If you've been reading lately, you're well aware that I played in the World Series of Beer Pong in Mesquite, Nevada from January 2-6. We got a lot of media attention out there, with the most prolifflic one coming from playboy.com. The Milwaukee gang turned heads, and brought attention to ourselves at all times. I'm going to provide some link to some of the articles written about the World Series of Beer Pong, just so you have an idea of how huge this thing was. I can't promise that these links will always be valid, I don't know how long they'll keep the articles active on their websites. Check out these sites at your own risk, and as always, viewer discretion is advised...
playboy.com - the best article written, possibly ever. There's nudity on the site, but it's worth going to to read the article, even if you have morals. The article speaks at length about myself, as well as my friends and our beer pong league. It also has some sweet pictures of us and a video of Casey Reily playing some beer pong with Cara Zavaleta, Miss November 2004. If you read one article in your life, I suggest that you read this one. It's freakin' sweet.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal - The Las Vegas newspaper; they wrote an article about the World Series. It doesn't speak of Milwaukee or mention any of us, but there is a great picture of Matthew "Brodey" Callies and Michael "Dave" Balkman playing some beer pong. A few of us (including me) can be seen behind them trying to psych out the oposing team.
Daily Nexus - The student newspaper from the University of Santa Babera. The article was written by a member of the newspaper who attended and participated in the WSoBP. It has a nice picture on "Fresno" Chris and a couple of nice words from Matt Salmon. It's worth a read because it has a good viewpoint from a participant instead of a spectator.
World Series of Beer Pong - the official site for the WSoBP. They don't really have any good pictures up yet (although there are some nice videos of Brodey and Balkman) and the articles barely go into any depth on the events. Hopefully they'll add some more stuff to it in the coming weeks. Check it often to see if they announce any upcoming beer pong events, as well as a decision on next year's WSoBP.
WSoBP Retrospective from one of our New York buddies - Our friends Tom and Matt were in our divison and played alongside us nearly every game during the first 2 days. Their team was called the Lumberjacks, and they hail from Albany, New York. We never played against them, which was a good thing because they were so nice I would've hated to hand them a defeat. Tom wrote a daily entry of his unique perspective of the tournament, which I thought was cool because it differs from what I personally witnessed.
CHBPL - our league website. You can check out profiles of the people who went to the WSoBP. There's also information about everything that we do when it comes ot beer pong.
That's about all I can find right now. If I find any other links, I'll be sure to put them up here someday. Enjoy reading, and come on over to the Chateau Murray if you want to try out beer pong for yourself. Have a great day!!
www.pookon.com
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
WSoBP Day 5 (January 4) - Beer Pong Finals (long version)
You already read some highlights that I posted on January 6th. This is the full play-by-play account of the final day of play, which included the playoff round. A lot happened, but we didn;t get to play a lot because there were only 32 teams, and it was double elimination. It wasn't the greatest day ever (that was yesterday, Jan. 3) but it was still a hell of a lot of fun.
11:15 am - Waiting to begin the playoffs. I'm already 3 Miller Lite's in the hole, as well as 1 deep in Monster drinks. Playboy TV is here filming some of this for a segment. To demonstrate the game, Road Rules castmember and Playboy Playmate Novemeber 2004 Cara Zavaleta played an exhibiton game against Duncan and Billy, the event organizers. None of them were very good, so the game went on for a while. Cara asked for a volunteer to be her partner, and Casey Riley immediatly rose to the occasion. He performed well, but naturally let Cara take all of the credit. Smooth move Riley, but it won't win you the $10,000 grand prize.
11:55 am - Fresno and I won our 1st playoff game amid the onlooking of every writer there and constant video cameras in our faces. It was tough to play under all of that pressure, and our game came down to 1 - 1. I barely hit any shots, but at least we won. Brodey/Balkman lost, as did Riley/Phany. Lorge/Casey won, meaning that they will play Fresno/Iceman in round 2. I want both of us to win, but that can't be possible so I'll cheer for us. I got interviewed by Cara for Playboy TV, and told her that if I won, I'd throw a sexy party, complete with a sailor hat, tacky 70's music and scantily clad women (ala Stewie Griffin.) I invited her and anyone else whe knew from playboy to come along, which made her laugh. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was drunk and really didn't care.
