Santa Clara Paintball Field Review

Weekend of: October 5, 2008

Tim Firpo

Let me first start by saying that the same company that owns Santa Clara Paintball (SCP) also owns Solano County Paintball (Midway Paintball) of which I am an employee of. This means that the same people who sign my paychecks are the same people who own and run Santa Clara Paintball Park .

Despite the fact that SCP is owned by the same people who now own Midway, I had only played there on Wednesday evenings when I had gone down with my manager to pick up paint and supplies for Midway and get a few quick games in. Now, the two Wednesday evenings I have played at SCP were not bad at all. All the players there were very nice, talkative, good players, etc…equally, the staff was not bad at all. The office staff showed some slight disdain for us being there, which I had heard our other staff talk about from previous encounters, however I chalk that up to interfiled rivalry at the least…understandable. They didn't take any actions toward me personally that said they didn't care for my presence. Then I get to the field last Sunday and the scene changed.

This previous Sunday (10/5/08) was my first time playing at the park during the normal weekend business hours, with the full SCP staff on hand and approximately 5 – 6 ‘teams' practicing 7-man scrimmages on the main JT airball field. I can tell you right now, it's not at all what I expected to see. From what I have heard from our owners, the park is run very professionally with great reffing staff, good players playing there every weekend and whatnot. I've found that statement to be almost completely false.

I was asked by a long time good personal friend of mine and well known team coach to come to SCP and practice with his new team he's helping take the NCPS championship this year. He also asked the Midway manager (Scott) to come play as well. Not being an avid ‘tourney baller' and being quite content to play rec-ball I was slightly hesitant to join Scott for the trip but figured ‘why not…haven't played against a lot of upper class players for a while…may as well have some fun'. What we experienced at SCP was far and gone from what I have ever considered ‘fun' after stepping onto a paintball field.

The Refs
From what I heard, the team we were playing with has been playing at SCP for a while now and know the staff and refs relatively well, so I figured we would have no problems as far as dealing with staff on the field was concerned…mistake #1. While the office staff and the guys walking around the staging area were nice (one guy I remember was a larger bald gentleman with a blonde goatee) the staff on the field dealt with the players and situations they came up against like complete IDIOTS. Supposedly they are all NPPL certified refs who have gone through the ref training course, evidently the NPPL ref standards have gone downhill this last year if any of these guys managed to pass. There was one ref who was actually running around and trying to make an effort on the field, however he was very scatological and was seen several times going to paint check one player and stopping mid stride 15 feet from a player, changing directions, and checking someone else across the field. Other examples of HORRIBLE reffing that jump out in my mind: Ex #1 - Specifically with our team, when any of our players called for refs to paint check any players they would either slowly shuffle down the sideline tapes to make their call or delay their movements for 15 – 30 seconds before going to a bunker, giving players who we shot enough time to get rid of 3 and 4 hits even (this will make sense later). Ex #2 - When we had the team captain on the sidelines also watching the games and how the other teams were playing and showing the ref near him what was going on he would call a player completely on the other side of the field out, and make a motion for the other refs to pull him…the refs near that player did nothing, which allowed said player to get up, run down tape, and shoot 3 of our guys…turning a 2v4 to a 1v1 which we eventually lost. Ex #3 - There was a player on the tape 40 dorito, literally no farther than 10 feet from the sideline ref. I was in the back corner standup on the same side, and had Scott (only guy left on my team) on my right in the snake insert bunker (low pillow) crossed with me. The player in the dorito did not know I was there and STOOD UP and I proceeded to lace him from the elbow to his neck with orange paint on his yellow jersey (saw 3 hits break and probably hit him a couple more than that). He PHYSICALLY FLINCHED and dropped down and ducked back into the dorito and came up shooting 10 seconds later. The ref who watched (or should have been watching) did absolutely nothing and allowed him to play on, shoot Scott, and then pinch me out of my standup with the other 4 players on his team. Ex #4 - Scott was in the Snake insert bunker with three people shooting at him. One of the tape refs checked him once, checked him twice, and checked him a third time and Scott had to finally physically push the ref off of him so he could get room to move. Scott then went to the snake when no one was looking and was taking advantage of having the whole other team still shooting the bunker he was previously at. The same ref then walked down the tape and checked Scott again in the snake for NO REASON, with no call from the other team for a paint check…then stood on the sidelines and stared at him in the snake which gave away his new position and got him shot. I could go on…there are more examples, but you guys get the idea…

The Players
As for the quality of players at the field that I had heard such good things about, that turned out to be a lie as well. From game one, SCP turned into Cheat Fest 2008! There was playing on, wiping up to 5 hits at a time, falsely calling paint checks, diving on hits, shooting through bunkers…you name it we saw it. There were several instances where players were running through 2 lanes of paint, getting lit up, getting to their bunker, wiping EVERYTHING off in front of the refs (already mentioned above) and playing like nothing happened. There were instances when we were shooting players in the gun, hopper, and face from bunker to bunker and they would just take the paint and keep on playing until they hit us with ONE BALL which we called ourselves out on. Soon as the game was over they would wipe the hits and walk off like they owned the place. The last game we played, I was the last man standing in a back corner against 3 (I think) and one of the players was in the snake. Instead of coming over the top or around the side, he pushed his gun and head THROUGH two snake pieces and shot at me then ducked back in which is illegal in all tournament series. I believe the third game we were playing it was down to a 5 on 3 with me, Scott, and our coach left against their 5. Our team captain from the sidelines walks out onto the field and stops the game after witnessing 2 of the opposing players run through streams of paint and wipe/dive on the hits to get rid of them. While he was walking into the game I shot their player in the center 50 in the face and hopper 3 times which he proceeded to wipe without changing positions, still looking, with his gun aimed at me. I could go on and on with examples of cheating various people on our team witnessed such as a snake player running through a stream of paint and the refs calling him clean, or the guy I shot in snake insert from the center 50 on the leg who just got up and ran the tape killing 3 of our players before getting called…but I think you guys get the point. Also, it was the week before XPSL so I assume all the players were using that as an excuse to finely hone their cheat-tastic skills on the people who were still playing fairly.

Conclusion
All in all with the horrible reffing, the cheating players, the lack of control on the field that should be for tournament practice, and the way the refs treated our team in particular makes me never want to play at SCP ever again. I personally would liken it to Paintball Jungle in American Canyon ; SCP is like the speedball version of the worst woodsball field in existence. From a players standpoint the situation at the field was appalling. If I can avoid playing at SCP in the future I will make every effort to, It was just about the least fun playing paintball I have ever experienced in the 7 years I've been playing. Sure there are fields that I have played at where the players were more aggressive and I have been shot more, however the games were run very well by the properly trained reffing staff. There are places where the players are amazingly nice and play honorable paintball still, even when practicing for tournaments which makes up for staff that is lazy and not well trained. But in my honest opinion as a first time player at a “normal” SCP Sunday, this field is a combination of the worst things in paintball, bad, untrained on-field staff, and moody, aggressive, cheating, players.