The Sport in Paintball

Call it “War Games” or “Sniper Games”, Paintball stands to be one of the most popular of adrenaline-driven games in the world. Basically, the whole concept of Paintball is quite simple. Participants of the sport are tasked to eliminate opponents from the Paintball play, through the utilization of paintballs, thus “marking” them out of the game. Paintball games utilize air guns in propelling the actual paintballs, which are basically gelatin capsules containing non-toxic colored substances. Most paintballs primarily contain polyethylene glycol, dye, and water soluble substances.

As a sport, Paintball could be played either indoors or outdoors, and a game could take various forms, with various rules, especially with the “zones” which would define a player as “eliminated” from the game. In the United States, over 10 million participate in Paintball events, and stands to be one of the safest sports in existence. Paintball’s “cult following” is quite strong, even to the point that there are even Paintball slangs surrounding Paintball. Paintball games, as a sport, require Paintball equipment, which basically comprises of safety equipment, as well as Paintball “launching” equipment, in the form of compressed air powered guns.

Among the most popular variations of Paintball games are Woodsball, Scenario and Speedball. Speedball is also often referred to as Tourneyball, defined by the circumstances of play. Basically, the rules of Paintball are geared for Paintball participants’ enjoyment, and vary from one to another, on a general scale. The most common of Paintball games involves teams, usually two, and an objective, like “capturing the flag” of the opposing team, or eliminating the “general”, thus determining which team had won the Paintball game.

Both casual Paintball players and seriously dedicated Paintball players have been drawn to Paintball, with games lasting between anything from five minutes to half an hour, some even reaching hours.

Hayes Noel and Bob Gurnsy are known to have started setting Paintball on the track it is on today. In 1976 both friends were quite inspired by stories from a common friend who had been on a trip to Africa, hunting buffalos, and thought of recreating the adrenalin rush from it. The Nelspot 007 was then used in the first Paintball game in the 27th of June in 1981. The Nelspot 007 was an agricultural gun created by the Nelson Paint Company, which made the first of Paintballs in the 1950s. The products made by the Nelson Paint Company were used in marking trees from a distance, as well as ranch owners and cattle owners in marking their cows.

Today, Paintball stands strong as a fun filled recreational activity for one and all, young and old.