the interest of more SCIENCE, I got out the bench rest and went to work. The results were a bit more subtle, in the range of 5-9% more accuracy over the stock barrel.

So will the iFit turn you into a deadeye overnight? Well no, but combined with good quality paint it will give measureable improvements in both efficiency as well as accuracy.

*As an aside, if one of your friends has one of these, take the insert out and put the empty black baffle back on to their marker, will result is a rather amusing result of his marker barely shooting paint beyond 6 inches.

Sandana has been around almost since the beginning of paintball and has been making some of the most popular head gear in the sport for years. Never before have they made headgear for any team; pro or otherwise. But, in their 2011 line, they are releasing a custom color scheme called Anomaly Flying Skulls.For those of you who do no know, Team Anomaly is Hustle Paintball’s factory team. For years other companies, teams, and players alike have been requesting custom color schemes from Sandana, but they have always politely declined. This is a first ever!

Using the popular flying skulls color scheme, Sandana has used the Anomaly team colors: black and lime green. Not only are they making head bands and prolines in the Anomaly color scheme, they are also making Venomwear Sabotage pants and player tees in the Anomaly color scheme.

Be sure to check these out! Here is a link to the video of the  Team Anomaly Sandanas!

~Josh

Guerrilla Air is known for making very reliable products and for having some of the smallest and most efficient air tanks on the market. Because the Myth regulator is smaller than the rest available on the market, it not only cuts down on weight, but you can play tighter because you do not have a massive regulator between your marker and the tank. The Myth reg has been around long enough to withstand the test of time, but Guerrilla decided that it was time for an update. The new G2 myth reg has no “high pressure” or “low pressure model, the regulator will work on any marker and will put out the right amount of pressure! Not only will it work on any marker, it can also be adjusted so that the fill nipple and gauge can be set where you want them. You no longer have to play with the gauge digging into your hand! Guerrilla really out did themselves with this product and I cannot wait to get one of these bad boys on my tank!

The Revolutionary G2 Myth reg

In every form of paintball there is that one guy who will dress in the most outrageous stuff and still manages to pull it off. There have been multiple tournaments and scenarios that I have participated in where a player or group of players remind all of those playing that paintball is fun and should be treated as such. There was a tournament that I participated in a few years ago where we played a team called the Fuzzy Pandas. They all wore Panda bear ears and even glued little noses onto their masks to complete the whole “Panda” look. We were the first team to play them and we totally underestimated them; we thought that we would roll right over them. To our surprise, not only were we beaten (and quite badly if I do admit) but we had also lost to the Fuzzy Pandas! We were humiliated, but they had a lot of balls to dress up like Pandas. They brought style to the field.

There was a scenario that I attended where a group of players all dressed in sun dresses. They were lovingly dubbed the GI Jane battalion. Not only did they constantly destroy our opposition, they also poked fun at all of the fully camo’d out scenario players in hopes that they would take themselves a little less serious. It made the scenario fun for everyone, even the other team who would taunt the dress toting players with cries like: “Make me a sandwich, or I’ll shoot you!”

It is players like these that make events fun to attend because not only because they themselves are funny guys in their playing style but they also provide stiff competition and can hold their own on the field. What are some funny things that you have seen on the field? Have you ever done something like this? Do you dislike people who do this? We want to hear your stories!

Camo does not apply to me

Haters gonna hate

Dye Precision is known for making some of the most revolutionary gear in the industry and their Rotor is no exception. It has set the bar for player’s expectations in their loaders. The Rotor feeds at an impressive 50+ balls per second rate; so no matter how fast you can shoot, the Rotor will feed. The Rotor uses a  unique constant feed rotor carousel to bring the balls into the marker. This provides smooth, consistent, rapid and dependable feed performance until the very last ball in the hopper. No more mis-feeds! The Rotor has the lowest profile of any electronic hopper on the market, and can still hold 40+ more paintballs than other loaders available.

The Revolutionary Dye Rotor

Another cool aspect of the Rotor is that it can be easily broken down for basic cleaning or maintenance. There are no tiny screws and nuts to loosen, parts to lose or break off.  In the rare event of a ball jam caused by an oversized ball, simply give the jam release trigger a quick pull and you are back in action. The Rotor has the longest battery life of any hopper on the market and provides 50,000+ ball shot count on one set of three AA batteries. I have only changed my batteries twice in the year and a half that I have had my Rotor! It seems that products this revolutionary only come into paintball once in a blue moon, but they change the sport forever, this is definitely a product you should check out!

~James

We have all sacrificed so that we can play this fantastic sport, some more than others, and some in different ways. For many it is just the financial sacrifice of having to pay for all of the gear that is involved with playing paintball. Then there are the few who sacrifice not only their time and money, but also for their team. There are teams that are simply that, a team. Nothing more. They only play on the weekends and at events, but they aren’t really close friends and in my opinion that makes them weaker as a team. If a player loves the game and their team the cost of playing and the amount of time spent becomes trivial and unimportant, it becomes about the team rather than themselves. The win is the team’s not the individual’s.

