Ping pong with obstacles, or Pingpongo, is a sport that consists of a variation of ping pong or traditional table tennis, by adding material and/or mental obstacles. It was created in Argentina in 2010 but is also officially played since 2013 in Norway and Uruguay.
In addition to the official venues where tournaments are regularly held, some special one-time official tournaments have been held in Guatemala, Brazil, France, Community of Madrid, Basque Country and Wales, this last as part of the World Alternative Games 2014. "Ping Pongo" World Alternative Games 2014 Catalogue -printed and digital- Page 29, Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales.
During official tournaments, matches were performed on conventional table tennis tables, festival tables, groups of small bar tables, on tables made up with timber from old public benches, and even on boards propped on trestle support.
The number of obstacles that may be used is infinite; therefore, pingpongo is a sport with an infinite number of game variations. Every type of obstacle to be used during official events must be previously approved by the PPOB. Even though the rules are very permissive and allow creativity at all times, when practicing pingpongo officially the use of animals as obstacles is not allowed, nor are: smoking, making Nazi comments, or any kind of expression of violence, or using cell phones during the matches.
In Norway, for instance, the organizers of each official tournament previously determine the conceptual framework in which the material and mental obstacles, the communications and the decoration of the event will be set. So, there were tournaments where the material obstacles ranged from chess pieces to images projected on the table, and the mental obstacles went from paying compliments to the opponent when hitting the ball to singing "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by Yoko Ono and John Lennon nonstop while listening to it with headphones during the whole match.
Other common obstacles are: beer bottles, cups, framed photos of Carlos Gardel, football players figurines, toy football goals, toy animals, signs depicting the amounts of money spent to organise the Olympic Games, and plastic cups. In some tournaments, players may add own material obstacles.
During November 2014, several of these material obstacles were featured in a show called "memoria futura" (Future memory) at the Centro Cultural de España in Montevideo. Exhibition arranged by antipodes café with the collaboration of the Uruguayan Association of Pingpongo, AOPPO Asociación Oriental de Pingpong con Obstáculos.
The game came be similar to traditional table tennis, meaning, a player gets a point when the opponent fails to stop the ball from bouncing twice on his side of the table or return it to the other side, or returns it out of the other court. However, since the rules are established before every match or tournament, different ways of scoring and winning matches can be set. Variations are infinite, but every rule to be applied on the game will be previously agreed upon by the players of the match and/or tournament, and, in the case of official events, the rules must previously supervised by the Pingpongo Board (PPOB, the pingpongo authority on a world level).
Depending on the competition and the stage within it, a match of pingpongo may be played to the best of 1, 3, or 5 sets.
The most common serve is the same as in table tennis where the ball must bounce first in the server's side of the table and then on the receiver's one. A mistake in service gives a point to the opponent, this can happen when the ball hits the net, bounces on the server's court or on one of the server's obstacles and does not pass onto the opponent's court, or if it does not bounce on the opponent's court. If the ball touches the net upon service and passes onto the opponent's court, service shall be done again. .
Each player serves two consecutive points, after which the opponent serves. If the match is for 11 points and both players score 10, each player shall serve once until the game ends with a lead of two points for one of the players. The same happens if the match or set is for 15 points and is tied on 13.
The players can switch court every six points.
Even though there are an infinite number of variations, there are some already in use or recommended by the PPOB, and which may be used simultaneously:
Norway was added as official venue in August 2013 Pingpongo Norge and Uruguay the same year in September. In Norway tournaments are played basically in Oslo both in public and private indoors and outdoor spaces, but one official tournament was developed in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in 2014.
Besides the official venues where tournaments are placed periodically, there have been special official tournaments placed in Guatemala (2012), Brazil (2014), Wales (2014), Basque Country (2014), Community of Madrid (2014) and France (2015). As of today, more than 500 people from over 30 nationalities have played this sport officially.
In 2013 after Norway and Uruguay became official venues, AAPPO created a global online administrative board called AAPPO-Board, which in 2014, in agreement with the rest of the official venues changed its name to PINGPONGO BOARD or PPOB. "Ping Pong with Obstacles, Tomorrows utopia, today." Vice Magazine, Mexico
Several artistic variations of table tennis, like those created by George Maciunas or later by Gabriel Orozco, as well as popular alterations like beer pong or slam pong can be found but none of them constitutes a sport with an international e independent organisation defining rules, rankings and official regular activities.Terranova, Juan, "Pingpongo" Revista Paco But all members of the international board (PPOB) agreed that the sport exist from the beginning of existence.
