When you go to any paintball field you hear those words yelled on field no matter the style: speedball, woodsball, rec-ball, scenario games, big games, pump play, magfed, and stock class. Every player does it in some capacity. This post is to address proper paint check etiquette and to explain why our refs paint check who they do and why.

The purpose of the paint check has always been to call a referee over to see if a paintball broke or if the break counts as a hit…on yourself. Well a long time ago, in some far away paintball land, it evolved into players telling referees to go check other players they think they hit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A referee is there to call players out, help dead players off the field, enforce rules, make sure players are being safe, facility games, and paint check players if they need it. During smaller games, our referees can do this without it interfering with their job. During big games, it becomes more complicated. You want our referees to paint check players for you? Let’s start with what NOT to do.

How about….No. We instruct our refs to completely ignore that guy. Just because a hopper was dumped on a stick bunker doesn’t mean a paintball got through. We don’t know who, what, or where to paint check. If you yell this at referees, or yell this at all during games, please stop. It just makes people angry, it makes refs angry, and it red flags you at most fields as “that guy”.

Ok this is a little better…but barely. Get who out? Where? This will get a referees attention, but it probably won’t land you that paint check on another player.

This will get a refs attention and it may even get a referee over to you but to check a player, our referees need more info.

So what is the proper way to call a paint check on another player? You saw a paintball break and you think that player is still in the game. Here’s what to do:

When describing it to a referee, it should sound something like, “On the inside of the third building directly in front of me, on his right forearm. Blue mask.” This gives a referee the proper location, player description, and where the break may be. By doing the above, you will not only get your paint check, but the referee will know what to look for AND you will gain +25 charm with the referees for not yelling one of the three things above.

It’s important to remember that the vast majority of players are honest and call themselves out in a timely manner. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time for a player to collect pods and walk out. Other times, that player called himself hit and walked out the other side of the building. If you call a paint check on another player and you did NOT physically see that ball break, you may be taking that referee away from his/her more important duties on field.

Our next big game is BYOP on August 28th. Mash that button below to learn more, and never forget the fine art of the paint check!

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