Paintball History - How it all started !!
The evolution of paintball into the modern sport that it is today took place fairly quickly in comparison to most other sports. The history of the paintball gun begins in the early 1970s, when it was used as a tool for marking trees and livestock. In 1981, twelve friends played the first recreational paintball game using these industrial paintball guns on a field measuring over 100 acres.
One of the first names given to the sport that we now call paintball was “The National Survival Game.” This name reflects the nature of paintball as it was first played – a small group of friends getting together in the woods to play total elimination games. Sometimes the friends broke into teams to play each other, but most games were “every man for himself.”
Over the years, recreational paintball has become more sophisticated. Because more people were playing, using teams became the standards. Different playing varations began to form, the most popular being “capture the flag”, but offensive/defensive scenarios also were popular. Also, as the number of people interested in paintball grew, so did the development of the commercial paintball industry.
The first outdoor commercial paintball field started in 1982. The first indoor paintball field followed in 1984.The fields allowed large groups of people to meet in one place to play, and the business owners were pushed to develop new and exciting ways to keep these paintballers entertained. This drove the development of new scenarios and styles of playing.
The biggest style of play change to come about because of commercial fields was the “bunker-style” game. Smaller fields let players start the action quicker, instead of having to stalk through the woods for 15 minutes before seeing anyone. Also, players purchased more paintballs when they were in a constant firefight, which made the commercial fields more money.
Today, commercial paintball fields are everywhere, but there are still a large number of people that prefer playing paintball out in the woods. While outlaw paintball is generally much cheaper, it is also more problematic than paying to play at a commercial field.
The first professional tournament was held in 1983. Even then, the prizes where worth $14,000. Today, major tournaments have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prizes. One of the major forces in tournament games, the NPPL, was founded in 1992-93.
