Cheating

You Wont See Me wrote: The problem is, with the new "cheater boards" the ramping is turned on by a rythm of pulling the trigger and then can be turned off by simply not pulling the trigger for like 2 seconds. Then the ramping is virtually undectectable because everytime a ref comes to check you you stop firing for like 2 seconds untill the ramping turns itself off. THen when he leaves you just turn it back on.

This, to me, is the best possible argument why there shouldn't be any rules at all about firing modes.  It's basically an unenforceable rule.

A much easier way to control ROF (if in fact we want to do that) is to limit the amount of paint you can carry.  If going from 20bps to 12bps means you won't run out of paint, that will tend to limit your crazy shooting.

tightness79 wrote: What does ramping do?

It is a program on the electronic control boards that allow scum bag players to increase rate of fire, ball velocity or both during play. The cheat mode starts up with certain trigger pull sequences or as rate of pull increases. The intension is to have a marker that works normally as a semi-auto in the chrono shack or when the ref checks you on the field.

Saw a chrono check on the field a couple of weeks ago where the ref told the player to fire three shots. The ref recorded  300, 400 then 500 fps in those three shots. The ref kicked him off the field. Should have banned him for life.

I have been hit by a ball going 500 fps on my calf through heavy weight Levis. The spot didn't bruise, it was turned to hamburger. The injury took 4 weeks to heal. 500 fps punched through an old pair of goggles on which I tested that velocity. I hope when cdacda13 finally injures someone seriously they bring criminal charges against him.

Even at 300 fps I can knock your goggles off your face with a 1.5 second burst at 30 bps.

Clark Kent wrote: This is only the second time I have every heard of "velocity ramping".  I can't speak to that. But ROF ramping is fairly common, and is PERMITTED on many fields, as well as under current XPL rules.  So it is a bit of a generalization to use terms like "scum bag" and "cheat mode" when describing this technology.  Both the Tippmann E-Grip and E-Bolt have a Turbo (ramping) mode, for instance.

Yes, but those modes cannot be accessed during play. Just because controls are available it does not mean honorable people will use them. I run an E-Bolt but have never accessed burst or turbo mode even when testing the marker in my backyard. I play speedball every weekend. This is recreational and we are having problems with bps and velocity ramping. When caught, a rarity, the excuse is, "Hey, the pros do it!"

Some fields are making ramping legal because they cannot figure out how to police it. IT WAS NOT LEGAL UNTIL FIELDS FOUND THE "SEMI-AUTO ONLY" UNENFORCEABLE DUE TO CHEAT BOARDS...WHICH WERE A CONCERTED EFFORT TO GET AROUND THE RULES. These ramping modes are cheating and the scum bags who use them are still scum bags. Such cheating will drive me out of the sport and my son will not be allow to play for fear of serious life changing injury. I will lobby other parents to remove their kids from play due to the possibility of serious injury.

The only workable solution I see is to limit the amount of paint each player is allowed to have on the field for each game. I suggest a full hopper and one pod with a maximum of 400 balls in possession...no paint sharing and no deadman pod pick ups.

Clark Kent wrote: Again, check your local rules.  Where I usually play, we have guys playing full auto, ramping - I have my RT Mag bouncing wildly at 20+ bps.  None of us are cheating. And that has been the rule since the dawn of time - it's a very old field.  This is not a new change.  Where I play, nobody is trying to "get around the rules" - the rules allow whatever we want to bring, so long as we stay under 275.  That's the way it has always been. Nobody has gotten hurt yet (from getting shot with a paintball).  I occasionally host a true semi only game, but that is not from fear of injury, but because I don't want to freak out the 20+ rookies playing with Prolites. I would suggest to you that there are thousands of people playing at fields that never had a "semi-only" rule, or play in their back yard, where they make up their own rules.  The semi only rule exists in some places, and only recently.  Judging all rampers by your local rules is not fair.

Goggles are rated for 300 fps by the ASTM standards. Due to the normal turtle pace of regulating bodies they are taking a while to come up with standards to regulate bps even though there are reports of goggles being pushed off faces and lens being popped out of frames at high bps rates of fire. Due to the abuse of velocity ramping coming into play combined with unlimited ROF several insurance companies are re-evaluating their policies for field coverage. There are rumors that the leagues may have problems with tournament insurance coverage if no method is devised to curtail ROF above 17 bps and velocity ramping modes. My point is that ramping modes fosters cheating of fields that do not allow full auto or velocities above 300 fps. It appears that if players can cheat where ramping is not allowed they will/they do. If ramping ROF because you can is acceptable then it is hardly a stretch to velocity ramping with the next step being OK to wipe.

People who cheat with ramping ROF and velocity where it is not legal are scum bags...is that clear enough??? Ramping velocity will become the next "legalized" mode because the player can get away with it. I may be wrong, but from what I read none of the pro tournaments started out allowing full auto.

Cheaters!