12:20 pm - Just lost to Lorge/Casey. I guess it was expected because we're not that good in the CHBPL. It's rough, but I really shouldn't dwell on it much longer. The more I think about it, the more angry I will be. They better not make me anygry...You wouldn't like me when I'm anagry. I'll turn into the Hulk and tear this mother down. Hopefully I can manifest that anger into a victory in the next round. If not, then at least we were the #4 team going into the playoffs. They can't take that away from us. We found out later on that we may or may not have beaten them because of the redemption/rebuttle rule. Everyone was unclear about how the rules worked, so I'm calling shenanigans on this game's procedure. Who won? According to the tournament, they did, but I'm always going to question that ruling.
1:00ish pm - Brodey/Balkman are going into double overtime. They established a rebuttle rule for the playoffs, but did a poor job of describing and enforcing it. Because of that unclear ruling, they lost, but we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. During Brodey/Balkman's game, most everyone in the audience was cheering against Milwaukee because we've been loud and supportive of our teams, and I guess we've rubbed too many people the wrong way. I was wasted and standing right behind Brodey and Balkman, shouting at the other team. There were times when they stopped paying attention to the game and started paying attention to me, but they were good enough to not get psyched out. Maybe it also was that Brodey/Balkman didn't bring their A game. Whatever it was, we've done our city proud.
2:20 pm - Well, this Cinderella story has come to an end. We lost, and are officially out of the tournament. When we got beat by Dixie Normous, we didn;t get a rebuttle because they hit the last 2 cups in succesion. To tell you the truth, my heart wasn't really in this game. First off, I didn't know that we were even playing at this time, and no one from Milwaukee was there to support us. Ah well, at least we showed everbody where we came from.
3:30 pm - We're all out of the tournament now, but a lot of drama has taken place. Riley almost got into a fight with Raphael from the Ninja Turtles. I know that he's cool but rude, but he didn;t have to get all upset that we razzed him a little bit. He was mad because we were cheering against him because he takes the game too seriously and he was there for the money instead of the beer pong. His team was also the #1 seed going in to the plaoffs, so naturally everyone wanted to see an upset. Riley may have taken it too far, but this guy snapped when someone made fun of him. He got enraged, and I tried to calm him down by telling jokes. I opened my wallet and asked him, "If I give you some money out of my wallet, will you promise not to kill me?" This only angered him more, and I'm surprised that I'm still alive. He blew it way out of proportion, and I'm glad we didn;t have to fight him because it would have been a lost cause and he wouldn't have learned his lesson.
4:00ish pm - Team France played against Slippery Fetus for the championship and the $10,000, but I really didn't care. I stuck around just to see how good they were, and I think that Fresno and I could've taken them easily. There was some kind of awards ceramony afterwards, where they gave away the check. They gave out some other random awards, but i really didn't care.
I may be wrong, but this is what I believe the final standings were:
Casey/Lorge - 6th
Iceman/Fresno - 10th
Riley/Phany - 15th
Brodey/Balkman - 20th
Salmon/Aaron - 50th (Despite not making the playoffs, they are still ranked 50 out of 83 teams.)
Not too bad if you ask me. Find me another city that has 4 teams ranked in the top 20 in the country in beer pong, and I'll stop telling everyone that Milwaukee's the best beer pong city.
7:30ish pm - playing beer pong in room 5130 with the Canadian guys from the tournamnet. Just like we did the other night, they stole a brown-top table from outside the convention center and set it up in the room. We were playing a 10-cup game, and I won 2 in a row with this girl named Katie. I shot over 50%, and everyone was amazed by my skill and knew that I was for real. While I was standing outside after I lost my 3rd game, Salmon came and joined us and founjd someone that he could talk soccor with. People (including Billy's Dad) were doing a beer bong out of a pink flamingo that held about 5 beers. I had a few more beers then wandered towards our room to see what was going on.
8:30 pm - about to play beer pong against the journalists; the writer from playboy.com and the one from Toro magazine. The Godfather (Brodey) and I will have to take them down. And we did.
9:39 pm - What started out as me walking to the soda machine for a Coke ended with me playing beer pong in 3 different hotel rooms. The journalists stuck around for a good while and played a bunch of games with us. I don't really remember when we ended, but I know several people stopped in to play, and we all had a great time. Beer pong truely is the one sport that will unite all mankind as one. There was so much beer pong going on. We were being so loud that the security guards were upset at us. We ended up moving the tables to the tennis courts. I don't think they played too long, because I saw everyone heading towards the casino. We were hanging out with Billy's Dad, who was like 60 but still knew how to party. I found out from some of the guys that I have a nickname other than Iceman. Some people refered to me as the OCD guy because of the shooting approach that I take. They are of course refering to obsesive compulsive disorder because I have to do the same thing every single time before I shoot the ball.It's more of a routine thatn anything else, and it just helps to steady my nerves before I shoot.
