Chapter 8

COMPETITIVE PLAY

PLAYING IN ORGANIZED COMPETITIONS

I hadn’t been playing paintball but all of three months before I found myself captaining a team and playing in my first paintball tournament. I was lucky enough to win that first event and to take a 4th place finish in the National Competition a week later, thus getting my tournament paintball career off to a resounding start, and I ended up being heavily involved in the tournament scene from 1984 until 1997, when I retired from play.

Back then, it was possible for a completely new, uneducated and clueless team to place highly and compete effectively. That’s not the case today and, while I personally find organized competition the most rewarding way to play paintball, it does have its issues and complications and may not be for everyone.

Despite my personal enthusiasm for tournament paintball, I have to be completely honest and say that competition paintball – both tournaments and scenario games – are NOT little league. If you show up at one of these events expecting it to be that organized and focused, you’ll be terribly disappointed.

Competition paintball has not yet matured to the point where there is a national governing body, a standard set of rules, local organizations and all the other support networks and controls that go with organized youth sports.

~ ~ ~

I have a long history of involvement with competition play; I personally participated in some of the first national events ever held, was on a team that played against the first British team to travel overseas for competition (and won!), played against the first all-women’s team (and won!, lol) and have over the years helped to develop the first national league, a television and spectator friendly format and have written most of the rule books upon which todays rules are based.

Competition play can be very rewarding - it can also be a nightmare.  The remainder of this chapter lays out the major pitfalls, describes ways to avoid them, and covers the altenatives to tournament play.