By: Mike Lang
Submitted: 2009-10-22 10:46:07 | Word Count: 622
Paintball is fast becoming one of the most popular extreme sports in the world. It only started in the 1980’s but there is an estimated 5.4 million people playing the game with over 1.9 people playing at least 15 times during the year or more.
Games can be played either outside or inside and there is a variety of games that can be played. The object of most games is to eliminate the opponent or opposing team by hitting them with balls containing paint that are shot from a paintball gun or marker. The paint splat on the opponent’s person signifies that they are out and can no longer play.
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Most games involve two or more teams that try to capture the opponent’s flag and bring it back to their starting position. Sounds easy, but it really isn’t. While trying to get to the flag you are bombarded by paintballs while hiding behind bunkers, trees, or what ever you can find. If you are hit, you can’t play anymore. Depending on the type of game you are playing games can run anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
The following are different styles of paintball games that can be played:
Woodsball is played in the woods where you can hide behind trees. There are basically 2 different types of games. One is Capture the Flag where you infiltrate the opponent’s base, take the flag and bring it back to your base. Strategies for taking the flag as well as protecting your own flag need to be developed. The other woodsball game is Elimination. This one doesn’t require fancy equipment or a flag. The idea is to be the last team standing wins.
Scenario Paintball is good for those that have an imagination or trying to develop one. Here you put together a story of something that has transpired and the game is based off the story. It’s sort of like an active Dungeon and Dragons thing. An example of a Scenario Paintball game is – their has been a threat against the President and now you and your team must defend him against the plotting of a terrorist group. One team would be the Secret Service and/or Homeland Security team and the other team would be the terrorist group. The US Army, Marines and some SWAT teams train using Scenario Paintball. These games can last from about 12 hours to several days. This is where the sport got the name “extreme”. Scenario Paintball doesn’t work well in an indoor field but an outdoor one will do very nicely.
Speedball is played in Tournament games. This game is very fast paced and there is a limit in how much time you can spend. The field is different too. There are boundaries in a speedball field whereas the other two aforementioned games do not have any boundaries. The field in Speedball can be no bigger than half a football field. In this field are placed inflatable bunkers. Speedball is especially adaptable to indoor fields. Woodsball and Scenario speedball don’t have a lot of rules attached to them, what ever happens, happens. But Speedball has a host of rules and regulations to make sure the game is played fair. Certain equipment must be used and you can’t go out of that realm while playing speedball.
Stock Class Paintball is another style that only uses the old pump paintball guns that can’t hold more than 20 paintballs at a time. You can either play Capture the Flag or Elimination.
Join in the thousands who enjoy paintball and see what all the hype is about. You may be one of those thousands who plays the game more than 15 times a year.
Author Resource:-
Mike regularly writes for http://www.ProlificPaintball.com, they carry such paintball equipment as the Empire Invert Mini and the SP8 Paintball Gun, as well as many other items from a variety of manufacturers.
