Chances are you’ve played this before; more than likely, several times before. Beer Pong is the fastest growing “sport” in America and has a National Championship called the World Series of Beer Pong (WSBP). There are official rules, and house rules, regulation equipment, and what ever you can find. Most importantly, it’s a game that brings strangers close and friends closer together.

Background

There are two forms of Beer Pong: The first is similar to Ping Pong (Table Tennis) in that you use paddles to try and “sink” a ping pong ball into a cup. The second being the player throws the ping pong ball into a cup. The WSBP utilizes the throwing format. A regulation table is 2′W x 8′L x 27.5”H. And any star rating of ping pong ball may be used. The standard cup is the red party cup. Normal cup arrangement is a pyramid of 4,3,2,1; with two beers being equally distributed between them (depending on your personal preferences, and availability of beer , more or less may be used). Finally, a wash cup is placed on each side of the table to wash your balls after they’ve been in the beer.

Rules

The game starts with a version of a rally. In California, we call this “Eye-to-Eye”. Staring straight into your opponents eyes, you attempt to toss your ball into their cups. With a partner, you alternate shots until only one player sinks their ball. From this point on it’s a game of sinking and drinking (there are several house rules that can affect play during a game, but we’ll discuss those in a later post). Alternating shots, the goal is to force you opponent to drink all of their cups before you are forced to drink yours. When playing with a partner, you both sink your balls in separate cups you get the balls back and get to shoot again while you opponent must drink both cups. Alternately, if you both sink your balls in the same cup (great mental image huh) your opponent must drink three cups and you get the balls back. Thus it is possible to win a game without letting you opponent shoot at all.

One of the most important aspects of Beer Pong is the re-rack rule. WSBP allows for two re-racks at specific points in the game; six cups and three cups. Under this system cups are automatically re-racked into a six cup pyramid and a three cup pyramid. Commonly, house rules allow for re-racking at anytime into any number of designs. Most commonly re-racks requested at some point between six cups and two cups. These are: (Level, cup placement from back to front, and common name)

6 cups: 3-2-1 a.k.a. pyramid

5 cups: 1-2-1-1 or 1-1-2-1 a.k.a. Diamond plus 1

4 cups: 1-2-1 a.k.a. diamond

3 cups: 2-1 a.k.a. pyramid

2 cups: 1-1 a.k.a. landing strip

At the end of the game, when there are two or fewer cups left, rebuttal comes into play. Should you sink your balls in separate cups your opponent has the opportunity to rebut (fancy lawyer term for a come back) your shots by making them the same number of shots, either two or one, though in the rare case that you sink your balls in one cup with three to go, you opponent must rebut with two balls in one cup as well. If a rebuttal is successful, the game continues with no team drinking any of the previously made cups. After the last ball is sunk and the last cup is finished, the winning team gets to divide their remaining cups up and give them to the losers to drink; whether they think it is punishment or a reward is up to them. Lastly, and I’m sure this is obvious, the winners will automatically have the next game against a new set of challengers.

Finale

Now that you know how to play the most widely played drinking game in America, and maybe even the world, start practicing, and hit up some parties to show off your skill.

To paraphrase The Ghostbusters; If something goes down on campus, who ya gonna call? The Campus Police. Unfortunately, that’s your only option. It’s sad really. Help is only a few minutes away, but by then you and half your class has been shot. Assume you’re a responsible, stable, and intelligent student who wishes to exercise your 2^nd Amendments Right to personally keep and bare arms for personal defense. Secondly, assume you have completed all necessary training courses and have received your concealed carry permit. Good? Now assume you’re a student in class on any College or University anywhere in the country when you here a gunshot in the hallway of the building your class is in.

Your first instinct is to flee, but to where; you on the second, third or even the fourth floor and the there’s no ledge to use to escape lower. You hear more shots and now screams as the gunman or gunmen go from class to class shooting, wounding and maybe even killing. Then you remember that you’re armed. Or are you? Unless you attend college in Utah, you may as well flip a coin on your chances of living, dying or being wounded.

