Paintball is fun...and painful

I went paintballing yesterday at a place near the Waterfront. I've been one time before a couple of years ago, and it was pretty fun, though there were some issues. The only problems I had the first time I went was the huge advantage that people who had already poured tons of money into it had. As a first time player, it was quite daunting having all these people in camouflage, fancy masks, and guns that could shoot like 20 shots a second. I was in jeans and a hoodie.

This time, everyone was on a (mostly) even playing field. The guys running the paintball match provided the guns and the paint. Though, there were still plenty of people in camo and one person in a Gilly suit. I had jeans with athletic pants on top and a green t-shirt (my WUFF camp t-shirt). I originally was planning on wearing a hoodie in order to lessen the pain of being hit by a paintball, but it got too hot, so I decided to suck it up.

We played 7 matches, with each being about 18 minutes long. The goal was to capture the other team's flag and bring it back to your base. There were about 30 people on each team.

The first round, people were still figuring out where the best spots were and so they didn't advance much. I was probably the 2nd or 3rd person out on my team, since I decided to follow my friend up the middle. He attempted to hide behind a tree that was smaller than him, so he got out pretty quick. I hid behind a pallet that had about a 3 inch gap that I could see and shoot out of. Unfortunately, that also meant I could get shot at, too. I ended up getting hit right in the front of my mask. It was a pretty good shot.

The second round had us switch sides. I went down low with a couple other people and ran as far as I could before I thought the other side would be able to see me. I got to a piece of cover and found an opening that let me see what was going on ahead of me. I saw a group walking up a hill, so I opened fire on them, causing them to take cover...but not hitting any. Me and a couple of other people spent the next couple of minutes taking shots at them, and eventually hitting them. I then moved up to the next piece of cover, and spotted someone else about 50 yards to my left. I spent about a minute trying to figure out what team he was on, and eventually realized that he was an enemy, and I started shooting at him. I eventually hit him, and moved on. At this point, everyone that had been with me had either been shot or had decided to go another route, so I was alone. At this point, there were about 5 minutes left in the round, so I decided to just go for the flag. It was up the hill to my right, so I took it slowly, trying to figure out where the people guarding it were. In hindsight...I probably should have taken more time than I did. I saw one guy in the fort, but he was turned the other way. So, I decided to go for it, which is when the guy lying in the bushes got me in the leg.

Another round that I found very enjoyable was one where I managed to find cover behind a box that was about half my height. It was also hollow. At first, I just hid behind it and took shots at people that were in other spots of cover further down. However, eventually I started getting shot at from several different sides, so eventually I ended up INSIDE the box. After a while, I popped back out, and saw a guy trying to sneak up the side, so I got him, and went back inside the box. Eventually, I got bored of being in the box, and decided to move up to the next spot of cover. It was during this movement that I got shot in the leg again, very near to the previous wound.

All in all, I got shot in the left twice, shoulder once, and head 4 times. I came away with a lot less bruises than most people. I never got in a situation where I was out in the open and managed to get surprised and shot a dozen times like some of my friends. I probably would have done better had I worn some sort of camo or darker shirt. I think my green shirt probably stuck out a little much. Also, some sort of long sleeve shirt. My forearms and elbows were cut up from all the diving into cover that I was doing. Also, my knees were kinda hurting afterwords from all the sliding, and kneeling, and awkward positioning. I'm also pretty sore from all the short sprints to the next piece of cover. The next time I play ultimate (next week), I'll probably be really sore. I've been running a lot, but they've all been slow, long distances...so it'll be fun.