Paintball

A woodsball player firing at opponents from behind cover. Note the stock and sights for woodsball style play.

Paintball is a game in which players eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint (referred to as a "paintball"), usually shot from a carbon dioxide or compressed-gas (HPA or Nitrogen) powered paintball gun (or marker).

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association estimates that over 5.4 million people played the game in the United States in 2007, with over 1.5 million playing at least 15 times.

Games can be played either indoors or outdoors and take various forms which are generally divided between woodsball played in natural, wooded terrain and speedball played on open, level fields with artificial obstacles.

Rules for playing paintball vary widely. The most common form involves two opposing teams seeking to capture their opponent's flag and return it to their starting position, but other objectives may include eliminating all of the other team's players or to completing some other objective, such as eliminating a specific player, defending or attacking a particular objective, or capturing objects of interest hidden in the playing area. Depending on the style of paintball played, a game can last from seconds to hours.

Paintball equipment

Main article: Paintball equipment

Paintball equipment varying depending on the type of paintball game being played and the skill level of those playing. Every player, however, is required to have two basic pieces of equipment:

• Mask: Necessary for players' protection.
• Complete paintball marker: Guns usually also require some sort of loader/hopper and propellant to work (CO₂, nitrogen or compressed air).

The most common gas propellant is CO₂, which is typically packaged in the four sizes of 9 oz, 16 oz, 20 oz, and 24 oz.. The larger 20 oz. tanks typically provide enough propellant for 800 to 1100 shots depending on the efficiency of the marker. CO₂ propellant is considered to be of lower quality compared to compressed air, but is cheaper to manufacture. CO₂ tanks sometimes malfunction when the temperature is lower than 50 degrees Fahrenheit, while compressed air tanks have a much wider operating temperature range.

Compressed air tanks come in 3000 and 4500 psi variations and typically have a volume of between 45 ci and 88 ci. The 3000 psi tanks can provide enough air for 500 to 1300 shots depending on the gun, while 4500 psi tanks can give 1000 to 2000 shots. HPA utilizes a regulator to keep the pressure output constant, which results in compressed air tanks being more consistent and accurate overall albeit pricier.

Regular paintballs are made of a gelatin shell filled with food coloring and vegetable oil. The gelatin shell is designed to break upon impact, however, bounces (ricochets) may occur. There are many types of paintballs, such as glow in the dark paintballs for use at night, scented paintballs, formulations for winter play, and more.

Reusable paintballs

A reusable ball is a rubber substitute for a paintball, but is often used when describing Reballs and other brands of reusable paintball-sized spheres. Most reusable paintballs are the same size as normal paintballs, but weigh less and do not contain a paint filling. They do not break open to leave a paint mark on players, so the lack of filling makes them practical for indoor locations where accumulation of paint from broken paintballs would be a problem. This fact also makes this form of paintball questionable, since no mark of paint is left, it allows players to cheat much more easily. A Reball is more expensive than a paintball, but since they can be cleaned and reused many times, they potentially have a lower cost per use. Some paintball parks have added dedicated reball fields, and some fields have actually gone exclusive with Reballs, eliminating the use of paintballs entirely. The primary use of Reballs, as intended initially by the manufacturer, is as a practice aid for teams who wish to save money by using reusable ammunition. Other manufacturers have created similar products, such as the V-Ball, a Velcro (hence the name V-Ball) reusable paintball. Reballs are also used at a lower velocity because of their inability to break on whoever they hit. For example, a Regular paintball will normally be shot at approximately 300 ft/s (91 m/s), but a Reball is supposed to be used at around 250 ft/s (76 m/s).

The term 'reusable balls' does not refer to paintballs that have been picked up from the ground. This 'loose paint' should not be used in a paintball marker, as groundwater or condensation may have swollen the paintball, which could cause a jam in the barrel, or rupture and foul the internal workings of the marker.

Paintball tanks (vehicles)

Main article: Paintball tank

Paintball tanks are a wide variety of vehicles sometimes used in woodsball events to eliminate large numbers of opponents by using protection and superior firepower. They can range from golf carts covered in plywood to real military tanks with real guns converted to fire paintballs. Many paintball sponsors and businesses sometimes have their own paintball tanks which they take to events.

Playing locations

A typical speedball field, consisting of inflatable paintball bunkers, often used for tournaments.

