LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune
Southern California Beer Pong will host a Sunday tournament at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach that brings the players one step closer to the World Series in Vegas.
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Demonized on college campuses and deemed responsible for students' binge drinking, beer pong has survived the scorn of higher learning institutions and grown beyond an exclusive domain of frat boys.
In fact, those who excel at the drinking game don't even have to like hops, but most do. Beer pong has become the party game of choice in plenty of private homes, nightclubs and at an annual World Series competition in Las Vegas. It's participants argue that beer pong is a win/win situation – take home cash or bragging rights and have a lot of fun trying.
On a recent sunny afternoon at 'Canes Bar & Grill, more than 100 twenty-and thirty-somethings participated in a tournament hosted by Southern California Beer Pong, an organization that also will stage a satellite game on Sunday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.
Recorded classic rock music was barely audible over the din of cheering and jeering. But the teams, consisting of two members and their assorted fans, were serious about winning.
When beer pong is played in colleges, each cup holds about a shot of beer. When a player sinks a pingpong ball into the cup from across the table, a member of the opposing team has to drink the beer down. These days, the beer is going as club games and events hosted by Southern California Beer Pong use only water in the cups.
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Southern California Beer Pong Satellite Tournament
When: Sunday, noon
Where: Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave, Solana Beach
Tickets: $30 to $40
Phone: (858) 481-8140
Online: socalbeerpong.com
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“The thing that made college beer pong fun wasn't getting drunk,” said Tyler Green, who co-founded Southern California Beer Pong with his partner Peter Rusch. “It was camaraderie, the social aspect and the banter across the table. And anyone can throw a pingpong ball in a cup. But teams that practice will hit a higher percentage and there is the rush of winning the game.”
There is also the rush of making and winning money. When Adam Wasserman, 26, and his brother Brett, 23, attended Arizona State University, an unhinged door or a piece of plywood served as a makeshift beer-pong table. After college, Wasserman identified a need for a portable table that could be used in the home or in clubs. His Simi Valley factory manufactures and ships portable and custom tables through his site at partypongtables.com. Business is booming.
“From a year ago, our numbers are up 300 percent,” said Wasserman. “Every month, we increase more than 20 percent in sales. There has always been a market of beer-pong players, but the growing popularity of World Series and the media attention created more opportunity.”
When Green hosts beer-pong events at 'Canes Bar and Grill, the Belly Up Tavern and East Village Tavern and Bowl, he uses portable beer-pong tables that are the same size at the ones used at the World Series of Beer Pong, launched four years ago outside of Las Vegas. The first event offered the winning team $10,000. In January 2009, the World Series will be staged at the Flamingo Hotel and offers a $50,000 grand prize.
Last year, Mike Orr and Jeremy Hughes of San Diego were the World Series of Beer Pong champions and they split the $50,000 grand prize.
When they first started playing, Hughes said they would trash-talk the opposition, but their newest strategy is to simply back away from the table, which throws off the competition's depth perception. Their team, known as Chauffeuring the Fat Kid, will compete at Sunday's Belly Up Tavern satellite game. The winning team will receive free tickets to the World Series of Beer Pong IV, valued at more than $1,000.
“People get introduced in college, but competitive types keep the game going,” said Hughes. “I'm very competitive. Some people think beer-pong players are a bunch of bums, but we are hardworking individuals.”
