Milem

Nicholas Milem
Mr. Graff
Honor English III
September 6, 2012
Paintball
Your heart is pounding as you stand prepared to sprint and dive into that small
cylindrical plastic barrier simply known as, the snake. When you get there, thousands
of small .68 caliber paintballs are flying through the air at 300 feet per second. Its your
job to protect your teammates, who are shouting out the positions of enemy locations, and
if you fail, your team fails. This is a common scenario in the game of speedball one of
the most popular forms of the most played extreme sport in the world, paintball. For a
sport that is barely over 30 years old, it has quickly become extremely popular with about
10,000,000 players just in the United States alone. Paintball is a great sport for all ages
and people, and if they are good at it they can make a living out of it too.
The first evidence of the sport of paintball coming to be was when the Nelson
paint company making an air-powered marker that fired a paintball used to mark trees for
harvesting. As some sports or games come into view, the presence of alcohol is apparent
in their creation. Two friends, in their drunken stupor, decided that firing said Nelson
markers at each other was entertaining. To their surprise, it was actually very
entertaining. Thus the survival game was born. The first game included 14 friends in a
100-acre field. In this game there was no safety equipment, which is very different than
the games of today, which require a full-face mask. Not soon after this event, in 1982, the
first outdoor commercial field featuring the survival game, similar to the one the

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friends played in New Hampshire, was played. On the field a majority of the games were
free-for-all. This implies that everyone was against everyone, and the last one standing
won. However one of the most popular forms of the game was capture the flag. This
was a team-based game in which two teams fought to see who could capture the other
teams flag. This proved to be a huge success, and soon it would seem that everyone
wanted to play the revolutionary new sport of paintball. It wasnt long before the first
indoor field was opened in 1984. This allowed the players to play all year long no matter
the weather conditions. Paintball was taking the nation by storm and was featured in
publications all around the country. In 1986, paintball was first featured in a newspaper
describing the sport and how it was played. As comes with most sports, competition was
apparent in paintball. With the introduction of the N.P.P.L., the National Professional
Paintball league, the first national tournament was played in 1992 (Empire Paintball).
However Brass Eagle was about to change the name and the operation of the game
forever.
In 1996, Brass Eagle introduced a new type of field, one that could be inflated
with air and moved to create whatever type of field the players designed. This introduced
a new style of play, which will soon become the most played version of paintball ever.
The new game was named speedball. This involved extremely close range play
utilizing inflatable bunkers. These types of games were often very short and very intense,
often not lasting more than five minutes. Speedball was normally played with three, five,
seven, or sometimes ten man teams, all-working to achieve the same goal, eliminate the
enemy team. The teammates of these teams utilize the tactic of flanking and
suppressing fire in order to beat the other team. There are four types of players in this

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sport, each with their own set of objectives to complete. If one person fails, it could
jeopardize the entire team. The most iconic position is the snake player. This persons
job is to get into the bunker known as the snake and eliminate the player opposite the
field of the snake. This however is a dangerous position because the snake normally
requires the player to sprint towards it and dive behind it in order to evade enemy fire.
However without the back players, the snake player would never reach his
destination. The back players one job is to provide suppressing fire on the enemy
team. The concept of suppressing fire, which is used by militaries around the world,
simply states that a person would not reveal him or herself while being shot at. This
concept however utilizes an unprecedented amount of paintballs. Some back players
fire as many as 1,000 paintballs in one game. Another type of player is the Dorito
player. This person has essentially the same job as the snake player except the Dorito
and the snake are on opposite sides of the field and feature different shapes. The
Dorito is shaped as a pyramid approximately 5 foot tall. The Dorito player must slide
into his bunker, similar to how a baseball player may need to slide into a base. The
Dorito must however rely heavily on the back players suppressing fire in order to
move up the field. Then the player moves up the field staying close to the outside of the
field. The pyramid shape of the Dorito is essential to the tactic of flanking. This is so
because the player has multiple surfaces to take cover behind in order to effectively flank
the enemy. The fourth type of player is the middle player. As the name implies the
middle player pushes forward up the middle of the field providing fire for the main
players, the snake and the Dorito. Also, the middle players are effective by taking out
various enemy back players. These players are the main components of every speedball

