A paintball player in action at NPF Bassets Pole, Birmingham. |
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| First played | June 27, 1981, Henniker, New Hampshire, United States[1] |
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| Characteristics | |
| Contact | No physical contact between players (contact can result in penalties) |
| Team members | Varies depending on game format and level of play, recreational or professional (usually between 5 & 7 man teams) |
| Mixed gender | Extreme; indoor, outdoor, speedball, Xball, Recball, Woodsball, PSP, and scenario. |
| Categorization | Team sport, ball sport, winter sport |
| Equipment | Paintball Marker, Body armour (optional) paint grenades (if over the age of 16) paintballs hopper |
| Venue | Can be played anywhere, usually on a speedball field or in a woods |
Paintball is a sport[2][3][4] in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside (referred to as paintballs) propelled from a device called a paintball marker (commonly referred to as a paintball gun). Paintballs have a 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.[5][6] Paintball technology is also used by military forces, law enforcement, para-military and security organizations to supplement military training, riot response, and non-lethal suppression of dangerous suspects.
Games are played on outdoor or indoor fields of varying sizes. A game field is scattered with natural or artificial terrain, which players use for tactical cover. Rules for playing paintball vary, but can include capture the flag, elimination, ammunition limits, 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.
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In 1976, Charles Gaines returned to New Hampshire from an African buffalo-hunting safari, and discussed with his friend Bob Gurnsey the idea of a game in which the participants would stalk each other through the woods. The concept was inspired in part by the short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. In 1981, Gaines and eleven others played the first game of paintball, using Nel-Spot pistols which were intended for marking trees and livestock by ranchers. This initial game was a capture the flag style scenario. Later, Bob Gurnsey formed the National Survival Game company, which was the first firm to sell paintball equipment.[7][8]
The paintball equipment used may depend on the game type, for example: woodsball, speedball, or scenarioball; on how much money one is willing to spend on equipment; and personal preference. Almost every player, however, will utilize three basic pieces of equipment:
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 and marked with a paintball. A variety of different rules govern the legality of a hit, ranging from "anything counts" (hits cause elimination whether the paintball broke and left a mark or not) to the most common variation: the paintball must break and leave a mark the size of a US quarter or larger. Eliminated players are expected to leave the field of play; eliminations may also earn the opposing team points.[10][11] 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[12] or Elimination.[13] Paintball has spawned popular variants, including woodsball, which is played in the natural environment and spans across a large area.[14] Conversely, the variant of speedball is played on a smaller field and has a very fast pace (with games lasting up to five minutes).[15] 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.
"Woodsball" is a term developed late in the history of the game to refer to what was the original form of the game: teams competing in a wooded or natural environment. Recently the term has been adopted to refer to virtually any form of paintball played in natural surroundings, as opposed to arena or artificial fields. A lot of the time, people played outdoors. Almost all of the paintballs are bio degradable.
The scenarios are more evolutionary, more tactical, and more complex than the regular game which was at the base "capture the flag". Certain Big games relive historic moments like D-Day from World War II, being one of the most popular events. Some players even wear the uniforms worn by the soldiers during that time period.
In North America certain parks (D-Day Adventure Park, NPF, Bigfoot Paintball) gained worldwide recognition[16] with their Big Games like Oklahoma D-Day, Diamond Wars & Mega War Game, with its thousands of players. In Québec, one of the most spectacular events was played at Bigfoot Paintball, with a record 976 players for the Mega War Game in 2009. "A couple of times a year, something strange happens in the foothills of Québec…500 players get together for one of the most intense paintball battles in the world. This year was no different."[17]
There are a lot of different mil-sim teams, with their dress code, rank system & game rules that try to simulate actual military ops. The equipment that is available to them has evolved greatly since the time of hand cocked guns and fluorescent colors. Paintball markers can be bought or made to look almost identical to real guns such as the MP5, M16, and AK-47 with the aid of shrouds. Smoke grenades, paint grenades, bazookas, ballistic helmets, and tactical vests are also available.
Speedball is described as any paintball using an open and/or partial wooded fields filled with manmade bunkers used for protection. These games were started as a way to make the game safer for players who were tripping on debris in the woods. Speedball is generally a fast-paced game where many more paintballs are used than in the traditional game of woodsball. The original speedball field was any field made of manmade bunkers. To make the game move faster, field owners began using black drainage pipes anchored into the ground to create a new fast-paced game called hyperball. It is important to know that hyper ball is still speedball. The next major leap for paintball was the invention of airball. Players were getting bored of the same field over and over again and so they invented flexible high-strength PVC fabric bunkers filled with air. These were easily moved, so that now a field can be made into infinite variations. Over the years a standard in airball was established of a snake side and a dorito side, referring to the type of bunker used on those sides of the field. The field became identical or mirrored on both sides so as to not give one team an advantage. Also a giant center bunker began to be utilized in many fields. The newest advance in paintball is the use of artificial turf on fields. This allows less maintenance of fields, faster play and a much more even match between tho two teams, as it is as close to identical on both sides as possible.
