Colors erupt inside of Pittsburgh Paintball Park 

With over 350 members, Paintball @ Pitt is a dynamic sport gathering biweekly for paintball matches organized by the club. 

When the Paintball @ Pitt club gets together, the team carpools together to the Pittsburgh Paintball Park in East Carnegie, PA. When they get to the park, they have about 2 1/2 hours of free play. 

“When you get to the park, you’ll get your rental equipment and your paint, and the ref will explain basic rules. After that, you’ll get on the field,” Charity Xu, a senior neuroscience major and president of Paintball @ Pitt, said.

Ciaran O’Brien, a sophomore supply chain management major and business manager of Paintball @ Pitt, said one of the organization’s goals is to help newcomers feel welcome when playing. 

“We really want to work hard to give everyone the best experience possible, but especially with new players. We just want to make sure they’re having a good time and are going to walk away thinking paintball is fun,” O’Brien said. “Seeing people play paintball for the first time and having fun is one of the best parts.” 

One of the most popular game modes is “Domination,” according to Xu. The game involves two flags in the middle of the field, and the goal is for the flag left standing to be your team’s color. 

“You either do that by running to the middle and pulling the other flag down and having your flag up, or slapping the other team’s flag with your [paint] color,” Xu said. 

Another gamemode is Capture the Flag, which is Xu’s favorite. 

“There’s a flag in the middle, and at least one person is supposed to run in, grab it, and run back to the team base. If they get it, they have to drop it,” Xu said. “There’s also Team Deathmatch, which is if you get, you’re out, and the last team with people on it wins.” 

For Xu, one of the best parts of the club is working with friends to shoot the other paintball team.

“I talk to the refs and make sure they’re placing friends that want to be together and friends that want to shoot each other on different teams,” Xu said. “Different people take their enjoyment out in different ways.” 

Last year, Xu was at the activities fair when she saw two people sitting at the Paintball @ Pitt table handing out game vouchers.

“I’ve done paintball once before, and I felt like it was a good way to get sunshine over the weekend. So I just started, and got the bug for playing paintball, and I just kept going,” Xu said. 

Steven Berger, an undecided sophomore on the pre-law track and vice president of the club, started playing paintball in middle school. He continued playing as a hobby and in his first year of college, he joined Paintball @ Pitt.

“In the spring semester, I started to get into it more and got to know a bunch of the guys out there, and it’s been really great,” Berger said. 

When there are new players, Xu said the teams are divided pretty evenly between the new and experienced players. 

“We just don’t want to overload one team with everyone who has played before and the other with all new people.” Xu said. “You can feel like you’re a part of the team, and when you’re calling out to your teammates to strategize it’s not like you plan these tactics months in advance. It’s really just having trust in other people that they’ll be able to carry their own way, and if they can’t, you’ll have a good time teaching them how to play paintball.”

After their events, the team will often go to a hot dog shop for food because paintball is “hungry work,” Xu said.

“We’ve been going to this hot dog shop that has cheap, amazing hot dogs, and it’s like right on the way back to campus,” Xu said. 

Even though Berger recognizes that joining paintball might seem scary, he thinks it’s worth it. 

“Once I tried it, I was like this is really fun. Everybody thinks you’re going to run out and shoot and get shot and it’s going to hurt, but realistically, there’s a lot more than just run and shoot. It’s fun and a good team-building activity,” Berger said. 

Xu urges anyone who’s slightly interested to come try it out, and reminds everyone to come prepared.

“I would definitely recommend coming if you’re competitive or even if you just like working with other people, because it’s much more team-based than people realize. Also, bring more clothing to the paintball park, because it can make impacts less painful,” Xu said.