Paintball Journal

Yes, the infamous snake. It is that one bunker on the field that will make or break a team in almost every game. If you’re looking to play the snake for your team, you’re going to have to be fast, probably small, and be able to gunfight from awkward positions. And of course, the general tips…

-Walk the snake before hand and find where it has the best angles
-Know which bunkers have the best angles on you
-Listen to your backs
-Know how to superman dive
-Can’t be afraid to take to massive amounts of paint

So these are pretty obvious; now the set up.

A snake usually occupies one tape line of the field. At both ends of the snake, tucked away in the very corner of the snake-side of the field will be the two back bunkers. For you, the snake and these two bunkers will be the most important in the beginning.

The back corner is key to you as a snake player. If your back man is good, he’ll keep his mirror in check (and enemy snake players, if there are any) and allow you to move up knuckles. He will also be one of your guardian teammates that will protect you from getting bunkered.

If your back player is shot out, and there is no one available to replace him, problems can arise. First, it will be your sole responsibility to keep an enemy snake player from moving up and taking out your team, whereas this job would usually fall on your back man. If the other team still has their back man, your job will be even harder because he will have free reign over you if nobody is there to pin him in. Any information you receive may be faulty, because nobody will have the same angle as your back man. They may not see where the snake player is, or which way the back is looking.

Another important aspect is knowing what exactly you are trying to do. There are two similar, yet different plans you can use. You can take the snake to dominate the opposing side of the field, or you can take the snake and act as a distraction.

Both are very similar, but just because you are in the snake doesn’t mean you have to wipe out the other team. If you play conservative and only come up periodically to keep their attention on you, then you can succeed in being a distraction. If they don’t give you the attention you need, make them listen. Take a few guys out and they will be more than happy to give it to you. This will then open up the opposite side of the field for your teammates to move up. When they turn to focus on them, then you can move up. It’s a vicious cycle.

See the potential that revolves around the snake? There is so much you can do right with it, and so much you can do wrong. This is simply one of the many plans out there that you could formulate, but most of it just depends on personal style. We’ll try to keep posting more about it in the future.