There is a huge difference between a little wipe and playing dangerously. Adjusting velocity, freezing paintballs or anything that could hurt another player is wrong and should not be done, ever. Goggles are not meant to take a paintball at 375fps, and neither was your crotch. If this is you then know your playing with fire and will eventually hurt someone or get your teeth knocked out.

Do you even know the difference between cheating and playing the rules correctly? If your running to your bunker, and feel a hit on your back, leg, head, or anywhere else you can't easily see with your own goggle covered eyes, is it cheating if you stay in the game before a ref comes over to check you? Depends. If any of those did break and you continue to play, you'll have at least one friend to talk to on the way to the deadbox when you both get pulled. However, if you get hit and slide into a bunker, don't fire, and scream for a paintcheck from a ref, only the incredibly under-trained and dimwitted ref's will continue to pull a 1 for 1 in that situation, and as we all know, if the ref's suck, your screwed anyway. Are you a cheater if you sit in your bunker and wait for a check? No, you're a smart player helping his team, and although you might not think it to be cheating since you didn't know if the ball broke, playing on is considered a dark art in every paintball tournament series rulebook across the world, cheater.

Dealing with the dark arts has it risks and gains. If you don't know what you could lose then you're an idiot. The cheat is like a fake punt. Use it correctly and it could change the entire outcome of a game, but at what cost? The gains to cheating are obvious. The risks on the other hand are very subjective. The rules are clear but the reffing staff can do as they wish.
Paintball penalizes in the pulling of extra players. Players call this the 1 for 1, 2 for 1, or 3 for 1. These penalties refer to the other players you got pulled for you. A 1 for 1 is you and the closest player next to you being pulled. This is a small penalty (unless you're the guy getting pulled) and is used for players that are playing on after a hit or spinning on a player after you get bunkered. The 2 for 1 is 2 players pulled plus the offender. This is used for players that actively try to deceive a ref. A good example is if you get hit in the hopper and try to wipe it off on the bunker or you get hit on the knee running and you slide on it to get it off. These penalties are more serious and can affect the game in a big way. 3 players leaving the field at once is ugly. The 3 for 1 penalty is a team killer.
If a player wipes a goggle hit or gets hit and keeps running down the field shooting guys then they will probably get the dreaded 3 for 1. Four players going to the dead box. You don't see many of these but when they happen you can expect a bitch slapping in the dead box. In 10 man it wasn't so bad but in 7 man its like not even showing up for the match.

Now that you know the penalties you need to know the situations where the practices of the dark arts are successful, and if you're a ref, now you know what to look for that you've been missing all along. In most forms of tournament paintball, the back guy is usually left without a ref and can get away with much more then a front player. The thing with players cheating in the back is they knowing where the ref is and more importantly where he isn't. If a guy is playing the outside of his bunker and the ref is on the inside then he can get away with any hits on the outside. If the ref moves to the tape then he has to play it clean. The biggest tell for a ref is when a back player flinches or jumps back quickly to dodge a hit. The idea is dodge it if you can. If you can't then most players will flinch jerkingly and give away that they've been hit. But a calmer player with cheating experience would do it differently, like this.

Say you get hit on the outside shoulder. As the ref is running over to check him, he tells the ref. to check his pack. The ref, depending on skill level (although we believe the vast majority of ref's listen way too much to what players are saying) will spend a few seconds looking in between your 17 pods. While he is checking the pack that player will probably be busy scrubbing the hit off the front. Back players skilled in the dark arts know the difference between a hit and elimination. A hit is a when the ref doesn't see you. Elimination is when he does. Pretty simple rules eh?

Another extremely jedi-mind trick type of play is the "It came off the bunker" technique. A player gets shot and ref is coming to you to check him. That player in turn quickly shoots his own bunker and rubs the hit into the collection of paint. When the ref gets there he makes sure that he shows the ref. the bunker before they get to pulling their armband. The Ty Cobbs of paintball, who plan on cheating before the situation even comes up, will pre-shoot their bunkers when they see that their team is losing players. Dark minded front players have a tougher job of getting away with a cheat. They are up where all the action is and because it is more exciting there you have more refs watching. The front and mid guys do have fairly successful tricks in their arsenal though. The first one is the slide or dive. Quicksilver front players that are making a run to the 40 and often take hits to the knee. Simple dark arts answer, you can just slide in on it. Magically it's gone! The other easy cheat for Mid/Front ballers is the bunker swipe. The good front player is very active in their bunker, whether they are cheaters or not. If they are, when/ if a hit appears on their hopper they can easily switch the side of the bunker they are looking out of, dragging the hit across the bunker. 90% of the hit will stay in the bunker and they can then easily convince the ref that it came off the bunker.