A round-robin tournament define points for each match won. In Pingpongo, these points are defined by the total of points of the tournament (which is the same as the number of players multiplied by 10) divided by the number of matches to be played in the Round Robin series by all players. A round-robin tournament can help to define for example four semifinalist or just the two finalist who will receive points according to the previous table of elimination tournaments. A round-robin tournament helps players to play more and have more chances to advance to the finals. This system is used in the FIFA World Cup, for example.
"Top 10". Last updated: August 31, 2015
"Top 10". Last updated: August 31, 2015
Example: "Top 10" Ranking PINGPONGO NORGE 2013–2015. Last updated: Dec. 11th, 2015
Official special tournaments have been played in Guatemala (2013), Brazil (2014) and Wales (2014), the latter during the World Alternative Games 2014 that took place in Llanwrtyd Wells, the smallest town in Great Britain. Of the 32 participants, 29 were local, which would be almost 5% of the total population of the city. Another curiosity of this tournament was that it had both the oldest player ever (79 years old) and the two youngest ones (seven years old twins who also played between them in the first ever official match between twins).
No Pingpongo tournament demands a registration fee for the participants.
| 2014 | Pingpongo Madrid "Design as Obstacle" Tournament | Madrid, Community of Madrid | Francisco Fernández Ferreiro | David Berkvens | 9–11 / 11–9 / 12–10 | 150 |
| 2014 | Pingpongo Madrid "Relaxing Cup" | El Campo de Cebada, Madrid, Community of Madrid | Álvaro García | Mario Fuentes | 15(taza)–10 / 10–15 / 15–10 | 160 |
| 2014 | Pingpongo Euskadi Pingpongo txapelketa, Turismo Zarautz | Hondartza, Zarautz, Basque Country | Imanol Uriarte | Roberto Díaz | 11–9 / 11–8 | 160 |
| 2014 | Pingpongo World Alternative Games World Alternative Games 2014 2014 Tournament | Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales | Sara Galvão | Peter Brown | 15–8 / 15–11 | 320 |
| 2014 | I Aberto Brasileiro de Pingpongo Results I Aberto Brasileiro de Pingpongo | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Hernán López Winne | Luciano Altman | 11–10 (penalties) / 8–11 / 11–0 (Cow goal) | 190 |
| 2013 | Special challenger AAPPO 15 Results Special Challenger AAPPO 15, Guatemala | Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala | Gary Estrada | / Francisco Godinez | 11–7 | 15 |
Once the tournament is finished the official venue is responsible for sending a text and image report to the PPOB as well as the results with the detail of the distribution of points according to the scoring system established by the PPOB. The official venue is responsible for communicating their own events as well as creating and updating their local ranking based on the official points.
The name of the venue is standardized by the PPOB and includes the word Pingpongo first and then the country (recognized or not recognized), autonomous community or city name in Spanish, English or in local language written with latin alphabet.
The current official venues are Pingpongo Argentina, Pinpongo Uruguay and Pingpongo Norge.
