I was deep in the middle of a woodsball match at Liberty Paintball-NY with two of my teammates, Paul Damiano and Brendan Smith. During this one match in a place on the field called “ The Crypt,” I was almost certain that I heard and saw a flashbang grenade go off on the opposite side of the field. It made an extraordinarily bright white flash, along with a loud bang sort of sound. There was a staff member reffing the game who was standing about 30 feet away from me who immediately began freaking out and then ran through the crossfire of the two teams to get over to the other side of te field and find out if a flashbang actually just went off.
Flashbangs are grenades meant to stun and disorient their victims by use of the flash or bright light and loud blast. Although this firecracker-like explosive sounds very dangerous, it does not contain any incendiaries or shrapnel, so it is not deadly. But the main point of a flashbang grenade is to temporarily deafen and blind the enemy, so consequently, they are almost completely banned from the sport of competitive paintball, in the woods, and in speedball courses. I guess the powers that be who decide what’s right and what’s wrong in paintball feel this type of gear isn’t fair for whatever reason.
The ref began to yell at all of the players, standing aside their bunkers. I am pretty sure that he got shot many times while trying to find the player to give the boot to. I never saw anyone actually get kicked out after that game, so I am not actually sure that I truly experienced the detonation of a flashbang grenade, yet it was still a very interesting occurrence for me. Just the idea of getting deafened of blinded by a real flashbang in paintball petrifies me with fear. I would prefer to leave things like this out of the game.
Then again part of the fun of scenario paintball is all the different realistic guns and equipment that can be used. In my opinion, we should keep it to paint only though. Sure, paintball grenades, thrown or shot out of a paintball marker grenade launcher and even paintball landmines are cool but you’ve got to draw a line somewhere.
Evan Shlom - Westchester Rise Paintball Team