We kept on playing until everyone got tired. I then joined Brodey at the bar where he was playing alongside 1/2 of Team France. They were wiping out the competion as only the Godfather and a $10,000 winner could. I watched them for a little while, but decided that my time would be better spent gambling or surfing the internet.
1:30 - 3:30 am - I just figured out what a big dork I am. I spent 2 hours in a casino, but I wasn't gambling...I was on the internet.I've been feeling a little deprived, and I get all giddy whenever the connection bars glow green.
After that, I went back to the room to get a few hours of sleep. We are supposed to be out of the hotel by 9:30, and we plan on spending the entire day in Las Vegas before starting the 30-hour drive home. I know I'm skipping out on my sleep, but I've been having way too much fun to waste what precious time I have out here on sleep. I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I get home...
www.pookon.com
11:15 am - Waiting to begin the playoffs. I'm already 3 Miller Lite's in the hole, as well as 1 deep in Monster drinks. Playboy TV is here filming some of this for a segment. To demonstrate the game, Road Rules castmember and Playboy Playmate Novemeber 2004 Cara Zavaleta played an exhibiton game against Duncan and Billy, the event organizers. None of them were very good, so the game went on for a while. Cara asked for a volunteer to be her partner, and Casey Riley immediatly rose to the occasion. He performed well, but naturally let Cara take all of the credit. Smooth move Riley, but it won't win you the $10,000 grand prize.
11:55 am - Fresno and I won our 1st playoff game amid the onlooking of every writer there and constant video cameras in our faces. It was tough to play under all of that pressure, and our game came down to 1 - 1. I barely hit any shots, but at least we won. Brodey/Balkman lost, as did Riley/Phany. Lorge/Casey won, meaning that they will play Fresno/Iceman in round 2. I want both of us to win, but that can't be possible so I'll cheer for us. I got interviewed by Cara for Playboy TV, and told her that if I won, I'd throw a sexy party, complete with a sailor hat, tacky 70's music and scantily clad women (ala Stewie Griffin.) I invited her and anyone else whe knew from playboy to come along, which made her laugh. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was drunk and really didn't care.
12:20 pm - Just lost to Lorge/Casey. I guess it was expected because we're not that good in the CHBPL. It's rough, but I really shouldn't dwell on it much longer. The more I think about it, the more angry I will be. They better not make me anygry...You wouldn't like me when I'm anagry. I'll turn into the Hulk and tear this mother down. Hopefully I can manifest that anger into a victory in the next round. If not, then at least we were the #4 team going into the playoffs. They can't take that away from us. We found out later on that we may or may not have beaten them because of the redemption/rebuttle rule. Everyone was unclear about how the rules worked, so I'm calling shenanigans on this game's procedure. Who won? According to the tournament, they did, but I'm always going to question that ruling.
1:00ish pm - Brodey/Balkman are going into double overtime. They established a rebuttle rule for the playoffs, but did a poor job of describing and enforcing it. Because of that unclear ruling, they lost, but we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. During Brodey/Balkman's game, most everyone in the audience was cheering against Milwaukee because we've been loud and supportive of our teams, and I guess we've rubbed too many people the wrong way. I was wasted and standing right behind Brodey and Balkman, shouting at the other team. There were times when they stopped paying attention to the game and started paying attention to me, but they were good enough to not get psyched out. Maybe it also was that Brodey/Balkman didn't bring their A game. Whatever it was, we've done our city proud.
2:20 pm - Well, this Cinderella story has come to an end. We lost, and are officially out of the tournament. When we got beat by Dixie Normous, we didn;t get a rebuttle because they hit the last 2 cups in succesion. To tell you the truth, my heart wasn't really in this game. First off, I didn't know that we were even playing at this time, and no one from Milwaukee was there to support us. Ah well, at least we showed everbody where we came from.
3:30 pm - We're all out of the tournament now, but a lot of drama has taken place. Riley almost got into a fight with Raphael from the Ninja Turtles. I know that he's cool but rude, but he didn;t have to get all upset that we razzed him a little bit. He was mad because we were cheering against him because he takes the game too seriously and he was there for the money instead of the beer pong. His team was also the #1 seed going in to the plaoffs, so naturally everyone wanted to see an upset. Riley may have taken it too far, but this guy snapped when someone made fun of him. He got enraged, and I tried to calm him down by telling jokes. I opened my wallet and asked him, "If I give you some money out of my wallet, will you promise not to kill me?" This only angered him more, and I'm surprised that I'm still alive. He blew it way out of proportion, and I'm glad we didn;t have to fight him because it would have been a lost cause and he wouldn't have learned his lesson.
