As The World Series of Beer Pong XI approaches (July 6-10th @ Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino) and players begin to lock in their partners for the event, there is a lot to consider. Partner selection for a large, super-competitive event like The WSOBP is key.
As it turns out, chemistry still counts for something in beer pong.
Preparing for your first World Series of Beer Pong tournament can be difficult; especially, if you haven’t had the pleasure of attending one of our affiliate organization’s fantastic pong events beforehand. We are going to give you all who don’t quite know what to expect a little insight on how to better strap yourself in to make the best of your experience at The World Series of Beer Pong!
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. It is very hard to describe the adrenaline that will rush through your veins when you walk into a Las Vegas Ballroom filled with hundreds of beer pong tables, see thousands of beer pong players and realize you are about to play beer pong for $50,000; even having already experienced it. Therefore, trying to imagine what it will be like having never been before is nearly impossible. The environment is one like you’ve never experienced.
In any case, the first thing to always remember is that you are there to have fun! There will be teams that go 12-0 during preliminary play; there will be teams that go 0-12. Nobody thinks they are going to lose every single game walking into the tournament but if it happens to you, take it with a grain of salt and you’ll still have an amazing time.
There will be unicorns and aliens walking around Westgate Resort & Casino that you won’t be able to recognize because they will look just like everybody else in the ballroom. Though, if you feel like you may have been matched up against a pair of monsters during prelims, don’t get discouraged. You could be playing a former World Series Champion or a player who has banked 10’s of thousands of dollars playing this sport over the last decade. Focus up, play to the best of your abilities and take notes.
Don’t let these guys get in your head either! The best defense is a strong mental game and a witty mouth. If you’ve let someone trash talk their way under your skin, you’ve lost the game and more importantly, you won’t be having any fun. Appreciate their intent (trying to win the game), laugh if they say something funny, don’t take it to heart, realize that it’s all a part of the game and don’t let it affect yours!
If you are there for more than just the party and beer you should shoot for a 7-5 record during prelims and hold your breathe. 7-5 has been good enough to make the cut for the Day 3 Playoff Bracket in most years. On more rare occasions 6-6 records have made the cut, however, there have also been years when you’ve needed to have a polished 8-4 record to get in.
If you make it to Day 3:
Relax! Come ready to play, but relax. The environment is incredible and different from the first two days. Everyone wants to bring their A game, but it happens all to often that players who’ve never been there before become overwhelmed, play anxious and get upset with themselves when they don’t shoot up to their abilities.
If you advance, keep your head on your shoulders and don’t let the satisfaction of potentially surpassing your expectations dilute your focus. You never know whose day it is and it may just be yours!
Though eventually, everybody falls but 1 team. When it’s your turn to get erased from the bracket, stick around and pick someone to root for. Supporting your friends (or maybe your new friends from another country) is almost as fun as playing yourself!
If you do NOT make it to Day 3:
It’s not the end of the world. It was your first crack at it and the competition is tough! Take advantage of the many side events, sponsor activities and the one thing that none of us have yet to experience at The World Series of Beer Pong, the summertime, Vegas sun!
If you’ve enjoyed your time, get to know some people and find a place to play close to home. Elevate your game, come back next year and do it all again!
The clock is ticking quicker as September 11th approaches and the most anticipated tournament in the Midwest kicks-off at The Chicago House of Music & Entertainment on Friday night!
(www.homebarchicago.com)
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Friday night’s tournament will showcase a change from the typical Best of the Midwest lineup. A 6v6 formatted tournament will replace the familiar Friday night (2v2) $2.5K tournament. A variation in how squads are generally formed for larger teams will put a bit of a twist into game play.
A number of Captains have been (primarily) appointed from the top 4 placing teams in last year’s BOMW V Main Event. These Captains will participate in the first-ever BOMW player draft. Each team generated through the draft will need to feature players from 3 different states. (The draft will take place on Sunday, September 6th, 2015.)
While the 10v10 Main Event features restrictions limiting player team designation based on geographic affiliations, the 6v6 draft tournament aims to develop player relationships outside of a player’s primary location. By having numerous players from various states on one team it allows players to build potential partner relationships with players outside of their area by familiarizing themselves with one another; not only on a personal level but by also experiencing game play on a high level together.
The draft leads players who are arguably the best players at this event to become students of the game. If they want to win the tournament, they’ll need to draft the best team possible. In order to do that, they’ll need to be familiar with every player’s game in the draft pool.
