paintball

Paintball

Speedball players breaking out at the start of a game
First played	June 27, 1981, 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, A mask or Goggles, Hopper

Paintball is a sport,^[1][2] in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint (referred to as a paintball) from a special gun called a paintball marker.^[3] Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size. 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 days.

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.^[4]

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 (headquarters in Kingsford, MI).^[5] The Nelspot 007 marker had, until this time, been solely used to mark and identify trees and cattle.^[6]

Twelve players competed against each other with Nelspot 007s pistols in the first paintball game on June 27, 1981.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[9]

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.^[5] Games often lasted for hours as players stalked each other, and since each player had only a limited number of rounds, shooting was rare.^[10]

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.^[11] 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".^[12] These basic innovations were later followed by gravity feed hoppers and 45-degree elbows to facilitate loading from the hopper.^[12]

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.^{[citation needed]} Nelson's oil-based paintballs have been used to mark animals on every continent of the world, including Antarctica.^{[citation needed]}

Paintball equipment

The paintball equipment used depends on the game type, for example: woodsball, speedball, or scenarioball, and how much money someone 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" for keeping the marker fed with ammunition, and a compressed gas bottle 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.
• Mask: Masks are safety devices players are required to wear at all times on the field, to protect from paintballs.^[13] They completely cover the eyes, mouth, ears and nostrils of the wearer, and some masks can also feature throat guards.

Games

Basic flow

Paintball is played with a potentialy limitless variety of rules and variations, all of which are specified before the game begins. The most basic of all game rules is that players must attempt to accomplish a goal without being tagged with paintballs. When a player is tagged, they must raise their marker to indicate that they are out, and leave the playing field.^[14] Depending on the agreed upon game rules, the player may return to the field and continue playing, or is eliminated from the game completely.

Variants

Paintball can be played using different variations of its basic rules, including Capture the flag^[15] and Elimination.^[16] Paintball has spawned several popular variants, including woodsball, which is played in the natural environment and spans across a large area.^[17] Conversely, the variant of speedball is played on a smaller field and has a very fast pace (with games lasting up to five minutes).^[18] Other variants include scenarioball.

Enforcement of game rules

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.^[19] 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.

• 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, whereby players cannot shoot an opponent if they are closer than this distance.^[20]
• Overshooting - Some fields discourage players from overshooting (also called bonus balling or lighting up), which is to repeatedly shoot a player after they are eliminated.^[21] It is also considered overshooting if a player knew the opponent was eliminated but continued to shoot, disregarding the safety of the opposing player.
• Ramping - Ramping refers to an electronically controlled marker increasing its rate of fire (balls per second or BPS)when a player reaches a certain number of trigger pulls per second and then maintains that trigger pull speed his marker will increase its rate of fire. Ramping of rate of fire is widely prohibited at most paintball fields, however it is allowed in most 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.^[22] 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 - Players may attempt to cheat by wiping paint from themselves, to pretend they were not hit and stay in the game.^[19]

Playing venues

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

Many used or smashed paintballs

Paintball is played at both commercial venues, which require paid admission, and private land. Venues are either outdoors or indoors (allowing play when it is too hot, wet, or dark outside), and 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.^[23] Smaller fields (such as those used for Speedball and tournaments) may include an assortment of various inflatable paintball bunkers.

Commercial

Commercial venues may provide amenities such as bathrooms, picnic areas, lockers, equipment rentals,^[24] air refills and food service. They usually adhere to specific safety and insurance standards and have a paid staff, including referees, who must ensure players are instructed in proper play to ensure participants' safety. To avoid liability, commercial fields strictly monitor paintball velocity with chronographs.^{[citation needed]} Fields may choose to allow only the use of their field paint to generate more business.

Non-established fields

Playing on a non-established field is sometimes referred to as "renegade" play or "outlaw ball" (with the players nicknamed 'renegade ballers'^[25]). 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.

Other venues

Major scenario and tournament events can be held at locations such as fairgrounds, military bases, or stadiums, turning them into temporary paintball parks. 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).

