[RealtorTommy]

Since we have some new players visiting or joining MCB....

Meeting of the Minds: Who Would Come Out Alive?
Bob Gurnsey, Charles Gaines and Hayes Noel Dream Up This Great Game
Charles Gaines’ preface in “The Official Survival Game Manual” tells one story--years later he remembered the early days slightly differently. Bob Gurnsey confirmed most of Gaines’ story but will also give you a slightly different version. To piece this story together we spoke directly to Gaines and Gurnsey, as well as Debra Dion Krischke, who was there for much of the beginnings. We also interviewed several other people that were there in the beginning.

Jupiter Island, Florida was the backdrop for probably the biggest moment in paintball history, although no one knew it then. While sipping Gin and Tonics and grilling freshly caught King Mackerel one afternoon, Charles Gaines and his life-long best friend Hayes Noel got into a debate about Survival. Noel recently returned from a hunting trip which got him thinking. He wondered if a sharp, city-dwelling businessman would stand a better chance of surviving a “stalking” game than a true outdoorsman. Was survival a matter of instinct or was it a product of environment? Noel was a very successful stock broker in a very competitive New York market and he believed this would give him an advantage. While living in New York he was once “jumped” by three men and he actually scared them off by screaming and throwing trash cans at them. He believed that his instincts to act crazier than them may have saved his life.

Gaines, from New Hampshire believed that an outdoorsman like himself would stand a better chance of “coming out alive” in a survival scenario. After all, he had hunted, fished and done everything else imaginable in the outdoors for years. Surely this would be an advantage over a city boy he thought. The two debated this for hours. A third friend, Bob Gurnsey, also from New Hampshire was brought into the debate. He too agreed that the outdoorsman would have the advantage.

A short time later the three were talking about a situation in a book written in the 1930s called The Most Dangerous Game. In the book an insane man lived on an island and invited guests to play a survival game. What the guests didn’t know was that they would become this crazy man’s prey. Later than night Gurnsey and Noel discussed doing an activity that would throw a series of adverse circumstances at the participants. They discussed several different whitewater scenarios that involved cliffs, rock climbing, and flags; they talked about having a BB gun battle; they discussed wax-tipped .22 caliber bullets and just about anything else that would help them determine what type of person would perform best in these crazy scenarios.

Months later a mutual friend named George Butler, who was privy to the conversations between Gaines, Gurnsey and Noel, saw a Nelspot marker in a farm catalog and phoned Gaines about it. Soon after being contacted by Butler, Gaines purchased several of these markers and the dream was about to become a reality. Invitations were sent out to nine men, who with the original three would make twelve players.

Source: The Survival Game Manual, Gurnsey, Gaines, Krischke

3. May, 1981
The “Real” First Game Ever Played
“Before we ever played that first game, Hayes and I each wrapped towels around our waists and shot each other to see how badly it would hurt. Hayes shot first and missed. Then I shot him in the butt. Once we realized it was going to be fairly safe, we talked about playing our first one-on-one game. We wrote some simple rules, went into the woods and played a 45-minute game. It ended when I got snuck up behind Hayes and said, ‘I guess I won the argument!’ Neither of us fired a single shot.” –Charles Gaines speaking at the 2004 IAO in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Most people believe the first game of paintball played was in June of 1981, but in reality it was months earlier when Charles Gaines and Hayes Noel played that one-on-one game that lasted about 45 minutes. After their one-on-one game, they knew they would have to do this again with a larger group….and the rest is history.

4. June, 1981
Twelve Players, Twelve Flags and the Winner Didn’t Fire a Single Shot - An Industry is Born
You have to figure that in the eleven years between the time the paintgun was invented in 1970 and the first recorded game was played in 1981, there were probably other instances where people shot each other with those oil-based balls using Nelspots. It’s hard to imagine that in seven years of forestry work no one “accidentally” fired a shot at a coworker in the field. But like the first recorded basketball game 90 years earlier in 1891, the only one that really matters is the game that is documented.

The first known group game played barely resembles the last game played. Twelve men armed with Nelspot 007s, shop goggles, and each carrying a map and compass played the first game of what we now call paintball. It was an “every man for himself” game and the object was to collect as many flags as possible by the game’s end. The story is now legendary.

The Invitations

Gurnsey, Gaines, and Noel made a list of possible participants for this first game of paintball. They believed the list should be limited to those that were successful in their particular field as this would be the only real way to settle the “argument.” On the final list were stock brokers, writers, master hunters, surgeons, and others. There would be twelve players in all, each paying $175 to cover expenses. The game was to be played on a 100-plus acre tract of land and the object of the game was to collect as many flags as possible. Eliminating the opposition would be only a small part of the game, proven by the fact that the game’s winner never fired a shot.

The field was divided into four quadrants with three flags in each. The twelve players, each with their own unique strategies, crawled, ran, or sneaked around the property trying to eliminate players and/or capture the twelve flags. In the end it was Ritchie White who managed to grab all twelve flags, winning the first game of paintball ever played.

Game Facts

Ken Barret surrendered to Jerome Gary, becoming the first player officially eliminated in the first multiplayer paintball game. Dr. Bob Carlson eliminated five of the twelve players in what Gurnsey called a “stealthy, wiley, and cunning” manner. After being “bounced,” Charles Gaines eliminated Lionel Atwell. Hayes Noel was eliminated by Bob Carlson. Ritchie White captured all necessary flags and won the game without firing a single shot.