Gone are the days when paintball was seen as an activity of leisure – 2016 marks the first year of the inter-provincial paintball tournament as a competitive sport.
Franco Filippi (Grade 12) from Milnerton High School will go down in the history books as the captain of the first ever u.19 Western Cape paintball team.
The championship was held in Stellenbosch at the end of last month.
“We lost to Gauteng meaning we had to be content with second place, which is still pretty good. As this was the first event we didn’t know what to expect, so it was a good learning curve for us and we take a lot of heart from this going forward,” says Franco.
He recalls playing for the first time back in 2006 at a friend’s birthday party, and Franco was hooked from that day on.
There are two types of paintball, Franco explains: “First of all you need to separate the two types of paintball. You get bushball/woodsball which is well-known and it’s pretty self explanatory as it’s “army” orientated.”
“Then you get competitive paintball or speedball. Speedball is set on a field of grass or astro-turf with field dimensions of 45m by 40m and surrounded by 4m high nets. The field has a symmetrical set of inflatable bunkers which come in different shapes and sizes.
There are five players on each side. A match between two teams has a time limit of 10 minutes in which the team that scores the most points wins.
“To score a point you need to shoot out all five opposing players and touch the buzzer at their starting side. If you get shot you are out for that point. The guns are regulated at 300fps and shoot 10 balls per second. There are eight referees on the field and they serve the purpose of insuring that there is no cheating and call you out if you are out.”
What makes paintball different and unique to other sports? “The most unique thing about paintball is that I’ve never met anyone who’s played and didn’t like it. Everyone always remembers their time on the field and always has tons of ‘war stories’ to tell.
“The aspects of the game that keep me coming back year after year after five years of playing competitive paintball is the competitiveness, adrenaline rush and the sheer grit and drive to do what it takes to be a professional paintball player,” said Franco. He has also been selected to represent the u.19 SA team to compete at the Millennium Paintball World Cup in France from 12 to 20 September.
