WSOBP (Beer Pong)

by Karl Popper

The fourth annual edition of the
“World Series of Beer Pong”,
a frat style drinking game recently
turned popular, is coming to Las Vegas
in 2009.

Hundreds of teams are expected to gather
at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino from
January 1st- 5th to battle for the
$50,000 grand prize.

The five-day event, presented by BPong.com,
will be the largest of its kind, the 2007
tournament attracted almost 600 contestants
from 39 states and three different countries.
In addition, twenty-one satellite competitions
will be held in several locations inside the U.S.,
with the final satellite taking place in New York
on December 16th, 2008.

“It's a pastime with a very loyal following.
We introduced beer pong to the Las Vegas Strip
a couple of years ago at O’Sheas Casino and it
continues to be immensely successful for us.”
said Flamingo’s VP of marketing, Suzanne Trout.

“Beer pong” involves two teams that face-off
from opposite ends of a long table. Each team
has 10 plastic cups arranged in a triangle
at their side of the table, then both teams
take turns attempting to throw ping pong
balls into the other team’s cups.
The first team to full all the cups with at least
one ping pong ball wins the match.

In most frat-style “Beer Pong” games,
all cups are filled with beer and a member
of the defending team has to drink a cup’s
contents when the opposing team lands
a ball in it, however, drinking is not
mandatory during the “WSoBP”.

During a BPong.com-regulated game,
twenty-four ounces of beer or water is split
between six of the 10 cups .The remaining
four cups are filled with water and no one
drinks the water from these cups during
a regulation game. According to the
tournament rules, all cups may be filled
with water instead of beer and competitors
can choose if they want to drink the
contents or not.

2008 world champion beer pongers,
Jeremy Hughes and Mike Orr, are
expected to make their best effort to
defend the title, regardless of what
the cups are filled with.
The tournament is open to anyone,
ages 21 or older. All teams are welcomed
to register online before December 5th,
the Tournament’s registration is set at
$1,000 per team, and includes four nights
at the Flamingo Las Vegas.