4:00ish pm - Team France played against Slippery Fetus for the championship and the $10,000, but I really didn't care. I stuck around just to see how good they were, and I think that Fresno and I could've taken them easily. There was some kind of awards ceramony afterwards, where they gave away the check. They gave out some other random awards, but i really didn't care.
I may be wrong, but this is what I believe the final standings were:
Casey/Lorge - 6th
Iceman/Fresno - 10th
Riley/Phany - 15th
Brodey/Balkman - 20th
Salmon/Aaron - 50th (Despite not making the playoffs, they are still ranked 50 out of 83 teams.)
Not too bad if you ask me. Find me another city that has 4 teams ranked in the top 20 in the country in beer pong, and I'll stop telling everyone that Milwaukee's the best beer pong city.
7:30ish pm - playing beer pong in room 5130 with the Canadian guys from the tournamnet. Just like we did the other night, they stole a brown-top table from outside the convention center and set it up in the room. We were playing a 10-cup game, and I won 2 in a row with this girl named Katie. I shot over 50%, and everyone was amazed by my skill and knew that I was for real. While I was standing outside after I lost my 3rd game, Salmon came and joined us and founjd someone that he could talk soccor with. People (including Billy's Dad) were doing a beer bong out of a pink flamingo that held about 5 beers. I had a few more beers then wandered towards our room to see what was going on.
8:30 pm - about to play beer pong against the journalists; the writer from playboy.com and the one from Toro magazine. The Godfather (Brodey) and I will have to take them down. And we did.
9:39 pm - What started out as me walking to the soda machine for a Coke ended with me playing beer pong in 3 different hotel rooms. The journalists stuck around for a good while and played a bunch of games with us. I don't really remember when we ended, but I know several people stopped in to play, and we all had a great time. Beer pong truely is the one sport that will unite all mankind as one. There was so much beer pong going on. We were being so loud that the security guards were upset at us. We ended up moving the tables to the tennis courts. I don't think they played too long, because I saw everyone heading towards the casino. We were hanging out with Billy's Dad, who was like 60 but still knew how to party. I found out from some of the guys that I have a nickname other than Iceman. Some people refered to me as the OCD guy because of the shooting approach that I take. They are of course refering to obsesive compulsive disorder because I have to do the same thing every single time before I shoot the ball.It's more of a routine thatn anything else, and it just helps to steady my nerves before I shoot.
We kept on playing until everyone got tired. I then joined Brodey at the bar where he was playing alongside 1/2 of Team France. They were wiping out the competion as only the Godfather and a $10,000 winner could. I watched them for a little while, but decided that my time would be better spent gambling or surfing the internet.
1:30 - 3:30 am - I just figured out what a big dork I am. I spent 2 hours in a casino, but I wasn't gambling...I was on the internet.I've been feeling a little deprived, and I get all giddy whenever the connection bars glow green.
After that, I went back to the room to get a few hours of sleep. We are supposed to be out of the hotel by 9:30, and we plan on spending the entire day in Las Vegas before starting the 30-hour drive home. I know I'm skipping out on my sleep, but I've been having way too much fun to waste what precious time I have out here on sleep. I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I get home...
www.pookon.com
Friday, January 06, 2006
WSoBP Day 5 (January 5) - Beer Pong Finals (short version)
I'm not going to have enough time today to type up an entry for the finals, but I just wanted to get on here and give you a couple of tidbits so I don't leave you hanging until Sunday. The next time I'll have internet access is on Sunday when I'm back home in Milwaukee, so here are a couple of highlights from Thursday's events. I'll expand more on them Sunday afternoon.
- Casey Riley played an exhibition match with a Playboy Playmate against Billy and Duncan, the event organizers and members of the bpong.com staff.
- Casey/Lorge and Iceman/Fresno won their opening round games.
- Brodey/Balkman and Riley/Phany did not.
- we played Casey/Lorge in round two and lost to them.
- we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. Everyone there was cheering against us every time we stepped up to the table.
- won our next 2 game before losing in the 4th round (out of 8) of the losers bracket.
- Casey/Lorge made it to 6th round and ended up as the 6th team overall out of the 32 who made it into the playoffs. Ice/Fresno tied for 12th, Riley/Phany tied for 20th and Brodey/Blakman tied for 24th. Not too bad if you ask me.
