Here are another indispensable post from Anna @BedlamPaintball, as she discuss these very important tournament paintball rules that can cause player disqualification.
As the 2012 PSP Chicago Open comes to an end, many people are getting more and more teams are interested to join the next PSP leg. But before doing so, here are some tournament paintball rules that teams should know and spectators would want to know to better understands the rules of the game. These are basic, yet crucial rules that must be followed because it can cause a player to be disqualified from the game.
1. Marker Safety
Your marker will be chronographed before every game. Tournament players may be required to have their marker chronograph during and after the game as well. Penalties are applied for tournament players found with “hot marker” unless the player asks for a chronograph.
Fully automatic markers and markers with autoresponse triggers are not allowed on commercial paintball fields or in tournaments.
2. Clothing
Some fields and most tournaments do not allow short pants or short-sleeved shirts. There’s a very good reason for this rule: paint balls sting and leave welts that can last for several days!
Tournaments will usually specify the kind of material a player’s clothes can be made of (not a slippery material that can easily be wiped clean of paint) and the style of clothing (not oversized or baggy). They will usually forbid the wearing of camouflage patterns and ghillie suits as paint doesn’t show up easily on these.
3. Goggles
If you are having problems with your goggles fogging up, or you need to adjust your goggles for any reason, signal to a referee. They will supervise you while you remove or lift your goggles. This rule even applies to wiping the sweat from under your goggles. Tournaments will apply a penalty to any player lifting their mask and eliminate them from the game.
4. Paint Balls
Only field paint is allowed in tournaments and on most commercial paintball fields. This eliminates the problem of old, brittle paint balls (or frozen paint balls!) being brought to the field. Check the rules at your field. BYOP = Bring Your Own Paint; FPO = Field Paint Only. Tournaments are very particular about paint and most won’t even allow “blood red” colored paint on the field.
5. Foul Language
Using foul language is an infraction of the rules in tournaments and will be cause for elimination. Recball fields and scenario games may have more lenient rules, but to be safe, DON’T SWEAR!
