Paintball

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Paintball

Speedball players breaking out at the start of a game
Highest governing body	National Professional Paintball League
Nickname(s)	Speedball, Woodsball
First played	June 2, 1980, Henniker, New Hampshire
Characteristics
Contact	No physical contact between players
Team members	Varies, depending on game format. 3, 5, 7-man teams common in tournaments
Categorization	Extreme; Indoor or Outdoor
Equipment	Paintballs, Paintball marker, CO2, Compressed air, Hopper

Paintball is a sport in which players eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint (referred to as a "paintball"), usually propelled from a CO₂ 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 1.9 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 or natural 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, eliminating a specific player, defending or attacking a particular point or area, 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.

Contents 1 History 2 Paintball equipment 2.1 Paintball marker propellants 2.2 Paintball composition 2.3 Reusable paintballs 2.4 Vehicles 3 Games 4 Playing locations 5 Common rules of play 6 Tournament paintball 7 Paintball leagues 8 Professional play 9 Paintball terminology 10 Public perception 11 Legality 12 Safety statistics 13 See also 14 References 15 External links

[edit] History

In 1976, Hayes Noel, a stock trader, Bob Gurnsey, and Charles Gaines were walking home and chatting about Gaines' recent trip to Africa and his experiences hunting buffalo. Eager to recreate the adrenaline rush that came with the thrill of the hunt, and inspired by Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, the two friends came up with the idea to create a game where they could stalk and hunt each other.^[1]

In the ensuing months, the friends talked about what sorts of qualities and characteristics made for a good hunter and survivalist. They were stumped, however, on how to devise a test of those skills. It wasn't until a year and a half later that George Butler, a friend of theirs, showed them a paintball gun in an agricultural catalog. The gun was a Nelspot 007 marker manufactured by the Nelson Paint Company.^[2]

Twelve players competed against each other with Nelspot 007s pistols in the first paintball game on June 2, 1981.^[3] They were: Bob Jones, a novelist and staff writer for Sports Illustrated and an experienced hunter; Ronnie Simpkins, a farmer from Alabama and a master rhino hunter; Jerome Gary, a New York film producer; Carl Sandquist, a New Hampshire contracting estimator; Ritchie White, the New Hampshire forester; Ken Barrett, a New York venturer and hunter; Joe Drinon, a stock-broker and former Golden Gloves boxer from New Hampshire; Bob Carlson, a trauma surgeon and hunter from Alabama; Lionel Atwill, a writer for Sports Afield, a hunter and a Vietnam veteran; Charles Gaines; Bob Gurnsey and Hayes Noel. The game was capture the flag on an 80 acre wooded cross-country ski area.

Thereafter, the friends devised basic rules for the game fashioned along the lines of capture the flag, and invited friends and a writer from Sports Illustrated to play. They called their game "Survival," and an article about the game was published in the June 1981 issue of Sports Illustrated.^[4] As national interest in the game steadily built, Bob Gurnsey formed a company, National Survival Game, and entered a contract with Nelson Paint Company to be the sole distributor of their paintball equipment.^[5] Thereafter, they licensed to franchisees in other states the right to sell their guns, paint, and goggles. As a result of their monopoly on equipment, they turned a profit in only six months.^[5]

The first games of paintball were very different from modern paintball games; they often threw the paintballs at each other, and Nelspot pistols were the only gun available. They used 12-gram CO₂ cartridges, held at most 10 rounds, and had to be tilted to roll the ball into the chamber and then recocked after each shot. Dedicated paintball masks had not yet been created, so players wore shop glasses that left the rest of their faces exposed. The first paintballs were oil-based and thus not water soluble; "turpentine parties" were common after a day of play.^[2] Games often lasted for hours as players stalked each other, and since each player had only a limited number of rounds, shooting was rare.^[6]

Between 1981 and 1983, rival manufacturers such as PMI began to create competing products, and it was during those years that the sport took off.^[7] Paintball technology gradually developed as manufacturers added a front-mounted pump in order to make recocking easier, then replaced the 12-gram cartridges with larger air tanks, commonly referred to as "constant air".^[8] These basic innovations were later followed by gravity feed hoppers and 45-degree elbows to facilitate loading from the hopper.^[8]

The Nelspot pistols began to lose popularity as semi-automatic markers began to dominate the growing sport. Nelspot pistols are now considered to be a collector's item.