The scenario continues like this. You live in Utah, and the gunman enters you class room attempting to fire on you or your classmates you can put him down. The story ends here. There will be reports and statements to fill out for sure, and the NRA may even pick up the tab for the rest of your tuition (if only).

The alternate scenario ends a little differently. Now you’re a student Illinois. A state with unconscionably restrictive concealed carry laws. With the same flight or fight options, except you don’t have a weapon. You can’t leave because your too high, the gunman is blocking the door. Within minutes 3 dozen shots are fired and you, your friends and the TA are in shock, wounded or dead.

This scenario is the most common example of what happens when the federal and state government tell us that they will be our protectors. Now, it’s not all their fault, we share some blame for this too. We are not telling our congressmen and women or our senators that we demand the return of the ability to protect ourselves. Time after time, shooting after shooting.

Talking heads tell us that we need more gun control, more “Gun Free Zones”. The ironic thing about these statements is that only law abiding citizens, and in this case students, listen to them anyway. The Trench Coat Mafias (Columbine) and Seung-Hui Cho’s (Virginia Tech) of the world don’t give a damn about silly laws that make what they intend to do easier. Obviously they didn’t stop the Gun Free Zone signs, but the law abiding students who did and left their weapons in their cars paid the price for our inaction.

Whether you agree with the premise of guns on campus or not is beside the point. The question you must ask yourself is whether you will allow the most sacred Right in the history of man, the ability to defend yourself, to be trampled on in the name of assumed security at the expense of your life. Secondly, for those of you who believe so wholeheartedly in the rights to free speech, a free press and the freedom to assemble enshrined in the 1^st Amendment, you must ask yourself what gives you those The only thing preventing those rights from being infringed upon anymore is the 2^nd Amendments guarantee that you can personally defend yourself against attack by an increasingly oppressive government.

I’ve saved the good news for last. Eleven states are considering legislation to restore to students who are lawfully permitted the right to carry concealed handguns on their campuses. With your help, more may follow. What do you think about this issue?

8. Hang out with Friends
Giving blood can be a group activity. Collect your free stuff and do something after, just don’t drink, you’ll be passed out after your first couple of beers, and your blood alcohol level will be artificially high since you have less blood. You can also see who gets done the fastest, under five minutes and your doing great.
7. Meet People
Blood Drives can be a great way to meet people, guys and girls alike. Who doesn’t like to see a member of the opposite sex saving a life. Giving blood usually ends up taking a little while, especially if you’re a first timer. Strike up a conversation and see what happens
6. Interact with the Community
Giving blood is not a solo affair. The community is actively involved with saving each others life’s. Give them a hand and change their impression of college students being selfish.
5. Get over your Fear of Needles
Most people have some fear of needles. Rational or irrational, it would do you well to get it over with now. To be honest, unless you have the greenest needle jockey in the world, you probably won’t feel a thing. If that fails, just don’t look at it and sing a song in your head until it’s over.
4. Find your Blood Type
One of the most important things you can do is find your own blood type. It may even save your life when you accidentally stab yourself with a steak knife. Giving the EMT’s you blood type also lets them save the universal blood type O- for those that really need it.
3. You have Extra
The Bronze medal of this list goes to having excess anyway. What do you normally do with things you have extra of? Usually, if you aren’t a complete pack rat, you give them away to those who need them. Same here, you have extra blood, and there are people that need it. Be a man or woman, and give a little life away to someone who needs it.
2. Karma
Not that I believe in it, but things have a way of coming back to you. Stay on the universes god side and give a pint of the red stuff away. You may need it put back in later.
1. Save a Life
1 out 7 people who enter the hospital need blood and only 38% of Americans are eligible to donate and only 10% do. All this adds up to needing everyone possible to step up and donate every 56 days. College students are uniquely positioned to give blood more then the average American. We have more free time and are genuinely healthier then the average American. Do what you know is right, give and save.
Check out these facts about giving blood from Americas Blood Centers