It was five minutes of pure adrenaline rush, it was paintball without the paint, it was Blitz Ball.
Tuesday, Feb. 7, the Student Center Ballroom was transformed: divided in half and filled with inflatable barriers for players to hide behind. Even the lighting was different, with the main lights dimmed and replaced with different colored lights at the end of the room.
As David, the representative from Legacy Entertainment who ran Blitz Ball, said, “To be honest with you, a small little ballroom with all the lighting, is pretty much as ideal as it gets as far as I’m concerned. It’s nice, intimate and keeps the players focused on other players.”
While hiding behind a large inflatable barrier, I noticed a player on the opposite side of the room as he was paying attention to someone else. I immediately put a Nerf ball into my gun, took aim and watched as the ball traveled toward my target. Without checking to see if it hit, I loaded my gun again.
My gun wasn’t your typical revolver though. Legacy Entertainment attached ball-sized tubes to paintball guns.
The Nerf balls themselves are rather light, meaning it takes little air pressure to get them to fly across the room. The light, soft balls also mean that they don’t hurt on impact, and unlike paintballs, players don’t need a shower after each game.
“I think this is the greatest,” David said. “A lot of colleges like this because of the idea of the paintball. It’s co-ed friendly in the nature that, you know, you’re not going to ruin your clothes and you’re not going to walk away with a bunch of bruises.”
When asked about how Blitz Ball came about, David said, “This particular event is brand new in the industry. There was a variation on this game called ‘What the Puck…’ This one’s a little bit safer than ‘What the Puck,’ and it’s kind of evolving. I make changes to the gun here and there to make it safer, more effective and more accurate.”
All around the ballroom players were trying to communicate over the sound of the guns. As the game progressed and more players were getting hit, the game’s intensity seemed to increase.
The game ended and the players were taking off their masks and walking out of the ballroom. One team in particular had a female player amongst the team of guys, she was the only one who had managed to evade being hit by any balls.
David Redley, one of the girl’s teammates, said, “Girls can play. Girls should play, because by what they say it’s like paintball and dodge ball, but it doesn’t hurt.”
David of Legacy Entertainment also had a comment about female players.
“All across the nation, no matter what, whenever it’s been an all-boys verses an
all-girls team, 90% of the time… the girls always win. I mean always. Religiously. I did a show… literally the girls beat the boys five times in a row.”
What happens, though, when there’s not enough girls to fight against the boys? Or
when the boys get tired of being beaten by the girls? Sure, the players can switch up the teams, but Legacy also likes to help out by switching up how the game is played.
“We’ll mix it up: one-on-one, five-on-five teams,” he said. “Sometimes we’ll also do capture the flag, which is very encouraged. Depending on whose playing, we’ll do a free for all. It’s dependent on what’s going on in your atmosphere.”
While Blitz Ball is a game for everyone, David has noticed that people who enjoy single-player shooter games especially seem to like it. For these players, David suggests the game include “re-spawning” and other video-game like qualities.
Regardless of who you are or what your hobbies are, according to David, Legacy Entertainment likes to keep Blitz Ball all inclusive, “Some students… are meeting new students they never met before and they’re being on a team and are active — and it’s just been really great.”
“Bring it back,” Redley said. “It’s probably one of the best Campus Life experiences.”
