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pbReview.com / Empty Hopper Paintball Field / Empty Hopper Paintball Field / Empty Hopper Paintball Field / Empty Hopper Paintball Field
Empty Hopper Paintball Field
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Reviews: |
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Website: |
Click here to visit the field's website. |
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Email: |
N/A |
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Phone: |
231-832-4034 |
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Location: |
Reed City, Michigan 49677
USA |
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Distance: |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
April 22nd, 2007 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
4 years |
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| Review: |
The Empty Hopper is a great field. It has helpful staff and is a good size for the area. They have a wide range of equipment from begginner to advanced gear and if Steve dosn't have it he'll order it for you. They have good rates, only $15 for 4 hours of play and air. They have games for players ranging from beginner to advance, and the games go fast so you get plenty of play time. They keep the field up great and it's fully carpeted. I've been reffing their for about 2 months and Steve is a great guy to work for. The Empty Hopper also offers an outdoor field during the summer. Steve also dose privet parties for a good price. Overall, it's a great field, and I would recommend it to anybody.| Last edited on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 8:07 am PST |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
February 11th, 2007 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
3 months |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
dont know of any yet |
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| Review: |
its a nice field, havnt played outside one yet, it could be better if it was bigger, and if the carpet was one big peice, ive been working there for a few weeks now(cleaning after games), and now ive been offered to reff there, hope its good, oh and the names Joe 16 years old |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
January 28th, 2007 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
2 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
b2b |
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| Review: |
I have been playing paintball for about 2 yrs, Im not good, I just like to go out and have some fun with friends and have a good time. I have a 9 yr old son who has taken an interest into playing, and so I thought it would be a good idea to bring him out and let him watch everyone play. He loved it . We asked Steve if it would be alright if my son could go out into the indoor field after everyone was done playing and shoot my gun and kind of see what it was like. Steve was more than happy to let him go out and play. I even thought about letting him shoot at me but I was already beaten up! But anyway thank you Steve for showing us great hospitality and having a good family oriented place. |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
June 3rd, 2006 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
3 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
mayhem... indoor, reball what else can be said |
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| Review: |
Empty hopper is a really nice place to play the staff is super friendly they'll help you with any problem that you can possibly have. It's really really affordable, 10$ field fee and 5$ byop as well as really reasonable paint prices starting at 11$ for 500. This place cant be beat, other than the overall quality of the field. The only reason i say this is because every time I have played here its been 85-90 degrees and the field is in the open with no shade in the staging area. I would highly recommend this field to any one. the refs are pretty decent at their jobs but could be more involved. Compared to mayhem which is the other field that i have played at, its just not as clean but that can be expected for an out door field. |
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| The accuracy of this review is disputed. Please see discussion on the comments page. |
Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
September 11th, 2005 |
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Paintball
Experience: |
More than 5 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
Fields all over Michigan and the United States
Atomix
Futureball
Loneworld
Hollywood Sports Park
PEV's
SC Villiage |
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| Review: |
Empty hopper...where to begin?
So the hopper held a tournament recently and i figured, ok it should be fun so my new team decides to sign up as a division II team, meaning no prior tournament experience, and no major sponsorships. Captains meeting at 11 am sharp, if your late your disqualified.
Well at 11 only 3 of the 5 registered teams were there and they decide to postpone the captains meeting and they dont end up starting it until 1 pm after the other two teams arrived!! 2 hours after it was scheduled to begin. Thats Strike one
Well turns out a team that was playing there was sponsored by MacDev, a major paintball company, playing in a D2 tournament..maybe its just me but i dont think MacDev just sponsors any team with out having some tourney experience. So we have a team of fully sponsored people playing with people who have never played a tournament. Thats strike two empty hopper
Now in the captains meeting a decision was made that there would be 2 rounds...one round on the out door field, one on the indoor field, and then the finals would be held on the indoor field also. We all agreed on this and it went according to plan until that after round 2 indoors the MacDev team complained that it was better outside. (They only said this cuz they showed weakness on the airball field) They suddenly switched the finals to the outdoor field...strike three! your out. (but wait im not done yet)
So you think this would be enough to make you upset, well theres more. Before the tournament, when you registered and paid your entry fee you were handed a rule book with good rules, that we all agreed on. Rules specifically stated, "Guns may ramp and bounce, but markers exceeding 15 bps will be disqualified and a penalty assesed to the team," and "Uncontrollable markers will be disqualified and a penalty assesed to the team." Most of these rules were completely ignored by the refs. The MacDev team had guns bouncing well over 15 and couldnt control them? what is that? an uncontrollable marker allowed in a tournament? Thats a major frown apon thing for all the spectators there. Thats not even mentioning that the refs allowed a player on the MacDev team to play with their ego..bouncing over 15 a second. Another thing that I noticed, when a ref says games closed in 30 seconds, doesnt that mean that the game will begin in 30 seconds? I witnessed one game that the ref called his game closed in 30 seconds and the MacDev team realized that they were almost out of air..shame shame on not filling your tanks, so they ran outta the field to get the air filled and come back 4 minutes later only to get right back into the game, no penalty assesed...The refs waited 4 minutes to start a game after the game closed in 30 seconds is called. What is that?!