| 2015.03 | VII Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo | FM La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Nicolás Bruno | Ezequiel Bertrán | 9–11 / 11–9 / 11–6 | 320 |
| 2014.12 | VI Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo | FM La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Nicolás Bruno | Pablo Rowinski | 11–1 (vaso) | 320 |
| 2014.06 | PingPongo Edición Mundial Results V Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo | FM La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Nicolás Bruno | Juan Martín Gutiérrez | 11–6 / 11–6 | 320 |
| 2014.03 | IV Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo Results IV Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo | FM La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Ezequiel Bertrán | Juan Martín Gutiérrez | 11–6 / 11–9 | 400 |
| 2013.10 | I Copa Codasports Results Copa Codasports | Ce.Re.NA, Ezeiza, Buenos Aires, Argentina | Agustín Manzanel | Pablo Vázquez | 11–3 / 12–14 / 11–3 | 150 |
| 2013.07 | III Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo Results III Abierto Argentino | Fm La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Fernando Parra | Martín Completa | 11–6 / 11–6 | 750 |
| 2012.12 | II Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo Results II Abierto Argentino | Fm La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Martín Completa | Lucas Arias | 11–9 / 11–4 | 500 |
| 2012.08 | I Abierto Argentino de Pingpongo Results I Abierto Argentino | Fm La Tribu, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina | Martín Completa | Lucas Arias | 11–6 / 11–6 | 500 |
| 2015.12 | Pingpongo Dazzle Tournament | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Jo Ofrim Bjørke | Arjan Memisi | 11–5 / 11–8 | 180 |
| 2015.10 | Noble Pingpongo Prize Tournament | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Jo Ofrim Bjørke | Felipe Ridao | 8–11 / 11–6 / 11–6 | 120 |
| 2015.09 | Vote Pingpongo Party Tournament | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Felipe Ridao | Halvor Haukeli | 11–3 / 10–12 / 11–7 | 80 |
| 2015.08 | Summertime and the livin is easy Cup | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Sebastián Correa | Pedro Rubio | 11–7 / 10–12 / 11–7 | 240 |
| 2015.03 | Evolution Tournament | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Jordi Marset | Renate Vea Petersson | 6–11 / 11–6 / 11–4 | 150 |
| 2014.10 | PINGPONGO 78°N | Karlsberger Pub, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway | Lars Thomas Dolven | Tommy Andersen | 15–11 / 15–1 | 180 |
| 2014.08 | VIP Championship | Kulturhuset UT, Youngstorget, Oslo, Norway | Ian Correia Sampaio | Felipe Ridao | 9–11 / 12–10 / 11–9 | 200 |
| 2014.06 | VM i PINGPONGO Results VM i PINGPONGO NORGE | Fotballfesten, Kontraskjæret, Oslo, Norway | Alex Asensi | Felipe Ridao | 15–13 / 15–10 | 290 |
| 2014.04 | Banana Tournament Report Banana Tournament | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Alex Asensi | André Carballo | 12–10 | 120 |
| 2014.03 | Hot Cool Yours Tournament Results Hot Cool Yours Tournament, PINGPONGO NORGE | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Alex Asensi | Tom Haugeplass | 11–4 / 4–11 / 11–5 | 320 |
| 2013.11 | War is Over Pingpongo Results War is Over Pingpongo Tournament, PINGPONGO NORGE | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Jo Ofrim Bjørke | Kristian Nørgaard | 6–11 / 11–9 / 11–7 | 101 |
| 2013.10 | Revolution Tournament Results Revolution Tournament, PINGPONGO NORGE | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Alex Asensi | Tune Aksnes Lian | 14–12 / 11–7 | 101 |
| 2013.09 | Jennifer Cup Montevideo-Oslo Results Jennifer Cup Montevideo-Oslo, PINGPONGO NORGE | Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway | Asgeir Krogh | Anja Naper | 11–8 / 11–4 | 101 |
| 2013.08 | Oslo Closed Results Oslo Closed, PINGPONGO NORGE | Schous Plass, Oslo, Norway | Jyoti Shrestha | Amrit Shrestha | 15–10 / 15–11 | 101 |
| 2014.11 | IV Abierto Uruguayo "Memoria Futura" (Closing the first exhibition about Pingpongo Pingpongo "memoria futura", installation) | Centro Cultural de España, Montevideo, Uruguay | Sergio Rodríguez | Juan Manuel Rodríguez | 13–11/ 11–8 | 120 |
| 2014.05 | III Abierto Uruguayo Results III Abierto Uruguayo | Rincón del Parque, Montevideo, Uruguay | Nicolás Damiani | Alejandro Torre | 11–8/ 11–9 | 240 |
| 2013.12 | Copa Jennifer II Results II Copa Jennifer | Rincón del Parque, Montevideo, Uruguay | Sergio Gerali | Fabián Iturrioz | 11–9 | 250 |
| 2013.09 | Copa Jennifer I Results I Copa Jennifer | Rincón del Parque, Montevideo, Uruguay | Bruno Moleda | Juan Martín Gutiérrez | 11–6 / 11–8 | 500 |
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