Italian-American

University of Southern California

USC Rugby

International Relations

Italian, Arabic, English

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

23 April 2011

Beer pong-rugby team rules

-10 cups per side

-2 beers per side

-2 players per team, 2 teams per game

– the elbow of the shooter cannot pass the edge of the table when shooting

-make 2 balls in two different cups=both balls back and the two cups made are pulled

-make 2 balls in same cup= both balls back and three cups pulled from the game

-if a person misses and the ball rolls past the midpoint of the table back towards the shooting side, the shooter can pick up the ball and shoot the ball from “behind the back”

-if the shooter bounces the ball into a cup, two cups are pulled from the game

– if the ball is bounced, the opposing team can swat the ball away

– if the ball is spinning around in the cup, and hasn’t touched the beer, a male can flip the ball out with two fingers. If female the player can blow the ball out.

-if a player makes two consecutive shots over 2 turns, that person states “heating up”

-If a player make 3 consecutive shots over three turns, and said “heating up” after making two in a row, the player can say “on fire.” When “on fire” a player shoots the ball until he misses.

– If a player makes the last cup, the opposing team gets a “rebuttal” and shoots till they miss. (1) If the opposing team falls to make the all the cups from the team that made the last cup, the game ends and the team who failed the rebuttal has to drink all the cups remaining on the table. (2) If the opposing team makes all the cups on from the shooter’s team, it becomes a “tie breaker” and three more cups are added to each team.

-if both players make the last cup, the game ends and the losing team has to drink all the remaining cups.

CG states that there is no particular reason why the rugby team uses these specific rules for beer pong. He mentions that these were the rules already used by older rugby players, when he joined the team as a freshman. Every new freshman class, CG explains that new teammates have to be taught the rules that they use. CG did mention that having come from the East coast, where the rules are slightly different, he too had to be taught.

Looking at the rules for beer pong, there is obviously significant room for variation. Generally though, the game does have a core group of rules that doesn’t change. It is not uncommon for individuals to pre-empt the game by asking the rules they are going to play. As someone who has played the game before, it is fairly common to run into individuals with different rules. Oftentimes these people are from different schools, regions of the country, or identify with different groups. When there is confusion to which rules they should play by, usually the individual supplying the alcohol or who owns the table gets to decide which rules are to be used. In some parts of the country the game is called Beirut and not beer pong.