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History of Singapore Paintball
Paintball
was first introduced to Singapore in the year 1999. The first
paintball facility (TAG Paintball) was established in the most
eastern part of the city located in a family oriented resort
known as Downtown East. This teambuilding game was somewhat
similar to what many call “war” where two parties armed with
paintball guns (commonly known as paintball markers in the
paintball industry) go into the woods to shoot and “gun down”
one another. As the famous phrase “no pain, no gain”,
participants who are shot often left the game with bruise marks
on their body after being shot at during the course of the game.
With strict rules and regulations in Singapore, paintball
markers have since been classified as firearm equipment. With
the essential elements of teambuilding activity such as
communication, strategizing and teamwork, the game of paintball
has commonly been adopted as the game for all ages to “settle
their differences” on the field. This has led to the
establishment of 2 other paintball facilities in Sentosa (Power
Paintball Park) and Toa Payoh in the late 90’s. However, these 2
establishments had to call it quits early as the cost of
operating a paintball field in a land scarce country such as
Singapore, is almost not the most cost effective business plan.
Since their closure, paintball was never in the mind of many
Singaporeans and it became one of the most unheard of
teambuilding activities with lurking myths such as expensive,
army-liked, promotion of violence and the most important of all,
dangerous. While it took 7 days to create earth, paintball
development was in dormant for 8 years, all waiting for the
right time to shed its skin. As Singapore moves towards national
education, another paintball facility (Cross Fire) was
established in 2005 on the western part of Singapore to allow
Singaporeans to understand the importance of working together
and if it fails so will our city.
While paintball was not potentially developed in Singapore for 8
years, its popularity is growing in numbers in most countries.
With a growing number of participants every year, paintball has
over the years become an activity that is suitable for people of
all ages and different gender. The first paintball game was
played in the woods with players dressed in camouflage uniforms
spending an entire day out in the woods looking for “kills”. To
create awareness and general acceptance of the game by the
public, paintball has evolved from woods game into a team sports
where many people are passionate about. Today, many people still
begin their first paintball experience in the woods but move on
the another evolution of the game otherwise known as speedball
if they are more passionate in achieving well in the sports.
The first group of people who introduces speedball to Singapore
belongs to a group of paintball enthusiasts who call themselves
the Red Sevens. Since their formation, they have conducted
numerous paintball awareness games and the promotion of
paintball as a sport to many Singaporeans. Due to the lack of
speedball facility, the team has to travel to Malaysia to
practice and learn the game. Red Sevens represented Singapore as
the first speedball team by participating in the 2nd Leg of
Malaysia Paintball Official Circuit in 2007. Singapore also
received its first international representation when Red Sevens
was invited as the only Singapore team to participate in the
Asia World Cup 2007 and the NPPL Asia Championship 2008. During
the National Day Parade 2008, Red Sevens was featured on the
segment of “Red on Red” and was shown live telecast to
spectators of the parade.
The first paintball tournament that saw the participation of
international teams from across the world was held in Malaysia
and known as the Nations Cup. This inaugural international
paintball tournament which was held in 2004 twinkle the light to
allow more people in Asia to become aware of paintball. In 2007,
the Asia World Cup which was held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was
recognized as one of the top 50 events for the “Visit Malaysia
Year” to mark its 50th Anniversary of independence from the
colonial occupation.
With the support of the Singapore Sports Council, Paintball
Singapore Society was formed in 2007 as a paintball interest
group; it was not long that the name was eventually changed to
Paintball Association (Singapore) PBAS to allow a structural
overseeing of the development of paintball in Singapore. The
primary objective of the PBAS is to ensure progressive
development of paintball as a sport in Singapore. To allow
paintball to develop into a mainstream sport in Singapore,
members from the PBAS devised a Basic Tournament Orientation
(BTO) course to allow beginners who are interested in pursuing
the sport to undergo a theory and practical orientation to
ensure that participants are aware of the necessary safety
precautions when handling a paintball markers and other safety
aspects of the game. After its formation, the PBAS was included
as a recognized paintball association under the Asia Pacific
Paintball Federation (APPBF) which oversees the development of
paintball in the Asia Pacific region. The APPBF which is
recognized by the Millennium Series and the Paintball Sports
Promotion (PSP) went on to organize the Paintball Asia League
Series (PALS) and the Asia World Cup.
Singapore’s first speedball facility (Red Dynasty Paintball
Park) was established in 2007 to facilitate the growth of
speedball in Singapore. In less than 3 months of its
establishment, Singapore’s inaugural paintball tournament,
Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS), a 3-legged paintball
tournament was borne with 7 participating teams. A local team
named Redlords was crowned the inaugural champion of the event.
In its first, the competitive paintball in Singapore was first
featured on Straits Times sports section and on television with
Channel News Asia during Leg 2 of SPNS.
While there are cultural differences and disparity in the
regulation of laws in all countries of the world, paintball in
Singapore will continue to grow and progress with more people
getting awareness of the sport. While it takes time to grow a
sport with good foundational base, the way in which paintball
develops in the world has a direct impact on how paintball can
be perceived as a mainstream sport as compared to the rest.
While there are upcoming developmental plans for paintball to
grow in Singapore, it is everybody’s effort to see and support
the continual growth of this sport in Singapore.
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