Luxfer paintball team takes on London Tigers

KENT, England—When an intrepid team of 12 from Luxfer’s Nottingham facility donned camouflage and headed to Kent for a cold winter’s day of paintball play, they were perhaps expecting fun and games.

What they got was World War III.

The fact that some of their teammates—and later opponents—were members of the London Tigers professional paintball team had a good deal to do with the level of mayhem that materialized.

At first, the Tigers and the Luxfer team were on relatively friendly terms. (After all, as a Tiger sponsor, Luxfer had equipped the team with Luxfer high-performance carbon composite paintball cylinders. The Tigers, in turn, had helped Luxfer promote paintball safety by participating in seminars and training sessions throughout England and Europe.)

After a thorough safety briefing, the group split into two teams and let loose at each other with unlimited ammunition. It quickly became clear even to the most experienced Luxfer participants that this was unlike any paintball they had played before. For one thing, the Tigers didn’t just blast away—they were sharpshooters.

The professionals patiently coached the Nottingham novices through several different game scenarios and taught them how to improve their “hit” ratios. Most Luxfer players got the hang of it (except for one who thought the winner was the one wearing the most paint and another who preferred pretending to be shot and rejoining the team when the shooting stopped). After a couple of action-packed hours, plenty of people were bruised, beleaguered and bespattered.

But now it was time for the real battle.

All 12 Luxfer shooters (granted unlimited lives) took on just four Tigers. Despite the lopsided odds, the pros showed the amateurs what it means to be the third-ranked paintball team in Europe. When the splatters subsided, it was a clear win for the Tigers.

But judging from the bragging over food and beer later, it seemed that everybody had won.

A full-weekend rematch is planned.