Most players prefer to go to commercial paintball parks, which charge for admission. These paintball parks usually feature different themed fields (e.g. woods, jungle, city, or historical battlefield), as well as a complex of speedball fields made up of inflatable paintball bunkers for speedball and tournament teams. Some commercial fields are indoors, allowing players to play when it is too hot, too wet, or too dark outside. Commercial fields also (but not always) provide such amenities as bathrooms, picnic areas, lockers, equipment rentals, air refills, and even food service. These fields adhere to specific safety and insurance standards and have a paid staff, including referees, whose job is to make sure players are instructed in proper play in a manner that ensures all participants' safety. In order to avoid liability, commercial fields strictly monitor paintball velocity with chronographs.

Players that find commercial fields to be too expensive or too crowded sometimes play on private land, often referred to as "renegade" play or "outlaw ball". Though less expensive and less structured than play at a commercial facility, the lack of safety protocols, instruction, and oversight means that the vast majority of injuries incurred by paintball players occur in these "renegade" games. Private landowners may also be liable for injuries sustained on their property, especially if they opt to charge fees for play.

Major scenario and tournament events may sometimes occur at other locations like fairgrounds, military bases, or stadiums, essentially turning them into temporary paintball parks. The same trained staff and insurance found at permanent commercial paintball parks can be found at these events.

A recently occurring trend in paintball is that of a mobile field, where a business primarily provides paintballs and paintball related services on land that they are using only temporarily. This is often done for the means of scenario gaming, to provide different tracts of land for players to play on.

Common rules of play

Rules of play vary widely among fields and tournaments, but some rules are commonly in force at many events:

Overshooting

Paintball players, mid-game

To overshoot (also called bonus balling or lighting up) is to repeatedly shoot a player after they are eliminated. Generally, a few extra shots after a successful break is considered overshooting. The practice is frowned upon by nearly all players. It is also considered overshooting if player knew the opponent was eliminated but continued to shoot, disregarding the safety of the opposing player. The penalty for overshooting in tournaments is usually a 3-for-1, the elimination of the guilty player as well as two other players from his or her own team, but each tournament has its own set of rules.

Blind firing

To blind fire is to discharge a gun around a corner or over an object without direct line of sight to the target, making the shooter unable to see where they are shooting. Blind firing is discouraged on many fields, for potential safety implications. As the shooter cannot see where their shots are landing, they could accidentally fire at somebody point blank, hit a referee, hit a person that had removed their mask (a major safety violation itself), or otherwise cause damage or injury through indiscriminately firing paint at an unseen target.

Ramping

Ramping refers to an electronically controlled marker increasing either its rate of fire (balls per second or BPS) or its paintball exit velocity (the speed at which the paintball leaves the barrel of the marker) when a player pulls the marker's trigger and then continues to keep the trigger pulled. Ramping of paintball exit velocity is extremely uncommon and prohibited in all tournament formats and on most paintball fields.

Ramping of rate of fire is widely prohibited at most paintball fields, however it is allowed in some tournament formats. Most of the major professional leagues modified their rules for 2008 to limit the maximum rate of fire to 13.3 balls per second versus the previous 15. For 2009, the PSP tournament series further limited the maximum rate of fire to 10 balls per second to reduce the costs of playing in a weak economy. Although it is possible for players to fire more than 13.3 BPS, doing this with ramping is disliked by some players, and is also regulated by PSP.

Wiping

"Wiping" means to remove a paintball hit from ones clothing after being eliminated. This is one of the most common rules that paintball players break. There are a number of penalties that could be given for wiping, but it depends on the situation. For example, if a paintball player wipes a paintball hit at the start of a game and is caught right away, the penalty might not be as severe.

Tournament paintball

Illinois State paintball team during the 2008 NCPA Finals.

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A 3-man tournament team at their starting station (also known as 'the break').

Organized paintball competition is nearly as old as the sport itself, starting with regional tournaments held at National Survival Game locations in 1983 and culminating in the National Survival Game National Championship (won by "The Unknown Rebels" from London, Ontario).

Though tournament paintball was originally played in the woods, the rise in popularity of teams such as Team Dynasty (then known as the IronKids) in the late 1990s saw speedball become the standard competitive format. The small size of speedball fields brings several advantages to competitive play. The artificial nature of bunkers allows each side of the field to be set up as a mirror image of the other, ensuring that neither team possesses a terrain advantage (as can be the case on woodsball fields). The flat, vegetation-free playing surface makes it easier for officials to see players and make the correct call and, coupled with the small field size, allows spectators to view the entire game at once or be televised.

