Here is my review after playing a day at headrush in Syracuse:

a.. This place is right off the Thruway at the 690 exit (2 exits down).
It's easily accessible from the Thruway - about a 70 minute drive from
Rochester.
b.. It was easy to find if one followed the instructions on their website
(www.headrush.com). Note that you need to have cookies enabled to see this
site.
c.. The fields:
a.. This place was amazingly huge.
b.. They had three (yes three) complete airbunker fields available.
c.. One was the exact setup from the Tampa NPPL (they'd brought back the
entire Tampa setup airbunker from NPPL),
d.. The other two were X-ball type setups.
e.. All 3 fields were outside when I got there - each in their own
screened setup on all 4 sides. They were using only 2 of the 3 fields.
Each field had a good screened door, though The two X ball fields were set
up identical to each other. They were playing normal paintball on them -
not XBall.
f.. They also had a field similar to Compete's "tubes" speedball field
at the outdoor, but about 2x the size.
g.. They had poles up and were growing grass for another 2 fields worth
of paintball. In all they could easily host a national tournament with 5
full sized air bunker fields.
h.. All outdoor fields had normal grass. Not sure how long that will
last throughout the year of play...
i.. They had room inside for 2 complete full tournament sized airball
fields. The ground was dirt, but there was astroturf piled up outside
waiting to be installed. They were trying to dry the indoor ground more
before laying down the turf. In the winter they'll be able to host 2 full
sized nppl fields or one x ball field indoors.
j.. They were in the process of building a BMX/motorbike area to host
BMX bike and dirtbike events.
k.. They had an outdoor field that was roughly the size of ONE of the
smaller of Compete's areas (IE pathetically tiny for most concerted
woodsball players). They had a couple of brush bunkers but it was anything
but old growth forest The trees might have been thick enough to hide
behind if there were 5 of them lined up side by side . Though there were a
few people playing woodsball it wasn't really their focus and you could
tell.
l.. They had cleared an area in the woods of pretty much all the trees -
looked like they were going to set up forts/buildings and maybe an urban
assault area there, though they were playing it close to their vests.
d.. Facilities
a.. There was a store, roughly the size, but not nearly the stock, of
Pro in Victor. Didn't assess prices as I'm not familiar with the prices at
other stores. They offer similar guarantees (labor free warranty for life,
install any part bought from them for free, etc.). They had plenty of room
to expand.
b.. There was a full snack bar with hots, hamburgs, pizza, popcorn,
various chips, sodas, sports drinks etc. Didn't eat there so I can't judge
the food.
c.. They had some rentals and a repair shop but I didn't get the feeling
that was a huge deal for them. Air was self serve, CO2 was done by the guys
behind the counter and appeared to be included in the entry (Though the
website said it was $3 a fill). Didn't check out rental prices but I think
they're on the website. The air station was nicely done with the whip tied
down so even if it blew off (which it didn't) it wouldn't hit anyone or
become a danger. There was however only one air station so between games
the line could get long.
d.. There were clean bathrooms, with decent plumbing and stalls.
e.. All floors were concrete and very clean.
f.. No idea about locker rooms/setup areas for the indoor - they didn't
have them open.
g.. Outdoor setup areas consisted of about a dozen picnic tables and one
spool. They were ok but already getting crowded.
e.. Refs
a.. In the morning there were adequate refs for the fields. By the
afternoon when a couple of private parties joined the fun there were times
when a ref wasn't available to keep the open rec players busy. They had a
ref assigned to each private party and the other refs were frequently off
doing other things so we sat around waiting for someone to ref us on the
field. There was a goodly crowd of open players in the morning that rapidly
thinned through the afternoon. By 5pm I was gone.
b.. The Refs were very good about safety. They would monitor the
"airlocks" out of each field and be sure that everyone was barrel bagged and
safetied before they went out. I saw them admonish several people who were
going around without barrel bags in the open zone. There was very little
unsafe behavior - but they also didn't actually penalize anyone for
disobeying rules so if they don't get on it people could get complacent. I
had to admonish one kid that was shooting at phone poles in the setup area
where people didn't have masks. His parent was nowhere to be found and
there were no refs around at the time.
c.. Refs were polite and respectful of both newbies and experienced
players. They made a concerted effort to set up relatively even teams, but
didn't break up groups that wanted to play together. Nicely handled I
thought.
d.. Refs tended to be game starters, enders, and to occasionally yell to
let players out of a bunker once they were declared out. Other than that
they stayed near the door or exit to the play area. I felt they should have
been more active, had shields etc. for the open play players.
e.. There was virtually no paintchecks or reffing of hits per-se. They
were not doing their job on that score.
f.. Though people were pretty well behaved there was no admonishments
for overshooting.
g.. The non-ref staff was friendly and helpful
f.. General rules
a.. 280FPS was the limit and it was well maintained with hand-held
chronos as people entered the field. There was a full sized chrono set up
later in what I would call an unsafe area of the field (not separated from
the setup area by a net). I would have preferred to see this behind
netting.
b.. The refs had adequate tools for helping people adjust chrono speed.
c.. Bunkering was allowed even with open play and even with little kids
in play.
d.. Guns weren't allowed past certain points in the field and this was
pretty significantly enforced.
e.. Mask on in field was strictly enforced.
f.. Barrel bags off field were strictly enforced.
g.. No one was checking tanks to ensure safety
h.. They were able to easily accommodate both private parties and open
play at the same time.
g.. Downsides
a.. Paint was $80 a case. Not outrageous considering the size of the
place but not cheap either.
b.. Not sure what the normal field fee is, but I got a $20 unlimited air
all day pass. I think they have a 1/2 day pass as well.
c.. There was no mask cleaning area or outside water available to clean
masks. People were snitching toilet paper from the restroom and/or spitting
on masks to clean. It would be relatively easy to set up a mask cleaning
station but it wasn't there.
d.. I don't think the inside area is done yet, so lighting wasn't up and
the floors were very muddy.
e.. They were in the process of digging drainage ditches because the
newly seeded upper fields were still pretty soggy. The drainage ditches
appeared to be working though.
f.. Some of the air bunkers weren't properly staked down in one of the
X-ball fields and blew onto the other X-ball field making some impromptu
bunkers.
g.. The bottoms of the screens weren't well attached. In the wind they
blew up enough that I considered it a danger that a stray paintball might
come through and hit a kid at toddler level. There were toddlers running
around picking up unbroken paint to play with - some near the screens. No
one gave them any trouble or directed them way. Some paint occasionally
went over the net between fields. At least one person got hit sitting at
their setup table by a mostly spent round.
h.. Event notes
a.. They had a truck there from National Paintball with merchandise
b.. They had a representative from the Carousel Mall there with a raffle
for a drawing to sporting goods stores. Two bored looking gals were there.
c.. They brought two Hooters girls that looked like they were still in
high school, had them tour around and pose with Rhythm. It was pretty lame
d.. They had 2 or three different bands on a stage that as fortunately
several hundred feet away. The attendance at the bands was pretty
lackluster, but fortunately they were far enough away that you could still
hear to play.
e.. In keeping with the "xtreme sports" theme there was a booth from a
local piercing and tattoo place there doing on-site piercing and tattoos.
Cheers,

Firefly