Editing Paintball (section)

== Paintball around the world ==
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=== Australia ===
Despite stiff legislation,{{clarify|date=April 2019}} paintball is growing in popularity as a competitive sport, with several leagues and tournaments across the country. There are paintball fields in every state except Tasmania that allows paintball marker ownership.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} In Victoria the Paintball Association of Victoria runs a number of events including scenario, 3v3 and 5v5 competitions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paintballassociationvictoria.org.au |title=Paintball Association Victoria - Home Page |access-date=October 31, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403182320/http://www.paintballassociationvictoria.org.au/ |archive-date=April 3, 2016 }}</ref>

=== Bangladesh ===
In [[Bangladesh]] paintball as a sport is rare. Paintball was first initiated in the BD and the [[Middle East]] in 1996. Paintball games and rules were established in [[Dhaka]].

Paintball was first introduced in Bangladesh in 2017 by Ground Zero, a paintball center located in Vatara, [[Bashundhara Residential Area|Bashundhara R/A]]. Even though the idea came in 2017 but the paperwork had taken more than two years and in 2020 the paintball center started its journey. Toggy Fun world also has a space for paintballing but it is not a dedicated paintball center.

=== Canada ===
Certain paintball fields opened in the [[Eastern Townships]] and in the [[Laurentides|Laurentians]]. In the beginning it was mostly fields with regular open fields with barricades of wood, old tires and barrels, and very basic infrastructure. Harry Kruger has operated a paintball venue known as "Capture the Flag" in Alberta since the late 1980s. In 1995 [[Bigfoot Paintball]] opened in [[Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, Quebec|St. Alphonse-Rodriguez]] in the region of Lanaudière. After only a few years it became more and more prominent in [[Québec]].{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} In 2013, paintball has become relatively mainstream in Canada, with multiple commercial indoor paintball facilities located in most large cities across Canada, as well as a variety of outdoor style commercial paintball fields located in the countryside around the cities.  In 2016, the Ontario Paintball League (OPL) was created. The league offers four divisions with cash and gear prizes for the different divisions. In 2018, the most recent ''NXL World Cup'' winners, Edmonton Impact, or just Impact, were based out of Canada.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

=== Cyprus ===
There are about ten fields in [[Cyprus]], the most recognized of them being the Lapatsa Paintball Ranch in [[Nicosia]], DNA-Paintball in [[Paphos]], and Paintball Cyprus in [[Limassol]]. The Republic of Cyprus has a number of ongoing paintball leagues, including CRL (Cyprus Rec-ball League) and CSL (Cyprus Speedball League). Each league has tournaments every month for the duration of the season which is usually about 7–9 months.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dna-paintball.com/ |title=Paintball - DNA Paintball Cyprus |publisher=Dna-paintball.com |access-date=July 11, 2012 |archive-date=January 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111210703/http://www.dna-paintball.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Denmark ===
In Denmark paintball is a popular sport. There are around 25 paintball outdoor and indoor fields in Denmark. The largest indoor paintball center in Europe is in Copenhagen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://paintballarena.dk/ |title=Paintball, Copenhagen Paintball Arena : Index |access-date=October 2, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001185743/http://www.paintballarena.dk/ |archive-date=October 1, 2016 }}</ref>

=== Finland ===
[[File:Talma Paintball Center C IMG 8857.JPG|thumb|A paintball center at Talma Active Park in [[Sipoo|Sipoo, Finland]]]]
Since 1998, Finland's operating nationwide umbrella organization, SPBL (Finnish Paintball Association), is responsible for the country's paintball activities and its development both as a hobby and as a competitive sport.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spbl.org/|title=Suomen Paintball -liitto|access-date=15 March 2024|language=fi}}</ref> The largest game paintball area of Finland is located in the town of [[Jämsä]] in [[Central Finland]], including no less than 12 hectares of different terrains and nine game areas.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jamsanpaintball.fi/205-paintball-games-in-jamsa-are-fun-for-the-whole-group|title=Paintball games in Jämsä are fun for the whole group!|publisher=Jämsän Paintball|access-date=15 March 2024}}</ref>

=== India ===
In India, paintball dates back to 2005 when TPCI (The Paintball Co India) joined with PALS (Paintball Asia League Series) which then was the biggest paintball tournament organizer in the Asian circuit and introduced this sport to the country by starting the first commercial paintball park on the outskirts of the national capital at Damdama Lake in Gurgaon, Haryana.
Now paintball is a widely played and recognized sport in India with Many fields in almost all major tier-1 cities and some tier-2 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune, Lucknow, NOIDA, Guwathi, Goa, Sikkim, Chennai, etc.

