The Beer Pong Tournament7 min read

Writing to you from “Bris-Batman Villain”,

Kudos to those who got the reference. 1 point for you.

This last week has been pretty busy. With the start of classes and all that involves, I’ve been running around quite a bit.

While talking to one of the people working for the international student services on the way back from the island trip, I was told that after this trip there weren’t a lot of activities lined up specifically for international students and that in previous years people ended up losing touch. Walking home that very same day, I thought to myself: “You mean to say my exchange is basically over?! I just got here! There’s no way I’m letting THAT happen.” A few minutes later I had come up with a few ideas of activities I could organize myself to add glue to the relationships founded that weekend; the first of which being a beer pong tournament at my apartment.

For those of you not familiar with beer pong, it’s a game where two teams of two take turns throwing a ping pong ball at a group of cups filled with beer in the aim of making the other team drink those cups. For more extensive rules and details, refer to this link. In any case, after having run it by the new roommates, I had a green light to throw this ambitious event. It’s important to note that none of my roommates were going to be at the apartment for the actual event. After having discovered this tidbit of information, I realized my roommates were either one of two things: 1: Trusting. Letting a quasi-stranger host a huge party in your house while you’re gone. 2: Absolutely bonkers. Letting a quasi-stranger host a huge party in your house while you’re gone. Either way, this event was ON.

Pre-Tournament Planning

I used my jovial used car salesman skills to get the news out about this thing and hopefully have enough players to fill 16 teams (so 32 people minimum). After two days of this, I already had my 16 teams and people were asking if they could come anyways. Hmmm… Sure. A day before the event I had 63 RSVP confirmations on the facebook event. Usually, that means about 1/3 of those people will actually show up. I somehow got the feeling that in this particular case that meant that 1/3 of the people showing up had actually RSVP’ed… This was getting big. So was my anxiety…

We live 20 meters away from the City’s main stadium. There was a game on that night. There was going to be a lot of noise on the street anyways so hopefully, the police would not be an issue. I had all the material I needed to get this event off the ground without a hitch (basically 24 plastic cups and a pack of ping pong balls… ). I opted to lock off the first level where all of our rooms were and only use the basement. This later turned out to be the best idea I ever had.

The night of the party – 8 pm

I had planned to start the tournament at 8, but had told everyone to be there at 7 to accommodate for people pulling the old fashionably late… Unfortunately, there weren’t even 20 people here yet so there was no way we could start. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be a flop.

9:30 pm

Yes! 32 people! We have a tournament! I had asked everyone to write their name down on a piece of paper and put it in a sailor’s hat that was lying around. Teams were formed from there but by the time I had finished picking the teams and they had been written down, a group of people had arrived who also wanted to play. I added onto the teams, making them bigger. For the most part, these were first time players, so it was a way for them to meet new people in the context of a just-for-fun tournament.

10 pm

The first games were underway. People kept piling onto the teams till I had 16 teams of 4 people (64 people for our slow readers) and even then I had people requesting to be put on a team because they weren’t. “Next time, sacrifice being fashionable”, I basically told them. They of course did not understand what I was talking about so I had to explain further. Everything was going off beautifully! I was initiating the world to beer pong!

10:15 pm

I was gearing up to start my first game when Thomas, one of my German buddies, runs up to me in a panic and starts yelling at me in German. Understandably confused, I requested English. “Some guy has opened his head on the concrete in the backyard. There’s blood everywhere!” Well, isn’t that just great. The roommates and I were just discussing how we wanted to paint the driveway red. I rushed outside accompanied by quick thinking, first aid trained Claire. We surveyed the situation. She took care of our friend (who’s wound was not as bad as first imagined by yours truly) and we mutually decided that an ambulance wasn’t needed but that we should bring him to the hospital by cab. Thankfully, I had already made some friends in my short stay here which I could count on and leave in charge (You know who you are and I thank you once again. Silje, Kat, Maxim and Sam, you guys are the best). I went to the nearest hospital with this guy and Claire to make sure it was nothing serious. The tournament went on without me.

12:30 pm

About (Not ABOOT LAUREN!) 2:30 hours later, we were back at the apartment and everything was peachy once again; a few broken bottles, but nothing major. Thank god I had locked upstairs. I still had not played one round of beer pong! My team was unfortunately out of the tournament… CRUEL NIGHT! It was clear in my head that I was playing as soon as the tournament was over. I kept socializing in the meantime.

2 am

The finals rolled around. I was excited; partly because I knew the finalists, but more because I was going to get to play soon… In the end, the winners were all first time players: Ruby, Sven, Tucker and Ditte. Congratulations and more importantly, pass the game on!

2:30am

I got three other experienced players together (2 Americans and 1 German) and we had a clash of titans! Beautiful, the stress of the night just melted away.

3-4 am

People started packing up and leaving. The most frequent comment I got from people resembled:”Hey Joël, you know that movie American Pie? This is the first time I’ve been to a party like that!!!” I could now go to bed with a smile!

6 am

All problems had been taken care of, and the night had passed! The last people were leaving. I was on top of the world. “Can’t wait for the next one”, they said. “I can!” I replied. One of my roommates walked in from work: “Holy cow! Look at this mess! Joël, you’re cleaning that up tomorrow right?” CAN’T I ENJOY MY VICTORY FOR ONE SECOND!

All in all, it was a memorable night. I tested my organizational skills and they passed the test. The bar for “85-90 persons in my house at one time” was easily cleared. I also filled up 3 of these bad boys with beer bottles:

The only thing that really stung about throwing this party is that Queensland, the state Brisbane is in, doesn’t refund you for bottles. A single tear rode down to the bottom of my cheek when I realized this. Now, I need to recover.

Lesson learned: Before buying a house, check if the area the house is located in refunds empty bottles. If not, that’s a deal breaker. I don’t care how nice the house is.

Australianly yours,

Joël

Last Updated on December 22, 2020 by Joël Collin-Demers