- Riley almost got into a fight with this guy who looks like Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- played beer pong in about 3 different hotel rooms with people from the tournament. We even played with the writers from playboy.com and Toro magazine, both of which were just learning the game of beer pong.
- went to bed around 4:00 am, preparing to spend entire day in Las Vegas on Friday 1/6.
Like I said, I'll expand on this more when I get home, but at least now you have a general idea of what happened during the final day of this event. Take care, and I'll see you on Sunday. Thanks for reading, and also thanks for your comments to my blog. It's good to see someone who cares.
www.pookon.com
- Casey Riley played an exhibition match with a Playboy Playmate against Billy and Duncan, the event organizers and members of the bpong.com staff.
- Casey/Lorge and Iceman/Fresno won their opening round games.
- Brodey/Balkman and Riley/Phany did not.
- we played Casey/Lorge in round two and lost to them.
- we established ourselves as the most hated group in beer pong. Everyone there was cheering against us every time we stepped up to the table.
- won our next 2 game before losing in the 4th round (out of 8) of the losers bracket.
- Casey/Lorge made it to 6th round and ended up as the 6th team overall out of the 32 who made it into the playoffs. Ice/Fresno tied for 12th, Riley/Phany tied for 20th and Brodey/Blakman tied for 24th. Not too bad if you ask me.
- Riley almost got into a fight with this guy who looks like Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- played beer pong in about 3 different hotel rooms with people from the tournament. We even played with the writers from playboy.com and Toro magazine, both of which were just learning the game of beer pong.
- went to bed around 4:00 am, preparing to spend entire day in Las Vegas on Friday 1/6.
Like I said, I'll expand on this more when I get home, but at least now you have a general idea of what happened during the final day of this event. Take care, and I'll see you on Sunday. Thanks for reading, and also thanks for your comments to my blog. It's good to see someone who cares.
www.pookon.com
Thursday, January 05, 2006
WSoBP Day 4 (January 4) - 2nd Day of Beer Pong
10:55 am – Waiting for the games to begin. Once again, I didn’t eat breakfast (Fresno went to McDonald’s again) and I immediately drank a beer as soon as I got out of bed. I am currently consuming a Monster energy drink, and I’m hyped beyond belief right now. The 10 of us are just hanging out on the bleachers like a bunch of 3rd graders, except that we drink something other than juice boxes and 25 cent milk cartons.
11:30 am – We’re now 4-2 after beating the Idaho Potato Peelers. These guys told me that they were in Las Vegas all night, and didn’t get back to Mesquite until 8:00 am. Looking rather ragged and tired/hung over, they actually came within 2 cups of beating us. We were a little off at first, but we got the W, and that’s all that really matters.
12:05 pm – The Cleveland Steamers failed to show up, so the game resulted in a forfeit. After our easiest victory yet, we’re now 5-2, with 4 games left to play today.
1:10 pm – We just beat Peer Bong Squenis Wad by 2 cups. They were arguably the best team that we have faced yet. We shot solidly, going cup for cup against them. We 1-2d them, meaning Fresno hit the 1st cup and I hit the 2nd to secure us a victory. It was old school TYGB style. We’re now 6-2 and riding high. There’s no “half time” intermission today, meaning that there’s little rest until the next game. Hopefully we can ride this high into the next game. During this tournament, I’m all decked out in old “ball and glove” logo Brewers gear from head to toe, making my love for the team publicly known. They also know that I’m proud to be from Milwaukee and Wisconsin. They tried to taunt me with saying, “You work at the stadium!” Like that’s even close to a taunt, seeing as how I love my job more than anyone really should. When I hit the kill, I jumped up and yelled, “YOU’RE G D RIGHT I DO!” I apologize now for the brash language, but I couldn’t help it at the time and I needed to preserve that quote as it was said.
2:15 pm – Beat the Motherchuggers by 4 cups. We’re 7-2 now and I hit another kill shot.
3:40 pm – Went back to the room to grab a beer and get my buzz back after eating lunch. I ate lunch with Brodey, Balkman and Fresno, and our food was actually warm today, which was a big improvement over yesterday’s food.
3:45ish pm – Played round #11 against Cat Griz, and beat them by 4 cups. This increased our cup margin and gave me one more kill shot.
