iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

Thinking back to Assassins and CTF at Cambridge, the XP 105 was unusually common. Also saw a lot of XP 240s. In both cases a major factor I think was someone having a bunch of them and being willing to lend. Some of the Storm guns were much-loved for their great range; having been on the wrong end of one I can testify to their effectiveness. Flash Floods were pretty common too, possibly because for a while they were the best thing around.

CPSes were certainly common, but not over-dominant. The smaller ones, like the 1000, tended to be some of the most highly-rated. Both games have factors that count against CPSes.

1) They're sometimes banned altogether, like in most dorms in Assassins and in cooler weather in CTF.
2) Both games have mixed weaponry; it's not just water blasters, you have nerf guns, rubber-band-guns, and thrown objects (anything blunt labelled "knife" in Assassins, rolled-up newspapers and tennis balls in CTF) as well. So if you have a small water weapon, packing a bunch of throwables will force the CPS users to stay back.
3) In both running can be very important. I usually went light in CTF, carrying a Stingray and newspapers; in direct combat I may be outgunned, but I got a good number of flag captures, and thus round victories, thanks to speed. Even a CPS 1000 would have slowed me too much.
4) In normal Assassins games, if your weapon is visible, any player can shoot you, whereas if it can't be seen (even if it's blatantly hidden under a jumper or something) only a few players are allowed to shoot you. So small weapons rule (although a CPS 1500 can, just about, be hidden under a gown.)

I really got into soakerdom and made concentrated efforts to organize battles around 2006, going by that, our battles consisted of whatever soakers a group of 13-14 year-olds (many of whom were not that interested in actively playing) could get. Going by memory:
1) Every other person had a Flash Flood.
2) There were a few Blazers.
3) I used my Lightning so often that it has to be counted, even though I was the only person who had one.
4) Probably Max-D 5000