Cheating in paintball takes many forms, with two kinds of cheating seen most often: shooting over the speed limit (also known as shooting 'hot'), and whiping paint. How is it possible to deal with this crap? A 'hot' gun is one that shoots faster than the speed limit (usually around 300 f/ps). Safety is most important. If you suspect a player is shooting hot, tell a ref to check right away. Let your teammates know what's going on. If you can't locate a ref politely talk with the player who seems to be shooting hot. What you do not do is accuse a player of cheating. Don't get upset and start accusing him of shooting hot on purpose. Remember he may be a new player and have no idea what you are talking about. Or you may just be wrong, and he is shooting at a legal speed.
We all wish that a ref would be right there with a chronograph to check the gun. That's almost never going to happen. You want the player to check as soon as possible, but expecting him to walk off the field right then is expecting too much. It's the ref's job to check him. If you're the player asked to check and you think your gun is hot, do you want to hurt somebody? Of course not, so walk off and check. Suppose he doesn't check his gun, find a ref and ask the ref to take care of it. And when all is said and done, tell the player there are no hard feelings and that any time he wants to have you checked, you'll gladly check your gun. In a tournament, you can ask a ref to check an opponent's gun if there are on-chronos, or you can ask for a player to be checked as soon as he's off the field.
If you think that someone on the other team has wiped off a paintball hit, what do you do during the game, and what can you do after the game? In a game, you need to grab the ref's attention and say something like 'check his right shoulder for paint'...don't say ' i saw him whipe' because you may be mistaken. Remember, do not accuse anyone of anyhting, paintball is supposed to be fun for all players. The ref should check that player and if there's a paintball smear, probably he will eliminate that player and ascess some sort of penalty. Suppose you cannot get a ref's attention. After the game, take a look at the player and see if you were correct. You would not want to start accusing him if you only see a little paint. Splatter can often look like a hit, but it is really not. Often a player touches when a paintball bounces off of him as a natural reaction. From across the field, this may look like a whipe. So the best thing to do, is do everything possible to get the ref's attention. Play the game, and most of all, enjoy yourself.

[BACK] [HOME]