Beer Pong Forums: the future of pong

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the future of pong

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Author	Message
bondball7 Joined: 02.19.2008 Age: 28 Total Games: 0 W/L %: 0 Avg CD: 0 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 09:57 am Post subject: the future of pong A lot of places do consolation tournaments for the teams that go 0-2. Maybe that could be expanded to all the teams that lose 2 out of three, and then give a little something to the finalists of those tourneys?
DrunkenBear Joined: 02.19.2009 Age: 26 Total Games: 82 W/L %: 50 Avg CD: -0.26 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 10:47 am Post subject: the future of pong Can you explain the consolidation bracket? So if a team goes 0-2 they are in a new bracket, but a team that goes 1-2 are just out? Would if be better to play a simple round robin 3 games and then seed teams, then do a double elim bracket? I already have all girls team play for free and am starting to get more and more girls teams. I also run Pong Toss and sit n goes at tournaments to try to get more people interested. Im still getting 25-45 teams which isnt bad but it isnt great either. But probably about 18-20 of theam are players that travel around and the rest of the field is new. But then I never see those new teams again. I have had new teams come in 3-6 who have never came back so they didnt even get their asses kicked they just complained about either the rules or allowing lean or no beer provided. I need a way to keep these people coming back regardless of how they place. I am not the greatest player but anytime I am not running a tournament and someone else is I waddle my happy ass over to the nearest tournament and play. I think in the new year I am going to run consolidation brakcets for people who go 0-2 and I am going to expirement with 1 and done's. Let me know if anyone hgas had any other ggimmicks to keep people interested. I have heard about double entry tournaments, how succesful are those?
the champ Joined: 09.20.2006 Age: 31 Total Games: 42 W/L %: 69.05 Avg CD: 1.29 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 11:48 am Post subject: the future of pong "DrunkenBear" Let me know if anyone hgas had any other ggimmicks to keep people interested. I have heard about double entry tournaments, how succesful are those? It's a good way to get more cash out of your regulars but doesn't cater to the guys you're trying to hold on to. They end up having to beat the elite teams not once but twice in order to win. I think BDS should get Mike Paps, Ron, Twig and Radesco to do an exhibition game youtube video and put it on the front of bpong.com. Have them standing 3 feet behind the table, no leaning, and just missing 9 out of every 10 shots. It'll be a painful 15 minute game - then underneath it says "These are the best players in the world... can you compete?"
prusch Joined: 08.22.2006 Age: 30 Total Games: 145 W/L %: 77.24 Avg CD: 1.70 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 12:46 pm Post subject: the future of pong I've said this before, but seems applicable. I heard about WSOBP I late, decided it was too much of a hassle to figure out family/work plans, and also thought there'd be 35 year old ringers out there. Then I saw the video of the finals. I saw multiple turns with missed shots. I saw airballs. It gave me hope. Now there are videos of perfect games out there - and while I enjoy seeing people perform well, it can't help bring people out. I wonder how many teams were discouraged from coming to WS III after seeing Neil/Tone hit 10/12 in the WS II final.
WBPT_Neil Joined: 12.02.2008 Age: 25 Total Games: 40 W/L %: 62.5 Avg CD: 1.23 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 12:47 pm Post subject: the future of pong "the "DrunkenBear" Let me know if anyone hgas had any other ggimmicks to keep people interested. I have heard about double entry tournaments, how succesful are those? It's a good way to get more cash out of your regulars but doesn't cater to the guys you're trying to hold on to. They end up having to beat the elite teams not once but twice in order to win. I think BDS should get Mike Paps, Ron, Twig and Radesco to do an exhibition game youtube video and put it on the front of bpong.com. Have them standing 3 feet behind the table, no leaning, and just missing 9 out of every 10 shots. It'll be a painful 15 minute game - then underneath it says "These are the best players in the world... can you compete?" Haha thats a sick idea for a promo video. Sam and I have also been dealing with this issue for a while now, to this day we are still trying to figure out a new rule or something that will keep the average players coming back. The 1 and done rule isn't too effective either because you lose a lot of the consistent players who already have bids. I'm glad this thread got started, we really need to find a way to resolve this issue. The future of beer pong depends on it.