4:15ish pm – Won our 6th game of the day against F.A.C.E. and finished at 9-2. This game was huge because there was seriously like 30 people gathering around to watch us. There were photographers, journalists, fans and the event organizers rooting us to victory. I had to hit the kill shot, because I didn’t want to let any of them down. This victory guarantees us a spot in tomorrow’s double elimination playoff tournament. When I hit the kill shot, Balkman said, “The Ice is nice” and it was the truth. But I could’ve never done it without my partner Fresno Chris. He’s been shooting well in every game and he’s always there to back me up. I feel bad because all of the “media” attention is on me, and he once again has to take a back seat to me in the beer pong universe. He’s a good sport about it, and next time I’ll put in a good word for him. He did have the best taunt ever though. The FACE guys weren’t drinking their beer. We were screaming at them to man up and drink, but they wouldn’t. Fresno walked over, picked up their cup, and chugged it. The crowd went nuts and I think they lost because they let us get in their heads.
Around 5:00ish day 2 was complete, and all of the teams fared better on the second day that they did on the first. The final results after 2 days of beer pong are:
Iceman/Fresno: 6-0 day two, 9-2 overall
Casey/Lorge: 4-2 day two, 8-3 overall
Brodey/Balkman: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Riley/Phany: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Aaron/Salmon 3-3 day two, 5-6 overall
That puts Milwaukee at 36-19 after two days.
At 8:00 the 32 teams that make the playoffs will be announced. Until then, we’re gonna be watching the USC/Texas Rose Bowl game. A lot of us have money riding on this game, but Fresno was the only one who bet on Texas to win and cover the spread.
6:05 pm – Balkman is passed out already. It turns out that he didn’t sleep last night because he spent the night in the casino at the blackjack table. Sounds stupid if you ask me, but winning $500 is worth more than a good night’s sleep.
Watched the game, and Fresno ended up winning some money because Texas covered the spread in the game. I bet on USC to win, so I lost again. I also bet on the Milwaukee Bucks to win, but they lost, so I lost money yet again. I decided that I’m giving up on gambling for the rest of this trip. One thing that I’m not giving up on is beer pong. Our 9-2 record gave us the #4 seed in the playoffs, loosely meaning that we were the 4th best out of the 80-some teams that entered this tournament. CHBPL (Casey/Lorge) enter into the playoffs at #13, the Greatest Show on Plywood (Brodey/Balkman) are #21 and Milwaukee’s Best (Riley/Phany) are at #26. Sadly, Aaron and Salmon did not make the playoffs, but we still have 4 Milwaukee teams representing tomorrow. Check back to see how we did, but know this – if Fresno and I win the $10,000 grand prize, you won’t have to wait until the next day to read about it, I’ll be calling you to let you know immediately.
www.pookon.com
11:30 am – We’re now 4-2 after beating the Idaho Potato Peelers. These guys told me that they were in Las Vegas all night, and didn’t get back to Mesquite until 8:00 am. Looking rather ragged and tired/hung over, they actually came within 2 cups of beating us. We were a little off at first, but we got the W, and that’s all that really matters.
12:05 pm – The Cleveland Steamers failed to show up, so the game resulted in a forfeit. After our easiest victory yet, we’re now 5-2, with 4 games left to play today.
1:10 pm – We just beat Peer Bong Squenis Wad by 2 cups. They were arguably the best team that we have faced yet. We shot solidly, going cup for cup against them. We 1-2d them, meaning Fresno hit the 1st cup and I hit the 2nd to secure us a victory. It was old school TYGB style. We’re now 6-2 and riding high. There’s no “half time” intermission today, meaning that there’s little rest until the next game. Hopefully we can ride this high into the next game. During this tournament, I’m all decked out in old “ball and glove” logo Brewers gear from head to toe, making my love for the team publicly known. They also know that I’m proud to be from Milwaukee and Wisconsin. They tried to taunt me with saying, “You work at the stadium!” Like that’s even close to a taunt, seeing as how I love my job more than anyone really should. When I hit the kill, I jumped up and yelled, “YOU’RE G D RIGHT I DO!” I apologize now for the brash language, but I couldn’t help it at the time and I needed to preserve that quote as it was said.
2:15 pm – Beat the Motherchuggers by 4 cups. We’re 7-2 now and I hit another kill shot.
3:40 pm – Went back to the room to grab a beer and get my buzz back after eating lunch. I ate lunch with Brodey, Balkman and Fresno, and our food was actually warm today, which was a big improvement over yesterday’s food.
3:45ish pm – Played round #11 against Cat Griz, and beat them by 4 cups. This increased our cup margin and gave me one more kill shot.