Later, Nelson Paint Company of MI, Inc. spun off into two separate companies: Nelson Paint Company, which is still focused on paints; and Nelson Technologies, Inc., commonly referred to as Nelson Paintballs, which still produces paintballs today. Oil-based paintballs are still available through the Nelson Paint Company and are still used for tree marking and for veterinary purposes. Nelson's oil-based paintballs have been used to mark animals on every continent of the world, including Antarctica.

[edit] 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 three basic pieces of equipment:

Item	Description
Paintball ammunition
Complete paintball marker	The paintball gun, known as a "marker", usually also requires some sort of loader or hopper and a propellant.
Mask	Necessary for the players' protection. Paintballs leave the barrel at almost 200 mph and a hit on the cheek will leave a scar. A hit in the eye will knock out that eye.

[edit] Paintball marker propellants

At this current time^[when?] paintball markers mostly use compressed air, as it has become cheaper to buy a simple 48ci 3000psi air tank. This is also the most consistent form of paintball propellant.^{[clarification needed]}

Paintball guns can also operate on CO₂ (carbon dioxide), which is typically packaged in the four sizes of 9 oz, 16 oz, 20 oz, and 24 oz. The larger 20 oz. tanks generally provide enough propellant for 800 to 1100 shots, depending on the efficiency of the marker. CO₂ propellant is considered to be of a lower quality then compressed air, but is cheaper to manufacture. CO₂ tanks sometimes malfunction (most commonly fire with inconsistent pressure) when the temperature is lower than 10 degrees Celsius (50 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.

[edit] Paintball composition

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

When dropped on the floor, groundwater or condensation may swell the paintball, which could cause a jam in the barrel, or rupture and foul the internal workings of the marker. Dropped ammunition is known as 'loose paint', and should not be used in a paintball marker.

[edit] 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). It is noteworthy that the composition of Reballs results in increased ricochets, depending on the surfaces that they hit.

The term 'reusable balls' does not refer to paintballs that have been picked up from the ground.

[edit] Vehicles

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. Although local paintballs parks usually don't make use of vehicles (since the cost of the vehicle and its maintenance can be prohibitive), tournaments and other 'sponsored' events will often feature several.

[edit] Games

There are many different ways to play paintball depending on the playing field. The most common styles of play include:

Name	Description
Capture the Flag	two teams try to attain an object (usually a flag) at the opponents base, and bring it back to theirs.
Elimination / Free For All	a form of 'last person standing'. Where every player is on his/her own.
King of the Hill	similar to the children's game, this version centers around the defense of a raised flag.
Zombie	several players are considered "zombies", and can only be killed by goggle hits, while they are free to 'infect' the other players by shooting them.
Speedball	named for the short, fast duration of a typical game, Speedball takes place in a small arena, divided into two halves. The object of Speedball is usually to take the flag from the center of the field and return it to your own half.
Tag	A player starts on, and tries to get another person out. When another player is hit, s/he is then on.
Ironman	One team is positioned in a reasonably fortified position on the field with a flag to defend and players are only considered "out" when they decide to forfeit from substantial hits or they run out of paint or air.

[edit] Playing locations

Many players prefer to visit commercial paintball parks, most of which which charge for admission.^{[citation needed]} These paintball parks usually feature fields with different "themes" (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 sometimes (but do not always) provide such amenities as bathrooms, picnic areas, lockers, equipment rentals, air refills and food service. Commercial fields usually 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. To prevent unscrupulous players from tampering with their paintballs (since a frozen paintball can penetrate a mask or cause other injury) most commercial fields do not allow 'outside' paint.

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. Scenario games can last for a week or more; while tournament games are generally the same length, a scenario game focuses on a single 'story' or setting (recreating a famous battle, for example, or 'Cops vs. Robbers'-style games).

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.

