--- title: Why cage fight when you could paintball? - The Hustle description: Rich dudes love fighting each other. That’s how paintball got its start. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/775880710-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-paintball_20230622224438.webp --- # Why cage fight when you could paintball? ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: June 24, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 Elon Musk (net worth: $245B+) recently [challenged](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/business/musk-zuckerberg-cage-match.html) Mark Zuckerberg (net worth: $100B+) to a cage match, inspired by news that Meta is planning a Twitter rival. ![paintball](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/775880710-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-paintball_20230622224438.webp?width=595&height=400&name=775880710-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-paintball_20230622224438.webp) Zuck, who’s trained in jiu-jitsu,asked for a location. Musk, who’s not, proposed Vegas. Why would two billionaires entertain the idea of a real-life MTV “Celebrity Deathmatch” — Is it a joke? Will they fight? It all calls to mind an enduring short story — one that led, in part, to the rise of an industry we think Muskerberg would enjoy. #### **“A new animal to hunt”** In 1924, author Richard Connell published his short story [“The Most Dangerous Game](https://ia601605.us.archive.org/31/items/TheMostDangerousGame_233/connell_richard_edward_1893_1949_most_dangerous_game.pdf)” in which an American game hunter is shipwrecked on a Caribbean island, where General Zaroff — a wealthy man bored with life and hunting animals — hunts humans for sport. In real life, that kinda thing will get you in trouble… but you can pretend. #### **In 1981…** … outdoorsman and author Charles Gaines and stockbroker Hayes Noel [debated](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-46033159) if a person could rely on natural drive to survive in the woods or if they needed to learn environment-specific tactics. So, according to legend, they organized a game. They hunted each other on Gaines’ property with CO2-powered guns and paint pellets, typically used to mark sheep or trees — Noel [later referenced](https://www.newspapers.com/image/112968626/?terms=%22national%20survival%20game%22%20%2B%20%22most%20dangerous%20game%22&match=1) “The Most Dangerous Game” as inspiration. It was such fun, they organized a larger game on June 27, 1981, in which players had to gather flags, marked on a map, while hunting one another, [per](http://outsideinradio.org/shows/ep-h8zys) *Outside/In*. - Forester [Ritchie White](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1987/08/24/443587.html?pageNumber=12) won without firing a single round, relying instead on stealth. #### **From there…** … interest in the game spread after participants wrote articles about it, and Gaines, Noel, and ski shop manager Bob Gurnsey founded the National Survival Games (NSG), which sold a kit including a gun, pellets, and directions. In 1988, Noel — Gaines had already cashed out — [told](https://www.newspapers.com/image/112968626/?terms=%22national%20survival%20game%22%20%2B%20%22most%20dangerous%20game%22&match=1) *The New York Times* that NSG employed 100 people and made ~$10m+ in annual sales, or $25.9m today. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last. Noel sold his stake to Gurnsey, who filed for bankruptcy in [1995](https://www.vnews.com/Archives/2015/02/gurnsey-jp-vn-022615) due to too many competitors and 100+ personal injury lawsuits. Gurnsey [maintained](https://paintballhistory.com/prototype-inline-blowback-developed-by-national-survival-games/) that he never lost, but fighting them got expensive. **Today, **the US paintball industry is worth $1.2B, a fraction of Musk and Zuck’s respective net worths — and perhaps more fun than a cage match? Think about it, guys. 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