Beer Pong

What is Beer Pong?

Beer Pong is the most iconic American drinking game. Two teams of 2 face off across a long table, each defending 10 cups arranged in a triangle on their side. Teams alternate throwing ping pong balls, trying to land in the opponent's cups. When a cup is sunk, the defending team drinks it and removes it. First team to sink all 10 of the opponent's cups wins.

Setup

1. Set up a long table (a folding table or any flat surface about 8 feet long).
2. Each team arranges 10 cups in a triangle on their end: 4-3-2-1 formation, point facing the center.
3. Fill each cup with a small amount of beer (or water - water pong works great).
4. Each team gets 2 ping pong balls.
5. Determine who goes first with a game of "eye-to-eye" - both teams throw simultaneously while making eye contact; whoever sinks a cup goes first.

How to Play

Teams alternate turns. On your team's turn, each player on the team throws one ball (2 throws per team turn).

1. Each player on the throwing team takes one shot, one at a time.
2. If a ball lands in a cup: the defending team drinks that cup and removes it from the table.
3. If both players on the throwing team sink their shots on the same turn, both balls are returned and they shoot again ("balls back").
4. The defending team can swat balls away only after the ball has bounced - called "swatting." Balls that have not bounced cannot be blocked.
5. If a ball bounces in off the table, the shooting team can call it as 2 cups (the sunk cup plus one more of the defense's choice). Defenses may swat bounced balls.

Re-racks

Each team gets 2 re-racks per game. A re-rack lets you rearrange the remaining cups into a tighter formation (triangle, line, diamond, etc.). Usually requested at 6 cups and 3 cups remaining.

Heating Up / On Fire

If a player sinks 2 shots in a row, they're "heating up." 3 in a row = "on fire" - they keep shooting until they miss.

Winning

The first team to sink all of the opposing team's cups wins. The losing team must drink all remaining cups on the winning team's side.

Rebuttal

When the last cup is sunk, the losing team gets a "rebuttal" - each player shoots until they miss. If they sink all remaining cups during rebuttal, the game goes into overtime (3 cups each, re-racked).