And while Gaines is planning his mega-tourney, a smaller (and more lucrative) version is being played every day at bars across the country.
The Mad River Bar and Grille is one of many New York City pubs that regularly hosts beer pong tournaments. Manager Tommy McEnroe says the bar charges $5 per person, per hour. In a 64-team tournament, he says, that can turn out to be quite a chunk of change, sometimes upwards of several thousand dollars per tournament.
“It brings people into the bar and that’s our main objective,” McEnroe says. “Somebody will throw a tournament here and someone who is in it will have a good time and then decide to throw his own. We’ve had people in here who were traveling around the state of New York to different bars and wanted to create a traveling beer pong circuit.”
It is in these controlled environments that beer pong is at its most competitive. But once it leaves the guise of authority, sometimes beer pong can get ugly, especially for young women.
Eric Pedersen is the director of the “Heads-Up Project” at Loyola Marymount University in California, a responsible drinking program that promotes healthy decisions around alcohol.
“We found that women almost drink just as many drinks as the men do,” Pedersen says. “That is concerning for them because of all the physiological differences. If they are drinking a similar amount, they are more drunk. Women experienced more problems like missing class or sexual consequences. That might be due to the increase of intoxication.”
Even with the threat of bass-drum headaches and missing biology, beer pong has not been deterred. The game still thrives where it was born and nurtured—on college campuses.
And though researchers stress safety and good decisions, they admit that beer pong can be a positive exercise in socialization.
“We actually found that there might be something positive that comes out of it,” Pedersen says. “If you engage in a drinking game, you are going to have positive feedback from your friends. It’s a good way to bond.”
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