Friday night’s entertainment will also feature live sounds from Las Vegas DJ Joe Green, who is also The Official World Series of Beer Pong DJ. Tommie King, of RFMG ENT., will also be featured live later in the evening.
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Saturday’s festivities will start at 1:00pm with a singles tournament. It’s you vs. the world and it’s only ten bucks to play! Want to play just to have some fun and not destroy your wallet? This might be the tournament you’re looking for.
After the singles tournament wraps up, the show we all have been waiting for will begin.
Roughly around 7:00pm, The Best of the Midwest (10v10) Main Event will commence. Saturday’s preliminary play will determine each team’s fate within the following day’s double-elimination playoff bracket.
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Sunday, September 13th, will be the day a new or reigning champion will be crowned as the victors of The Best of the Midwest VI.
The (10v10) Main Event playoff bracket will begin at 1:00pm. Players and teams from across the country will battle it out on 5 tables at a time with 5 (2v2) games taking place simultaneously on those tables, advancing the squad who takes at least 3 out of those 5 games.
The defending champion Illinois Insanity squad, deep in experience, will bring back almost every player from last year’s championship team. The Insanity will try to get half way to STLs Finest record 4-straight Best of the Midwest championships, with their second straight title.
Players hailing from Michigan will be coming in strong numbers, (thanks to our associate organizations BPA and MAC Pong), as they will enter at least 3-teams into this year’s main event. One such team, Michigan Mayhem, who will return the majority of their team from last year’s 2nd place roster, is determined to better their runner-up efforts from last year’s BOMW V Main Event.
The winner of this year’s Best of the Midwest VI Main Event will not only receive a huge chunk of the thousands in cash that will be given away over the weekend, but they will also be the first team in BOMW history to be presented with the newly appointed Best of the Midwest grand prize, “The Gilkison Cup.”
The symbolism the cup holds ensures the legacy of the late, great beer pong player, Zach Gilkison, is carried on. The perpetual plates will etch each year’s champion into BOMW history and the cup itself will forever represent a piece of what Zach really meant to the beer pong community.
After the fire settles and a Main Event champion is crowned, the attention shifts to The World Series of Beer Pong XI (WSOBP XI), as BOMW VI will conclude with a World Series of Beer Pong XI Satellite Tournament.
This event will qualify two friends to participate in The WSOBP XI at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino from July 6th – 10th, 2016. Their entry into the WSOBP XI tournament will also include a 4-night stay at the host venue!
While registration is closed for BOMW VI’s Main Event, 6v6 and Singles tournaments, you can still register to participate in The WSOBP XI Satellite Tournament until September 11th!
Register now: (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-best-of-the-midwest-vi-bomw-vi-registration-9875068596)
Can’t make it to The Best of the Midwest this year and want to keep up to speed on how things are shaping up? Add us on Snapchat: “OfficialBPONG” and catch all the action live!
For more information on The World Series of Beer Pong XI, head over to BPONG.COM. Not finding what you are looking for? Drop us a line at [email protected]!
The first two weekends out west in August had two $5K pong tournaments on the schedule. The first was hosted by SLC Pong and was played at Sandy Station in Sandy, Utah. The second was hosted the following weekend by NWBP at Aston Manor in Seattle, Washington.
Rewind to a few days prior when OGP came out with their player ballot rankings.
(https://bpong.com/2015/07/ocean-grown-pong-wants-to-know-your-top-15-players/)
The most recent results of the polls did not sit too well with Arizona ponger and founder of Pongstars (Pongstars.net), Brandon Marx.
St. Louis ponger, Ross Hampton, was slated atop the list and was seemingly settling into a comfortable lead for that top spot. It’s hard to argue against someone whose resume is as accomplished as his with multiple major/mid-major victories and countless bid wins to his name.
However, Marx set out to these tournaments with the intentions of turning that potential argument into a difficult one.
His first stop was Sandy Station at the SLC $5k in Utah where he dominated the competition. Marx finished 1st and 3rd in the Kickoff tournament on Friday night, winning it with Utah ponger, Cody Castle, against a pair of Las Vegas players, Justin Spurrier and James Tripp. California ponger Mark Pimentel picked up the 3rd place nod with Marx.
This wouldn’t be the last check “Marky Marx” cashed that weekend as the duo took down the Main Event in the following days. Marx and Pimentel went head to head with Minnesota (Wisconsin) ponger Kyle Eller and another California ponger Josh Schwent to pick up the victory.
