Welcome to Gaia! ::

“So if a celebrity jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”

I groaned. I was ten years old. I don’t remember what the argument was about, but it was a line my parents always were quick to use when the need arose. Chances are I wanted to do something that all my friends were doing, but my parents just didn’t agree.

Every kid growing up has probably heard this cursed statement hundreds of times. I’m a lot older now. My parents have not given me the piece of advice in years. Yet this commonly used phrase was the first thing to pop into my mind when I read over a particular thread on PBnation message boards.

Acting as an online nexus of activity, PBnation connects players from around the United States to discuss, argue, buy, sell, meet, and socialize, similar to Paintball Times, but not as tame. A lot of arguments on the webpage are the usual pointless, nonsensical drama that online message boards seem to attract like a magnet to iron shavings in a high school lab project. However, one can learn a great deal about what’s going on in the paintball world when reading over some of the threads.

The argument was in the forums for the famous pro-team and multi-title winner Dynasty. A thread was started on the relationship between Dynasty and Russian Legion. Personally, I don’t follow pro-ball too closely, but amid the tired arguments was a valid question that paintballers would rather defer than engage directly. What is cheating and what is its place in paintball?

Things had boiled down to fans of either team accusing the other of cheating. There was the usual plethora of here say and speculation about who did whatever. To us, the common baller, the affairs of these professional players, while entertaining, is not pertinent. What was quite relevant can be summed up by a few user responses:

“It’s a sad fact, all pro teams cheat.”

“Cheatings part of the game”

“All guns ramp, so who cares?”

There’s not much of an objective way to look at cheating. Surely the written law forbids any cheating of any kind, but the dry, mundane black and white text of the rulebook often has little power on the field. I argue that cheating has absolutely no place in paintball. The nature of the game makes it different from other sports, even other extreme sports. This uniqueness requires honest and integrity on the part of the players. I realize this attitude is not shared by all members of the community, but I hope to calmly and objectively approach three of the most common arguments in favor of cheating. Just remember that

Cheating, by definition, is to violate rules deliberately, as in a game

It’s the referee’s job to pull you. If I’m hit, I’m going to keep playing until they pull me out.

You’re running hard for your bunker. One of your back players got hit off the break and the other is trying to sweet spot the left lane. You see their mid players sliding into their bunkers and hear the shouts of your teammates. Your run has been too long and you force yourself to slide prematurely. Luckily, your close encounter with the dirt saved you. “Snake hot, snake hot!” yells your back player, barely audible above his fifteen ball per second stream. Two players have occupied your snake. You look up and see that you’re clear for the run. You bring your gun up, firing at the first guy and greeting his surprised gaze with a bright green splotch mark. At the same time, he instinctively pulled the trigger and put two purple globs on the front of your jersey. The refs are coming toward you as you keep running and bunker the opponent’s friend. You then glance down, pretending you were just shot at that moment, and walk to your deadbox.

Playing on is very common in both tournament and recreational paintball. One must understand that by the inherent speed and ferocity of paintball, some players will accidentally play on through hits. I have been hit by strings of balls that I barely felt because of the adrenaline surging through my system. However, the playing on that has been prevalent recently is intentional, deliberate, and even pre-planned.

Referees are people. Without some sort of super-precise machine that would automatically disable a gun after the player was hit like in laser tag, there is no real way to prevent playing on. The responsibility of honesty is up to the player. Players are running toward one another, shooting fast flying rounds of paint at each other. Even if a referee calls a player out while he is in motion, he often needs to physically run after the player to pull his armband off. By this time, the player has bunkered more people and chaos takes the field. Referees are swarming around the field and collecting armbands like kids at an Easter egg hunt, players are arguing, penalties are assessed. One player playing on can completely change the entire outcome of the game.

It is the job of the referee to pull players from the game, but it is an even larger responsibility of the player to call himself out. Paintball is played on the premise that if you are hit one time, you are eliminated from the game. If players don’t call themselves out, what exists now as an organized sport degenerates into a mindless shooting fest for hooligans.

Of course cheating is wrong in the rule book, but who plays by the rules? A holding penalty in football is against the rules, but its part of the game. Those who can cheat well have developed a skill just as important as snap shooting.

