The body
behind the
whistle.

Why we exist

Australian tournament paintball has a good problem and a hard problem. The good problem is that people love the game. The hard problem is that running a tournament is heavy lifting — brackets, officials, rulings, timekeeping, reporting, disputes — and most field operators would rather run the field than run the day.

Without someone to carry the tournament side, events don't happen. Without events, the scene contracts. That's the cycle we're here to break.

What we do

Four jobs, one crew:

• We maintain the ruleset. One Australian paintball tournament ruleset, published, versioned, and available to anyone who wants to run by it.
• We run tournaments end-to-end. Field operators pay us to bring the day: officials, brackets, scoring, reporting, the lot. They keep the paint revenue. We take care of the rest.
• We train and certify referees. New officials through a proper pathway. The crew that grows the scene grows with the scene.
• We handle replay and appeals. Independent Commissioner authority when a call is disputed. Written process, applied consistently.

Who we are

A group of referees, tournament organisers, and players who've worked Australian paintball events for more than five years. We're a not-for-profit, we pay our officials, and we're run by the people actually on the fields.

We're based in Brisbane. We travel — right now that includes officiating the Elite One Paintball-run Coffs Harbour Tournament Series.

What we're aiming at

Two things. More tournaments happening around Australia. And one day a year, an Australian Championship worth the name. The first follows from making events easy for operators to host. The second follows from the first.

Legitimate stuff

Refs Inc is a not-for-profit organisation. Our surplus goes into the body — ref pay, ruleset maintenance, and training. No shareholders, no dividends.

The software we use to run tournaments is licensed from Andrew Kennedy. We operate it; we don't own it. That's by design — we're a refereeing body, not a software company.