Paintball suffered enormously under the harsh laws during the years 1990-1993. First it was banned, then it was allowed but only with reduced muzzle velocity etc,etc. Today it is allowed for anyone to own and use any paintballgun. There are approximately 10 dealers in Sweden, which is alot when you consider that our population is 8 million! Swedish teams soon started to invade mainland-Europe and also scoring some remarkable victories.
There are currently 3 Swedish teams ranked Pro in Europe: Brutal de luxe, Joy Division Stockholm and Teddybears. There are another 10 teams ranked pro in Sweden, but amateur outside of Sweden. The tournament season goes all year round despite the cold (-35 degrees Celcius and even colder sometimes) although normally restricted to indoor playing from October until April. Each year sees about 35 different tournaments. The biggest being the Scandinavian Masters held in August and the Scandinavian Supairball Championships held in April. Both these are International with teams coming from all over Europe and the USA.
A note on Scandinavia : this term usually denotes the Nordic countries of Norway, Denmark and Sweden and sometimes (in paintball always) Finland. Historically these countries have quite close ties as the languages are very similar with each other. This means that teams travel to other countries within Scandinavia regularly even to smaller events. The position of Scandinavia on the world-map shows how cold it can be here, but this provides some European companies with an excellentold-weather performance test laboratory! (Yes, you can play with the Autococker on CO2 at -35 degrees Celcius :-)
Stockguns never got a foothold in Sweden and the pump-scene is quite small and limited to Mavericks/Trracers and the odd Sterling for rookies. Semi is the name of the game! Ranging from Spyder and Inferno via Automag & Autococker to the latest in electronics i.e. the Angel and Shocker Sport. So, if you ever fancy a trip to the "old continent" drop by and play some paintball in Sweden, Viking-style!
PS: The worlds first ever One-on-One nude PGP open was held in Sweden, in the winter! :-) DS
Giselher Klauk
MPN Columnist