The Three Break Rule
"Imagine yourself back when you were a new player (or maybe you still are a new player), sneaking through the bushes, looking for the flag, setting up an ambush, defending a fort - the adrenaline's pumping and you 'just cant get enough' of this game?
Getting hit? That's o.k. The ball only stings a little, and you don't always feel it anyway. And if you didn't get the flag this time, there's another game in 20 minutes.
The game, in perspective, brings some bumps and lumps, but it's all in the game, and a player gets way less bumps in paintball than he would get in football, soccer, and quite a few other sports.
A new player's perspective in bumps and lumps changes, however, when he or she gets overshot for the first time. Maybe he ends up on the recieving end of paint after he already yelled 'OUT!' and was holding his 'gun in the air. Maybe it happens when someone catches her from a side angle and sends 6 balls when one would have been enough.
No matter the circumstances, the first time a player gets on the recieving end of alot of paint, new issues come into that player's field of view. Besides understanding 'goggles on' and what a 'wire' is, and the use of barrel plugs, now that player has an idea of what 'overshooting' feels like.
Once you've been the object of overshooting, even if it was accidental, you know the game would be a nicer place if it didn't happen. If you've given it some serious thought, you know that there's no way to completely eliminate overshooting as long as games have multiple players and paintguns shoot more than one ball per game. A player, if he plays enough times, will get hit multiple times sometime in some game. The paint may come from several players all at one time. It may all be out of the same paintgun, shot by someone who lacks the self-control needed to play this game.
What game rule would keep overshooting out of the game as much as possible?
How about serious consideration for using the 'three break' rule (you deliberately break three or more on one player, and you the shooter are also out of the game)? The key is the shooter and his ability to control his trigger finger. The rule means that breaking three balls on a player is overshooting. One or two breaks, ok. Three breaks, you didn't use trigger control and you pay the penalty (leave the game).
Three breaks constitutes unsportsmanlike conduct. In a tournament, overshooting could draw stiffer penalties for more breaks. Three breaks sends the shooter out. Four to six breaks, shooter and one teammate are out (one plus one). Six to nine breaks, shooter and two teammates are out (one plus two). Ten or more breaks, the shooter's team recieves zero points for the game and the other team automatically gets a maximum score ('a max'). If three teammates gang up on the last opponent, they risk putting 10 on him and losing a game they would have otherwise won.
With this rule, a player would have to control his trigger finger. 'Shots per second' would not be relevant, and a tournament producer would not need to buy shot counters. The three break rule puts the responsibility on each player to control his actions on the field."
-By Dan Reeves Action Pursuit Games Mag.
www.actionpursuitgames.com