Regulated games are overseen by referees or marshals, 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.[18] There are game rules that can be enforced depending on the venue, to ensure safety, balance the fairness of the game or eliminate cheating.
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.[25] 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,) meaning 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[26][27][28]
Playing on a non-established field is sometimes referred to as renegade or gonzo play or outlaw ball (with the players nicknamed renegade ballers or outlaws).[29] 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 first organized paintball game in record was held by Charles Gaines, Bob Guernsey and friends in New Hampshire in 1981, with the first paintball field opening approximately a year later in Sutton, NH (opened by founder Bob Guernsey)[30] In 1983 the first National Survival Game (NSG) national championship was held, with a $14,000 cash award for the winning team.[31] As of 2010[update], tournaments are largely organized by paintball leagues.
A paintball league is an organization that provides a regulated competition for paintball players to compete. Leagues can be of various sizes (for example, regional, national or international) and offer organized tournaments for professional, semi-professional, and amateur teams, sometimes with financial prizes. The first British national league was the British Paintball League created in 1989 by Gary Morhall, Richard Hart and Derek Wildermuth in Essex England.[32][33][34][35] As of 2010[update], major leagues include the NPPL and PSP in the United States,[35][36] the Millennium Series in western Europe,[37] the Centurio series in Eastern Europe, and the National Collegiate Paintball Association in the US and Canada (A league was also created for high school and college players, the NCPA.).[38] They are supplemented by various regional and local leagues spread worldwide.
The nature and timing of paintball events are specified by the league running the tournament, with the league also defining match rules – such as number of players per team, or acceptable equipment for use. The number of matches in a tournament is largely defined by the number of available teams playing.
A match in a tournament is refereed by a judge, whose authority and decisions are final. Tournament rules can vary as specified by the league, but may include for example – not allowing players to use devices to communicate with other persons during a game, or not allowing players to unduly alter the layout of terrain on the field. In contrast to a casual game designed for fun, a tournament is much stricter and violations of rules may result in penalties for the players or entire teams.[39]
Though tournament paintball was originally played in the woods, speedball became the standard competitive format in the 1990s.[35][40] The smaller fields made use of artificial terrain such as bunkers, allowing symmetrical fields that eliminate terrain advantages for either team; woodsball fields having no such guarantee.[41] Most recently, fields using inflatable bunkers, tethered to the ground with stakes, have become standard for most tournament formats; the soft, yielding bunkers reduce the occurrence of injuries, the bunkers deflate to store in a compact space and anchor to the ground with tent stakes, allowing for temporary fields to be set up and torn down with less impact on the ground underneath, and the arrangement of bunkers can be easily re-configured to maintain novelty of play or to simulate a predetermined field layout for an upcoming event.[42]
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. Professional teams can have different names in different leagues due to franchising and sponsorship issues.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos "Omar" Eduardo Almonte, two men arrested in June 2010 as they were bound for Somalia, and charged with terrorism and conspiring to kill, maim, and kidnap people outside the U.S., had simulated combat at an outdoor paintball facility in West Milford, New Jersey, according to the complaint against them.[43][44][45][46]
Similarly, 11 men, convicted in 2003–04 of composing the Virginia Jihad Network, engaged in paintball training in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to simulate small-unit tactical operations and develop combat skills to prepare for jihad, according to prosecutors.[44][45][47][48][49][50] In 2006, Ali Asad Chandia of the Virginia Jihad Network was also sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing support to a Pakistani terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba, including helping Lashkar ship 50,000 paintballs from the U.S. to Pakistan.[51]
In addition, two of the 2005 London 7/7 bombers were filmed in June 2005 at a paintball center in Tonbridge, Kent, ducking behind oil barrels and shooting paintball at cut out figures before lining up to pray at the end of the day.[52] Also, the suspects in the 2006 Toronto Terrorism case played paintball to prepare for their attack.[53][54] In 2007, paintball training was engaged in by five terrorists to prepare for an attack aimed at killing American soldiers in Fort Dix, New Jersey; they were later convicted.[55][56]
The rate of injury to paintball participants has been estimated as 45 injuries per 100,000 participants per year.[57] 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,[58] and these injuries tend to be incidental to outdoor physical activity (e.g. trips). A 2003 study of the 24 patients with modern sports eye injuries presenting to the eye emergency department of Porto S João Hospital between April 1992 and March 2002 included five paintball eye injuries.[59] 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.[60] 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.[61] Eye injuries can occur when protective equipment is not properly used and such injuries often cause devastating visual loss.[62][63] 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,[64] 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.[5][65]