[edit] Common rules of play

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

Rule	Desciption
Overshooting	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 shooters cannot see where their shots are landing, they could accidentally fire at somebody point blank, hit a referee, hit a person that had removed his or her 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.[9] 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 specific penalties depend on the situation. Wiping is seen as a form of cheating by most regulated fields. A shot in the goggles or mask can be wiped but it is not advised as the paint will smear on the goggles so you cannot see at all.

[edit] Tournament paintball

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).^[10]

Though tournament paintball was originally played in the woods, the rise in popularity of teams such as San Diego 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 tactical 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.

[edit] Paintball leagues

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Paintball terminology

Look up glossary of paintball terms in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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.

[edit] Public perception

Paintball is played by over 5 million people in the United States each year.^[11] 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,^{[citation needed]} and in many (but by no means all) cases, airsoft games and players take on a military theme, especially regarding camouflage and terminology.^[12] Incidents of either accidental or intentional misuse of paintball and airsoft guns resulting in personal injury or damage of property have occurred,^{[citation needed]} though more likely arising from "outlaw" games.^{[citation needed]}

Paintball supporters have combated these negative perceptions in several ways.^[13] 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.^[14]

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.

[edit] Legality

Some cities, such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, have banned the public possession of paintball guns^[15] 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.

In May 2009, German lawmakers announced plans to ban games such as paintball on the grounds that they trivialised and encouraged violence^[16][17] but the plans were retracted a few days later.^[18]

[edit] Safety statistics

The rate of injury to participants has been estimated as 4.5 injuries per 10,000 participants per year.^[19] Recent research has shown that paintball is one of the statistically safest sports to participate in, with 0.2 injuries per 1000 players annually, ^[20] and these injuries tend to be along the lines of tripping, etc. 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.^[21] 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.^[22] Another analysis concluded that eye injuries incurred from paintball were usually in settings where eye protective equipment such as masks were not required, or were removed due to fogging.^[23] Although almost all eye injuries occur when protective equipment is not properly used, such injuries often cause devastating visual loss.^{[24] [25]} For safety, most regulated paintball fields strictly enforce a 'masks-on' policy, and some have begun to eject players that consistently disobey.

[edit] See also

• Airsoft
• Laser tag
• XFire (TV series)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paintball at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e Paintball Appendix:Glossary of paintball terms Equipment: Paintball marker, Electropneumatic paintball marker, Paintball equipment Paintball Markers: Angel, Ariakon Overlord, Ariakon SIM-5, Autococker, Automag, Bob Long Intimidator, CCI Phantom, BT-4 Combat, Dye Matrix, E Matrix, Excalibur, ICD BKO, ICD Bushmaster 2000, ICD Freestyle, ICD Promaster, PGP, Planet Eclipse Ego, Proto SLG, RAM P99, Smart Parts Ion, Smart Parts Shocker, Smart Parts SP-8, Spyder MR1, Spyder MR2, Spyder Rodeo, Spyder Victor, Spyder VS2, T68 Paintball Marker, Tippmann 98 Custom, Tippmann A-5, Tippmann C-3, Tippmann SL-68 II Game Styles: Paintball variations, Scenario paintball, Speedball, Stock paintball, Tankball, Woodsball, Woodsball strategy, Slingshot paintball Positions: Player positions (paintball), Speedball backman, Speedball centerman, Speedball frontman Media: Blackballed, The Whiteboard, Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball, Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball MAX'D, Gotcha! The Sport!, Gotcha!, NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 Other Objects: Paintball tank, Paintball pistol, Paintball bunker. Paintball loader Companies: Airgun Designs, APS (formerly WDP), DYE Precision, Indian Creek Designs, JT Sports, Kingman Group, Smart Parts, Special Ops Paintball, Tippmann, Worr Game Products (WGP) Tournaments List of professional paintball teams, NCPA (paintball), Ultimate Arena Paintball League, List of paintball leagues, NXL, National Professional Paintball League Major League Teams Orange County Bushwackers, Portland Naughty Dogs, Russian Legion, San Antonio X-Factor, San Diego Dynasty Players Jeremy Labiano,Oliver Lang, Ryan Podesta, Colt Roberts, Greg Siewers

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