| 68Caliber.com Editorials
That's the fact of the matter. The reaction from those involved in the Scenario World has been immediate and strong. A veritable who's who of hardcore scenario players, producers, and even the media have immediately stood forth and questioned the idea of someone 'Like Billy' running a game at the hallowed ground of Camp Blanding. Everyone who's anyone seems to be concerned with the idea of letting Billy into Blanding. Why? Because the whole idea of the Free Finale is supposedly based on the idea of giving Wayne Dollack the finger? Because Smith is taking a different route to producing games that cost less for the players, yet still allow him to maintain his profit margins? Don't fool yourselves, guys...scenario producers not only love the game, but they gotta eat, too. If the business of producing games wasn't profitable, nobody would be doing it. Before we get to the why, let's take a look at the how: In 2004 Smith announced his first Free Finale. Free Entry, bring your own paint, free camping on site. That first year, around 700 players showed up. Several paint vendors showed up to sell paint, and the resulting competition brought prices down to bargain basement levels. At one point white box paint was selling for around $20/case, which is on the lower end of the wholesale pricing for most brands. In following years, the Finale evolved away from that first year, and even though the event is no longer bring your own paint, the pricing offered by the paint vendor on site (who has to compete with other paint vendors to get this event) is more than reasonable. A decent field grade paint can be had for under $40 a case. Billy's games are normally written to acknowledge the fact that when given good pricing, players will shoot more. LCP is a nice mix of open and wooded territory, so just about everyone's tastes are covered. Along the way as LCP grew, Billy expanded his horizons as a paintball businessman, eventually forming a buying group that he heads in order to order massive amounts of paint from manufacturers, selling it to associated fields, giving them better pricing than they could have by going direct and still making enough to make it all worth his while. As he grew, he learned as well. MXS, NOCER Productions, and MPP Games all made appearances at Low Country Paintball to produce events, and Billy learned from them all. With his increased success came the realization that he couldn't do it all himself, which brings in "Georgia" Joe Hamilton. Hamilton is an experienced player, and while it'd be easy to think him not the sharpest tool in the shed by his appearance and manner, he's in fact an extremely intelligent and creative individual who has his own take on how to produce and run scenario games. Smith took him under his wing and gave him the resources and freedom to produce games as he saw fit. The movie-inspired game "300" held earlier this year is still being talked about as one of the most intense paintball experiences in the southeast. Smith claims over 700 cases of paint were sold. The paint vendor actually ran out of paint, and for the second day of play, players were allowed to bring their own paint. All this was done with a completely different format than had been tried previously.
Like every other player who's played at Blanding, Smith and Hamilton shared the fascination with the facility, and the opportunity it represents for a rank-and-file player. As the success of the Free Finale grew Smith turned his eyes to Blanding and started a process that culminated in his announcement a week ago. Camp Blanding is a major feather in any game producer's hat, and Smith's success as a businessman had grown to the point where he could afford the high initial costs of doing a game at Blanding. The Southeast is a hotbed of paintball, second only to California. Other parts of the country have a grand tradition of 'hardcore' scenario play. There are hardcore scenario players here in the deep south. However, there's also a large number of players who're more interested in in-your-face, smashmouth paintball action. Southeastern paintball players are unique from every other part of the country, and Billy's had the wit to host games for other producers at his field, learn from them, then apply that knowledge along with the knowledge of his market to take his operations to the next level. So why all the concern? I suspect some of it is a matter of possessiveness on the part of those who traditionally run games at Blanding, and the players who go to their games. Producers like NOCER Productions, MPP Games, "Georgia" Joe Hamilton and Billy Smith and others have become adept at providing both hardcore scenario play and bare-knuckled paintball at their games because that's what the market here demands. In other parts of the country 'hardcore' scenario paintball may have another meaning, but in the end it's all paintball, and producers are tasked with making their players happy, which is what matters the most. The innate conservatism of paintball players and their industry may be at work here as well. I remember hearing how Constant Air was going to ruin the sport. Semi-Auto was going to ruin the sport, too. Compressed Air and Electronics were going to kill it off as well. Paintball survived all of these innovations. I suspect the sport will survive Billy Smith and "Georgia" Joe Hamilton having a game at Camp Blanding. What I say and what the rest of the paintball punditry says about Billy's Blanding Bash means nothing. Obviously Smith had the resources to put on a game at Blanding, and it's obviously been made clear to him by the Military what will be required. How about we all reserve judgment on what people "like Billy" can do for or against the sport with regards to Camp Blanding until the dust settles on his event in December? I have a feeling that Billy will be giving us all the finger when the dust settles. © Copyright 1999 - 2006, 68Caliber.Com |