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team. The game of speedball has to spread many different leagues around the world
such as PSP, Paintball Sports Productions, and the Millennium series, Europes paintball
league. This form of tournament paintball has proved to be a source of income for many
players such as Oliver Lang, who signed a 100,000-dollar yearly contract with the Los
Angeles Ironmen (Speedball).
The evolution of the game has called for the evolution of the equipment.
Some of the equipment that a paintball player needs includes a mask, a hopper, an air
tank, and most importantly a marker. Masks have evolved throughout the years starting
from just being goggles used in a wood or metal shop all the way up to the newest mask,
the Empire E-Flex. Masks were used primarily to protect the participant from being
shot in the eyes with a paintball gun, which can result in the loss of an eye. However, as
time progressed, there was apparent a need for face protection due to the number of
injuries relating to receiving shots to the face region. The solution to this problem was to
add a mask composed of plastic or rubber to cover the nose, mouth, and the chin of a
player to protect the players from shots to those regions. Such masks are required by law
at all fields and tournaments in order to minimize paintball related injuries. The next
essential piece of equipment for a paintball player is the hopper. The hopper is a
container that holds paintballs and feeds them into the marker in order to fire the marker.
These hoppers started as just plastic tubes holding 10 paintballs fed by gravity into the
breach of the paintball gun. However the need for more paintballs was present so the 200
round hopper was developed as an answer to need for more paintballs. These hoppers
were gravity fed as well. These gravity fed hoppers were not very efficient when
combined with the new fully automatic markers invented by Autococker. So a new type

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of hopper was needed. This paved the way for the invention of the battery-powered
hopper. This type of hopper utilized batteries in order to power a rotating arm inside the
hopper forcing the paintballs down the feedneck and into the breach of the paintball
marker. This new design was highly successful and allowed paintballs to be fed up to 50
paintballs per second. This allowed the game of paintball to be faster than ever. Without
the air tank on a paintball marker the paintball would have no power whatsoever to travel
out the breach of the paintball marker and towards the target. Tanks were originated with
smaller bottles containing CO2 at extreme pressure. The expansion of this gas created
enough pressure to propel the paintball at speeds over 300 feet per second. However the
CO2 was a liquid and was very cold which posed problems for paintball markers
including circuit boards. To solve the problem high-pressure air, or HPA, was introduced
to paintball, which improved shot consistency, power, and overall operation within high
dollar markers. These tanks mimicked scuba tanks and operated the same except these
tanks had a high-pressure regulator unlike most scuba tanks. These tanks were originally
composed of steel but proved to be too heavy for the player wanting to minimize weight
to maximize speed. Again this problem was answered by a more advanced system to
carry an air tank. This answer was carbon fiber. The process involved making a thin steel
shell and wrapping it tightly with carbon fiber. This minimized weight and overall
allowed tanks to carry more air at higher pressures. This process also allowed tanks to be
created in different shapes and sizes in order to fit your play style. For instance, a player
maximizing his or her speed on the field will opt for the 68 cubic inch tank in order to
keep weight down however a player wanting to shoot as many paintballs as possible will
opt for the 80 cubic inch tank maximizing air efficiency (Paintball Equipment).

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Now the most important piece of any players equipment is the marker itself.
There are three types of paintball markers that a player can choose from, pump, semiautomatic, and electro-pneumatic. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. The
earliest form of the marker was the pump. This includes a pumping action, which
pressurizes the marker and loads a paintball to be shot. This action is closely similar to
the pumping action of most pump action shotguns. This type of marker is extremely
accurate, but is slow and must require the utmost accuracy in order to beat your
opponent. These markers have evolved through time into the most prestigious version,
the Bob Long MVP, which retails for about 1,000 dollars. The next evolution in marker
history is the invention of semi-automatic markers. This system uses the air in the tank to
push the bolt back and mechanically allows you to fire one shot per trigger pull. Some
modifications can be made to the markers to allow the trigger to bounce off your finger
and make the gun to fire almost fully automatically. Also known as mechanical markers,
they are the most common for newer players and for fields to allow them to be used as
rental markers on their field. This mainly is used due to their cheap cost and how easy
they are to maintain. Known as the most expensive and arguably the best type of marker
is the electro-pneumatic marker. This type of marker is extremely light, fast, and good
looking. The concept is that the marker will contain a circuit board, which will regulate
the amount of air flowing into the bolt to propel the paintball as well as how fast the
marker will fire. The more advanced players of the sport primarily use such markers and
the price reflects it so. One of the most expensive markers, the Machine Vapor, retails for
1,650 dollars and there are others not far behind it. This system allows for different
modes of firing as well. The most popular, ramping, allows you to reach fully automatic

