AALTO BEER PONG

OFFICIAL GAME RULES

Updated 21.8.2023

GAME SETUP  

• 10 cups per team
• Cups are placed in a triangle formation with the tip of the triangle facing the middle of the table.               
• 1 water cup per team (for washing the balls)      
• 2 ping-pong balls     
• 4 drinks per team (if not played with water)
• Drinks are poured evenly into all the cups.     
• Different drink types, e.g., beer, cider, or soda do not need to be mixed.          

BEGINNING  

• The starting team should be selected through rock paper scissors  

BASIC RULES  

• Don’t be an asshole     
• Objective
• To throw ping-pong balls into the cups of the opposing team until they have no cups left. When a ball hits the liquid in a cup (excluding the water-cup), the cup is removed from the table and its contents drunk. The cups must NOT be touched until both balls have been thrown.               
• Turn
• After a starting team is chosen, they receive both balls and they can start the first turn     
• A turn consists of the following phases: throwing and end of turn.               
• End of turn
• The throwing team’s turn ends after:
• both players have thrown.
• If the defending team has captured the first ball, they are allowed to throw it right after the second ball leaves the throwers hand. If the second ball causes in any way an extra throw, the prematurely thrown ball doesn’t count and is lost.               
• no more throws have been awarded.     
• cups that were hit are removed, and a possible re-rack is completed.                         
• Throwing
• When throwing, the elbow of the player must be behind the cups at all times.    
• A team has two balls for each turn and they can be thrown at any time during the throwing team’s turn.
• One player CAN’T throw both balls.     
• If a ball is thrown before it is your turn, the throw is not counted and the ball is lost                
• If both players successfully throw a ball into a cup, the cups are removed (and re-racked if the left cup amount is suitable) and the throwing team gets another turn (both balls). 
• If both balls fly into the same cup, an extra cup is selected to be removed by the throwing team (2 total).               
• If a ball is thrown into the cup by bouncing (hits any surface, e.g., table, wall, ceiling, another player…) TWO cups are removed.
• The maximum amount of cups removed is two, regardless of how many bounces the ball makes.      
• If the ball bounces only from the cups on the table (or a ball), only one cup is removed.     
• The throwing team chooses the extra cup to be removed.          
• If a player makes three successful throws consecutively, the player that has thrown three in a row is then allowed to keep on throwing until he or she misses.     
• If a ball flies into the water cup, a new throw is given to the thrower.     
• If a player accidentally drops a ball into one of the player’s own cups:
• The cup is drunk and the ball remains with the team if it is the opponent’s turn.     
• The cup is drunk and the ball is given to the opposing team if the ball is dropped during the player’s turn.     
• If the ball bounces into a cup, the same as above, but two cups are drunk.                         
• Blocking
• If a ball is bounced, the defending team is allowed to block or catch the ball after it has hit either the table or a cup.     
• The player is not allowed to block if he was not behind the cups during the throw  
• If the blocking player was not on their own side during the throw, a single penalty cup is removed.
• The penalty cup can be part of a streak or award a new turn/throw     
• If the block was unintentional, a new throw is given to the throwing player.                         
• If a throw that did not bounce is blocked, it is counted as a successful throw.
• Therefore penalty cup can be part of a streak or award a new turn/throw     
• If the direct throw is accidentally blocked while trying to block a bounced shot or while washing a ball, instead of removing a cup, a new throw is given to the throwing player.     
• If the ball is clearly outside of the table, it can be captured     
• The referee decides in unclear situations                         
• Re-rack  
• The cups must be rearranged into a triangle formation when there are 6, 3, and 1 cups remaining (with one cup, the cup is placed in the middle of the back of the triangle).     
• The new triangle is placed in the center of the table, with it’s back row three (3) centimetres away from the back of the table (roughly 2 finger widths).     
• If there isn’t enough cups to form a complete triangle, the resulting rack should represent a triangle where cups would have been removed primarily from front to back, and secondarily from left to right (from the re-racking team’s perspective)               
• Interference  
• All kinds of interference is allowed to distract the opponent, as long as body parts and other physical objects are not at any point over the table.     
• Referee will intervene if the distraction is not deemed appropriate.               
• Drinking  
• Players take turns drinking, so that each player drinks the same amount (2 drinks per game).     
• The starting player is often selected with “rock, paper, scissors”.     
• A player is allowed to pour their drinks into one single cup.               
• Referees      
• Official games are played with referees   
• Referees are usually part of the ABP organization (administration, actives, committees)     
• Referees are humans and doing volunteer work     
• Be sure that the referee is actually following the game     
• If you think that the referee is too drunk or acting inappropriately, you can ask for another referee     
• Poor-mouthing and other non-gentlemanlike behavior might work against you     
• You can ask another opinion if you think that the referee is interpreting the rules wrong     
• You can’t ask another opinion about situations that only the referee has seen     
• Be a gentleman, the referees word is final          

ADVANCED RULES 

Death cup  

• If a ball is thrown into a cup a player is drinking, the team of that player automatically loses the whole game. The death cup rule is in force during the whole game.     
• Also applies to dropping the ball into the player’s own cup (they are drinking).     
• When a player has finished drinking from the cup, the player must announce that the cup is empty or put it away, otherwise it is still a death cup, even when empty.

Rebound  

• If the ball bounces back from the opposing side after a throw and does not at any point cross the edges of the table, an extra throw is awarded to the throwing team.     
• The ball must be thrown with the weaker hand or from behind the back.     
• The player to catch the rebound is the only one allowed to throw the extra throw.     
• The player is not allowed to rebound if he was not behind the cups during the throw     
• Rebound throw is counted as normal throw so it can end a streak or award a new turn if both balls end up in cups.

The island rule  

• If a single cup doesn’t touch the rest of the rack, you can attempt to hit the lonely cup by saying ”Island” so that the opponents and/or referee hears this. If you hit the single cup after an island call, the hit counts as 2. Bounce rules apply normally, so it is counted as +1 (3 cups in total). Otherwise the throw counts as 0, even if it hits the main rack.
   
• “Single cup doesn’t touch the rest of the rack” -means that the cup is separate from other cups because other cups around the cup are already thrown.               
• If the island throw makes a non-island cup fall over, the cup is re-filled and returned to play

Spilling cups  

• If a cup spills (falls onto its side), it is considered the same as making a successful throw, and is thus removed from the table.     
• Trying to intentionally spill cups by throwing is not illegal, but is generally frowned upon (leaves a mess).     
• If a player spills their own cup, it is removed from the game.

Blowing  

• While the ball has yet to touch the liquid of a cup but it spins inside the cup, the opposing team can attempt to blow it out in order to prevent it from touching the liquid or stopping to rest on another ball     
• If the ball is blown into another cup, that cup and the original cup or cups are removed.     
• If the ball hits blowers face and goes back to the cup, it is counted as bounce

Redemption  

• When a team has no cups left, they still have one turn to try to continue the game.     
• Both players must make a successful throw for the game to continue.     
• After a successful redemption, all but one cup is removed and the balls are given to the opponent     
• Example: Opponent throws all 10 in the first turn. You and your partner succeed in the redemption. The game continues from 10-1 situation.     
• One bounce is NOT enough to continue the game.     
• A death cup would win the game.     
• If during a redemption a redemption throw causes the defending team’s last cup to fall over, it counts as a hit and the cup is returned to play filled with water.
   
• If the defending team spills their final cup during a redemption, it is NOT returned to play and they lose the game.