All familiar names would round out the top 3 spots of the singles tournament on Saturday night, as Justin Spurrier came out on top with Kyle Eller and Mark Pimentel hot on his heels.
Coming off multiple wins in Utah and seeing another $5k tournament in Seattle as an opportunity to carry on towards his mission of proving he’s the best in the game right now, Marx boarded a plane to Washington.
Since his decision to play was last minute, Marx needed a World Series of Beer Pong XI Satellite Tournament partner when he arrived and picked up a rookie Seattle ponger, Michael Williams.
A Satellite Bid win here would seemingly be a difficult one as Ross Hampton had paired up with Marx’s Main Event partner for the Satellite tournament, former WSOBP singles champion, Brad Mosdell.
The two teams met in the finals and had already seen each other early on in the bracket. Hampton/Mosdell needed to win 2 games against Marx/Williams to take home the bids. Both teams shot lights out through multiple OT’s but Marx/Williams prevailed, qualifying themselves for next summer’s World Series of Beer Pong XI Main Event in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Westgate Resort & Casino.
The singles tournament was next on the schedule and it told more of the same story. Ross and Marx were squaring off in the finals for the 2nd time. The series was nothing short of expectations as both players shot phenomenally. However, Marx once again came out on top.
The Main Event of the weekend had reunited a pair of players who once hoisted the WSOBP $50,000 Grand Prize check together. (Something Marx has yet to have the pleasure of doing.) Former St. Louis native Matt White had recently relocated to Seattle, leaving little opportunity for him and his former battery mate Ross Hampton to Seek n’ Destroy as many tournaments as they use to. The two took the top-seed in preliminary play.
The duo made a run through the playoff bracket and got to the finals to once again create a Hampton/Marx championship. Marx, now teamed up with Canadian ponger Brad Mosdell, was looking to sweep the entire event with a victory. Having only missed a handful of shots in 2 games as a team, North meets South (Marx/Mosdell) secured the Seattle $5k Main Event.
Seemingly, Marx’s mission was complete. He was overtaken in the player voting polls by who is widely considered the best player on the planet (Ross Hampton) and set out to prove he is the better player. He couldn’t have asked for any more opportunities to prove it, as they met on the final table of every tournament over the weekend and he capitalized – winning all of them!
Congratulations to all the pongers who shot well enough in either of these events to take home some cash!
This past weekend, The 2015 Indiana State Beer Pong Championships took place at Score’s Sports Bar & Grill in Columbus, Indiana.
A few weeks back we took a look at the history of The Indiana State Beer Pong Championships and contemplated what kind of drama would unfold during the 5th anniversary of the annual event.
Southern Indiana Beer Pong (SINBP) did not disappoint and put on a dynamic event that eventually crowned brand new Indiana State Beer Pong Champions!
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A Recap of the Main Event:
The first bracket of the Main Event… (A double-bracket tournament format allowed players to pair with a different partner in 2-separate brackets that are a part of the same tournament. The winners from each bracket meet to play for the tournament finals.) …drew first blood in the drama department. Three-time champion Braden Nading had paired off with an up and coming Indiana shooter, Paul Dausman, for his first bracket run.
Nading/Dausman squared off against the King Seed (Jermaine Anderson and Henry Lee) in the first bracket final. Facing bracket elimination with a single loss, Nading/Dausman rose to the occasion and double-dipped (won 2 games) against Anderson/Lee for the bracket win.
Nading was seemingly sitting pretty to take home his 4th straight Indiana State Championship, as he had already secured a spot in the finals and had yet to even play the bracket with his partner who he had claimed 3 straight titles with.
However, a pair of unmentioned duos leading up the Indy state tournament had other ideas. Chip Dowden & Tyler Rogge, as well as, Andrew Metzger & Brent DeMateo teamed up for the pair of wins that was needed to dethrone the 3-time reigning champions.
Frustration had clearly set in for the defending champs as Nading eventually resorted to bouncing deep into their final game while facing elimination. This did not sit well with Bacon, the two began to argue and the most dominate team in the history of the tournament were put to sleep by Chip Dowden and Tyler Rogge. Bacon and Nading seemed to carry tension for the remainder of the event.
Metzger & DeMateo found themselves sitting in the King Seed of the second bracket. Jermaine Anderson & Gian Sutton were the challengers and needed back-to-back wins against Metzger & DeMateo to advance to the finals.
