Personal Playing Tips

Basic Strategy for a good hyper/speedball game.
(these are not really in any specific order)

1. Play to get killed.

Do not hang out at the rear bunkers preserve yourself and worry about getting hit. Getting hit is part of the game. Hyper/speedball is an extremely fast and aggressive game. My personal advice for overcoming the fear of getting hit: Play a game or two with just a T-shirt on. It still hurts, but you get used to it. That and you walk away with some pretty nice looking welts, the paintballer's trophy.

2. Keep putting pressure on the opposition.

Don't give them the chance to make a key move on you.

3. Move up quickly.

Your team needs to get as much of a hold on the middle of the field as soon as possible.

4. Move up the tapelines on the left and right.

Use of the edges of the field is key. When working your way up the sides you really only need to worry about your one open side. If a player manages to clear the opposing players from the side, it is rather easy to advance to the next bunker. As you move up you and your other teammates will now have a much better angle on the opposition. In extreme cases a player can make it to the other team's rear tapeline and start taking shots at them form the rear, leaving them no where to hide. This brings us to the next topic.

5. Communicate openly with teammates.

It is impossible for everyone to see everything that happens on the field. If you see some movement, yell it out and let them know where it is. The other need for communication is to let your team know where you are. On many occasions when playing at a walk-on field where all we have are armbands for identification, I have been shot at by my own team. It doesn't matter who hits you, either way you are dead. If you know that one of your teammates is up on the other side, make sure that the rest of your team knows too. And if you are the one making the move, let your team know before hand.

6. Coordinate movements.

If someone moves up to a forward bunker, move up and take his or her bunker. The team needs to keep pushing forward as a unit.

7. Watch your opponents' patterns.

A player in a bad situation trying to cover multiple targets usually falls into a rhythm of where they look and move behind the bunker. If you notice a player that keeps doing the same thing, try and beat him with a shot before he gets there. If done correctly you can get the player to "walk" into your shot. The other way you can use this is to wait until you know that they are watching another player and then move. When the other player comes around to look where you were, you will have a good surprise for him.

8. Think...

Don't move if there are things you don't know. Make sure that you have the best idea of where the other players are, you don't want to make a move on a bunker and end up putting yourself in a really bad position. Also, if somone shoots at you and you don't know where they are, I suggest that you take cover and find out where they are. I have seen way too many people take a bad situation and turn it far worse by walking in to a better shot for thier opponent.