By: Jeff Barnes
Like most people, I first started playing beer pong to have fun. It was a win-win for me. It appealed to my competitive nature and it was a great way to pass the time while drinking. I never expected to take the game seriously as a sport, nor did I expect to still be playing it into my late twenties. The idea of playing in organized tournaments or flying to Las Vegas for the World Series of Beer Pong did not exist in my mind.
For most players, once they get a taste of the competition they are immediately hooked. We all started out playing at house parties and scribbling our names on paper towels and empty 30-pack boxes to call next game. Then we go to our first tournament and see brackets and trophies and spreadsheets and it brings a whole new legitimacy to it. I’ll never forget my first beer pong tournament and how excited I was to play in the next one, and the next one, and so on.
Unfortunately, though, for many of us, at some point the line between having fun and taking it seriously as a competition gets blurred. We start placing too much emphasis on winning and when we don’t win, we find that we aren’t really having fun, either. It's almost an addiction. Once you experience some success -- the high -- it just makes you want more, and when you don’t have it, you don’t feel as satisfied. Kind of like crack. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything. Seriously though, I've never smoked crack.
After a while, the disappointments start adding up, especially in the major tournaments. The human spirit can only take so much losing. All but two people leave the beer pong tables of Las Vegas and Atlantic City as winners, the rest of us are losers. We wonder why we keep putting ourselves through the misery of playing well only to come up short. On those long drives and flights home we start reflecting on our lives. We start thinking about our jobs, our relationships, our families and everything else.
If you’ve been playing a while, chances are you’ve contemplated your beer pong retirement at some point. It’s natural, and in some cases it’s warranted. I retired around this time last year only to come back a few weeks later. For a terrible player such as myself, I probably shouldn’t have come back. But for others, retirement is a mistake.
One of those players making a mistake is Vincent Bolhuis, one of the best players in the world. The Michigan native announced his retirement on a Facebook post this week:
Today I am officially announcing my RETIREMENT from "pro beer pong"
I am playing in 2 more big tournys
1. Drunkenbear 10k w/ Vince Catizone
2. Atlantic City 25k w/ Kevin Kessler
I would love to win one of these last 2 b4 I am done. If not it has been a great run.
I won my 1st tournament I ever played in 1k, over 30 satellites in the next 2 years, 3 mid-majors with Michael Popielarski, Jason Chichester, and one in 09' for 2.5k in FL, 2nd place in the WSOBP 5, and was named 2nd best player in the world by AABP League at one point.
Good luck to everyone the rest of the way and thanks for the memories!!! I will never forget it!!!!
"Retirement"
If you don’t know Vince, he’s the really, really good looking guy from “Since Sliced Bread” who established himself with one of the great all-time individual performances at at the World Series of Beer Pong V. His resume speaks for itself. I think Vince is making a few mistakes here. For one, while he stands a good chance of winning in Atlantic City with Kevin Kessler, he stands no chance of winning with his Drunken Bear partner, Vince Catizone, who is just not a very good player. He’s also not playing in WSOBP VII, which saddens me.
Speaking of Kessler, it’s also no secret he’s planning on hanging up his designer shoes after the upcoming WSOBP. But he’s got an attractive wife and kid, so I can understand if that’s how he wants to conduct business.
While Vince and Kessler may be some of the biggest names to publicly announce their retirements, they won’t be the first to walk away from the sport and they won’t be the last. The first generation of competitive beer pong players are getting older, and it’s only a matter of time before we wish them goodbye. One of these days, we are going to be without the Pops, the Kesslers and the Vinces of the world. Who is going to step up and take their place? It’s now time for a new generation of competitive beer pong players to make their mark.
It’s easy to get tied up in all the winning and losing, but I think it’s important to step back every once and a while and realize why you started playing beer pong in the first place. Although we all want to win, for most of us we started out playing with friends and just having a good time. Every player is not going to win 30+ satellite tournaments like Vince has. Most players aren’t going to win money like Kessler does. You’ll remember the times you had off the table more often than the games you play. Just have fun.
And Vince? He’ll come back. They always do.
