Out of Paint is Not Out of the Game!
Sooner or later every player runs into a situation where their gun is down for one reason or another. You may be out of air or paint, or an O-ring pops and you gun just stops working altogether. I’ve seen a lot of players, and not just new ones walk off the field in disgust because their gun went down. Why? Do you really need a marker to play paintball? Surprisingly you don’t, I’ve seen guys start a game without any marker at all, and still get kills! Here are a few options for when Plan A goes up in smoke !
Provide Support
Help a teammate by watching the game for him, call out good shots and try to be a distraction to the other team, if they are shooting at you and not your friend he has a better chance of hitting his target or making a move. If you run out of paint keep shooting, the other team doesn’t know you are out of ammo and will still have to be careful that you don’t shoot them, slowing them down. If you fire too many blank shots they will figure it out, so pick your shots carefully. When they figure out that you’re shooting air they will get more aggressive and careeless, after all you can’t hurt them. That’s when you switch places with a friend who has paint, let him have an easy kill!
I was in a game where I and another guy I didn’t know had pushed all the way to our opponents base and he ran out of paint. He started to walk off and I yelled at him to stay put and be my eyes, we were about fifty feet apart so he had a very different view than me. Together we got a half dozen kills, at least half of which I wouldn’t have made without him. One guy he pointed out would have probably shot me if I hadn’t been warned. After the game he was excited that together we had wiped the other team out, I’m guessing he had a better time than he would have had watching from the dead box.
Surrender!
No not you, your opponent! The first time a guy got me to surrender he was out of paint. Practice a little stealth, be fleet of feet, get around behind the bad guy and scare the snots out of em! Now keep in mind he doesn’t have to surrender, some guys have that “never say die attitude” and will turn to shoot, others will panic and turn without thinking; so If you can do it from behind cover. You are basically bluffing the guy so don’t give him too much time to think. I like to run up and yell, “Surrender! Three, Two, One”! Usually it scares the guy enough to surrender before I get to “two”, the rest of the time he turns and tries to shoot me, so like I said, be ready to duck or surrender yourself! Some fields have an automatic 10’ surrender rule, use it to your advantage.
Barrel Tag
Most fields have a barrel tag rule, touch another player with your barrel, say “tag” and he’s out. The rule is meant as an automatic surrender, it helps keep players from getting shot point blank. Even if your markers down you still have a barrel so use it! If possible yell for a ref and let them know what you’re doing, they may not be used to people as bold as you! Sound crazy and impossible? Think again and watch as this guy takes the field with nothing but a barrel, and has a heck of a game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw6vuPEyvl0
Be the Flag Bearer
If you’re in a game of capture the flag grab it! Nothing draws fire like fire and since you can’t fire you won’t draw fire. Stay low, slither and slide on your belly while your team provides you with cover, or a distraction. Unless you start playing with real ammo it doesn’t get much more exciting than being within yards of the enemy base camp without a working marker.
Felling Lucky Punk?
Paintball is unpredictability at 12.3 balls and 280 feet per second, anything can happen, sometimes good things! I was playing on a Speedball field when I ran out of air on their center 30. My tank was so low that the bolt wouldn’t reset, so I couldn’t get anything to work. One of their players figured out my gun was down and ran in for the kill, I knew he was coming but what could I do? Just then my gun makes a little “click” sound, the bolt had reset, I had one shot and he never saw it coming!
Anybody can walk off the field. Anyone can blame their gear, but turning it around when you don’t have a chance is when the game gets really interesting! I’ve played a lot of games where everything went right and I got lots of kills, but I can’t remember a single one of them. Games like that are a bore, it’s the hard fight, being between a rock and a much harder rock that make for great games and great stories, even if you get shot. So stay in the game even if your marker takes a dump, taint nothing but a chance at paintball glory! If nothing else it will be better than watching from the dead box.