When the first paintball players took to the woods of New Hampshire, they were equipped not only with markers and tubes of paint but with respect. There were no referees, no video playback, and no point penalties. Paintball was forged from the very beginning as a game of honor. Today, familiar sports are being redefined. The National Hockey League season has been cancelled due to the inability of players and league representatives to compromise and the use of anabolic steroids is still a hot topic in the baseball scene.

The tournament paintball scene has made leaps and bounds in dramatically changing the face of paintball, from the introduction of X-Ball to the PSP 15 BPS fully automatic cap. Still, no Darwinian concept of evolution can justify cheating in the game. Just because competition level paintball promotes rapid action, aggressive playing style, and fast markers does not mean that players also have the right to cheat. It would be naivety in the extreme to say that there isn’t a prevalence of cheating in the professional leagues. From local tournaments to PSP events, players cheat their way to victory. Some players feel that they must cheat “by necessity”, creating a sort of cheating arms race. Entire guides on how to cheat against chronograph and field referees have been drafted with revisions and positive input from around the world. This does not make it right, because unlike soccer or football where rules can be bent, paintball is quite literally a whole new ball game.

One important aspect of paintball is bad luck. No matter how skilled the player, a ball could randomly slam into your body and explode at any time. Perhaps it was friendly fire or maybe someone broke a ball in their barrel and their rounds were curving into your bunker by sheer chance. Either way, if a ball marks your body or any of your gear, you are eliminated from the game. Despite all the rules and complexities of tournament paintball, the main concept is simple. You’re hit, you’re out.

Learning how to deceive referees is just that: deception. I find the glory people take in their methods repulsive. Of course we all have the desire to win, especially on the tournament level, but some things just should not be done. Inevitably, some readers of this article may be inclined to argue that they are statistically higher than teams that don’t cheat. A dog-eat-dog attitude might sound tough over the internet or to newbies, but most players worth their salt won’t have anything to do with a cheater and will make sure to give him a few extra hits as insurance that the practice isn’t demonstrated. Simply put any team that makes its way to whatever numerical ranking in whichever league by cheating, really hasn’t. While players may think they are clever for being able to trick the refs, they are only deceiving themselves with the illusion that they have some semblance of skill.


Sliding into messy airball bunkers blurs the line between hits and "bunker rub". Many players take advantage of this.

Everyone has a ramping gun.

The nature of paintball is changing rapidly with the introduction of new rules to standardized leagues. The newly accepted “fifteen balls per second full auto” cap and structure of rules has placed a new emphasis on action and speed. Many players are arguing that this cap is justifiable when considering that it puts everyone at the same level by shooting the same speed. Others argue that this removes the art of learning the subtleties of the trigger of one’s gun, strongly deemphasizing “walking”. No matter what one’s stance is, it is undeniable that there is a strong emphasis on rate of fire.

A recent statement by Wicked Air Sports (the creator of electronic boards) sharply criticized the PSP acceptance of ramping. Bundled in with the new 15 BPS cap, Wicked Air Sports claims that their research indicates the inability of sound activated BPS (ball per second) indicators to realistically report the rate of fire of a marker during a game situation. There are insurance, safety, and fairness concerns all with legitimacy. And when it comes to the subject of cheating in a tournament,

“There simply is no way to enforce any type of rate of fire rule, or determine if the ramping rule is even being adhered to. This opens the door to cheat modes far more extreme that anything previously used. No longer will a cheater have to be careful about their marker "going off". Nobody will even think twice about it.” –Wicked Air Sports representative, http://www.68caliber.com/news/tournament/story04706.php

Coupled with biased referees, legal battles between major companies, and safety concerns, it seems that the ramping envelope has already been sealed. If ramping is going to be an accepted part of leagues such as PSP, who cares? It’s not cheating, is it?

The problem arises in emulation. Already I have seen younger players with “PSP legal” boards that fire in blatantly illegal modes for local tournaments and recball. They want to be like the pros and so they want the same markers and technologies. There never was much secrecy to the advertisement of “cheater boards” and now that a major league is running with the idea, it is catching on elsewhere whether it is welcome or not. The issue here is that ramping on the local, state, and even regional level is still not allowed.

