NANYANG MBA

MBA Paint Attack! – Sports Club Excursion

Article by Rishabh Mukesh Ganeriwala, Nanyang MBA Participant 2016/2017

It was a bright Sunday morning when a few brave hearts from the MBA class participated in yet another ‘competition’ – this time a little more adventurous; PAINTBALL! When the day finally dawned, it was with a lot of excitement and a bit of trepidation that we made our way to the paintball arena. If you’ve been living under a rock, let me fill you in on what paintball really is – two teams are pitted against each other to reproduce a warzone by shooting dye-filled bullets at targets – and each other!

The event was held at the Red Dynasty Paintball Park that has four gigantic fields, each represents a different version of the game. Most of us decided to dress light to increase speed and agility (not really; it was actually the weather), and assumed we’d anyway be covered from head to toe in protective gear – BUT to our surprise, we were only provided with a vest and a helmet!

Soon after, we were split in 2 teams (red and blue) and we got started in the first field, where the objective was to ‘plant the C4 explosive’ at the centre of the arena, making the best attempt to evade the cross-fire. It was hard to tell if it was a game or an actual battlefield with tactics, war cries and shooting going on. The round was over in the blink of an eye (or so it felt, since it was actually over 4 minutes long) and we walked back to pavilion, battered and bruised.

Round two was much harder, which was to be staged at the second field – or as I like to call it, the ‘Arena of Pain’. This was a much smaller field and each team had certain barricades they could use as shields against the onslaught. This variant of the game required the teams to plant the flag in the centre of the field in order to secure the round. The organizers whistled for the round to begin, and all hell broke loose – when we finally walked out, all of us were plastered in paint, bruises and scratches (nothing serious though).

The games continued for a few hours before we finally called it a day. The red team may have won the first battle, but the blue team won the war 2-1.

But by the end of the day, we were comparing our bruises as if they were battle scars (to some extent they were) and planning on doing this again. How did we feel about it all? The final picture says it all.