The ISU Paintball Club will host the ISU Open, its first-ever home tournament, Saturday.

The open will be played at the new paintball field, located at the west side of the Southwest Athletic Complex, near the ISU baseball and cross country fields. The ISU Open will feature 10 teams facing off in a two-bracket, double round-robin style of tournament.

The ISU club alone is set to enter four teams in the tournament. Other schools on the bill include Wisconsin-Platteville, Minnesota State-Mankato, Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska-Omaha and Augustana.

The club has high hopes for its inaugural home tourney.

“We expect to win our tournament this weekend, after all it is our tournament,” said Matthew McKee, club treasurer and a graduate student in aerospace engineering.

The style of play will be five-man speedball. There is a 125-by-150-foot field set up symmetrically with 19 inflatable bunkers and two starting gates, one at each end of the field. There is a flag at the center of the field and the object of the game is to “pull” the flag and hang it on the opponents’ starting gate while eliminating as many of the opposite team’s members as possible.

Points are also awarded throughout the game. Teams get 20 points for pulling the opposing team’s flag and 50 points for hanging it on the opponent’s starting gate. Teams are awarded two points for every member left in the game at the end and four points for every player they eliminate throughout the game. The game ends once both teams are eliminated or after five minutes passes, whichever comes first.

Getting the money and support to build the paintball field has been an long, drawn-out project for the club. Three years ago, Recreation Services agreed to put up the money to do the construction work. The following year, the Government of the Student Body committed $15,000 toward the effort, and now the field is in tact.

“In exchange, we’re now going to help Rec. Services with intramural paintball,” said Tim Rash, club president and junior in computer engineering.

The club plans to have another tournament called Splatfest March 30-April 4. Splatfest will offer a chance for students to compete in a paintball tournament with a chance to win trophies and $150 in cash. The Paintball Club will be running the tournament but not competing in it.

On April 17, the club plans to travel to Orlando, Fla., to play in the National Collegiate Paintball Association Nationals at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.

Rash credits American Paintball Supply and Severe as being instrumental in the club’s growing success and ability to compete in away tournaments.

“They work together to supply paint for us. We get taken care of better than most teams across the country,” Rash said.

Saturday’s tournament will start at 8 a.m. and will last throughout the day.