Paintball is a game of strategy, stealth and teamwork. The objective is to shoot members of the opposing team, eliminating them without getting shot yourself. The more territory a player controls by scouting the field for effective cover and moving between positions, or by using natural obstacles (such as trees) to create concealment, the more options they have when firing at opponents.
Players are equipped with a marker, or “paintball gun”. The markers are powered by compressed gases (either nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or air), which are stored in tanks attached to the guns. The marker is a high-velocity weapon which can fire paintballs at a rate of up to 200ft/s. The paintballs themselves are dye-encased gelatins that are shaped and injected into the casing by specialist machines similar to those used in pharmaceutical factories. The higher quality paintballs are usually subjected to more rigorous manufacturing processes, standards and tests than the lower cost ones.
Before playing paintball, players receive a thorough safety briefing by our marshals. This ensures all participants are aware of how to handle their equipment, safe game rules and the consequences for unsafe behaviour.
Paintball is a tactical sport with a potentially limitless number of game variations. The most common are a combination of team death match, capture the flag and protect the president (where one member of each team is assigned as the president, the other team tries to eliminate them). A more recent development is woodsball, where games are played on fields primarily composed of natural terrain such as trees and berms.