Paintball can involve individuals against one another or working in teams to tag opposing players with small capsules of a particular water-based dye. These paintballs are shot from a marker known as a paintball gun. The sport can be played anywhere, on fields of numerous sizes, although it requires hard floors when played indoors and some type of terrain is required, whether natural or not, to provide tactical cover for the players. Each country and region has different regulations for games. However, most regulated games require the use of protective masks with clear rules for the game. There are also various leagues at regional, national and international levels – such as speedball leagues – that organize games and tournaments. These games can be amateur, semi-professional and professional teams with monetary prizes from time to time.
As a competitive sport, paintball is rapidly gaining popularity in Australia despite rigid legislations. The country has numerous leagues and tournaments with fields in every state in which it is permitted to own paintball guns.
In Canada, there are some paintball fields in the Laurentians and Eastern Townships. Most of the early fields were very basic and had simple wood, tire and barrel barricades as the infrastructure.
In contrast, Cyprus has approximately 10 fields. The best-known ones are DNA Paintball in Paphos, Paintball Cyprus in Limassol, and Nicosia’s Lapatsa Paintball Ranch.
Denmark has an avid participant base for paintball with approximately 25 outdoor and indoor paintball fields in the country. Copenhagen is the home to Europe’s biggest indoor centre.
Paintball in India began in 2005 with the partnership between The Paintball Co. (TPCI) and paintball Asia League Series (PALS) – the governing body of the sport in the Asian Circuit. The pair opened the country’s first commercial park for the sport at Damdama lake in Gurgaon, Haryana on the outskirts of National Capital, thus introducing the sport to the country.
Like India, paintball in South Africa has steadily increased in popularity with recreational bushball being the most popular although speedball is also gaining popularity lately. The SA Paintball League was formed in 2002 and 2013 saw South Africa being invited to participate in the first Paintball World Cup in Paris, France.
Malaysia has one of the largest paintball communities in Asia where the sport is incredibly popular. The Paintball Asia league Series (PALS) has its headquarters in Petaling Jaya near Kuala Lumpur and is responsible for the organization of events and paintball tournaments around Asia.