4:15ish pm – Won our 6th game of the day against F.A.C.E. and finished at 9-2. This game was huge because there was seriously like 30 people gathering around to watch us. There were photographers, journalists, fans and the event organizers rooting us to victory. I had to hit the kill shot, because I didn’t want to let any of them down. This victory guarantees us a spot in tomorrow’s double elimination playoff tournament. When I hit the kill shot, Balkman said, “The Ice is nice” and it was the truth. But I could’ve never done it without my partner Fresno Chris. He’s been shooting well in every game and he’s always there to back me up. I feel bad because all of the “media” attention is on me, and he once again has to take a back seat to me in the beer pong universe. He’s a good sport about it, and next time I’ll put in a good word for him. He did have the best taunt ever though. The FACE guys weren’t drinking their beer. We were screaming at them to man up and drink, but they wouldn’t. Fresno walked over, picked up their cup, and chugged it. The crowd went nuts and I think they lost because they let us get in their heads.
Around 5:00ish day 2 was complete, and all of the teams fared better on the second day that they did on the first. The final results after 2 days of beer pong are:
Iceman/Fresno: 6-0 day two, 9-2 overall
Casey/Lorge: 4-2 day two, 8-3 overall
Brodey/Balkman: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Riley/Phany: 4-2 day two, 7-4 overall
Aaron/Salmon 3-3 day two, 5-6 overall
That puts Milwaukee at 36-19 after two days.
At 8:00 the 32 teams that make the playoffs will be announced. Until then, we’re gonna be watching the USC/Texas Rose Bowl game. A lot of us have money riding on this game, but Fresno was the only one who bet on Texas to win and cover the spread.
6:05 pm – Balkman is passed out already. It turns out that he didn’t sleep last night because he spent the night in the casino at the blackjack table. Sounds stupid if you ask me, but winning $500 is worth more than a good night’s sleep.
Watched the game, and Fresno ended up winning some money because Texas covered the spread in the game. I bet on USC to win, so I lost again. I also bet on the Milwaukee Bucks to win, but they lost, so I lost money yet again. I decided that I’m giving up on gambling for the rest of this trip. One thing that I’m not giving up on is beer pong. Our 9-2 record gave us the #4 seed in the playoffs, loosely meaning that we were the 4th best out of the 80-some teams that entered this tournament. CHBPL (Casey/Lorge) enter into the playoffs at #13, the Greatest Show on Plywood (Brodey/Balkman) are #21 and Milwaukee’s Best (Riley/Phany) are at #26. Sadly, Aaron and Salmon did not make the playoffs, but we still have 4 Milwaukee teams representing tomorrow. Check back to see how we did, but know this – if Fresno and I win the $10,000 grand prize, you won’t have to wait until the next day to read about it, I’ll be calling you to let you know immediately.
www.pookon.com
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
WSoBP Day 3 (January 3) - 1st Day of Beer Pong
11:00 am
12:
12:30 pm
1:40 pm
We then had a 45 minute break “halftime” as they called it, and we had a bye during the first game back, giving us close to 2 hours to wait to play some more beer pong. During this time, I went to Starbucks to upload yesterday’s blog entry, then waited until my next match. Tom Petty said that the waiting is the hardest part, but I’m sure that he wasn’t talking about beer pong, even though it applies here as well. When we finally did get to play again, I was tired, and really didn’t feel like playing or drinking.
5:
Iceman/Fresno: 3-2 with a bye.
Brodey/Balkman: 3-2 with a bye.
Casey/Phany: - 3-2 with a bye.
Aaron/Salmon: 2-3 with a bye.
Overall:
- We found a table (those brown folding ones like the ones we had in the St. Catherine’s cafeteria when I was in grade school) and carried it to Aaron and Brodey’s room. We put it in the doorway between rooms 5119 and 5118 and played some beer pong. The guys in 5118 are from New York and rock at beer pong. They won at least 7 games in a row before Aaron and Brodey took over and dominated the table until I left. Playing beer pong in a hotel room kicks ass.
- I went to the casino again, playing penny slots. I lost money again. I then decided to do a little experiment. I took 300 nickels ($15) and played the maximum (3) on a slot machine to see 1. how long I could last, 2. whether or not the machine would go “cold” or get “hot”, 3. see if I could actually win any money. I started at 12:10 am, and finished at 12:36 am with no money left over. $15 only lasted 26 minutes, and the most I ever won was approximately 130 nickels, which only put me back at the 300 mark at that time. I have concluded that I suck at gambling and cannot win no matter what I play.
- I walked around trying to get a picture of the Oasis casino sign that said Welcome to the World Series of Beer Pong. I also noticed that the neighboring casino, the Casablanca, had a similar sign. I finally made it close enough to get a decent picture, and decided that since I had made the walk over here, I might as well go inside and check it out. The Casablanca was designed better than the Oasis, and there were fountains and palm trees inside and stuff. I played the Price is Right nickel slot machine after perusing the casino, and immediatly won $5.15. It's too bad that I put it right back in the machine plus some. I think I've pretty much given up on gambling.
