Skirmish World Record Big Game
Skirmish World Record Big Game, promoted as the Skirmish World Record Game, was a large recreational paintball big game held at Skirmish USA in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania on 10 September 1994. Contemporary reports in Action Pursuit Games recorded 2,653 participants and presented the event as a new record for the number of players taking part in a single paintball game.[1][2] A smaller follow-up game was played on 11 September.
Organisation
[edit]The event was organised by Paul Fogel of Skirmish, Jeff Perlmutter of PMI and Paul Tournier of R.P. Scherer. Entry was free, although participants were required to purchase field paint.[1]
Skirmish, PMI and R.P. Scherer jointly promoted the event. According to contemporary coverage, Taylor Communications of New York arranged publicity that included coverage by the Associated Press, USA Today and New York television station WABC.[2]
Players travelled from 15 United States states, three Canadian provinces and Germany. The attendance also included a group of United States Marines on leave from Okinawa, Japan.[1]
Format
[edit]The principal game used approximately 700 acres of Skirmish property, incorporating 39 individual playing fields and three constructed villages.[1] Participants were divided into blue and white teams.
Each team began with a principal flag station and three smaller stations, while two additional stations began as neutral objectives. The Alamo and Village were the principal objectives, with the capture and return of a major flag worth 100 points. Control of the smaller stations was indicated by their flags.[1]
Eliminated players were directed to a central re-entry area described as “purgatory”. The size of the teams and playing area resulted in fighting occurring in separate concentrations across the property. Neither side was assigned an overall general, and the contemporary reports described much of the resulting strategy as decentralised.[1][2]
Members of Sgt. York's devised a plan for the white team centred on securing the Alamo and the neutral bases before spreading across the field. The Bam Bam Boys, playing for the blue team, began at the Village and advanced from that position.[1]
Results
[edit]| Date | Blue team | White team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 September 1994 | 2,375 | 850 | Principal World Record Game, played across approximately 700 acres |
| 11 September 1994 | 1,150 | 800 | Follow-up game using approximately half of the previous day's playing area |
The blue team won both days. Approximately one third of Saturday's participants returned for the Sunday game.[1][2]
Record claim
[edit]Action Pursuit Games reported an exact attendance of 2,653, although some captions accompanying its coverage rounded the number to approximately 2,600 or “nearly 3,000”.[1][2] The publication described the gathering as the world's largest paintball game and a new standard for the industry. The available contemporary reports do not identify an independent record-certification organisation.
The magazine also reported that approximately 4.5 million paintballs were fired over the weekend.[2]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- Cleo Sedlacek, “The Skirmish Big Game: World Record”, Action Pursuit Games, Vol. 9, No. 1, January 1995, pp. 24–27.
- Honest Rob, “The Unauthorized Version of the World’s Largest Paintball Party”, Action Pursuit Games, Vol. 9, No. 1, January 1995, pp. 28–31.