Editing Woodsball (section)

=== Origins ===

Woodsball developed from the earliest form of organised paintball, originally known as the Survival Game.

On 27 June 1981, twelve participants played the first organised paintball game in woodland near Henniker, New Hampshire, United States. The game was organised by [[Charles Gaines]], [[Hayes Noel]] and [[Bob Gurnsey]] using Nel-Spot 007 marking pistols originally developed for agricultural and forestry applications.[2]

Participants attempted to collect flags from stations distributed across the playing area while avoiding elimination. Ritchie White, a forester, won the game without firing a shot.[2]

The game inspired the establishment of [[National Survival Game]], which began promoting paintball and franchising commercial playing fields during the early 1980s.[3]

The term ''woodsball'' subsequently became a common way of distinguishing natural-terrain paintball from newer artificial-bunker formats.