Paintball

Paintball is a game, first played in 1981 in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with capsules containing paint (referred to as paintballs) propelled from a device called a paintball marker. While oil-based paint was originally used, paintballs are actually made of a special non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble mineral-oil. The game is regularly played at a sporting level with organized competition involving worldwide leagues, tournaments, professional teams, and players. Paintball technology is also used by armies to supplement military training, riot response, and non lethal suppression of dangerous suspects.


Games are played on indoor or outdoor fields of varying sizes. A game field is scattered with natural or artificial terrain, which players use for strategic play. Rules for playing paintball vary, but can include capture the flag, elimination, defending or attacking a particular point or area, or capturing objects of interest hidden in the playing area. Depending on the variant played, games can last from seconds to hours, or even days in scenario play.


The legality of paintball varies among countries and regions. In most areas where regulated play is offered, players are required to wear protective masks, and game rules are strictly enforced.

In 1976, Hayes Noel, a stock trader, Bob Gurnsey, and author Charles Gaines were discussing Gaines' recent trip to Africa and his experiences hunting buffalo. Inspired in part by Richard Connell's short story The Most Dangerous Game, they created a game where they would stalk and hunt each other; recreating the same adrenaline rush that came with animal hunting. In 1981 in New Hampshire, the group used a "Nel-spot 007" pistol (normally used by farmers and ranchers for marking trees and livestock) to fire balls of paint. Twelve people participated in this first game, which was a "capture the flag" scenario between two teams. The winner captured all flags without firing a shot.


As national interest in the game steadily built, Bob Gurnsey formed the National Survival Game company, and entered a contract with Nelson Paint Company to be the sole distributor of their paintball equipment.[8] Thereafter, they licensed to franchises 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.


The first games of paintball made use of Nelspot pistols, which were the only guns available at the time.[when?] They used 12-gram CO2 cartridges, held only ten 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.Games often lasted for hours as players stalked each other, and since each player had only a limited number of rounds, shooting was rare.

Between 1981 and 1983, rival manufacturers such as PMI began to create competing products, and it was during those years that the game took off. 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". These innovations were followed by gravity feed hoppers and 45-degree elbows to facilitate loading from the hopper. In 1984, paintball was established in other countries outside the United States; with Skirmish Paintball setting up fields in Australia and England.

The paintball equipment used depends on the game type, for example: woodsball, speedball, or scenarioball, as well as on how much money one is willing to spend on equipment. Every player, however, is required to have three basic pieces of equipment:

    * Paintball marker: also known as a "paintball gun", this is the primary piece of equipment, used to tag an opposing player with paintballs. The paintball marker must have attached a loader or "hopper" to keep the marker fed with ammunition, and will be either gravity-fed (where balls drop into the loading chamber), or electronically force-fed. A marker will require a compressed air bottle, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide for propellant.

    * Paintballs: The ammunition used in the marker, paintballs are spherical gelatin capsules containing primarily polyethylene glycol, other non-toxic and water-soluble substances, and dye. The quality of paintballs is dependent on the brittleness of the ball's shell, the roundness of the sphere, and the thickness of the fill; higher-quality balls are almost perfectly spherical, with a very thin shell to guarantee breaking upon impact, and a thick, brightly-colored fill that is difficult to hide or wipe off during the game.

    * Mask or goggles: Masks are safety devices players are required to wear at all times on the field, to protect them from paintballs. They completely cover the eyes, mouth, ears and nostrils of the wearer, and masks can also feature throat guards. Modern masks have evolved to be less bulky compared with older designs.

Paintball is played with a potentially limitless variety of rules and variations, which are specified before the game begins. The most basic game rule is that players must attempt to accomplish a goal without being shot with paintballs. When a player is hit, and the ball breaks rather than bounce, they must raise their marker to indicate that they are out, and leave the playing field or move to appointed staging areas.Depending on the agreed upon game rules, the player may return to the field and continue playing, or is eliminated from the game completely.


The particular goal of the game is determined before play begins; examples include capture the flag or Elimination. Paintball has spawned popular variants, including woodsball, which is played in the natural environment and spans across a large area. Conversely, the variant of speedball is played on a smaller field and has a very fast pace (with games lasting up to five minutes). Another variant is scenario paintball, in which players attempt to recreate historical, or fictional settings; the largest being Oklahoma D-Day's World War II re-enactment.

Regulated games are overseen by referees, who patrol the course to ensure enforcement of the rules and the safety of the players. If a player is marked with paint, they will call them out, but competitors may also be expected to follow the honor code; a broken ball means elimination. Field operators may specify variations to this rule, such as requiring a tag to certain body locations only – such as the head and torso only. There are game rules that can be enforced depending on the venue, in order to ensure safety, balance the fairness of the game or eliminate cheating.

