Georgia State Paintball Club

        With all of the preparation, planning and executing in the game of paintball there's still this one burning question many people have about the sport—does it hurt when being shot with a paintball?

       "With adrenaline going on you don't really feel it," said Michael Waters, president of the Paintball sports club. "When I get home and take my shirt off, my wife would gasp because she see these welts on my back that are the size of quarters. It leaves bruises but you really don't feel it when you're out there."

Georgia State University Paintball club, active since 2009, has been a successful part of the school's sports clubs program.

      In Paintball, the equipment a player needs is a marker, hopper—use to load paintball into the gun—air tank and a mask.

       Since a lot of people think Paintball is strictly recreational, in the woods activity with players wearing army fatigues trying to attack their opponent at will, Waters debunks that notion.

        "We do something different," said Waters. "It's very structured with a lot of different rules. We do five-on-five matches with a five-minute time limit. We play on a field that's 150' x 170' kind of a square field with air-filled bunkers with different shapes and sizes that mirror the opposite side of the field."

       When playing capture the flag the objective of the game is to take the flag from the middle of the field and capture the flag to the team's staring deadbox. This is the place where players go when they're eliminated.

     "The easiest way to win is to shoot the other team and take flag when everyone's eliminated and that's how it works," said Waters.

With its military tactics, the game of paintball can have a war-like intensity unlike other sports.

"With a silent countdown of ten seconds, teams fire hundreds of paintballs in seconds," explained Waters.

       During last season stint, GSU Sports paintball club finished 8^th during National Collegiate Paintball Association championship game in Lakeland, FL which includes defeating top ranked North Texas. Also last fall, the team participated in NCPA Mid-south event #1 tournament that was held at Greenville, South Carolina and came in first place but there was a key player that contributed to those wins.

      "Phillip Fordham has played semiprofessional (paintball), very talented paintball player that knows the game. He thinks paintball and he's a natural," said Waters.

GSU's paintball sports club Vice President, Phillip Fordham had lot to do with those victories and loves the game of Paintball.

"The competiveness, there's nothing like it," said Fordham. "You get to shoot people and it's an ‘in your face game.'"

Although it may seem that Paintball is only a run and shoot game, Paintball is just as mental as physical.

"It's like chess," said Fordham. "You strategically place players to where they can get the best shots on others players."

For those who want to join the Paintball Sports Club contact President Michael Waters (mwaters5@student.gsu.edu).