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Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of opposing teams of two or more players per side with 6 or 10 cups set up in a triangle formation on each side. Each team then takes turns attempting to throw ping-pong balls into the opponent's cups. If the team "makes" a cup - that is, the ball lands in it, and stays in it - the contents of the cup are consumed by the other team and the cup is removed from the table. The first team to eliminate all of the opponent's cups is the winner.
Bucknell University's student-run newspaper, The Bucknellian, claims Delta Upsilon fraternity members at Bucknell created "Throw Pong", a game very similar to beer pong, during the 1970s, and that "Throw Pong" was then brought to Lehigh University by fraternity brothers who visited Bucknell and this led to the creation of the version of beer pong that is played today.
The origin of the name "Beirut" is disputed. A 2004 op-ed article in The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper at Princeton University, suggested that the name was possibly coined at Bucknell or Lehigh University around the time of the Lebanese Civil War. Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was the scene of much fighting during the war, particularly mortar fire.
The order of play varies - both players on one team can shoot, followed by both players on the other team, or players on opposite teams can alternate back and forth. A cup that is made must immediately have its contents drunk and be removed from play. Some rule sets allow for " re-racking" (also known as " reforming", " rearranging", " consolidation", and other names), which is a rearrangement of a team's remaining cups after some have been removed. The formations, number of cups, when to rearrange and so on, depend on the rule set. For example, a team with three remaining cups may ask the other team to "re-rack" the cups into a single triangle formation.
Common house rules allow players to 'finger' or blow the ball out of the cup if the ball spins around the inner rim. Another common house rule states that if a team makes both shots during their turn, a 'rollback' occurs allowing each player on that team to shoot again. In the World Series of Beer Pong rules, only a single-ball 'rollback' occurs resulting in a three cup maximum that can be made per turn.
Before shooting, teams may dunk the ping pong balls into cups of water in order to wash off the balls. However, research has shown that the wash cups can still hold bacteria such as Escherichia coli.Clay Travis, "The essence of beer pong bacteria" CBS SportslineNour Hammour, "Beer pong bacteria" , GW Hatchet As a result, players may put water in the cups instead of beer, keeping a separate beer on the side to drink from.
Some players throw "fastball" style which uses more of a hard chopping motion to send the ball in a more direct line toward the intended target cup. A fastball shot may be favorable if house rules dictate that a cup knocked over is removed from the table, in which case a fastball can eliminate multiple cups if thrown hard enough.
A bounce shot is performed by bouncing the ball towards the cups. Depending on house rules, if the other team has the opportunity to swat away a bounced ball, a bounce shot may be worth more than one cup.
Another 'house rule' can be stated before or during the game in the midst of a shutout. A shutout in beer pong occurs if one team makes all ten of their cups and the opposite team makes none of their cups. If the shutout does occur, the losing team must do whatever the two teams decided on, such as going streaking (naked lap) or drinking a large quantity of beer.
Also depending on 'house rules', there are other ways to end the game. Cups that were accidentally left in the rack after being made are known as death/kill cups. These cups will immediately end the game if made again.
The supposed cleaning effects of the water "dunk" cup may be offset by bacteria in the cups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of young people in Denmark were thought to have contracted the virus as a result of playing a version of the game where they held the table tennis balls in their mouths and spat them into the cups.
Time magazine ran an article on July 31, 2008, "The War Against Beer Pong", which noted legal restrictions and bans on the game in colleges and elsewhere.Haire, Meaghan. "The War Against Beer Pong", Time, July 31, 2008
In many states, players have taken to placing water in cups to hold organized beer pong tournaments legally in bars. Some examples can be found in Michigan, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
The World Series of Beer Pong (WSOBP) is the largest beer pong tournament in the world. WSOBP IV, held in January 2009 at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, had a $50,000 grand prize and over 800 participants from the US and Canada. WSOBP V, held in January 2010, had over 1,000 participants including teams from Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Japan. The World Beer Pong Tour has stops in various cities and cash prizes as well. "Beer pong for money, not just getting drunk", June 10, 2009, NJ.com In Belgium, the official Belgian Beer Pong Championship, also known as the Belgian Series of Beer Pong, stands as the nation’s recognized championship event for the sport of beer pong. Held annually since 2014 at the Beats n' Bots festival in Lichtervelde, this event is widely regarded as Belgium’s national tournament, with official rules and significant media coverage each year. In the beer-loving culture of Belgium, the national championship has established itself as a sporting event, drawing top teams from across the country and a growing, diverse audience.