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.[66] In 2001, a series of pre-meditated and racially motivated drive-by shootings targeted Alaska Natives in Anchorage, Alaska, using a paintball marker. In Ottawa, Canada in 2007, Ashley Roos was shot in the eye and blinded with a paintball gun while waiting for a bus.[67][68][69]
Paintballing in Australia is controlled by the police in each state, with differing minimum age requirements. Players under 18 are required to have a guardian sign a consent form. The minimum ages are 12 for South Australia and Western Australia, 15 for Queensland, 16 for New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, and 18 in Victoria.[70] Paintball has been banned in Tasmania since the events of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.[5]
Operators must adhere to particular rules on gun storage, safety training and field sizes. In all states, to own a paintball marker players must have a paintball gun licence, be at least 18 years old, and have the marker safely stored in a category 2 safe.[71] Until 2005, Victoria was the only state which required players to have a long-arm firearm licence; a law which was criticized on the grounds it drew players to real firearms.[72]
In Germany, paintball is restricted to players over 18 years of age.[73] Paintball markers are classified as weapons that do not require a license or permit; they are legal to buy and use, but restricted to adults.[74] In May 2009, reacting to the Winnenden school shooting, German lawmakers announced plans to ban games such as paintball as they allegedly trivialised and encouraged violence[75][76] but the plans were retracted a few days later.[77]
Paintballing is widely accepted as a recreational pastime in Ireland and is not directly subject to any governing regulations. However, Irish Law defines any device capable of launching a projectile with 1 joule of energy as a firearm.[78] Many paintball markers available today would fall into this category and so by definition, require a firearms licence. Under Irish Legislation, most modern paintball markers fall under the same classification as a shotgun or rifle. A gap exists in the law since there are no provisions to license a paintball marker and yet an individual could be arrested and charged for possessing an unlicensed firearm if the unit exceeds the 1 joule limitation as they commonly do.
Laws pertaining to paintball markers in the United Kingdom classify them as Air Weapons, as they fire frangible ammunition which breaks up on contact rather than inflicting a penetrating injury. Owners do not require a license unless the marker fires above 300 feet per second (91 m/s). Only approved paintballs can be used, and the marker must not be fully automatic. The minimum age to be in possession of a marker is seventeen, except in target shooting clubs or galleries, or on private property so long as projectiles are not fired beyond the premises. It is prohibited to be in possession of a paintball marker in public places.[79] The absolute minimum legal age for a commercial venue is 11,[80] although facilities exist with lower-powered guns for children of a younger age.[81]
In the United States of America, eight states define explicit legislation for paintball guns. In Pennsylvania, paintball markers have transport requirements, cannot be used against anyone not participating in a paintball activity, and cannot be used for property damage. New Hampshire and Rhode Island require players be at least eighteen years of age to own a marker, with students in New Hampshire faced with the possibility of expulsion from school for possessing a marker. In Illinois, owners must be over the age of twelve and can only use their markers in private land or on safely constructed target ranges. There is no age limit.
Virginia is one of two states that permit its towns to adopt ordinances on paintball guns, allowing its local authorities to do so. Delaware on the other hand only authorizes Wilmington to do so, but does allow paintball to be played on farms as it is considered an agritourism activity. Florida and Texas limit government liability if a government entity allows paintball on its property.[82]
In virtually all jurisdictions, the use of a paintball marker in a manner other than its intended purpose and/or outside the confines of a sanctioned game or field can result in criminal charges such as disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, vandalism, criminal mischief or even assault.
Certain paintball fields opened in the Eastern Townships and in the Laurentians offering to the ever growing of paintball players to play on fields that were created for this sport. In the beginning it was mostly fields with regular open fields with barricades of wood, old tires and barrels, very basic infrastructures. In 1995 Bigfoot Paintball opened up its doors in St. Alphonse-Rodriguez in the region of Lanaudière. After only a few years it became more and more important in Québec, Canada and the world. "Less than 1 hour from Montréal, in Canada’s beautiful Québec sits one of the most Amazing Paintball sites in the World. Some Distributors even believe it to be the largest Paintball Activity in North America"[83]
In India, organized paintball began in late 2009 and is seeing an increase in interest as entertainment for teenagers. It is available in Mumbai, Chennai (Kottivakam), Pune and Bangalore. Currently, players must be 18 years of age or older. Paintball is mostly played by corporates IT teams in Chennai.
In South Africa organised paintball has been played for over a decade. The South African Paintball League has been in existence since 2002 and counts team Dynamix as the top team in the country. The last major tournament was held by the SAPL in 2011 and saw team Dynamix crush team Reapers in the final of the tournament.
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