Paintball facts for kids

Paintball players hiding behind a shelter

Green paintballs. Paintball dye is made of a biodegradable polymer that dissolves in water.

Paintball is a sport in which players try to eliminate opponents by shooting each other with balls of coloured dye. The players can compete either in teams or individually. The balls of dye (called "paintballs") are shot through a device called a paintball marker (or paintball gun). When the paintballs hit, they release the dye. When they hit a player, the dye marks that player as eliminated. The game is often played as an organised competitive sport, involving leagues, tournaments, and professional teams.

Paintball can be played indoors or outdoors, on fields specifically made for the game. The field is scattered with natural or artificial obstacles and terrain, which players use to hide behind. The objective can vary according to the type of game being played. Players may have to capture a flag held by the opposing team, defend or capture a particular point on the field, or simply eliminate all other players on the field until they are the only player or team remaining. Depending on the variant played, games can last from seconds to hours.

In many countries, paintball is regulated by specific laws. Players are usually required to wear protective gear (such as masks), and game rules are strictly enforced. Paintball is also used by military forces and law enforcement for training recruits.

Equipment

Players with woodsball equipment

The paintball equipment used may depend on the game type, for example: woodsball, speedball, or scenario; on how much money one is willing to spend on equipment; and personal preference. However, almost every player will utilize three basic pieces of equipment:

• Paintball marker: also known as a "paintball gun", this is the primary piece of equipment, used to mark the opposing player with paintballs. The paintball gun must have a loader or "hopper" or magazines attached to feed paint into the marker, and will be either spring-fed, gravity-fed (where balls drop into the loading chamber), or electronically force-fed. Modern markers require a compressed air tank or CO₂ tank. In contrast, very early bolt-action paintball markers used disposable metal 12-gram (0.42 oz) CO₂ cartridges also used by pellet guns. In the mid to late 1980s, marker mechanics improved to include constant air pressure and semi-automatic operation. Further improvements included increased rates of fire; carbon dioxide (CO₂) tanks from 100 to 1,180 ml (3.5 to 40 US fluid ounces), and compressed-air or nitrogen tanks in a variety of sizes and pressure capacities up to 34,000 kPa (5,000 psi). The use of unstable CO₂ causes damage to the low-pressure pneumatic components inside electronic markers, therefore the more stable compressed air is preferred by owners of such markers.
• Paintballs (pellets): Paintballs, the ammunition used in the marker, are spherical gelatin capsules containing primarily polyethylene glycol, other non-toxic and water-soluble substances, and dye. The quality of paintballs is dependent on the brittleness of the ball's shell, the roundness of the sphere, and the thickness of the fill; higher-quality balls are almost perfectly spherical, with a very thin shell to guarantee breaking upon impact, and a thick, brightly colored fill that is difficult to hide or wipe off during the game. Almost all paintballs in use today are biodegradable. All ingredients used in the making of a paintball are food-grade quality and are harmless to the participants and environment. Manufacturers and distributors have been making the effort to move away from the traditional oil-based paints and compressed CO₂ gas propellant, to a more friendly water-based formula and compressed air in an effort to become more "eco-friendly". Paintballs come in a variety of sizes, including of 13mm (0.50 in) and 17mm (0.68 in).
• Mask or goggles: Masks are safety devices players are required to wear at all times on the field, to protect them from paintballs. The original equipment used by players were safety goggles of the type used in labs and wood shops; today's goggles are derived from skiing/snowboarding goggles, with an attached shell that completely covers the eyes, mouth, ears and nostrils of the wearer. Masks can also feature throat guards. Modern masks have developed to be less bulky compared with older designs. Some players may remove the mouth and/or ear protection for aesthetic or comfort reasons, but this is neither recommended nor often allowed at commercial venues. A good paintball mask will protect the eyes from vision distortion caused by fogging, glare, and scratches. Players who do not wear a paintball mask can suffer serious injury.

