If you haven’t heard of Beer Pong before, you must’ve been living under a rock all this time. Arguably the most famous party drinking game, it’s simple, fun and intoxicatingly effective. Originating in the US as far back as the 1950s, the name comes from the delightful fusion of table tennis – or ping pong – and good old beer.
The rules are, as you can imagine, extremely simple. All you need is a flat surface resembling a table, plastic cups, a ping pong ball and booze. The original idea is to play on an actual table tennis or banquet table, but you are welcome to improvise and throw your own spin on the game. Between 2 and 4 people is the recommended number of players, divided in 2 teams, accordingly. You would want to be actively involved and this way you’ll get the most out of it, including sipping and having the opponents sip on enough beer. We all know that this is the main reason to play. Well, that and winning, of course.
Up to 10 cups are arranged triangularly with the convergence point focused on the opposite team. Make sure you have an extra water-filled bowl lying around for rinsing purposes after each throw. Let’s not forget the importance of hygiene.
On to the main idea of the game. Each player takes turns and throws the ball at the opponents’ cups with the goal to land each throw inside one of them. Succeed and chugging follows. You are not allowed to lean on the table and/or stretch your arm with the purpose of shortening the distance between you and the cups. Various techniques are welcomed here. You can arc the ball, try underhand or overhand throwing. A good tactic is to aim at the center of the cluster, rather than the edges of it. This way, in case the ball bounces from one of the cups it can still land in the neighboring one. Once your team is left with 4 or 2 cups, align them in a diamond shape or a straight line respectively.
You can imagine that the game can become quite competitive. Not to mention pure joy once you chug on more beers than you can usually handle. The winning team is the one who leaves the opposite team with empty cups. This certainly can pose quite the challenge for some. Even though beer takes center stage, having the right skill set and a very good aim is what will bring you on top.
No college or house party is ever truly the same if a beer pong game isn’t involved. The game has ventured across borders long time ago and fans can be seen playing across the globe. In case you want to spice things up a notch, you can personalize the rules and make it more local to your region. The next time you organise a get together with your peeps set up a table and see who the ultimate beer pong champion is.