| es have been around for ages. They were used by | | | | flag (capture the other teams flag before they get |
| the military for training. They would learn how to use | | | | yours), king of the hill (only one flag and one team has |
| surprise attacks and they would use scenarios to | | | | to capture it before the other one does). |
| make the game even more realistic. So how did a | | | | The size of the game has no also developed. It used |
| military practice turn out to become one of the most | | | | to be the size of a basketball, but now has become |
| popular games of all time? | | | | the size of a wooded area. The largest game ever |
| It all started in 1981. Since you couldn’t run | | | | played was in 2005 which consisted of 3000 people |
| around shooting each other with real guns 11 people | | | | on a 700 acre field. |
| including Bob Gurnsey, Hayes Noel and Charles Gaines | | | | Protection in paintball has always been essential. The |
| came up with the ingenious idea of using markers to | | | | pain of paintball is like being hit by an elastic band but |
| shoot each other. | | | | because the capsules can fly at a max of 300 ft a |
| This soon evolved and the markers were developed | | | | second it is a risk not to wear protection. Protection |
| to shoot paintball which were made of .68 calibre | | | | includes: |
| gelatin capsules. These were coloured so that each | | | | Helmet |
| team could distinguish who they had hit (some people | | | | Chest Pads |
| had their own colour paintballs to see who they had hit | | | | Gloves |
| individually). | | | | Knee and Elbow Pads |
| The game of paintball has evolved since. The guns | | | | Long sleeved bottoms and tops |
| have become better and now accessories like | | | | Paintball has developed from a military practice into the |
| paintball grenades are now available. There are now | | | | 3rd most popular game (study done in 2005) in the |
| various ways of playing paintball. There is capture the | | | | world. |