Glossary of Paintball Terminology

Part 2 – I through P

ICC

Iron City Classic. International paintball tournament held at Urban Assault, a paintball field just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania each year featuring competition between ten-man teams using mechanical paintball guns, or electronic paintball guns capped at extremely low rates of fire, with games played on wooded fields, Hyperball fields made of large sections of corrugated drainage pipes, or fields comprised of large dirt mounds. The Iron City Classic paintball tournament was created by longtime professional paintball player Tim Montressor.

ION

Invasion Of Normandy. Large paintball scenario game held each year at Skirmish, one of the largest and longest-running paintball playing fields in the United States, located in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. Currently the largest paintball scenario game in the United States drawing over 4,000 participants each year to recreate the Allied landings of D-Day in 1944 when the United States, English and Canadian forces invaded Axis-occupied France.

Impact

Professional paintball team Edmonton Impact. One of the most successful professional paintball teams in recent National XBall League professional paintball competition, Edmonton Impact has won numerous pro titles in the United States and Europe, with a roster packed with talent including Justin “JRab” Rabackoff, Alex Goldman, Dave Bains and other top professional paintball players. Edmonton Impact shoots Planet Eclipse CS2 paintball guns and uses the Virtue Spire loader and Bunkerkings CTRL paintball loader, and is heavily sponsored by G.I. Sportz.

Infamous

Professional paintball team Infamous. Rose to fame in the mid-2000’s when National Xball League franchise team Miami Effect defied league rules and competed in rival professional paintball league NPPL competition, calling themselves Infamous, with great success. Team has gone on to success on and off the professional paintball field as both a pro paintball team and a clothing and paintball gun upgrade brand under the direction of longtime professional paintball player Travis Lemanski. Infamous currently shoots Planet Eclipse CS2 paintball guns and wears Push paintball goggles, shooting Proshar paintballs.

Ironmen

Legendary professional paintball team Ironmen have a heritage that stretches back decades, to the dawn of professional paintball competition. Hailing from California, the Ironmen won the National Professional Paintball league professional title the first three years of the league’s existence, in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Shooting Autocockers and wearing early JT paintball gear, the Ironmen remained a top contender for years featuring a roster that included captain and paintball legend Bob Long along with Dave Youngblood, Clayton Kyle, Shane Pestana, Darryl Trent, Dirk Gadberry and Marty Bush. The team transitioned into new formats like ten-man speedball and eventually became a franchise of the original National XBall League with a roster that has included top players like Mike Paxson, Rich Telford, Oliver Lang, Todd Martinez and Matty Marshall. Currently the flagship pro team of Dye, the Ironmen shoot Dye M3+ paintball guns and wear Dye goggles and paintball gear, shooting G.I. Sportz paintballs.

JT

Perhaps the most-loved and most-famous brand in paintball history, JT Paintball began when John Gregory began a transition from motocross to offering the first goggle specifically designed and marketed for paintball in the mid-1980’s. JT rapidly grew to become the choice of paintball’s top competitors, offering paintball goggles and paintball clothing to top paintball teams like the Ironmen, Aftershock, Avalanche, Dynasty and XSV. JT’s success included the most successful paintball goggle of all time, the JT Spectra, which soldiers on today as the JT Proflex under the G.I. Sportz umbrella, where the JT brand currently resides. Most recently, JT Paintball has made a triumphant return to the professional paintball rank, as JT gear is now worn by top professional paintball team San Antonio X-Factor.

Joggers

A recent addition to paintball, joggers are a style of paintball pants that feature a minimalist design, a more tapered, athletic cut, elastic ankle cuffs and lightweight materials with very little padding. Jogger paintball pants are now used by numerous professional paintball teams and made by numerous paintball clothing companies.

KORE Outdoor, Inc

After completing their bankruptcy and restructuring in 2020, G.I. Sportz emerged as KORE Outdoor, Inc. KORE is now the parent company behind such famous paintball brands as Empire, Evil, JT, Tippmann and Spyder!