jomalley333 Joined: 12.05.2008 Age: 29 Total Games: 24 W/L %: 54.17 Avg CD: -0.08 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 21st 2009, 03:53 pm Post subject: the future of pong For #1 I think that if someone has won a bid they should only be allowed to play with a girl. It still allows Pop, Frazer..etc to play and if he wins more power to him no one should complain. It gets more girls at the events and gives them a chance to win. I said this in another post but I still dont know of any girl teams or guy girl teams that have won a non co-ed tourney. I also like the girl teams are free or like raxx does all girl tournaments at the same time. More girls leads to more guys Fact. The consolation bracket is good too I would suggest that any team that plays 3 or less games (0-2, 1-2) gets in and winners get a bar tab for $50 or something like that. Helps those dudes feel like they got more for their money and lets people of the same (non-pro) caliber play each other. #2 A fold out bar off of the legs of the table sounds like the best solution. It wont get messed up like a taped line and then the shooter wont look like they are trying to dunk it. Also it would be easy to adapt to all bpong tables. I wouldnt mind a longer table but the perception will still be there. The leaning perception is killing it for new ppl to the scene. Whether it changes shooting percentages or closeness of games is irrelevant if they new players feel they lost because they were cheated by the lean they will stop spending money. Last edited on Nov 21st 2009, 04:09 pm
umdbeerpong Joined: 07.05.2008 Age: 25 Total Games: 24 W/L %: 33.33 Avg CD: -0.75 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 22nd 2009, 03:27 pm Post subject: the future of pong I read through all the posts and there are a lot of good ideas out there. Being a large tournament organizer I can say first hand that this year has been stressful when it came to filling up tournaments. Austin and I had to take several losses on tournaments throughout the year because we didn't fill our tournaments enough to cover the cost of the prizes, etc. One thing that MDBP does that a lot of the other tournament organizers don't is our leagues. We want new teams to come out and we want those teams that have come out before but don't feel like paying $50 to go 0-2 in a satellite. Our leagues offer a fun atmosphere that offers enjoyment to all skill levels. They are organized more like a happy hour. Teams come out, do open play for 15 games a night, once a week. They drink at their own pace, challenge whichever teams they want, socialize, buy each other rounds of drinks, make new friends, etc. Our leagues are the only events that have not seen much of a drop in attendance over the last year. We all must realize that the economy has an effect on beer pong too and could also be contributing to lower team attendance in events. But back to getting new teams. The house party is not the only breeding grounds for new pong players. You want to slowly lure them in; get them used to our rules. They do come around. That is, at least if they are having fun while they are there. Get your regulars and the elite teams to bring newer teams under their wings, make friends with them, invite them to come hang out or go out to the bar on non beer pong nights. Make beer pong fun. I always loved in house parties how no one felt like a loser when playing beer pong because if you won, you won, but if you lost, you got drunk - so everyone was a winner. Beer included for events helps a lot but game pitchers still reward the better teams while the teams that go 0-2 get two pitchers and go home. We just had a charity tournament last weekend and got 3 kegs and people stayed around the whole time and drank even after they were done playing and everyone had a blast. Get the newbies drunk, make friends with them, create a sense of community, and you will start to see them coming out more. Our leagues create that sense of community...everyone gets t-shirts, they come, hang out, socialize, and play beer pong. Then as people get better, they slowly start coming out to our tournaments. We have to incubate the rookies, create an atmosphere for them to get used to our rules and build their skills up. Even our teams that go 0-15 in a league night still come out because they were having fun while doing it. There is no pressure to win a tournament until the last week so they have fun and keep coming out. We also try and get a lot of girl teams to come out for the leagues too. I have still found that most of the teams that we get are young professionals and not college students. I ran my DC league at McFadden's which gets the largest college scene on Tuesday nights with $1 beers. And yet I got zero college teams to participate in the league, yet I still managed to get 29 teams to come out each week. The college kids have a hard time with commitment. It is much easier to get them once they graduate, miss college a little, and have a lot more free time and more money to spend. We tried doing free weekly tournaments and got the bars to give out bar tabs and we are able to get around 16 teams each week but a lot of the teams are our regulars as well that usually end up winning the free tournaments. It would help to tell the regular good teams that they can't play but as tournament organizers, we are also committed to the bars to bring them business so we have to let the regulars come out and play or else we wouldn't be guaranteed ahead of time that we can get many teams to come out at all. Another thing that works for us is rankings. People don't care if they lose so long as they can say that they are still the nth best player in the state. Our state championship coming up is going to be our largest tournament this year because we are making it more than just a tournament but a whole day