Prepare for the Event
Preparing for the tournament is an important aspect. Try to get everyone together to practice the weekends before the event. Come up with standard names for bunkers and body counts for both your team and theirs. Since this may be a newer team, get a feel for everyone’s playing style and communication. Practice the fundamentals, communication and teamwork. If the field layout is released early, which is unusual for local events, take a look at the field layout.
The week before the event, make sure all your gear is in order. Don’t mess with your paintball gun or loader the night before the tournament! As much as you want to play with it and regrease it, you don’t want to mess something up so close to an important event. Give yourself some time ( a week or so) between maintaining your marker and the tournament. I’d recommend cleaning all your gear at this point too.
Also I would make sure you have a barrel swab to clean your barrel.
The night before have everything in order, packed up and ready to go. Most paintball tournaments start in the morning, so you’ll probably be getting up pretty early.
Finally try to relax and get some sleep!
Day of the Tournament
Get to the field early. You don’t want to be rushing to get ready, especially for your first event. I’d recommend getting their when the doors open for your bracket.
By getting to the field early, your team can most likely claim a table in a nice location and get situated. You’ll also probably have to check in and sign waivers, so do that early as well.
Walk the Field
Once you get signed in and your gear on, take to the field once it opens up. Usually about an hour before games start, tournaments open up the field to teams to walk the field.
This time is to look at the layout and come up with some strategies. I’ll be writing another tips article specifically for walking the field, but try to get a general feel for how the field will play out. Look at the primary bunkers such as the back center, middle and corner bunkers. Walk the entire field looking at secondary and 50 bunkers. Look for and remember various angles and blind shots.
Also look for lanes and where you think other teams will send players off the break. Finally, come up with two or three breakout plans for your team. This way, if your main one doesn’t work or teams adapt to your plan, you can change it up.
Game Time
Your first game is about to start. Your pretty pumped and maybe even a little nervous. Relax and remember, have fun! I’m sure you’ll have a blast at your first event, most players do and end up coming back for more.
At this point just play your game and watch what other teams do. Remember the basics and communication. If you’re winning your matches and think the team is going to make it to semi’s or finals, you can scout other teams breakout plans and strategy. Also watch the other local teams and how they play, you can probably learn quite a few things.
You may end up loosing a lot of your games at your first paintball tournament, but that’s okay! Don’t worry to much about making mistakes, but learn from them. The way to improve at paintball is to play against better players, and making the step from rec-ball to rookie tournaments is the first step in learning more about competitive paintball. If you have the drive to compete, learn from mistakes and practice, tournament paintball will be a blast.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t make the cut to semi’s either! Keep practicing and improving, and once you and your team finally make the cut to finals or win an event, it’ll be very rewarding.