Organized play

Tournament paintball

Illinois State paintball team during the 2008 NCPA Finals.

Organized paintball competition began 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).^[26]

Though tournament paintball was originally played in the woods, speedball became popular in the late 1990s and become the standard competitive format.^{[citation needed]} The smaller fields brought 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 referee fairly, and allows spectators to view the entire game at once or while televised.

Various leagues use different sets of game rules. Rules are generally divided between repeat-point formats (like XBall and RaceTo), where a team plays multiple games against the same team, or traditional single-point formats, where a team plays one game against several opponents. In both formats, the most common number of players on the field per team is five, however this can vary among leagues or divisions.

Tournament game rules can include equipment restrictions, such as limiting the number of paintballs that may be fired per second, 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.^{[original research?]} Clothing with camouflage patterns, common in wooded play, has been replaced in tournament play by team uniforms similar to those found in other competitive team sports.

In October 2006 and 2007, the largest tournament event was the PSP (Paintball Sports Promotions) World Cup, including over 3,000 athletes at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Kissimmee, Florida.^[27][28]

Paintball leagues

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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. As of 2009^[update], the major national and international leagues include Paintball Sports Promotions and the United States Paintball League in the United States, the Millennium Series in western Europe, the Centrino series in Eastern Europe, and the National Collegiate Paintball Association in the US and Canada. They are supplemented by various regional and local leagues spread worldwide.

Professional teams

A professional paintball team is one that plays paintball with the financial, equipment or other kind of support of one or more sponsors, often in return for advertising rights. Several professional teams have different names in different leagues due to franchising and sponsorship issues.

Paintball culture

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.

Military theme

Paintball is played by over 5 million people in the United States each year.^[29] As of 2007^[update] all major militaries, including the U.S. military, Canadian forces, and British forces, have used training on paintball ranges to supplement combat training for their soldiers.^[30] In many cases, paintball games and players take on a military theme, especially regarding camouflage and terminology.^[31]

Paintball supporters have combated negative perceptions in several ways.^[32] Some attempt to de-emphasize military themes, for example by using less violent terms such as "marker" instead of "gun",^[20][25] or by wearing colorful athletic uniforms instead of camouflage.

Legality

United States

In the United States of America, some cities such as Minneapolis, Minnesota, have banned the public possession of paintball guns^{[33][not in citation given]} 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.

Germany

In May 2009, reacting to the Winnenden school shooting, German lawmakers announced plans to ban games such as paintball on the grounds that they trivialised and encouraged violence^[34][35] but the plans were retracted a few days later.^[36]

Safety statistics

The rate of injury to participants has been estimated as 4.5 injuries per 10,000 participants per year.^[37] Recent research has shown that paintball is one of the statistically safest sports to participate in, with 0.2 injuries per 1000 players annually,^[38] and these injuries tend to be along the lines of tripping, etc. Looking at sports eye injuries alone, an international study using 288 incidents has shown that of modern sports, paintball is responsible for 20.8% of all injuries.^[39] 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.^[40] 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.^[41] Although almost all eye injuries occur when protective equipment is not properly used, such injuries often cause devastating visual loss.^{[42] [43]} For safety, most regulated paintball fields strictly enforce a 'masks-on' policy, and most eject players who consistently disobey.

Incidents

• 1998 - United States: 14 year old Jorel Lynn Travis was shot with a paintball gun while standing outside a Fort Collins, Colorado ice cream parlor. The incident left Travis blind in one eye.^[44]
• 2007 - Canada: An 11 year old boy suffers an injury, when he lifted his mask and was shot point blank in the eye by an adult playing on the same field.^[45] The incident led to calls by the Montreal Children's Hospital to restrict the minimum age of paintball participants to 16 years.
• 2007 - Canada: A woman, Ashley Roos, was shot in the eye and blinded with a paintball gun while waiting for a bus.^[46]
• 2008 - 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.^[1][47]

See also

• Airsoft
• Laser tag
• XFire (TV series)

References

External links

• Paintball at the Open Directory Project