Lane 

1. A gap between bunkers on a paintball field through which a player must run to move around the field. 

2. The act of shooting a stream of paintballs through a gap between bunkers on a paintball field, either to eliminate an opponent passing through the stream of paintballs, or to prevent an opponent from reaching a critical bunker or spot on a paintball field.

Living Legends

Large paintball scenario game promoted for several years in Joliet, Illinois at the famous CPX paintball facility. After the closure of CPX, the Living Legends scenario game, which draws well over a thousand players along with numerous paintball “living legends” including longtime industry members and famous players, Living Legends has been hosted by Hell Survivors paintball field in Michigan, and more recently has returned to the Chicago area at Legacy Adventure Park.

Loader

See also: hopper. Device installed on top of a paintball gun used to hold and feed paintballs into the paintball gun for firing. The term loader differentiates from hopper as a loader is generally powered and feeds paintballs at rates faster than gravity. Popular paintball loaders include the Bunkerkings CTRL paintball loader, the Virtue Spire paintball loader and the Dye Rotor loader.

Low Impact

Term used to describe playing paintball with paintballs and equipment smaller than .68 caliber, generally .50 caliber. .50 caliber paintballs and equipment like .50 caliber paintball guns are often called low-impact paintball due to the lower weight of each .50 caliber paintball, allowing it to impact the target with less energy, taking the “sting” out of paintball and allowing younger and newer players to experience and fall in love with paintball much more affordably and easily. See also Valken Gotcha paintball gear for kids, JT Splatmaster paintball equipment.

Luxe

One of the most successful and popular tournament-level paintball guns of the modern era, the Luxe was released in the late 2000’s by DLX Technology and offers an advanced array of features like a low pressure spool valve operating system with a bolt that is quickly and easily removed for cleaning and service, no external air lines or hoses, a rechargeable battery, a sleek, curvy body milling design and a full suite of electronic features including a speaker that allows the paintball gun to talk to its owner as it is programmed. Currently used by such top teams as Houston Heat to compete and win in professional paintball, the most modern version of the Luxe include the Luxe Ice and Luxe X.

Magazine

Box-shaped device used to feed paintballs into magazine-fed paintball guns for firing – often spring powered. Mag-fed paintball has become an extremely popular form of paintball over the last several years with numerous companies offering mag-fed paintball guns and equipment for sale, including Valken with the M17 paintball gun, the First Strike T15 line and the Tippmann TMC. Often used to feed both .68 caliber paintballs and First Strike fin-stabilized paintballs into paintball guns for firing.

MagFed

See also: magazine. Extremely popular form of paintball in which teams play against one-another in tactically-themed games using only paintball guns that are fed from box magazines instead of hoppers. This style of paintball becomes more affordable for players as equipment is less expensive and players generally shoot fewer paintballs per game. Popular magfed paintball guns include the Valken M17, the First Strike T15, the Tippmann TMC and paintball pistols like the First Strike FSC and Tippmann TiPX paintball pistol.

Marbalizer

Legendary brand of paintballs originally released in the 1990’s by R.P. Scherer and PMI, Marballizer quickly became known for its consistently straight flight and brittle green/black swirled shell. After years as one of the best paintballs in the world, Marballizer was surpassed by even higher-end tournament paintballs like Evil, Hellfire and Imperial. Marbalizer continues to be manufactured today by G.I. Sportz under the Empire Paintball brand.

Marker

Term used to describe a paintball gun, derived from the origins of the earliest paintball guns that were designed and built in the 70’s and early 1980’s to mark trees with oil-based, permanent paint for forestry service. Example – marking pistol.

Mask

Simplified term describing the modern paintball facemask or paintball goggle system that is designed, tested and produced according to strict standards to protect the eyes, ears, cheeks and mouth of a paintball player in a game of paintball. Also known as a paintball goggle system, paintball goggles, paintball mask and paintball facemask.

Mechanical

1. Describes a type of paintball gun that fires without the aid of batteries, a circuit board or electronically operated solenoid. Popular mechanical paintball guns include the Autococker, Automag, the Eclipse EMek, the Eclipse M170R and the Shocker CVO.