Various leagues use different sets of game rules, commonly divided between newer repeat-point formats like XBall and RaceTo where a team plays multiple games against the same team, and traditional single-point formats where a team plays one game against several opponents. In both groups, the number of players on the field can vary from league to league or even division to division, although the most common number of players fielded at once is five, commonly referred to as '5-man'. '3-man' and '7-man' formats are also common, and while rare, 2-man, 4-man, 6-man and 10-man tournaments are not entirely unheard of. PSP and the Millennium Series use the RaceTo format, the USPL uses a 7-man format, and the National Collegiate Paintball Association uses XBall, 5-man, and 3-man formats.

Other variations on game rules include equipment restrictions, like limiting the number of paintballs that may be fired in a second, or prohibiting semi-automatic markers, or conducting competition in wooded areas with natural obstacles as opposed to level grass fields with artificial obstacles.

Due to the largely artificial nature of speedball, camouflage is of little strategic use. Clothing with camouflage patterns, common in wooded play, has been largely replaced in tournament play by distinctively colored team uniforms similar to those found in other competitive team sports.

The largest tournament event is the World Cup, including over 3,000 athletes and held each October at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Kissimmee, Florida.

Paintball leagues

Main article: Paintball league

National and international paintball leagues regularly offer organized tournaments attracting professional, semi-professional, and amateur teams, crowds of spectators, and cash prizes. These events are supplemented by smaller regional and local tournament events. Current major national and international leagues include Paintball Sports Promotions in the United States, the Millennium Series in western Europe, the Centrino series in Eastern Europe, the United States Paintball League in the US, and the National Collegiate Paintball Association in the US and Canada. They are supplemented by various regional and local leagues spread worldwide.

Professional play

Recently, professional players have started signing contracts and making earnings. Ex-Dynasty player Oliver Lang, widely regarded as the best player in the world, signed a 3 year contract with the Los Angeles Ironmen for $100,000. He later led them to victory in the 2007 and 2008 PSP World Cup. Many players see this as the next step to the acceptance of paintball as a legitimate sport.

Paintball terminology

Main article: Glossary of Paintball Terms [10]

Due to the unique nature of paintball and paintball equipment, players have developed a large body of jargon to describe the special kinds of tactics, equipment, phenomena, and even people found in the game. While most of the terms are neologisms, many are also borrowed from gamer and military culture.

Public perception

A paintball team prepares to breakout.

Paintball is played by over 5 million people in the United States each year. Branches of the U.S. military, such as the U.S. Army, have been known to utilize both paintball and airsoft as a supplement to military training, and in many (but by no means all) cases, airsoft games and players take on a military theme, especially regarding camouflage and terminology. However, some controversial incidents of either accidental and intentional misuse of airsoft guns resulting in personal injury or damage of property have occurred, though more likely arising from "outlaw" games.

Paintball supporters have combated these negative perceptions in several ways. Some attempt to de-emphasize military themes, for example by using less violent terms such as "marker" instead of "gun", or by wearing colorful athletic uniforms instead of camouflage. Media coverage of tournaments, teams, and scenario events shows that mainstream paintball possesses the same general level of sportsmanship, professionalism, safety, camaraderie and constructive competition as many other sports and activities. It includes diverse members consisting of many races, nationalities, ages, creeds, ideologies, and genders. As an organized sport, it bears no pattern of drawing criminals or inciting civil disturbance.

Since the sport's inception, its level of acceptance as a legitimate recreational activity among the general public has increased largely with greater exposure. It is believed by paintball's supporters that greater coverage and education of the sport will settle the controversy and lead to greater overall public acceptance.

Confusion with real guns

Some cities, such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, have banned the public possession of paintball guns along with other devices that look like lethal guns capable of firing bullets. The concern was prompted by gun look-alikes being used in a threatening manner, and the difficulty of determining whether a person carrying a paintball gun is actually carrying a lethal gun.

Safety statistics

Recent research has shown that paintball is one of the statistically safest sports to participate in, with 0.2 injuries per 1000 players annually. Looking at sports eye injuries alone, which paintball has been vilified for, an international study using 288 incidents has shown that of modern sports, paintball is responsible for 20.8% of all injuries. Furthermore, a one-year study undertaken by the Eye Emergency Department, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston has shown that most sports eye injuries are caused by basketball, baseball, hockey, and racquetball. Another analysis concluded that eye injuries incurred from paintball were usually in non-commercial settings where eye protective equipment such as masks were not required.

See also

• Airsoft
• Laser tag

External links

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