But wait- theres more..The reffing was the appitimy of terrible. Paint checks ran decently, but their calls were inconsistent and were just terrible. One game, the MacDev team was playing another team. Its down to a 1 on 1 and the ref calls the MacDev man out...so the player on the other team comes out and goes to get the flag when all of a sudden the same ref calls the MacDev player clean and put his armband back on. MacDev man then proceeds to shoot out the other player who is standing in the open. Few games later, a team gets called a 1 for 1 because a guy walked out yelling which is an acceptable call, but according to the rules they are supposed to get a warning first. Not only that, but that had pulled the player after he had proceeded to move to a new bunker. This cost the team the game and placing in the tourney.
There were so many more occasions where the reffing was disappointing and showed favoritism towards "certain" teams.
This is not to reflect poorly on the owner Steve, cuz hes a great guy..but goodness, get some better refs and run your next tournament better. Just to let you all know, this isnt the first time that the reffing here has been extra bad, its happened to me on numerous occasions.
Prices were good, but the outdoor field layout was terrible..limiting movement and not giving any decent bunkers to play from. The indoor field was better though.
Overall the field gets a 4/10 because of its reffing and running of the tournament.
If you like getting jipped on reffing calls and just bad officiating then stop on by the "empty" hopper.| Last edited on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 9:06 pm PST |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Date There: |
N/A |
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Paintball
Experience: |
3 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
b2b hanna howa |
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| Review: |
Good
1. Realy good store well stocked with equipment and good prices as well
2. Friendly employees who try to enforce the rules when not being broken by some field staff.
Bad
1. The field is a bit small not recomended for slugish players or people who like to stratigize.
2. The concrete floor not recomended for any body who wants to take a chance with a minor or major concusion.
3. Netting that allows for players to curve balls around bunkers and basicly cheat an out.
4.The neglect of the enforcement of rules toward players who work at the feild.
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Date There: |
N/A |
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Paintball
Experience: |
More than 5 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
Spike Camp... cannot compare... Spike Camp is outdoors/ Empty Hopper is Indoors.
Atomix....Atomix was nice, but too far of a drive and was a little on the expensive side. |
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| Review: |
Let's start with prices... Are decent. About the same as online with shipping, maybe a little less. I would buy from Empty Hopper before buying online to help support our growing sport as would any TRUE paintballer that cares about this sport. Field Fees are good. 20 dollars for 6 hours of play with 40 ounces of co2 at an indoor field. Believe me, the prices are good.
How about the field... I didn't have a problem with the carpet remnant flooring-it is alot better than bare concrete-not slippery and a little softer. Air bunkers are nice as always. Size of the field is only 2 feet shorter and 2 feet narrower than a NPPL 3man field... so that is good. It is heated.
Staff was excellent except for one thing... one guy didn't know how to fill CO2. I neglected to bring my comp/air tank and ran with CO2 for the day. Not a big deal, but, you should still know how to fill CO2 if you're going to be declared "Staff" at a field or store. IT WAS JUST ONE GUY. Please keep that in mind. There was alot of staff on hand and they were all really nice, courteous and friendly.
I live an hour to an hour and a half away from this place and have indoor field playing options. Empty Hopper is my 1st choice.
By the way, safety is big with these guys, so parents can feel confident.
I have to give these guys an 8 because the staging area is small and the lighting is not the brightest. Not bad, but I've seen better. |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
N/A |
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Paintball
Experience: |
2 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
Mt.Pleasent was the closet one around the area. |
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| Review: |
Good Things Bad Things
1. Indoor 1. A little 15 year old annoying ref that thinks
2. Heated he knows everything about the sport.
3. Desent Size 2. The c02 filler doesnt know what he was
4. Good layout of Bunkers really doing he never filled them all the way
5. Good Prices up and didnt know how to work the on/off
6. Great guns for everyone valve.
3. Diffrent carpet needs to be all one piece
instead of liitle pieces of carpet.
IF I WERE A JUDGE I WOULD RATE THIS COURSE 6.5 OUT 0F 10 |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Date There: |
N/A |
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Paintball
Experience: |
3 months |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
just woodsball on state land (off 17 mile) |
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| Review: |
Just had my first indoor field experience here, and while it took some getting used to after playing nothing but woodsball, i was overall impressed. It's an airfield in a fairly small building, but i guess that just makes for faster pace games. Everyone in previous reviews has commented on the lack of carpet, but it is now *fully* covered with remnants of different carpet pieces... but don't worry, they are well fastened down, and I didn't have any trouble w/ tripping over the edges.
The staff was great, good refs, and like mentioned before, they'll play with you if you have low numbers.
Paint prices I thought were reasonable... they had low end paint on up to good stuff.
I guess my only gripe was the field fee... 20 bux for all day, two fills of choice; but then again, it is all day, so I'm not sure if other fields have time limits.
Overall: good place. My group and I had a blast once we got the hang of speedball. Definitely a place to check out. |
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Period of
Field Use: |
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| Last There: |
N/A |
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Paintball
Experience: |
More than 5 years |
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Other Fields
in the Area: |
Breakout (probably closed now....lol)
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| Review: |
Well the emptyhopper has there outdoor field set up and WOW, this field gets better and better, no one, NO ONE, can beat the friendly staff, the pro shop rocks with tons of upgrades, and they have paint for as cheap as like 40 a case. they properly store their paint unilke other fields.
it was a blast to play there and will continue to do so.
keep it up guys. |
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