    * Masks On – Even when a game is not in progress, virtually all venues enforce a masks-on rule while players are within the playing area. More generally, within any given area of the park, either all players'/spectators'/officials' masks must be on, or all players' markers must either have a barrel block in place or be disconnected from their gas source, to ensure that a paintball cannot be fired from any nearby marker and cause eye injury. Some fields encourage players to aim away from opponents' heads during play if possible; splatter from mask hits can penetrate ventilation holes in the goggles and cause eye irritation, close-range hits to the mask can cause improperly-maintained lenses to fail, and hits to unprotected areas of the face, head and neck are especially painful and can cause more serious injury.
    * Minimum distance – When being tagged, depending on the distance from where the shot was fired, getting marked can feel like a firm pinch. Being marked may even leave a welt. Because of the pain associated with being hit by a paintball, commercial venues may enforce a minimum distance rule; such as 15 feet (4.5 m), whereby players cannot shoot an opponent if they are closer than this distance. Many fields enforce a modified minimum distance surrender rule; a player who advances to within minimum range must offer his opponent the chance to surrender before shooting. This generally prevents injury and discord at recreational games, however it is seldom used in tournaments as it confers a real disadvantage to the attacking player; he must hesitate while his opponent is free to shoot immediately. The act of shooting a player at close range is colloquially called "bunkering"; it happens most often when a player uses covering fire to force his opponent behind a bunker, then advances on that bunker while still shooting to eliminate the opponent point-blank.

    * Hits - A player is hit if a paintball leaves a solid, quarter-sized mark anywhere on the player's body or equipment. Some variations of paintball don't count gun hits or require multiple hits on the arms or legs. Most professional fields and tournaments, though, count any hit on a person or their equipment. Splatter often occurs when a paintball does not break on a person but on a nearby surface and then paint bounces onto the player, but this does not count as a hit unless it forms a solid mark on the player.
    * Overshooting – Fields may discourage players from overshooting (also regarded as bonus balling, "overkill" or lighting up), which is to repeatedly shoot a player after they are eliminated from the game. It is also considered overshooting if a player knew the opponent was eliminated but continued to shoot, disregarding the safety of the opposing player and risking dangerous injury to others.
    * Ramping – Ramping is a feature of many electronic markers, where after a certain number of rapid shots or upon a threshold rate-of-fire being achieved by the player, the gun will begin firing faster than the trigger is being pulled. Ramping of rate of fire is widely prohibited at most paintball fields, however it is allowed in some tournament formats under specific conditions.
    * Wiping – Players may attempt to cheat by wiping paint from themselves, to pretend they were not hit and stay in the game.

Paintball is played at both commercial venues, which require paid admission, and private land; both of which may include multiple fields of varying size and layout. Fields can be scattered with either natural or artificial terrain, and may also be themed to simulate a particular environment, such as a wooded or urban area, and may involve a historical context. Smaller fields (such as those used for Speedball and tournaments) may include an assortment of various inflatable bunkers.

Commercial venues may provide amenities such as bathrooms, picnic areas, lockers, equipment rentals, air refills and food service. Countries may have paintball sports guidelines, with rules on specific safety and insurance standards, and paid staff (including referees) who must ensure players are instructed in proper play to ensure participants' safety. Some fields are "BYOP" (Bring Your Own Paint), allowing players to buy paint at unrelated retail stores or online and use it at their field. However, most fields are FPO (Field Paint Only); players must buy paint at the venue or at a pro shop affiliated with the park. This is largely for revenue reasons; field and rental fees generally do not cover expenses of a paintball park. However, other reasons relating to player safety are generally cited, and have some merit as poor quality or poorly-stored paint can cause gun failures or personal injury to targeted players.

Playing on a non-established field is sometimes referred to as renegade play or outlaw ball (with the players nicknamed renegade ballers or outlaws). Though less expensive and less structured than play at a commercial facility, the lack of safety protocols, instruction, and oversight can lead to higher incidence of injuries.

The rate of injury to paintball participants has been estimated as 45 injuries per 100,000 participants per year. Research published by the Minnesota Paintball Association has argued that paintball is one of the statistically safest sports to participate in, with 20 injuries per 100,000 players annually,[65] and these injuries tend to be incidental to outdoor physical activity (e.g. trips). An international study using 288 incidents has shown that of modern sports, paintball is responsible for 20.8% of eye 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 in settings where protective equipment such as masks were not enforced, or were removed by the player. Eye injuries can occur when protective equipment is not properly used and such injuries often cause devastating visual loss. For safety, most regulated paintball fields strictly enforce a 'masks-on' policy, and most eject players who consistently disobey.

Regardless, paintball has received criticism due to incidents of injury. In Canada in 2007, an eleven year old boy lifted his mask and was shot point blank in the eye by an adult playing on the same field,leading to calls by the Montreal Children's Hospital to restrict the minimum age of paintball participants to 16 years. In Australia, the sport attracted criticism when a 39 year old man playing at a registered field in Victoria died of a suspected heart attack, after being struck in the chest. However, the coroner on this case concluded that the heart attack was not caused by a single paintball hit, but was more likely due to his health, lifestyle and habits.[citation needed]

Additionally, the use of paintball markers outside a regulated environment has caused concern. In the United States in 1998, 14 year old Jorel Lynn Travis was shot with a paintball gun while standing outside a Fort Collins, Colorado ice cream parlor – blinding her in one eye.In 2001, a series of pre-meditated and racially motivated drive-by shootings targeted Alaska Natives in Anchorage, Alaska, using a paintball marker, and paintball ammunition which allegedly had been frozen solid. In Ottawa, Canada in 2007, Ashley Roos was shot in the eye and blinded with a paintball gun while waiting for a bus.

adrenaline rush pud ning duwaa, tried playing paintball when i was still in pinas, twas a good game played between my friends and my co army reservist , very nice game.

adrenaline rush pud ning duwaa, tried playing paintball when i was still in pinas, twas a good game played between my friends and my co army reservist , very nice game.

i hope yu can share some photos, Art.

sorry mike no photos coz i still dont have cam that time, hehehe