If last year’s success in the first annual ISU Paintball Open is any indication, this year’s open should be great for the ISU Paintball Club.

Last year, ISU teams took first, second and fourth place, while the University of Wisconsin-Platteville collected a third-place finish.

The ISU members are confident they will place high again. Club President Nate Gordon said the open will be similar to other paintball tournaments.

The 14 teams will be split into two divisions of seven and each team will play six or seven games in the preliminary rounds. The top four teams will be determined by a point system and will advance to the finals.

“The teams in the finals will play round-robin games; they play everyone once,” Gordon said. “Then the placement will be decided by a point system from the finals. It should be a fun, competitive day for everyone.”

Gordon said the point system is based on many factors.

“Points are based on the number of people your team has eliminated and how many people you have left,” Gordon said. “The biggest one is the flag capture (50 points). You take the flag, which is in the center, and place it on the opposing team’s flag station.”

Tim Rash, field operations manager and former president, said paintball is played two different ways: tournament and recreational style.

Tournament style is played on a 175-foot by 125-foot symmetrical field with inflatable bunkers.

“Teams will back out from their initial bunkers and what they will try and do is to work angles so they can see the other team better, and mark them with paint and eliminate them,” Rash said. “Then they eventually capture the flag that is in the middle.”

Rash said recreational play is basically going out to the woods and making up your own rules.

The open is available to teams registered with the National Collegiate Paintball Association. The association requires that all members of teams be full-time students and all team members be from the same school.

“Traditionally [the club] has a lot of guys in engineering. We have had a few girls over the years, with one playing in tournament ball this year,” Gordon said. “Several people that won [the open] last year have graduated and moved on. It’s common that people play for a few years and when they get to their senior year they drop out to concentrate on school.”

Rash said seniors like him just love the game too much to quit.

“We just love the sport just too damn much, or we are just fools,” Rash said. “It is almost an obsession for some of us. I ended up playing tournament ball and became completely hooked.”

Vice president and treasurer Dylan Connor said playing tournaments against people from all over the country is the most exciting.

“The best is right before the game starts,” said Connor, junior in computer engineering. “You see them and they are looking right back at you. You just want to be the best in the country.”

Connor said that being involved with the ISU Paintball Club gives him the opportunity to play all the time.

“Being in the paintball club makes paintball semi-affordable,” Connor said. “Out on your own, when you first start, you pay top commercial price, and you can’t afford to play.”

“We did very well throughout last season. We’ve typically been in first and second place throughout the tournaments,” Gordon said. “Last year at the Nationals stuff happened, and we still have to figure out why things don’t go quite as well.