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Paintball is a game whose participants use gas-powered markers to launch marble-sized gelatin capsules containing a colored paintlike substance at each other. Among the most common of the many variations is a version of capture the flag, in which two teams of players attempt to seize each others' banner without being struck by a pellet.

The first paintball game was played in New Hampshire in 1981 by Bob Gurnsey, Hayes Noel, and Charles Gaines, who used markers built to tag cattle or trees. The first tournament with a cash prize was held in 1983.

Paintball games

Woodsball is the oldest and most common style of paintball played. Most woodsball fields are large enough to hold dozens of players on each team and sometimes have some pre-made bunkers along with the natural cover. Woodsball games are generally longer in duration than other indoor formats, and rely on entirely different tactics. Whereas speed and rate of fire are key elements in a speedball game, woodsball relies much more on concealment, large-scale manuevers, and patience.

Speedball is much faster and usually played on a much smaller field. Many speedball fields use inflatable bunkers and are large enough for teams of 3 - 10. Since the opposing teams are much closer together with more cover, there is a lot of movement and a lot of "bunkering", or running up to an opposing player's bunker and eliminating them from a close distance. Speedball is usually considered to be more team oriented.

Scenario games are often giant re-enactments of historical battles involving hundreds of people, such as the Battle of Normandy, or modern day scenarios such as storming a building and rescuing hostages. Scenario games can last hours to days, and bigger games often have player re-insertions at set intervals.

Gauntlet generally is a one on one in a narrow area with little cover. These are very simple very fast games that become very competitive.

Duel is a simple game between two players. The hopper is generally removed and each player loads one paintball into the marker. Standing back-to-back, they walk apart until the referee (or a chosen player) yells "turn" or "fire". The players quickly turn around and fire at their opponent. The scenario repeats itself if both players miss each other.

Tournament is played by the same rules as normal paintball, but in a competitive environment. There are a set number of people on each team (commonly 3, 5 or 7), and modern tournament play is mostly speedball. Due to the competitive nature, most players use high end markers capable of higher rates of fire. The major leagues are NPPL, PSP, X-Ball and Millennium and consist of a whole circuit of paintball tournaments, however smaller regional and local tournaments are common.

X-Ball is a faster, more aggressive tournament format designed to give paintball an extreme sport turn. It was created by Richmond Italia and has its own sports league, the NXL (National X-Ball League). Teams of up to 19 players field up to 5 players at a time, scoring a point each time they take the center flag to the opposing side of the field. The team with more points at the end of the match wins, with final scores like, 10-5, 20-18 or 15-2. Recently, the NXL world championships were broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

DenverSands.com is Denver's Sport and Social club guide to Denver Sports Leagues, Tournaments, and Games for Coed and Men's sports. This is a resource guide only. To sign up for sports leagues, games, and tournaments or social activities, please visit Play Coed.