Carolina Riot

Not that it's a big deal, at least certainly not at this point, but I think a recent post of mine was interpreted the wrong way, so I'll do what I do best and get long-winded about it (HA HA).

No matter what shape my personal finances are in or how much free time I have, I prefer to play paintball with friends, as opposed to packing my gear & showing up anywhere to play with people I might have seen around, but don't know. And the friends I prefer to play with is the Riot team. I doubt that is really any different from you, especially if you subtract speedball and pump only play from the equation. And while the past 12 months have been the exception for me, due to my sister passing away and then I had surgery followed by physical therapy, I typically play paintball several times a year with friends not on our paintball team. It's all good. I am not a baby that's scared to go alone, but rather I prefer to roll with friends (& family), because that's what I enjoy most--thus I maximize my enjoyment to dollars spent ratio. I like to get the most for my money & actually put some thought in to it toward that end.

The reality though is that times right now are difficult and demand prudence. If you have the money to go to every paintball event anywhere around, well I say good for you and I'm truly happy for you. I rarely am in a situation where I feel as though I can afford to attend as many events as I like, anywhere I like. For example, we are on a 36 hour production work week right now and those of us in MGT had to take a pay cut. I also am making less money at this time from my side job as a property manager because one of my owners decided to sell rather than rent their home.

So, when it comes to big games, 1 day or 24 hour versions, I'd be rather stupid to attend at random, since I know in advance that attending one game means no money for a future game. For example, I might have the money to attend 2 straight big games, but then have zip left for the next game that comes up. And what if, of those 3 games, the 3rd one is the one I'd most like to attend? Well in order to avoid that, I've got to try & look ahead & do some figuring. This might sound stupid to you, but it strikes me as smart. In fact, it's what I believe I have witnessed others doing the entire time I've been involved with the team. There's only so much time & money, so people ration it out to the events most appealing to them.

Now as far as how many team members go to a game, I personally look for 5 minimal, but definitely prefer 6 or more. Remember now, I'm bringing 3, so we're not talking major numbers past my own involvement here. Still, recent experience has taught me that numbers alone don't necessarily do it. The last game I remember playing was at PBC, where we had at least 7 guys playing, either team members or guys that came to roll with us. Lacking Shrub's or Merliu's organizational skills, we didn't have the cohesiveness we usually do, which was mostly a direct result of one simple blunder, which was failing to camp together. It wasn't that none of us in attendance were leaders, I just think that none of us were used to even thinking about such details because we'd never had to. We all still had fun, but it could have been even better. I also realized that it could have been worse.

So yes, it concerns me whenever I plan on attending a game and Shrub or Merliu isn't going to be there. First, because they are used to taking care of the details and 2nd, because their attendance tends to motivate more members in to really trying hard to show up. Not they are the only ones that have an extra, positive effect. One example of several I could name is Doc. He is such go-getter that he raises my own expectations of myself.

So to finally get close to concluding, when I post that I'm trying to figure out if a game is worth my wild to attend, I'm just doing what most of you do to one extent or another too, I'm just being up front about it, because I don't know any way to find out what the participation level is before I spend the money.

Not going to a game due to a lack of team participation may not be a valid excuse for not going, but until I have so much money that I can attend any event, any where & at any time, what else can I do? How else can I make sure I spend my financial resources wisely?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this, so I can know if you understand where I'm coming from and so I can understand how you evaluate these issues, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs to watch their money.

It can be as simple as a reply saying "yeah, I understand what you're saying & I pretty much do something similar" or "yeah, I understand what you're saying, but this is how I look at that stuff..yada yada yada"

Thanks in advance