2. Describes a style of paintball played between teams using only mechanically-operated paintball guns. Mechanical paintball has grown rapidly in popularity in the last several years.

Net

Paintball netting is used by paintball fields and paintball events to surround paintball fields and stop paintballs from leaving the field of play. This paintball netting allows spectators to watch and observe games of paintball safely without wearing goggles. Paintball netting is generally hung from cables and suspended by poles that surround individual paintball playing fields.

Ninja

Paintball brand based in Illinois, Ninja manufactures an extremely popular line of paintball HPA and compressed air tanks and regulators. Ninja paintball air tanks have earned a reputation for quality and the company can often be found supporting their products with technicians at major paintball tournaments and paintball scenario games.

NXL

The National XBall League, the NXL is the current producer of, and sanctioning body for, professional paintball and national-level ranked divisional paintball tournament competition. The NXL promotes five professional paintball tournaments across the United States each season in locations including Las Vegas, Nevada, Texas, Chicago and the world’s largest paintball tournament, the Paintball World Cup, held each season in Kissimmee, Florida drawing hundreds of paintball teams from around the world.

Pack

See also: harness. A paintball pack is used to hold and carry extra paintballs onto the paintball field during play for fast reloading. These extra paintballs are held in plastic, flip-lid pods that carry between 100 and 140 paintballs each and are held in pouches that a player can pull from during play. The best paintball packs include HK Army paintball packs, Valken Paintball packs, the Bunkerkings paintball pack, and the Dye Attack Pack line of paintball packs.

Pepperball

Pepperball paintballs are specially-manufactured paintballs with a polystyrene shell to resist moisture which contain Pava, a synthetic compound with effects that mimic strong pepper spray. When fired, these Pepperballs break on impact, releasing their contents in a cloud that irritates and disorients. Pepperballs are generally used by law enforcement, correctional facilities and in home and personal defense and riot control.

Pinokio

Brand of motorized paintball hopper designed and built originally by Pinokio Hoppers out of Virginia that featured a hopper with a long, extended nose cone that increased ammo capacity to 400 rounds. Pinokio hoppers like the Pinokio 250/400 and the newer, smaller Pinokio Speed are currently manufactured and sold by HK Army.

 
Pits

In tournament paintball, term used to describe covered, netted staging areas near a playing field for teams that are engaged in competition. Used primarily in XBall or NXL-style competition where teams play against one another until a team wins, exit the field, and other teams immediately enter to play their own game.

Pod

Plastic tube with a flip-lid used to hold extra paintballs for reloading during paintball games. Paintball pods generally hold between 100 and 150 paintballs, with the most popular paintball pods being 140 round paintball pods. Paintball pods are carried in a paintball harness or paintball pack that holds multiple pods.

Profiler

A popular paintball goggle system manufactured by VForce, the VForce Profiler goggle system was introduced in the early 2000’s and rapidly became a hit based on its unique look and innovative ability to quickly and easily remove the goggle lens for cleaning or replacement that is the modern standard. The Profiler paintball goggle is still manufactured today and sold by G.I. Sportz.

Pro-Flex

Likely the most popular tournament-level paintball goggle ever made, the JT Pro-Flex paintball goggle was built on the innovative and popular JT Spectra goggle frame released by the company in the 1990’s and offered a soft, flexible facemask that encouraged paintball bounces, along with soft ear pieces that became extremely popular. Used by such legendary paintball teams as Dynasty and XSV, the JT Pro-Flex is also popular for its ability to swap facemasks, ear pieces and goggle straps for color and style changes quickly and easily. The JT Pro-Flex and similar JT paintball goggles are manufactured by JT today under the G.I. Sportz line of paintball brands and companies.

Push

1. Widely regarded as the best paintball documentary film ever produced, Push was made by Patrick Spohrer and Bryon Benini in the early 2000’s and featured legendary paintball teams like Avalanche and the Ironmen with incredible cinematography and excellent music. 

2. Push continues today as a major paintball goggle brand. The Push Unite goggle has quickly become one of the most popular high-end paintball goggles available, used by professional paintball teams like Infamous and Seattle Thunder.