There are always the arguments out there that pud players are always superior to custom players. In some if not most cases, that can be true. End of discussion. If you're not used to building and pud-style Unit Control you're going to suck at GoW, PoS, Rose Petal etc. The learning curve for puds is a lot greater. Certainly true. But, most pud players don't play custom maps, and when they do, they usually lose to a high tier custom player at their particular maps. This is also certainly true.
Paintball and other customs like AO, Chop etc. offer unique styles of game play that don't always translate from pud skill to custom skill. Contrary to what pud players think, they would NOT be a tier 1 customs player after 1 or even 100 games. However, there are particular players that have lasted throughout the War 2 eras that make up a different case. Please allow me to explain.
For example on a 5 tier paintball custom system (In no particular order):
Tier 1
xXxSmeagolxXx
MaStA{hR}
QUICK{hR}
PiRaTe{hR}
Tier 2
Flea
cLeTo
xCaL
kilaz_e_mastafu
$killa$Lancelot
Proof-Dealer
Crash3r
8)Mikulz(8
Tier 3
Evil~MANOWAR
TDK-Seedy
~Tora~
WarBandit
LordCaptainCook
Tier 4
Shanona413
ElmoDoesDrugs
Jessu0001
Tier 5
Tolist
gabrielrsrs
or other noobs
This is just an example.
Now, if you take most pud players, they would IMMEDIATELY fall into a tier 3 or high tier 4 roll, and probably rise to a tier 2 position in a week or two. To reach tier 2 in a pud, it could likely take a year or more of hard dedication. But, let's take Swift (Kyle) for example. An anomaly to the equation. He immediately falls into a low tier 2 position without having played a game. His war2 IQ is off the charts. He will forever be known as a top 5 player, and depending on who you ask, he is in the 1st-2nd of all-time discussion. Now, after about 1 week of playing paintball customs, he could easily rise into a lower tier 1 and irregularly beat the likes of Smeagol, QUICK, or myself. And with more practice after a small amount of time, we could see a more consistent .500.
This is just my 2 cents in comparing the two. I think custom play is valuable and the skills are different. I want to pay a tribute to all sides. I wouldn't mind including more players on my relative paintball tier system, but I can't think of any more players at the moment.
