Shoot ’em up!

Paintball is the latest craze with stressed out techies who want to bond over the weekend. The sport is fast catching on in Bangalore

Shoot 'em up!

Paintball is the latest craze with stressed out techies who want to bond over the weekend. The sport is fast catching on in Bangalore

Getting yourself covered with large blobs of paint is some people's idea of fun and in Sarjapur yesterday, they were taking it very seriously.

The scene at the 4th Open Paintball Championship 2009 organised by the Indian Paintball League this Sunday was charged, with a total of 10 teams participating.

Armed with paintguns, the catchily named Loose Cannons, Maniacs, Splat, Max Pain, The Brats and others battled it out on the field. With five players in each team, divided into forwards, midfielders and background, their aim was to capture the flag from the opponent's base in just five minutes.

After a fierce duel, the Maniacs triumphed, while IYD (I'm Your Daddy) came a cool second.

Apart from Bangalore, the Chennai zone is almost ready and will be fully functional by the middle of next month.u00a0
The Delhi zone will be ready by the first week of October. A National Paintball League is to be set up by next year with its headquarters in Bangalore. According to Soans, they plan to organise 10 tournaments in each city, and the four winners would battle it out for the national prize.

However, the most interesting feature on the cards is the idea to, "organise an Indian Open at the international level." The popularity of this sport is a 'slow process,' but it will gain ground soon, Kiran added. Interestingly, the IPL has registered itself for the World Cup Asia Div3 (division 3), and would be sending seven players from this tournament to Malaysia as the first team from India to compete against 40 countries.

Team spirit

Varun, from Infosys and Vimal from Millward Brown, members of the team Raptor, fit the profile of the average paintball enthusiast in Bangalore. "This is a good way to meet our friends and hang out. It helps us to de-stress," said Vimal adding, "one gets the feeling of being at war, with a gun in hand and the ability to shoot another person it brings out real aggression in us." Jason, member of team IYD, said that the game is a great team-builder since people who play this sport need to be fast and think quickly, they are usually not "laid back and can be depended on at the work place."

Kaviraj, an IT professional and member of G5, who has been playing this sport for three years, said that there are three essential parameters. "Every team needs strategy, communication and teamwork, without which all fails." "Talking about teamwork in a classroom is totally different from teamwork nurtured while playing paintball," says Jacob, member of team Maniacs and an IT professional and trainer with Starmark.

Paintball, however, still seems to be a boy thing, and there were only two girls around. Neha of team Raptor, who works in Goldman Sachs, was all smiles, saying, "This sport is all about the rush which no other game gives me."

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