=== Iran ===
In Iran, paintball is a popular recreational sport but also considered by some as expensive and dangerous. Nearly every city has one or more paintball fields but only a few of them offer woodsball and realistic terrain, and every province has one or more teams that play in the national paintball league. Iran has a national paintball team.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://paintball.ir/ |title=انجمن پینت بال Iran Paintball Association |publisher=Paintball.ir |access-date=July 11, 2012 |archive-date=June 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611104034/http://paintball.ir/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Lebanon ===
[[Hezbollah]], the militant group and political party based in Lebanon, has trained with paintball.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/paintballing-with-hezbollah-0000151-v19n3/?Contentpage=-1/ |title=Paintballing with Hezbollah |date=March 26, 2012 |publisher=Vice Media Inc. |access-date=August 30, 2013 |archive-date=December 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214043630/http://www.vice.com/read/paintballing-with-hezbollah-0000151-v19n3?Contentpage=-1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Malaysia ===
Paintball is a very popular sport in Malaysia. The Malaysian paintball community is considered the largest in Asia. The Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) is headquartered in [[Petaling Jaya]] near the capital city of [[Kuala Lumpur]].

There are also the Malaysian Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC), Malaysian National Paintball League (MY-NPL), the Malaysian Super Sevens Series, World Paintball Players League (WPPL), the Malaysian Ultimate Woodsball League (UWL Malaysia), and Tactical Paintball Championship (TPC). The Paintball World Cup Asia is also held annually in [[Langkawi]] island.<ref>{{cite web|title=Paint Ball World Cup in Asia|url=http://www.paintballworldcupasia.com/|publisher=Paintball World Cup Asia|access-date=February 15, 2014|archive-date=February 19, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219094541/http://www.paintballworldcupasia.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Several woodsball and scenario big games are also held throughout the year such as the International Scenario Paintball Games (ISPG) and by Paintball Warfare Group Malaysia (PWG-Malaysia). There are many commercial paintball fields operating in almost every major city across the country, with most of them concentrated around the [[Klang Valley]] region. However, in December 2013, the Royal Malaysian Police stated that all paintball markers must be owned with a licence and owners must hand in their markers. Some paintball organizations have stated that this will be "a big blow" to paintball in the country while others stated that this will not affect the sport at all.

In February 2019 the high court has said that paintball markers do not fall under the firearms act but look alike weapons do fall under the category of imitation firearms. This means that paintball markers that do not look like firearms can be owned by anyone with a licence.

=== Singapore ===
Paintball in Singapore started in the late 1990s as a recreational team building activity for corporate sectors. Singapore was one of the earliest countries in South East Asia to introduce paintball as a team building tool. TAG Paintball which was originally located in Downtown East shifted its operations to Orchid Country Club (Yishun) and remained there for almost a decade. Speedball which is the competitive side of paintball was introduced in 2007 by Red Dynasty Paintball Park through a competition known as the Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS). The first tournament saw the participation of 8 3on3 teams which PSG Warfreakz taking the Champion title. The SPNS was later renamed as the Singapore Paintball Series in 2010 to cater to the growing sport. Over the years, Singapore held many international paintball tournaments notably the Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) Singapore edition in 2015 and 2016, the GI.Sportz Cup in 2017 and the Asia Girls Paintball International Championship (AGPIC) in 2018. The AGPIC is the only All-Female paintball tournament to promote women's paintball in Asia. All tournaments were held in Red Dynasty Paintball Park which houses 2 internationally sized speedball fields with artificial turf grass.