Additional equipment, commonly seen among frequent players, tournament participants, and professional players include:

• Pods and pod packs: The most common addition to the above "mandatory" equipment, pods are plastic containers, usually with flip-open lids, that store paintballs in a ready-to-use manner. Pods are available in many sizes, including 10, 80, 100 and 140-round sizes, with the larger 140-round pods being most common among tournament players. Pods are carried by the player in pod packs or harnesses which facilitate easy access to the pods during play. There are several designs of pod packs, from belt loops allowing a recreational player to carry one or two extra pods, to harness designs generally designed for either tournament-style or scenario-style players.
• Squeegee/swab – From time to time, a paintball will break inside the player's marker. When this happens it coats the inner surfaces of the marker with paint, especially the barrel, which considerably reduces accuracy. While speedball and tournament players generally have no time to clear this obstruction and instead simply "shoot through it", woodsball and scenario players generally carry a tool to allow them to clear the barrel following a break. There are several types of squeegee, most of which are advantageous in two of three areas and disadvantageous in the last: cleaning time, effectiveness, and storage space.
• Paintball jerseys and pants: Originally derived from motocross and BMX attire, tournament players commonly wear special outer clothing with integrated padding that allows the player a free range of motion, and helps protect the player both from paintball hits and from incidental contact with rocks and hard ground. Certain designs of jersey and pant even advertise lower incidence of hits, due to increased "bounce-offs" and "breakaways". In indoor fields, where shooting generally happens at very close range, hard-shelled armor is sometimes worn to protect the player from bruising and welts from close-range hits.
• Elbow and knee pads: Common among outdoor sports, players can choose to help protect knee, elbow and even hip joints from jarring impact with the use of pads. For paintball, these pads are generally soft foam worn inside a player's pants to prevent abrasion of the pad against the ground.
• Gloves: Paintball impacts to the hands, knuckles and fingers can be extremely painful and temporarily debilitating. Outdoors, players are often prone or crawling which can cause scrapes to the hands. Padded or armored gloves help reduce the potential for injury to the hands. These gloves are generally referred to as "tactical gloves" and their purpose is to protect the player's hands while maintaining dexterity.
• Athletic supporter: Also called a jockstrap with cup pocket and protective cup. Players generally take care to protect sensitive or vulnerable anatomical areas from painful hits and injury; men commonly wear an athletic supporter with a rigid cup similar to types used in cricket, American football, lacrosse, hockey or baseball, while women often wear a pelvic protector and a padded or hard-shelled sports bra also commonly seen in the aforementioned sports.
• Other paint marking equipment: Normally seen in scenario play only, and disallowed at all tournaments, other forms of paint-marking equipment are sold, such as paint-grenades (paint-filled balloons or lengths of surgical hose).
• Vehicles: Again normally only seen in scenario play, a variety of vehicles have been devised based on go-karts, pickup trucks, ATVs, small off-road vehicles, etc. to create "armored vehicles", within which players are protected from hits and can move around on the field. Such vehicles may employ a wide range of mounted paint-discharging weaponry.
• Hats/Toques/Bandanas: Commonly worn by all levels of players to protect the forehead from direct paintball hits, and stop sweat from running down in to the mask.
• Remote lines: Used to increase maneuverability, a remote line is a high- pressure hose connecting the fuel tank to the marker allowing the tank to be stored in a backpack or harness. It is mostly found in Mil-Sim, woodsball and scenario events.

Terrain

The playing field is scattered with several obstacles. These are used to block the view of opponents and prevent them from firing accurately. They may be a shelter, fallen tree, barrels, or a cylindrical tube. In most modern speedball tournaments, inflatable vinyl objects of different shapes and sizes are used.

Variations

• Scenario paintball - Scenario paintball games strive to be the most realistic paintball games you can play. Scenario paintball games are usually based on a story line such as the Battles of Normandy or Iwo Jima, however they are not all limited to World War II. Some go into the realm of Sci-Fi and play out an alien invasion. In nearly every Scenario game there are props, character players, paintball grenades, smoke bombs and sometimes vehicles and bodies of water as well. Scenario Paintball is very similar to big Airsoft games. Scenario games also last much longer than the other types of paintball games, usually lasting anywhere from 12 hours to several days.

• Capture the Flag - There are two variations of this type: Normal two flag, and center flag. In the normal two flag type game, each team has a flag on opposite sides of the field. The objective is to capture the opposing team's flag and return it to your base. Center flag is where there is a single flag in the center of the field. The objective is to get the flag and take it to the far side of the field.

• Elimination - The objective is to simply eliminate everyone else on the other team. Games typically last from 15-20 minutes. Big games, however, can last hours. Most big games have rejuvenation every half hour or so, so if you get out in the first 10 minutes, you're not sitting on the sidelines for two hours.

Images for kids

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  A player in the middle of a popular style of paintball known as "woodsball"

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  Two players after a round of competitive paintball.

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  A "speedball" field consisting of inflatable paintball bunkers

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  A non-commercial, community paintball field with wooden structures in Mexico, which is used in playing "renegade" or "gotcha" paintball

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  A paintball field using cable reels and shipping crates as features.

See also

In Spanish: Paintball para niños