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paintballimpact.com / Cheating in Paintball / Black Marks
Black Marks on the Game of Paintball
Although 10 million people play paintball in the United States, with millions more playing around the world, paintball is still seen by some people as a game that attracts a bad crowd or as a game that glorifies violence. Though paintball is a game that has a low incidence of injury, there are games like MilSim that simulate real life battles, and guns like the JT Tactical that look nearly identical to real life firearms. But the public needs to know that the scenario games are just games, occurrence of injury is extremely rare and that everyone goes home at the end of the day with some great experiences. It is important for all players, the family of players, and the general public to know that the game of paintball is safe, and that the field owners and hosts of tournament games take professionalism, fair play, and safety very seriously. Education about the game is important for parents to know that their kids will be safe playing at the local field, and the games count on a public acceptance so that interest in the game can grow. As the game grows, more people will begin playing at the local rec fields, more and more games will be televised, and high caliber professional players will be able to dedicate more time to the game. As the game gets more popular, field owners will have more resources to build spectacular fields such as the one at EMR Paintball Park has some astonishing fields, including their castle, with three levels of towers to shoot from, 15 foot walls enclosing the whole structure, and about 20 towers surrounding the whole complex. As the games get more popular, the caliber of the professional player will get even better (already great), and field owners will have more resources to spend on amazing fields. Any black marks on the game of paintball, threaten to reduce the interest of the public in the game, and could reverse the trend of growing interest in the game. Some of the behaviors of players or people using paintball gear for the wrong reasons are touched on in this article.
Cheating. Cheating is prevalent in the game of paintball, as in all other sports. The possible difference between paintball and other sports is that there are so many subtle forms of cheating that there are almost too many to mention. Some paintball behaviors that go outside the rules include wiping off a paintball impact before the coach can see it, and hitting a player after he has already been eliminated (this is known as bonus balling.) Paintball, like all other sports, is about fair competition, with some spirited battles that conclude in the best team winning. If a player gets brutally bonus balled the first time he goes out and plays, he may never play again, and the game may have lost one of its future ambassadors. And if the person watching the game on television catches teams cheating over and over again, then they may be prone to never watching it again. Cheating is truly one of the black marks on the game of paintball.
Other negative events associated with paintball concern the misuse of a paintball gun. New Zealand Paintball reported an injury to a woman who was shot at in a bar with a paintball marker. The women received bruises and a suspected broken hand as a result of the painful paintball impacts. And the online journal of the Official Journal of the Academy of Pediatrics reported a significant number of eye injuries that occurred as a result of not having the proper head protection system.
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Paintball Guns 