=== South Africa ===
In South Africa, organised paintball has been played since the late 1980s. The only legal enforcement regarding paintball is the concealment of paintball (and [[airsoft]]) guns in public areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Airsoft Guns|url=http://www.airsoftatlanta.com/Cybergun-Airsoft-s/150.htm|access-date=February 15, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301134619/http://www.airsoftatlanta.com/Cybergun-Airsoft-s/150.htm|archive-date=March 1, 2014}}</ref> There are no license requirements or age limitations in place, but with the threat of the implementation of the "Dangerous Weapons Act", this could change.{{when|date=November 2012}}

South Africa has seen a steady growth of the sport of paintball since its introduction. Recreational bushball is the most popular form throughout the country, but the last couple of years{{when|date=November 2012}} have seen a big increase in the popularity of speedball. The South African Paintball League has been in existence since 2002. During 2013 South Africa was invited to send a representative paintball team to the first ever Paintball World Cup held in Paris, France. The South African team got officially ranked 13th in the world.

Popular tournaments such as The Tippmann Challenge, D-Day and the Navy Festival SWAT Challenge, see hundreds of players from around the entire country participate.

The first ever public paintball performance in South Africa was held at the Swartkop Airshow during 2013. More than 80 paintball players took part in a simulated a counter terrorist raid on a weapons dealer.

Since 2009 the largest national speedball league in South Africa is the South African Regional Paintball League (SARPL)<ref>{{cite web |title=SARPL |url=https://www.sarpl.co.za/ |work=sarpl.co.za |access-date=February 15, 2014 |archive-date=January 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111034050/http://www.sarpl.co.za/ |url-status=live }}</ref> having over 500 members during 2014 and hosting both a three-man and five-man series events at one stage in 5 provinces (including Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and the Free State). The league hosted around 31 events per year on a regional and national level with the national finals that usually takes place during the beginning of December each year since its inception in 2013. The SARPL currently uses the NXl Mercy-to format and use their own ruleset based on the NXL rules as well as using the APPA<ref>{{cite web|title=America's #1 Paint Ball Event Registration System American Paintball Players Association|url=http://www.paintball-players.org/|publisher=American Paintball Players Association|access-date=February 15, 2014|archive-date=February 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210023217/http://www.paintball-players.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> system for player classification.

The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA)<ref>{{cite web|title=SANPA|url=https://www.sanpa.co.za/|work=sanpa.co.za|access-date=June 26, 2021|archive-date=June 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621130506/https://sanpa.co.za/|url-status=live}}</ref> is the national body looking after the sport of paintball and airsoft in South Africa and is an active member of the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) <ref>{{cite web|title=UPBF|url=https://www.upbf.net/|work=upbf.net|access-date=June 26, 2021|archive-date=September 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928110719/https://upbf.net/|url-status=live}}</ref> and also have committee members on both the ASTM as well as the SABS.

Since 2013 The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) represented South Africa at the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championship events in the Mens category with SANPA also being fortunate enough, in later years, to send over the first U16, U19, Women's and Veterans teams to represent South Africa.

During 2016 The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over the first U19 team to compete in the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championships where the team missed out going into the finals due to a technicality in the rules which was subsequently updated by the organization to prevent future situations.

During 2018 the South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over the first all female team to compete in the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championships where they won the Women's 3-player category and brought South Africa the Gold.

2019 saw the South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over teams in the U16, U19, Women's (3 and 5-player) as well as Mens and Veterans Categories to represent South Africa in all the categories at the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) Paintball World Championship.

=== Thailand ===
Thai teams have won the Division 1 Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) World Cup and series titles in year 2012, 2014, and 2015. In 2014, Thai teams made history by taking victories in all Divisions 1, 2, and 3 at the PALS World Cup at Langkawi Island, Malaysia. This trend continued into 2015, with Thai teams taking victories in Divisions 1 and 2 during the PALS World Cup 2015. Along with winning the PALS World Cup titles in 2014 and 2015, all respective teams also took the overall series titles for their respective divisions in 2014 and 2015.

=== Turkey ===
At first, paintball was engaged to the [[Turkey]] Shooting and Hunting Federation in 2006, it has grown especially in recent years in Turkey. It has organized at least four tournaments each year in different cities.

Particularly on the European side of [[Istanbul]], there are some paintball areas opened in the last decade.

=== United Arab Emirates ===
Paintball is a growing sport in the [[United Arab Emirates]]. Paintball was first introduced in the UAE and the [[Middle East]] in 1996. The very first paintball facility was established in [[Dubai]] with the technical assistance of some of the best European and American Paintball operators in the industry.