Yet again, the underdogs stepped up and Anderson/Sutton fought their way into the Indiana State Beer Pong Championship Finals, winning consecutive games against the King Seed of the second bracket.
Waiting for Jermaine and Gian was still the 3-time reigning champ, Braden Nading, as he and Paul Dausman had eliminated Jermaine and Henry Lee from the King Seed of the first bracket to move into the Indiana State Beer Pong Championship Finals.
Highlighting 4 of the top players in Indiana, the finals showed the rest of the Midwest what kind of firepower Indiana is bringing to BOMW VI., this September. Perhaps hot off of the back to back wins in the 2nd bracket final, Jermaine and Gian rolled over Nading/Dausman, etching their name into the Indiana State Beer Pong history books along the way.
Check out the Top 5 Main Event finishers!
1st – Jermaine Anderson & Gian Sutton
2nd – Paul Dausman & Braden Nading
3rd – Jermaine Anderson & Henry Lee
4th – Andrew Metzger & Brent DeMateo
5th – Jordan Beebe & Tara Herr
5th – Jordan Beebe & Richard Herr
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A Recap of the Singles Tournament:
The singles tournament ended up with an interesting story line considering the outcome of the Main Event.
Jermaine Anderson found himself in the King Seed of the singles tournament. He watched his newly crowned champion teammate (Gian Sutton) once again square off against the now former champion (Braden Nading) to determine who would eventually advance to the finals to face Anderson. After Gian toppled Nading, he stepped to the table against Jordan Beebe. This game was arguably the best of the weekend having gone into multiple overtimes before a winner was established.
Gian came out victorious, of which, set up a singles match-up between the now definable, top two beer pong players in the state of Indiana. The partners were clearly fighting for the win but were having a ton of fun doing it, as this entire event shined a huge light on their “Wolf Pac.” Gian put together back-to-back wins against Jermaine to take the singles crown.
Check out the Top 5 Singles finishers!
1st – Gian Sutton
2nd – Jermaine Anderson
3rd – Jordan Beebe
4th – Braden Nading
5th – Tara Herr (Top Female)
5th – Josh Morrow
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Compiling a composite score from all the tournaments each player participated in over the weekend at the Indiana State Beer Pong Championships, a statistical rank is generated based on overall record and cup differential.
Check out the Top Ten Players from The Indiana State Beer Pong Championships!
OVERALL STATS: (Wins-Losses / Cup differential)
This weekend, one of the country’s most revered professional pong tournaments will commence: The 6th Annual Best Of The West!
A quintuple of premiere organizations, including West Coast Pong, Nor Cal Beer Pong, Ocean Grown Pong, Pongstars.net and Fast Times Entertainment, will play host to the event. Festivities will kick off Friday night with a $2000 Multi-Partner tournament at Johnny V’s in San Diego, California. (945 Garnet Ave, San Diego, California, 92109) The Main Event will also take place at Johnny V’s on Saturday, June 6th, and will run thru Sunday, June 7th.
The Best Of The West (BOW) is one event in a series of “Best Of” tournaments that take place across the United States. Other “Best Of” series include the Best Of The Midwest, Best Of The South, and Beast Of The East. A distinctive feature of the “Best Of” series of events across the country is the 10v10 tournament format that is used. If you are unfamiliar with how this is possible in a game of beer pong, here is a quick run down:
Five BPONG tables are lined up next to each other and 5 individual (2v2) games are played
simultaneously. In order to win the overall match-up, your 10v10 team affiliation
must win at least 3 of those 5 individual (2v2) games. The BOW 10v10 teams are formed
by regional affiliation.
Here’s what to look for at this year’s event:
Reigning supreme over the Best Of The West’s operable tenure, Nor Cal Beer Pong (pictured below) will look to extend its legacy by adding a 5th title to their BOW collection. However, they will have to overcome replacing a key roster spot held by former World Series of Beer Pong Champion and pong legend, Mike Seivert.
When it comes to the ladies, we’re looking for a battle between Arizona and Southern California! After winning 3-straight women’s titles, the Arizona ladies squad (pictured below) will try to reclaim their hardware from last year’s Southern Californian championship team.
For additional pictures and more information about the Best Of The West, please visit the Official BOW webpage at: www.bestofwestpong.com
Or visit the Official BOW Facebook event page at: https://www.facebook.com/bestofthewestpong?fref=ts