Comments on Mani's Review

Mani Monday, April 30th, 2007 Period of Field Use: Just once Date There: April 29th, 2007 Paintball Experience: More than 5 years Other Fields in the Area: Skyline in Strasburg - Played here countless timess. Great field, friendly owners, on-point refs, excellent prices (cases are much cheaper than PEVs). All around a great walk-on experience. Directions to the Field: 20136, Gant Lane, Leesburg, VA, 20175. From the Capital Beltway - Take 495 to Rt. 7 West. Go 20.6 miles and turn Left at light on Rt. 653 (just after Goose Creek), follow Rt. 653 for 3.8 miles. Bear Left at all forks in the road and follow signs. From Northern Virginia Area - Take the Dulles Greenway Toll Road (Rt. 267 until it ends. At Exit 1B take exit ramp to the light. Make right on Sycolin Road (Rt. 643). Go 2.6 miles to Cochran Mill Road. Turn left and go .7 miles to fork. Go Right on Gant Lane. Follow the signs to parking area. From Gaithersburg, Maryland Area - Take Whites Ferry into Virginia and make a Left onto Rt. 15. Follow Rt. 15 until it splits and bear to the Left on Bypass 15 (do not take Business 15). Follow Bypass 15 to Sycolin Road (Rt. 643). Make Left at Light. Go 2.6 miles to Cochran Mill Road. Turn Left and go .7 miles to fork. Go Right on Gant Lane. Follow the signs to parking area. From Frederick, Maryland Area - Take Rt. 15 South to Bypass 15 and follow Bypass 15 to Sycolin Road (Rt. 643). Make Left at Light. Go 2.6 miles to Cochran Mill Road. Turn Left and go .7 miles to fork. Go Right on Gant Lane. Follow the signs to parking area. Review: Price - It's expensive to play at PEVs.....that's the bottomline. Field paint is expensive-cases start at around $65 for paint that won't bust in your barrel (the same case will normally will run you $45 on actionvillage.com) note: they have a decent selection of paint, but don't buy that whitecase crap they sell in the shop. If you're forced into buying field paint, I'd recommend Draxxus Blaze as fairly reasonably priced ammo for it's quality. Food is somewhat reasonable ($2.50 for h'dogs and gatorade, but I recommend bringing your own water/drinks) All day nitro is $13 (indiv fills for $3/5 for 3000/4500). Fields - Great selection of fields if you enjoy Woodsball. Our walk-on group didn't touch any airball, but we did play a hybrid Woodsball/Hyperball field. You don't return to the "car" area until lunchtime and then at the end of the day, so you'll have to carry your own paint/anythign else you require throughout the day with you from field to field. Not too big of a deal but some might view this an weakness. Unless you wanna soak your shoes, I'd avoid compound. It's a decent setup and everything, but you have to walk through a river/steam that's about a foot deep to get to your starting area. Might not be the best choice at the beginning of the day as it can ruin the rest of your experience there. Players - PEVs walk-ons seems more advanced than the other fields I've played on. There's a fair mix of people renting guns, and ones who have their own, but there weren't many who seemed like it was their first time out. If you're new to the sport I'd recommend trying to get a larger group together (I think it's 20+ or so) This will allow you to play on your own field separate from the walkons, as they can be fairly advanced and the pace can be intimidating for first-timers. There were a fair amount of wipers - something you'll experience on every field, but if the REFs were more on point it wouldn't have been so easy for em... moving on. Refs - Refs seemed pretty clueless the entire day. They'd walk off and chat it up when they should be watching people for hits. Some of the fields are quite large - time would expire and there would still be people out on the field playing because they failed to continue blowing the whistle to signal the end of the game. Teams were unbalanced throughout most of the day. Refs attempted to do multiple counts throughout the day to keep things even but it didn't help much - at least they tried. On a plus side they did keep the games going fairly quickly without any unnecessary downtime. Facilities - A decent onsite proshop. They fill 30/45 tanks as well as c02 from the main shop (basically in the center of all the fields and right next to where the cars are parked. Food - They've got hotdogs for lunch - they're $2.50 a piece...might wanna bring your own sandwich or something as they were pretty well done. Gatorade/Water for $2.50 as well (bring your own cooler with some water) Strengths: Nice selection of fields, friendly walk-on players, quick pace between games that allowed you to refill but didn't allow for a whole lot of sitting around wasting time. People working on the proshop were friendly and helpful. Weaknesses: Price - field paint is expensive, food is fairly reasonable but I recommend bringing your own water/drinks, all day nitro is $13 (indiv fills for $3/5 for 3000/4500). Refs did a pretty horrible job the entire day...weren't nearly enough to accommodate the 35vs35+ games they put together for the walk-ons. Teams were unbalanced throughout most of the day. No bridge to cross over the Compound river (seriously...?) Conclusion: Despite the weakness I listed, I'd still recommend PEVs for people looking for an "advanced" walk-on experience. You're gonna be playing against alot of electro's with fast rates of fire - not an experience you wanna subject a beginner to. I'd go back but next time I'll be bringing my own paint and food though. Last edited on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 8:02 am PST