When playing tournament ball, you will generally be playing on a bunker type field. There are different types of tournament games played but the three main positions within each game are Back Player, Mid Player and Front Player. There are usually more than one person in each of these roles and in order to win a tournament, they must work together as a team.

Most of the tournament games will consist of capture the flag type games which are played by having both teams out on the field and a "flag" in each team's home bunker. In order to win the tournament, the winning team must capture the other team's "flag".

The Front Players will be weaving and dodging paintballs fired by the other team and you can expect to lose at least one of your front players rather early on as their job is to advance forward and pick off as many of the opponent's Front Players as possible. Remember, the opposing team will be doing basically the same strategy.

The Mid Players will be covering the Front Players to the best of their abilities and attempting take out anyone on the opposing team that is aiming for the Front Player. Just as the Front Player relies on the Mid Player, as the Front and Mid Player moves forward towards the goal of capturing the other team's flag and winning the tournament, they both will be relying on the Back Player to both cover them by marking opponents and also guarding their own team's flag and keeping the other team from capturing it.

Many teams spend time coming up with elaborate plans to fake out the other team. The best way to find the plays that will work for your team is to watch some tournament play and take notes, then try the moves out with your own team and find your individual member's strengths to create the strongest team you can together.

Once you've played paintball in a loose woodsball type game, the next thing you'll want to do is play in a bunker at a paintball field. After that, many people get the bug to play in tournament style paintball.

Usually, in tournament games involving teams, there are specific positions that are played, this is a light overview of the basic positions in a team tournament game.

The Back Player
A back player has the job to hang back and watch the front and midline players and cover them so they can get further up. Especially if you're playing a capture the flag type of game. The Back Player will cover and guard their own team's flag and main bunker. They generally don't move too far forward and are often one of the last players eliminated.

The Mid Player
Mid Players do a lot of moving. They rely on the back player to watch their backs while they cover the front player and try to eliminate as many opponents as they can. Mid players don't usually carry as many pods as back players but they usually have a good supply as they will be making as many eliminations as they can. The Mid Player has to be ready at anytime to take over for the Front Player if they get eliminated. There are usually at least two Mid Players on a team.

The Front Player
Front players have to be fast and they have to trust that the Back and Mid Players are watching their backs. Front Players are fast and carry the least amount of pods as they are usually going for the other team's flag instead of seeking the most eliminations. The Front Players are usually the first eliminated in a tournament game.

Now, you can decide where you want to play your game. Have fun playing in the tournament!

There are common paintball problems you will run into from time to time, fortunately most are completely avoidable.

The number one avoidable problem you will run into is when you go to play another game of paintball and you can't see out of your mask. Yep, dirty gear will slow you down big time. Clean all your paintball gear after each game. The clothes you wear to play paintball can become quite ripe if you just wad them up and stuff them into your gear bag. Unless your goal is to have a ring of dirt around yourself like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoons, keep your gear and clothing clean.

Another common problem is your paintballs are shooting badly. If you haven't stored your paintballs between games in a climate controlled area, chances are they have gotten warped from too much heat or too much exposure to cold weather. Leaving your paintballs is convenient so they are always there when you're ready to play, however they may not work as they once did as exposure to extremes of heat and cold can badly warp your paintballs rendering them useless.

Sand and dirt in your pods is another issue that goes back to keeping your gear clean. Just rinse your pods after each game and you'll be rid of the build up of sand and/or dirt that can seriously degrade the performance of your marker. Ditto for your marker, clean it after every game so it's always ready to play.

In addition to keeping your mask clean, you will need to replace the lens on a regular basis. Additionally, sweat will break down the foam around the interior of the mask. You can slow down this process considerably by cleaning your mask after each game and getting the sweat and dirt out of the foam of the interior. And those are just a few of the avoidable issues for paintballers and almost all of them can be avoided by keeping your equipment clean.

In a word : yes. Blowback is a common issue when playing paintball. It is the excess gas vented from the marker through various ports (feed tube, barrel, etc.) and can make your marker a little less accurate with each shot unless you address the issue when you're lining up your shot.

Closed bolt markers have much less blowback because of their design, which allows less air in the form of blowback gas to escape. Blowback is essentially the leading origin of kick your marker may have or if you have a closed bolt marker, lack of kick.

If you use an open bolt marker, your paintball gun will most likely kick or rather jerk from your grip a little with each shot you fire. If you're using an open bolt marker, planning ahead when you aim at an opponent or target will result in a more hits with fewer paintballs used. If you have a closed bolt marker, your goal will be to learn to steady your arm with each shot fired as blowback won't be a big problem for you.

Also, when you're lining up a shot with your marker, be sure and take into consideration other elements such as the wind direction and speed, this will alternately work with you or against you depending on your position. If you are shooting into the wind, allow for that to slow your paintball a bit and realize it will slow down the velocity and you will need to a be little closer. If the wind is at your back, you can line up your shot and know that nothing is slowing your paintball down on that shot!

Accuracy is easy to attain in paintball if you practice with your marker on a regular basis and always take into consideration the outside conditions around each shot you make.

When you're playing paintball, you want to use as few paintballs as possible on the field and the way to accomplish that is to be as accurate as possible.

You can be just as with one marker (paintball gun) as another if you use the same way of sighting and determining how much to lead your shot. Most paintball guns shoot at roughly the same velocity so you will only need to adjust if your marker has a little more drag than other markers you may have used.

If you're playing on a field or just a game of woodsball, you will need to take into consideration things like wind direction and speed, temperature as it can directly affect your paintballs, and positions of your opponents. Unless you constantly play in a temperature controlled environment when you play paintball, these factors will always have to be taken into consideration.

There are ways to be a better shot with your marker. Make sure your paintballs are the right size before you play, even a small size difference can greatly affect the accuracy of your shots. A fast way to test in the field is to simply put a paintball in your barrel and attempt to blow the paintball out of the opposite end. It should come out with a little resistance. However, if it requires a lot of effort to expel or it simply rolls out, you have paintballs that do not fit your barrel and it's time to switch out. If you don't already carry different size barrels in your field kit, this is a great item to have extra sizes in.

Those are just some basic factors that will affect your shots, learn to test your paintballs and always check the wind direction and speed and you'll rack up more hits on your opponents during your next game.