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fire based on the speed of your trigger pulls. Some markers that are uncapped can fire as
fast as the loader can feed the paintballs, some reaching 50+ balls per second. This speed
of trigger pull is achieved by what is known as walking the trigger. This technique
involves using both the index finger and the middle finger alternating trigger pulls
therefore maximizing trigger speed and making the rate of fire of the marker unparalleled by any other type of marker. There are different brands and styles of these
markers (Electro-pneumatic paintball marker).
Three companies each with different styles of marker dominate the industry.
These companies are a multi-million dollar companies and are named Dye Precision,
Planet Eclipse, and Empire Paintball. Dye Precision is a company started by Dave
Dehaan when he first started making paintball marker barrels out of his garage dubbed,
Boomsticks. The demand of the new barrel was exceptionally large and Dehaan began
his own company named Dye Precision. This new company would soon become one of
the largest companies in the paintball industry. In 2003 Dyes first marker was released,
the Matrix. This marker was a huge success and the public soon demanded a new version
of the marker. So in 2004 the Dye DM4 was released which included a number of
improvements to the old Matrix system. Again the public loved it and since then Dye has
released a new DM every year each with its own improvements compared to the last
version (Dye Precision). Another company that innovated the paintball industry was
Planet Eclipse or PE for short. PEs Egos tool the industry by storm by introducing the
revolutionary new poppet bolt design. This allowed the marker to be slimmer, have
better air efficiency, and decreased maintenance time by nearly half. The first Ego was
introduced in 2005 and much like the Dye Matrix the public simply fell in love. The

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demand was so apparent that the Etek was developed in order to allow players with less
money to still own a Planet Eclipse marker. Planet Eclipse also introduced special
editions of their markers, which fetched substantially higher prices to the fans of Planet
Eclipse. One special edition known as the SL91, is the most expensive marker ever
created. With only five made they fetch prices close to 8000 dollars in todays market
(Planet Eclipse Ego). The one company that is as large as the others but has different
focuses is Empire Paintball. Empires focus is to create marker that the general public can
afford but can perform, or even outperform other more expensive markers. Their flagship
marker is named the Empire AXE. This marker utilizes an inline poppet system, which
allows for an overall shorter marker. This marker however is considerably less expensive
than other markers, like the DM or the Ego. However do not let the lower price fool you
many professional teams such as XSV or Infamous uses the AXE and win many
tournaments against opponents with more expensive markers. Also Empire has a sister
company known as Battle Tested, which produces mil-sim markers used in scenario
games in order to appear like real weapons. This company however is not as popular as
Empire due to the fact there are more players using speedball markers than mil-sim
markers (History of Empire). These companies however share a common goal. To make
the best marker they possibly can and for many players they claim alliance to one of these
companies.
The sport of paintball has quickly become one of the most played extreme sports
in the world and does not show any signs of slowing down. Many people and companies
have made the sport what it is today and they continue to bring new innovations and

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advancements into the game, thus making the sport better and better for the future players
of the exciting sport known as paintball.

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Works Cited:
"DYE Precision." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 Dec.
2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DYE-Precision>
"Electropneaumatic Paintball Marker." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July
2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ElectropneaumaticPaintball-marker>
"Paintball." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 July 2012. Web. 09 Nov. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintball>.
"Paintball Equipment." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintball-equipment>.
"Planet Eclipse Ego." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 Dec.
2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet-Eclipse-Ego>
"The History of Paintball." Empire Paintball. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012.
<http://empirepaintball.com/the-history-of-paintball>.
"The History of Paintball." Great History Site Wide Activity RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17
Dec. 2012. <http://greathistory.com/the-history-of-paintball.htm>
"Speedball." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedball>