Interested in Tournament Paintball?
Find out how to get into tournament paintball inSacramento and Northern California.
Where do I go to play tournament paintball?
Sacramento Tournament Paintball is fortunately a very large community. Here in Sacramento Capital Edge Paintball Park runs the CEPL, or Capital Edge Paintball League, where they offer a place to compete for players ranging from Beginner 3 man all the way up to Division 4 X-Ball.
Mechanical paintball tournaments in Sacramento are also very common at multiple different fields including Capital Edge Paintball Park, Davis paintball and West Coast Adventure Park. These Mechanical tournaments are a little bit different than playing an X-Ball tournament style. Some of them are “random draw” events, meaning they draw names to form teams, other events are more traditional and you play with your team.
How do I find a paintball team to play with?
Depending on how many friends you have playing with you, you might be able to simply form a team to compete out of your friends and people you already know. If you would rather join an existing team, sometimes you can get asked to join simply by playing with people who are already on a team. Other teams will have tryouts to determine who makes the team, and others may do pick ups periodically whenever additional players are needed.
A few notable team programs in the Sacramento area that offer tryouts are as follows:
Sacramento DMG:
DMG practices every weekend at Capital Edge Paintball Park, they do tryouts once a year, before the NXL league has started for the year. For more information on tryouts be sure to follow Sacramento DMG on Facebook and Instagram. The DMG program ranges from 3 man beginner teams all the way up to a professional team. This program is very well structured and helps anyone looking to make something more of paintball. For additional information on Sacramento DMG, you can reach out to the DMG Facebook page, Capital Edge Facebook page, or of course go introduce yourself and talk to some of the players already in the program. Fun facts, DMG stands for Dedication Makes Greatness, and that is exactly what this program demonstrates, it’s also owned and operated by retired professional and now professional coach Dave Bains, of Pro team Edmonton Impact!
Sacramento XSV:
Sacramento XSV actually practices at Extreme Paintball in Modesto, so it is a little outside of Sacramento. However, this program offers a great way to play on a team with a little bit of flexibility. XSV holds tryouts each year, but throughout the year will add additional teams if they find enough people who want to play and can create an additional team. This program will start out with beginner 3 man teams, and goes up from there. There are definitely growth options depending on how far you want to go in tournament paintball! For more information on the XSV program, message XSV Paintball on Facebook or email sacxsv@gmail.com. Fun Facts, XSV was one of the best pro teams in paintball that traveled all over the world to play! They stacked up an impressive amount of wins over the years, the pro team retired in 2015 but the teams are currently coached by former XSV pro Player Junior Brown.
What gear should I get to play tournament paintball?
There is not a certain type of gear that you need to play, depending on what type of tournament paintball you are playing could dictate the gear that is best, but it is not required. If you are playing X-ball style paintball then ideally you would want to be using an electronic marker that has ramping, can be capped at 10.2 balls per second, and an electronic hopper. If you are playing mechanical tournaments, any mechanical marker will work, and if you have an electronic marker, it simply needs to have a fire rate capped at 5.5 balls per second. Depending on the event, you may be required to use a gravity fed hopper, or a hopper without electronics. Each event and or tournament series will dictate their own specific rules that you will follow.
How do I know what division to play?
Different divisions in paintball can be a little difficult to understand, they range all the way from T2 beginner all the way up to pro, here is some information on the different divisions:
3 MAN
T2 Beginner 3 man is what anyone just starting out would be classified. So if you have never had any tournament paintball experience, or very limited experience, this is where you would likely want to start. Once your team wins a T2 event it is moved up to T1.
T1 3 man would be Division 6, so this is where you would play if you had experience, but were not quite ready for Division 5 X-ball. The lowest ranking team from T1 is moved down to T2.
5 MAN
Division 5 is the starting point for X-ball, usually at this point you have had some experience in tournament paintball and want to compete beyond 3 man.
Division 4 is the next step from D5 and is the highest ranking played locally at the CEPL using the NXL rules.
Division 3 and Division 2 can be played at a West Coast level in the WCPPL or national level in the NXL as your team ranks up, moving through the divisions.
Division 1 (Semi Pro) in the NXL: The Semi Pro Division is very competitive as all teams are fighting for a Professional spot, the team who wins the series title at the end of the year gets moved up into the professional division!
Professional in the NXL:
This is the highest ranking possible, this division currently consists of 20 highly dedicated teams that play all over the country and compete for the best prizes in paintball!
Not sure if tournament paintball is for you?
If you are uncertain if you will like tournament paintball there are a few things you can try. Some fields will do different events that will put you into a tournament like environment, without the commitment of being on a team. For example, Capital Edge has done “Draft Day” style events where professional paintball players coach a team that they draft and try to lead them to victory. Other fields will do similar events that are draft style but mechanical, and of course you are always welcome to join players on airball fields at any field to try it out in a more laid-back fashion.
