WHAT: The World Beer Pong Tour

WHERE: Mikey’s Tavern, 1717 Milton Ave.

WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m.

HOW MUCH: $20

The Olympic Games in Vancouver this year feature bobsledding, curling and skiing, but maybe someday the world might see a new sport enter the games: beer pong. Or, at least that’s the dream of Sam Pines, the founder and creator of the World Beer Pong Tour.

Pines said he envisions a sport where ‘you’re not there to get drunk, it’s to have fun and compete.’

Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a popular drinking game among a college-aged demographic. It involves lining up six to 10 cups at the opposite ends of a table. Both teams then take turns throwing ping-pong balls into their opponent’s cups, trying to eliminate the cups as fast as possible by getting the ball in the cup.

The World Beer Pong Tour will stop in Syracuse this Sunday at Mikey’s Tavern at 7 p.m. as part of the ‘Road to Atlantic City’ tour. Contestants have to be at least 18 to play and 21 to drink. The tournament is to be held in double-elimination format, with the winner getting a three-night hotel stay in Atlantic City, N.J., and a chance to compete for $50,000 in the June beer pong championship.

The tour encourages participants to use water instead of beer to ensure safe game play, Pines said. The tournament on Sunday will have trained staff to make sure that any overly intoxicated players will be disqualified from competition.

The main point of the tour is to build beer pong’s credibility as an acceptable sport in the hopes of having the game televised for a national audience some day.

But bringing beer pong into the mainstream as a genuine sport has had mixed reviews from students at Syracuse University.

Andrea Rosko, a junior international relations major, said ‘I think it could gain a large following, I think it could grow.’

Brian Schantz, a sophomore economics major, agreed. He said he would like to see beer pong televised on major networks like ESPN.

Other students, like Alex Deninger, a freshman biomedical engineering major, said that beer pong is ‘something you play in someone’s basement – it’s not legitimate.’ She also said that beer pong wasn’t a sport that needed athleticism, like football or basketball.

Moving beer pong from a game played in a basement of a college party to an amateur sport with tournaments across the country has made many people more interested in the event being held this Sunday.

‘ESPN has all sorts of sports, like chess, so why not give pong a chance?’ said Erica Zimmerman, a freshman policy studies and international relations major.

Students also expressed curiosity about making a business out of the sport of beer pong. Mike Lessner, a freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said that a beer pong tour was an interesting business idea because there would be a lot of interest on college campuses. ‘People watch arm-wrestling on ESPN. I think it’d be a fun time,’ he said.

Pines started his company in 2006 after organizing a beer pong league in his apartment when he was a student at Marist College. He has built the company from the ground up since then to become a tour through two countries, 18 states and more than 100 cities.

When asked about how others think of him running a business based on a popular drinking game, Pines’ answer was positive. He said his parents and friends have supported him along the way. ‘Instead of getting a job out of college, I decided to become an entrepreneur,’ he said.

Primetime television dreams aside, one of the biggest draws to beer pong is its accessibility to nearly anyone. Pines said that he thought this was the greatest asset of beer pong. ‘Everyone can play it – you don’t have to be tall, you don’t have to be big,’ he said.

Anyone who works up the courage to walk up to a long playing table, hold that small ping-pong ball in their hand and aim it toward a red plastic Solo cup can become a beer pong player. In this way, beer pong represents a great equalizer among people. It’s one thing in life that is open to anyone who wants to play.

ajswab@syr.edu

Published on February 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm