Paint anywhere on your person means you are out.
Unfortunately, there will always be people who think they can get away with cheating. Real paintball players recognize that even if they could cheat, winning that way never feels as good as a fair win. Even if you show up with an awesome paintball bazooka, no one will want to play with you if you’re a cheater.
Probably the most common way to cheat in a paintball game is wiping. A player gets hit with a paintball and instead of fairly calling him or herself out (as they should), the player simply wipes off the paint mark so others can’t tell they’re hit, and they keep right on playing. Some players will even use specialized paintball accessories to wipe so the paint isn’t visible. If another player or the referee sees a player wiping, that individual could be removed from one or more games.
Another common variation of wiping is called playing on. Instead of wiping off the paint, the player simply pretends like he or she doesn’t know it’s there and keeps playing. This is unfair and against the rules. Once you’re hit, you’re out, and you have to announce it immediately. Of course, first check to make sure the paintball that hit you broke, since a bounced paintball doesn’t mark you out.
On that note, a third common cheat in paintball is to wear oversized clothes or extra layers when playing. Additional layers provide extra padding. It’s not rocket science to realize that a softer surface means the paintballs are less likely to break. Unless it’s extra cold, you should not be wearing more clothes or bigger clothes than needed. If a ref or another player catches you over-dressing, you’ll likely have to sit out a game or two and take off the extra layers.
Finally, the last commonly violated paintball rule has to do with the velocity setting of your paintball gun. Many fields have their own limits, but the generally accepted rate is no higher than 300 feet per second (fps). There are certain paintball accessories available that might provide a faster shooting speed, but a velocity higher than 300 fps is more likely to injure another player. Additionally, you cannot bring any illegal paintball accessories onto the field; you must play with regulation gear.
[photo: Joey]
There are all sorts of paintball tactics out there, but when you are playing as a team, one of the most successful tactics is leapfrogging. This strategy is a coordinated movement among all players on the team, designed to help all players advance while protecting them from attack.
