By: Jeff Barnes
I still remember my first game of beer pong... The big plywood table was sitting in my friend’s apartment in college in 2001. We had just watched the Maryland Terrapins make their second consecutive Final Four appearance. I called next by writing my name on a paper towel. Everyone made fun of my shot. Apparently, some things never change.
In the years that passed, we played on anything and everything that could be used as some sort of table. When we traveled, we took the headboards off of the hotel beds and used that. We would play with mismatched ping pong balls and any kind of cups we could find. We didn’t know the difference between 38mm and 40 mm balls, nor did we care. And when we wanted to play, we wrote our name down on anything we could get our hands on. Tournaments were run on scrap paper, empty 30 packs and napkins. We didn’t know any better. Yeah the rules changed from place to place, but we didn’t care. We were just having fun.
The first time I played in a legit beer pong tournament was in 2005. It was hosted by Maryland Beer Pong and I had no idea what to expect. I thought it would be some kind of glamorized house party, but it wasn’t. There was a large bracket printed on poster board and the tournament was run on the computer. It was so incredibly organized, and although we played terribly, it’s safe to say that was the day I got hooked on beer pong. It was also the first day I began to get spoiled by Maryland Beer Pong tournaments.
Somewhere between then and now, I became a beer pong snob. A lot of us have. I just got so used to playing in these well-run tournaments. The tournaments, for the most part, were always run quickly and we didn’t have to wait around much. The formats were easy to understand. There were plenty of tables set up. And in the unlikely event that we placed in the money, we knew we were getting paid. I knew I could play in a beer pong tournament on a Saturday and still have time to do something afterward.
I take it for granted that not all tournaments are run like this. I know there are several respected tournament organizers around the country who do a great job, so I know that Maryland Beer Pong is not alone.
But we’ve all been to those terrible tournaments. There’s nothing like a badly run tournament to scare people away forever. People still talk about the infamous Bing Bong tournament in Philadelphia as being one of the worst tournaments ever ran. I still rip on one particular “professional beer pong player” about the first tournament he ever ran. Sorry Steph!
So much of the stuff you read about beer pong discusses the characters and players in the community. Seldom do you read about the tournament organizers, the great ones, who really are the ones that keep the movement moving. A lot of us take it for granted that people go out of their way to run tournaments on a daily and weekly basis with not much in return. Most of us have no desire to go through the efforts to put together a league or tournament, but are very quick to complain when things don’t go our way. Believe it or not, I have been known to lose my cool and calm attitude when things like this happen. Crazy, right?
It’s no secret that, for the most part, attendance at leagues and tournaments is down around the country. There are exceptions, but it seems to be a common theme. And while much of this is to blame on players not coming out, I think tournament organizers need to share some of the blame as well.
Somewhere along the way, beer pong tournaments stopped mattering unless they had something really special to offer. Oh, it’s not a satellite? It’s only $1K? Only $5K? It’s going to be a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I think that one of the biggest things hurting the growth of beer pong is this emphasis on the prize. I think too many tournament organizers are pandering to the top players and ignoring many of their other customers.
Truth is, at the end of the day, tournaments will be much more successful if they are well run and offer a fair prize. An outlandish cash prize with a structure of preliminary games and a best two out of three may attract the elite beer pong players, but they will alienate most of the casual players who want to compete and have a good time. My first job was in a restaurant, and I remember my boss always told me people would come back if the service was good, regardless of the food.
If you run a good tournament and pay out whatever you promise, the people will come. I promise.