I have seen friends of mine lose relationships with fantastic people because their team and this sport was important to them in a way that their friends, girlfriends, or even spouses could not understand. Yet this loss was worth it to them because the sport was something that went deeper than the weekends, it was about going through all the grit and grime and hard times for that one moment where they can look around at their team and friends and know that they earned their right to be there; it means so much more that they actually fought for something that they care about. Those moments and feelings are very rare outside of paintball, and it is one of the reasons that people don’t understand why we do it every weekend while the chores and errands stack up; well this is why.

What have you sacrificed for paintball? What is the most that you would sacrifice for paintball? We want to know, so please comment and start the conversation!

The Joy of Sharing a Win

~Jeff

Anomaly was started with the vision of doing things different. From the gear we choose, our type of play, and our distinctive colors, we simply don’t blend in with the crowd. What does it take to be on Anomaly? A love for paintball, and a disregard for stereotypes. Being a part of Anomaly goes so much deeper than playing paintball, just as paintball goes so much deeper in our lives than the weekend.

As leaders in our community, we seek to encourage and teach newer players, enjoy stiff competition from experienced ones, and no matter what the style of play… at the end of the day, we can positively say “I had fun!” What are some of your team’s aspirations? Do you strive to be a team that people look up to? How are you positively effecting the sport of paintball and your community?

Here is a video of one of the many days that we have spent at Blitz, our favorite field in Colorado. I hope you enjoy!

Click this link for the video.  HustlePaintball.com Factory Team: Anomaly @ Blitz paintball

It happens to all of us, even the best of the best. People all handle defeat in a different way; some wont talk to anyone, some cry, others place blame on themselves or their team or the refs (really anyone who they feel deserve it). But what is the best way to take it? After years of wins and losses, you have to take them in stride. Take your wins humbly and the blow from a defeat will not sting as much; and take your losses in stride. Consider waving to the opponent who beat you, give them the thumbs up! It might surprise you how much better that makes you feel when you realize you’re not focusing on your loss, but rather, their win. There will always be another game in which you have the potential to win. Nothing lasts forever, and if you go into games with that mentality you will find that you enjoy them all the more and have much more fun.

The best way to take the pain of defeat, that I have found, is to take a few moments after the game and think over your actions. You will find that you did nothing wrong, you had just been out played, which is totally fine! It just shows you areas of your game that you have to work on. After you have taken a moment, go and find your team mates and have a laugh. Being lighthearted about what happened will put everyone in a better mood. What happened, happened. There is nothing that can be done to change it. Go out and treat yourselves to dinner. There is no reason to punish yourself over a loss, go and celebrate that you were able to play paintball all day! That is what is really important; the game, not the win.

I always go out to Buffalo Wild Wings with my team, and we treat ourselves to some fantastic food and drink in great company. Honestly, I would rather have the memories of having a good time with my team and friends than the memory of the win (even though that is a great memory!). Just some things to keep in mind when you are facing a defeat, its not the end of the world! Keep the fun going.

Defeat is never easy to take

~Ethan

We have all hit that point where we have accumulated so much gear that we need a bag of exaggerated proportions in order to fit all of the “necessary” gear. Over the years, I have gone through quite a few gear bags, and only a few have I ever been impressed with. One of those gear bags that has caught my attention and affection is the Tippmann Deluxe Rolling Gear Bag. One of the main reasons that I love this bag so much is its simplicity. So many gear bags that are out right now have a bunch of things added onto them that make them bulkier than they really need to be. Thus, it gives the companies a reason to jack the price up. The Deluxe Rolling Gear Bag keeps the design simple while still being able to hold your gear in a secure and easy to use platform.

Many of the high end bags offer things like double marker slots, while the Tippmann Deluxe Rolling Gear Bag offers a divider for you markers instead of having them built in, that way you don’t have unusable space in your bag. It also has pod loops on the inside of the bag so that you don’t just have loose pods rolling around on the inside of your bag. It also offers some nice extras like a little pocket on the inside where  you can keep shoes or your air tanks. It also has a flap that comes out of the bottom for you to stand on if you had to change your clothes. It also rolls, so if you were to be traveling with all of your gear you do not have to be lugging around this giant gear bag, but you can roll it around with ease. A friend of mine and I actually tested how durable just the wheels were by rolling it behind a car. Not only did it work fine afterwards, it worked like it did new! It is these nice little things that Tippmann added that make this gear bag one of my favorites. If you are interested in the bag, check out our review here.                                                                                     ~ Ethan

Flap for changing/teching on

Inside of the Tippmann Deluxe Rolling Gear Bag