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Overshooting: A topic that really ticks me off.
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Action Pursuit Games magazine recently took some kind of poll reguarding the subject of Overshooting.
I didn't see the poll but I'm seeing a lot of posts about it in rec.sports.paintball. Well, opinions
on the subject vary. Here's mine.
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The topic of APG's poll I gather, was something to the effect of 'should there be a rule that
if you shoot someone 4 or more times then you eliminate yourself as well' I say, heck yes. This rule
makes a lot of sense. I've read a ton of arguments against this rule and I'm not buying any of them.
There just isn't a valid excuse for shooting someone in excess of three times and in 99+ percent of
all cases, one hit should be enough. Tournament pressures and outright cheating on the behalf of tournament
players has lead some to believe that it's better to shoot someone multiple times to ensure that he 'doesn't
shoot you before the ref calls him out.'
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While this argument is not without it's validity we must consider the price we pay for this
action. There are times when more experienced players face new players. While better fields try to
avoid it. It is impossible at the smaller fields who simply do not have enough players to seperate the
experienced and novices. What impression does it leave on a first time player when some hormonally challenged
loser with a $$$ semi-auto shoots him 4+ times? I've seen it too many times. The maddest I have ever
been as a result of something pertaining to paintball was while I was reffing a small local tournament.
Players of various skill levels had signed up, from ten year veterans to first time novices. One game
saw a group of highly experienced tournament players facing a group of kids who were playing their first
game. One of the tourney players 'bunkered' one of the novices. I was watching the whole thing. The
poor kid was too scared to even raise his marker, so he made himself an easy mark. The tourney player
rushed him and fired a long string of shots. The kid was hit seven times from his ankle to his head.
I was so mad I had to be escorted from the field. To me, this was nothing more than pure sadism.
Any player with even a scrap of human decency could have handled this same situation with anywhere from 0-1 shots.
I suspect this kid would have cheerfully surrendered, if not, shoot him in the foot.
I don't know, but I suspect that kid never played another game of paintball. Worse yet, he probably told ten of his
friends what a bunch of psycho's paintball players are.
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That same player who overshot the newbie repeated this action several times throughout the day, shooting numerous
players in excess of 3 times each. This resulted in several more arguements and generally ruined what had been an otherwise fairly smooth tournament. His argument?
'There was no rule against it so why risk loosing an elimination.' Technically, we the
referee's were powerless to do anything about it. Several later games involving this player deteriorated into shouting and shoving matches between the more experienced
players whose prizes were on the line. What a wonderful impression to leave on the novices. Am I for an overshoot rule? Heck yes.
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