experience that is worthwhile for people to pay the entry fee even if they aren't going to win. National rankings, regional rankings, and state rankings would bring more to the table and be an added factor for people to compete. It then becomes not just about the money or satellite packages but also about the pride and bragging rights. Why was the beast of the east so big? Because pride and bragging rights were on the line. Why are the big tournaments such as the WSOBP and WPT's AC tournament so big and get teams out even if they know they aren't going to win? Because they also bring a fun factor. The cost to stay in a hotel in Vegas for 4 nights is close to the cost of entry into the WSOBP so people already see that it is about more than just the tournament. Side tournaments, sit n gos, etc create other means for people to compete, play with new players who they have never played with before, and create a fun atmosphere. Beer is included so that is another added value to the players. And people can make a vacation out of it and bring along their wives and girlfriends, etc. One thing that I would like to see that you see in Poker is more even payouts for large tournaments. The winner may get 1,000,000 but the second place may still get 700,000. Not like beer pong where we usually pay out 80% or more to the 1st place team, 2nd place may get 20% and we rarely see 3rd or less get anything. At least this year with the WSOBP and WBPT, you can still get 5th place or so and get paid out so you feel like you are still winning something. The WSOBP also has the appeal that the team that comes in 20th place, for example, can still proudly go home and say that they are the 20th best beer pong team in the world! Now to address equipment changes...It's not going to happen. Us large organizations have invested too much money in the 32+ tables that we have and BPong has 10s or 100s of times more invested in the standard table size that we use now. Forget about the equipment changes and focus more on the fun aspect. Give more value to a beer pong tournament. Make the entry fees slightly higher than the cover that the average person would pay to get into a bar. Legal restraints play a role in how much fun you can make it in terms of doing beer included/charging entry fees/gambling/etc but you can find a happy medium that works for you. It will take some time and a lot of marketing and advertising. But think about how many college students are in the US, think about how many of them are bashing the videos on youtube (may 0.01%) and think about how many college students are out there that don't even know that organized beer pong leagues and tournaments exist. Then think about how many young professionals fall into these same categories. There are millions of people that we haven't reached out to who could become potential new teams. We need to accept our rules and equipment and focus on making the game more fun and raising awareness. Unified rankings and regional competition will raise rivalries and self pride that will keep them coming out even if they go 0-2 so long as there is also a fun factor involved. -Garrett
gman17 Joined: 08.21.2007 Age: 30 Total Games: 24 W/L %: 62.5 Avg CD: 0.79 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 22nd 2009, 03:56 pm Post subject: the future of pong Great write up Garrett. Totally worth the read unlike other posts on here bashing the sport. I dig the fact that you have your weekly league up in MD and when I started my weekly Tournaments in Charlotte, NC I was trying to emulate the same idea. The thing is that nobody ever wants to commit to something that far in advance and shell out the money these days. I had a pretty solid following each week of the same crew coming out, had tshirts made up and good prizes. But even with talking to them about a league, nobody could say yes, just bades on school/work schedules or cash flow. It sucks that the economy is shitty and that it is affecting us Pongers. But the new people will come and yes it will take some time. I guess every bar/college/state scene is different and it's all on how it gets promoted. I also totally agree with the fact that there does NOT need to be any equipment change. The amount of money that people of invested throughout the Country for leagues etc. is insane. I also doubt B/D/S want to call up China and say "Oh hey, we are going to totally change what we are doing and make new tables." I'm pretty sure that changing "the mold" isn't cheap. The only thing worth changing would be the rules, but I can't see anything changing too much other than some tweaking. -GMAN Last edited on Nov 22nd 2009, 03:57 pm
DrunkenBear Joined: 02.19.2009 Age: 26 Total Games: 82 W/L %: 50 Avg CD: -0.26 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 22nd 2009, 09:00 pm Post subject: the future of pong Im sitll a fan of having to keep both feet on the ground regardless if it is part of the shot or not. I think that would help alittle wiht the lean.
getthirsty Joined: 05.10.2009 Age: 24 Total Games: 78 W/L %: 75.64 Avg CD: 1.71 Full Stats	Posted: Nov 23rd 2009, 02:43 am Post subject: the future of pong There is no way that making a longer or taller table or smaller cups pr whateveer you do to make shooting percentage go down is gonna help with this problem at all. This is just gonna make it worse for mediocre players. If you cant hit a cup on an 8 foot table how are you gonna hit a cup on a nine foot table? This makes no sense at all this just makes the good more elite and the middle fall off the map. There has to be more rewards for lower places, Ive been to alot of tourneys that only pay out to first and thats it. This is the World Series of Beer Pong. These tournaments are for the best players in the world, if you wanna bitch because you never win either go back to your house party games or step your fuckin game up.