Now that the technology is affordable and commonplace, the mere push of a button will fool a referee. While “everyone may be doing it” in PSP, what role will illegal gun modes play in other tournament series? Being from the Northeast, I hear many players excited about the annually held events by the New England Paintball League (NEPL, http://www.thenepl.com/) Offering 25,000 dollars in prizes and attracting teams from around the northeast, the NEPL is not a horribly small affair. Yet the NEPL makes it quite clear to all their participants that

Ramping guns are not legal and if you are caught with it going onto the field, you will not be allowed to take the gun on any [other] field. (Section II, Point 11.02 NEPL Rules)

Yet other tournament series are fully embracing the alternative rules. In 2003, the PMI Pure Energy Series held in Florida clearly forbade the usage of electronic fully automatic firing modes on electro-pneumatic markers. The latest PES tournament this year (early March) did a complete 180 on the old rules, allowing players to fire in any mode capped at fifteen balls per second as long as the first three pulls were in “true semi”.

The inherent problem now is that what may be cheating for one event may be completely legal for another. Simply the introduction of this difference causes a plethora of other issues to become apparent. Should a player practice with traditional semi-automatic modes or on the new fully automatic modes? Is the usage of full-auto and ramping boards fair for usage on recreational fields? How will companies manufacturing electro-gripped blowbacks respond? Will the conceptions the public has about paintball change as a result?

Honor of the Game

Cheating removes the basic understanding between players that serves as a foundation for the game of paintball. When a player cheats, he gives himself a bad reputation, tarnishes the name of his team or sponsor, and increases the likelihood of his own injury through bonus balling. He sets a bad example for new players to the sport and wastes his own time by taking shortcuts instead of genuinely improving. I understand a large amount of people cheat in paintball and don’t expect to see an end to it any time soon. I strongly believe that it is the responsibility of the player of any level to educate new and inexperienced players that while victory should be strived for, the means in which one acquires it must be legitimate.

Bragging with friends about cheating through a game will do nothing but encourage a new generation of cheaters. While this may not seem to be a problem right now, what happens when five years down the line these same players are cheating against you? Cheating on the field simply invites inevitable problems for others and for you. It seems now that hundreds of players are jumping off the bridge. Whether you want to join them is your decision. Yet when all is said and done, no matter how many trophies adorn your walls or how popular you are, the only person you’ve really cheated is yourself.

in last I say paintball is a sport of honor! you shouldn't cheat.

any questions or oppinions?

I have to say cheating is wrong no matter how well you try to dress it up and make it acceptable. Though I'm diffrent from most people that have joined the game today sense I dream of the older days in Paintball were it is said that the game was about honor and all the other good things we all hear stories about. It really seems as though a lot of newer players don't even really know about the roots of Paintball and if they do they generally don't care for it sense it's not 15 BPS of instense action on an Airball field and it makes me sad, though locally and on the internet I try my best to inform people about it.

Now I can't say I've never cheated in my whole time of playing. I try to make most of my calls honest as possible these days but there were days before when I didn't really see things the way I do now. I know I've taken a hit to the leg or shoe before when diving into the snake and as I hit the ground the it rubs across my leg and into the ground looking no more then my leg or foot smashed one of the many of 1000's of paintballs on the ground out on the field and I just played on for the rest of the game. I know I've also played on with a mark on me till a ref was able to catch up with me to pull me out.

I certainlly see my mistake here being that I'm a ref now and have been in their shoes. People its not the ref's job to pull you out, he/she is there to start and finish the game, make sure everyone is safe, and make judgements on questionable/possible hits. He/she is not there to be running across field to pull out of the game because you feel like playing on, though its seems as though refs have to be sentinals(sp?) for cheaters. Your suppose to call yourself out when you are hit and if your not certain you are hit then you are to call over a ref to confirm that the player is hit.

Yes I know what I've done may be hypocritical but we all change over time, hopefully we see our wrongs and change ourselves accordingly to try and fix what we've done wrong.

right! I'd have to say that I've thought about cheating if you get hit off the line, but then I thought about how messed up that would really be.^^
the guy got you, he's got skills or luck, there's always another round.

Written works fine. Well, none the less, very night compilation.