A more common organization of beer pong games are leagues which operate on a local or regional level. Ordinarily, a group of pong enthusiasts will create teams (partnerships) and play weekly against each other. Sometimes, the leagues have websites, rankings and statistics, while others have been started by college students with the goal of intramural competition such as at University of California, Santa Barbara with the "Isla Vista Beer Pong League", and at New York University.
The Associated Press cited the game and other drinking games as a factor in deaths of college students. " Drinking games pose serious threat", Associated Press
Time magazine recently had an article on the popularity of beer pong and posted a video on their website. Video , Time In both, players claimed beer pong was a sport, rather than a game—similar to billiards and darts.
The game has been a recurring segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with host Fallon playing against female celebrity guests such as Betty White, Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Charlize Theron and Jessica Alba. "Betty White Takes on Fallon's Beer Pong Challenge", MTV News
The Colbert Report featured a segment on the CDC study hoax. "Fox & Friends Spreads Herpes-Beer Pong Hoax", Columbia Journalism Review
, a sequel to the 2000 comedy Road Trip, featured the game prominently. Agnes Scott College, where most of the movie was filmed, did not want to be listed in the credits after complaints from students. "Lowbrow Comedy Meets Higher Education", National Public Radio
The New York Times quoted a bartender at a club near Clemson University as saying she had worked at several bud pong events and had "never seen anyone playing with water. It's always beer. It's just like any other beer pong."
Some expressed incredulity at Anheuser-Busch's public statements. Henry Wechsler, director of the College Alcohol Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "Why would alcohol companies promote games that involve drinking water? It's preposterous," while advertising news site Adjab opined that "someone playing bud pong with water is about as likely as a teenage kid using the rolling paper he bought at the convenience store to smoke tobacco."
However, the practice of playing with water has become increasingly common on college campuses, due to hygienic concerns of sharing cups with previous players. Using water in game cups also prevents players from needing to drink each scored cup. Instead of drinking the beer from a glass each time a player sinks a shot, the player simply takes a shot of liquor or a sip from their own drink each time the opposing team scores. This addresses concerns about binge drinking being part of the game. This can also help when there isn't enough beer to accommodate a large number of games during the party.
In 2013, a Beer Pong Master arcade machine was launched by Bay Tek Games, where players throw balls into empty plastic cups at the far end of the machine, attempting to extinguish their electric lights. The next year, Bay Tek released a family entertainment variant called Sink It, where it shares the same purpose, but awards tickets after the game session.
Publishing
On August 29, 2009, Chronicle Books published The Book of Beer Pong, a 200-page fully illustrated guide to the game.
Bud pong
Bud pong was the branded version of beer pong that brewer Anheuser-Busch said involved the drinking of water, not Budweiser or any other beer. In the summer of 2005, the company began marketing "bud pong" kits to its distributors. Francine I. Katz, vice president for communications and consumer affairs, was reported in The New York Times as saying that bud pong was not intended for underage drinkers because promotions were held in bars, not on campuses. And it did not promote binge drinking, she said, because official rules call for water to be used, not beer.
Video games
In July 2008, JV Games Inc. released a downloadable video game for the Wii console called Frat Party Games: Beer Pong. The ESRB rated it suitable for ages 13 and up, but after this was questioned by Connecticut's attorney general, the game was renamed and all references to alcohol were removed.
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