Camp Pendleton Paintball Park Recap

Good:

• Games were run on a very regular/timely basis (cycled through 14+ games while I was there), announcements were loud and clear
• I loved the bleachers
• Time limits in place for games
• Good organization; staff was tracking field usage, rotated us through all fields
• Refs walked out with all players
• Reasonably attentive staff/refs
• Splitting advanced and new players
• Attempted at least a little to balance teams
• OK pro shop; better than nothing
• Interesting and diverse field layout; it's really just a neat rec field overall
• Plenty of fill stations
• Good turnout of players
• Food truck on-site

Bad:

• REFS NEVER CHRONO'D GUNS
• Douchey players who were obviously buddies with the refs.  Not everyone, but too many.
• Loud music in staging area made it hard to listen for leaks
• Only one ref watching our group; this was the "intermediates" though
• Occasionally games run on adjacent active fields simultaneously
• Air fills were a little gimpy; no fill station that I tried actually went all the way to 3k
• Staging area/tables way too small for volume of business they had
• Some of the fields could use a wee bit more construction
• All games were elimination; no flag/objective based games at all
• Weird pricing -- it was actually $2 more expensive to play with your own euqipment and buy half a case than to rent;  fortunately I only used less than a bag the entire day

No data:

• Never visited the bathroom

Empire E-Vents

I picked up a set of these over the holiday break when Empire put them on sale (free E-vents with any Empire gun -- including the Trracer! Woohoo!).

I've been wearing a Vents Avatar for many years now, so that's sort of my baseline.

Differences:

• Earpieces are separate and are a harder design with metal grills built in
• Thus requiring small anti-rotation clips to prevent side panel rotation
• Slightly heavier than Avatar (need to measure)
• Minor difference in the mouth grill area

Pretty much all else is the same unless I missed something.

Personally, I still like the Avatar over the E-Vents.

• Avatar is lighter
• Single construction so you don't have rotating side panels or anti-rotation clips
• Side panels don't ride on my ears as much
• Better deal (my Avatar was cheaper, and it came with 2 thermal lenses; E-Vents only came with 1)
• Softer

About the only thing the E-vents have going for them is the fact that the side panels are removable, so the mask is a little easier to pack for travel.  So the E-Vents will probably be my travel mask.

Side note: I do not like clear lenses; smoke/ninja lenses are better because I seemed to be getting too much glare in my mask. I could actually see my own eyes in there.