What is Paintball and its History?

Paintball Paintball began as an official sport in 1980. There were ideas, however, that lead up to the evolution of the sport since the 1950's, when a few farmer boys used paintball handguns to mark trees that needed to be cut down and cows that needed to killed (lovely). Since the first paintball game was played in 1980, that's when most people agree paintball was deemed a sport.


Who plays paintball? Paintball is one of the fastest growing sports in the entire world. As of 2007, there are 40 countries with millions of players, both male and female, that play the sport of Paintball. These millions of paintballers play paintball as a hobby and/or professionally. Paintball is starting to become much more of a professional sport. Players are starting to be drafted between teams and more and more professional event tournaments are being hosted every year (PSP, NPPL, etc).


Paintball has many kinds of game play. The three most popular kinds of are

• Woodsball
• Scenario
• Speedball / Tournament
• Stock Class

Woodsball Paintball

Woodsball is primarily played in the woods (go figure). There are a two different kinds of objectives the game can have.

First, is Capture the Flag. Capture the Flag has a basic concept... You capture the other team's flag that's held in their base, and then bring it back to your base. The two teams need to have a defensive and offensive battle plan in order to succeed in their mission. Capture the flag is one of my personal favorite game variations since it requires the most teamwork. Often many church youth groups find woodsball to be a great activity, as well as corporate or business outings. Boy Scout groups have been knowned to play capture the flag to help build coordination, communication and motivational skills.

The second kind of game play woodsball uses is Elimination. In other words, the last team standing wins. There's not much explaining to this one. Just point and shoot. For goodness sake, make sure it's the other team you shoot too. What's fun about Elimination is that you don't need to worry about defending your home base. However, it takes a little more strategy in order for your team not to get flanked from behind. One of the most fun kinds of game variation is Elimination.

Scenario Paintball

Scenario paintball games are some of the most interesting, real-life kinds of paintball you can play. Scenario paintball games are often based off of a story line, objective, or scenario. Some common scenario paintball situations include protecting the president (one team being assassins and the other being the good guys). Some scenario games use the World War II story, having battles at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Yes, sometimes water is part of the environment too.

Since scenario games so closely resemble real life, the US Army, US Marines, and SWAT teams train using paintball scenario situations.

Scenario games last much longer than the other types of paintball games. Usually they'll last anywhere from 12 hours to several days. If you're interested in this kind of game play, a very well known scenario game field is www.skirmishpaintball.com.

Speedball / Tournament Paintball

Speedball and Tournament paintball games are often confused as different things. Speedball is the type of game play used in Tournament ball. Speedball is a very fast-paced type of paintball game compared to Woodsball or Scenario. The field is confined by boundaries no bigger than half a football field usually consisting of inflatable, balloon-like bunkers. Speedball is usually the type of game play you should expect to play on indoor paintball fields.

Tournament paintball games have a lot more rules to make sure that the game is fair. For example, most tournament regulations restrict fully automatic paintball guns. This is because not all paintball guns are able to shoot fully automatic, giving the non-automatic players an unfair disadvantage. Most tournament rules only allow "One shot per trigger pull".

Certain professional paintball event organizations like the PSP, NPPL, or the CFOA have unique and specific rules for their attendee's paintball marker. Some will allow fully automatic fire modes, but only if it shoots no more than 15 bps (Balls Per Second).

Speedball and tournament paintball is the type of game play the professionals play. Team Dynasty is one of most dominating professional paintball teams at this time.

Stock Class Paintball

Stock class is also referred to as pump games. Stock class restricts the use of any paintball gun other than those that require pump action in order for the gun to fire. The pump gun cannot hold more than 20 paintballs at a time (usually held in a small plastic tube that feeds into the gun). However, you are allowed to hold extra plastic tubes in your pockets or harnesses. Pump guns are powered by 12 gram Co2 cartridges. These 12 gram Co2 cartridges were the first of their kind to be used to power the original paintball guns back in 1980.

The game play is either capture the flag or elimination.

Common Paintball Questions

Is paintball safe? Yes. However, if you're being foolish and decide not to take the easily applicable safety rules, accidents can occur. Paintball has actually been documented as one of the most safest sports in America. Even safer than golf! Just make sure you keep your paintball mask on at all times to avoid any mishaps. Also, make sure you keep your barrel sock/plug on when you're not on a field that's in a game. Avoid these accidents and you'll be fine!

Is paintball expensive? How much does it cost? Well, if you want it to be :). Paintball, just like every other sport has so many playing styles, and along with these styles comes various types of equipment. If you're just looking to go to a local paintball field and rent a gun, expect to pay $15-$30 for the equipment rental (this includes a mask, tank, and gun) for the entire day. You will also need buy paintball seperately. To save you some embarrassment, make sure you call them paintballs. Not paint pellets, not paint bullets, not spheric paint filled gelatin balls... PAINTBALLS! Paintballs at fields will usually run $45-$80 a case. A case of paintballs equal 4 bags of 500 balls equaling 2,000 paintballs.

Now, if you plan on purchasing your own equipment, here are the bare essentials you'll be needing to purchase in order to go out and play on your own:

• Paintball Gun/Marker
• Goggles
• Hopper/Loader (to hold your paintballs)
• Co2 or Nitrogen tank (to power your gun)

If this is your first time purchasing a paintball gun, I would recommend buying an all-in-one paintball package of all of the above. It makes it very simple for those who are just looking for compatible equipment that they want fast.

How many paintballs will I shoot in a game? This is all extremely relative to your playing style and what game you're playing. For woodsball, expect to shoot 200-500 balls at least. Scenario games all depend on how long the game lasts, so no estimate can be given. For speedball/tournament games, they tend to go by much quicker than other game styles. Expect to shoot anywhere from 100-300 if you're a beginner-intermediate. This is all assuming that you're shooting when you're suppose to :).

Will the paint wash out? Yes. The paint used in paintballs contains polyethylene glycol, and other water soluble elements. This means that it will wash out complete. So no worries for the wife or mother (or both?).

How do I know which gun is right for me? Reviews - Reviews - Reviews! I'm not going to suggest any kind of paintball gun for beginners, intermediate, or professional paintballers only because the times are changing. New technologies sprout up every other year. A new gun seems to dominate the market every 6 months. The only advice I can give regarding this matter is to just read reviews from a reliable source. I would recommend Pbnation, but there are more, or just as many unreliable users on that site than reliable. I would recommend either reading reviews from this paintball blog, PbReview.com, or Paintball.About.com.


Do you have any other questions that weren't answered on this page? I would love to help you out. You can e-mail me directly at Kyle@paintballguns.net or preferably through our forum's Contact page.


Play safe. Play hard. And have fun.