- I walked back from the Casino and stopped at the Shell gas station to buy some Monster energy drink, a rice krispie bar, a snickers bar, and some Ruffles potato chips. When I got back, it was around 1:30 am, and I had to be up at 8:00 am for another day of drinking. Life is rough.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
WSoBP Day 2 (January 2) - First Day in Mesquite
As I previously mentioned, we arrived in Las Vegas 6:30 am . I was super excited to be in Vegas again, and I quite literally could not hold in my enthusiasm. No one else showed an ounce of excitement, so we barely even looked at anything or went anywhere. We did agree to come back on Friday, so I guess we could look at things then… 8:20 am (wrote this inside of the Caesar’s Palace sports betting room) – Just got carded by a hardcore security guard/rent-a-cop. So did Salmon, but not Brodey, Balkman or Aaron. Some m-fers are always trying to iceskate uphill. 4:00 ) I bought some alcohol at the Oasis mini mart across the street, created a home-made fridge by putting ice and beer into a trash can - I ate dinner at McDonald’s, which is right across the street from the casino - played some exhibition beer pong with Fresno Chris, we went 0-4. The other teams aren’t super good but the official tables are higher than ours by a few inches. The cups are also thinner and taller than we are used to, which made all of my shots fall short by a few inches. I’ll have to adjust that so I can make some shots while we’re out here. - I gambled some more because I couldn’t stay away. I played some fun games, like one called Jamaica Me Money that featured a Rastafarian lion. Things didn’t go too well, and I lost a little more money. I’m not upset because I’m not here to make money, I’m here to play beer pong.
9:30ish – I drove home from Vegas, and once again Balkman and Salmon played some Mario Party.
12:30ish pm –
That pretty much sums it all up. Chris and I decided that we weren’t going to be very serious about our game, we’d just be loose and try and have some fun. If we happen to win $10,000, then that would be awesome because then I could don a sailor suit, circle around some women, and throw a sexy party Stewie Griffin style.
http://www.pookon.com/Monday, January 02, 2006
WSoBP Day 1/2 (January 1-2) - The Drive
For those of you who do not know, I'm going to Mesquite, Nevada to compete in the World Series of Beer Pong. Along with 9 friends (4 of which who drove out here with me) we will represent not only our league (chbpl.com) but our city and state as well. The following is a daily blog entry describing what went on each particular day...
1/01/06 - 2:57 am - 7 minutes into the trip, we're trying to leave Milwaukee and we've already lost Balkman and Aaron's girlfriend has already called to check in on him.
1/01/06 - 3:00 am - We just got pulled over by a Shorewood Cop because Aaron was driving without his headlights on. We calmly spoke with the cop and reassured her that we were not drinking (it was New Years after all) and that we were on our way to Nevada to compete in a beer pong tournament for a grand prize of $10,000. She gave us a friendly reminder to keep the headlights on at night and wished us well.
1/01/01 - 4:45 am - leaving for Mesquite for real now. Brodey finally decided to finish up working. We had been waiting for him for over 3 hours now (Salmon and I were at Aaron's at 1:30 am). I suggested that the people in the car (Brodey, Balkman, Aaron and Salmon) call me the enemy because I will be able to see all and I will write what I see (referring of course to Almost Famous.) Brodey responded with "My only enemies are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MaDD). I'll try and use my writings to get them on the cover of Obscure Sports Quarterly (OSQ) or coverage on ESPN 8 - the Ocho. Aaron was coming up with possible comeback taunts to the opposing team when they try to taunts his team, including this clever one, "I live in the town that invented beer...don't give me that bullshit." Balkman said that it could possibly be a future t-shirt for members of the chbpl.
1/01/01 - 9:05 am - we're 70 miles from Des Moines and in the middle of Iowa.
1/01/01 - 9:45 am - Salmon is driving and raced a dude driving a VW Bora with a license plate reading VWPower. This is the greatest race that Iowa's freeway has seen since the Corvette/Pontiac GTO race of 1964, and we all know how that turned out. Salmon's Honda won the race, finishing ahead of the Bora in laps 1 and 3, before totally losing sight of it when he pulled ahead of it for good.
1/01/01 - 12:25 pm - crossed over the Mississippi river and into Nebraska - the home of Arbor Day. Seriously, that's what it says on the sign. The display sign for the city of Omaha did feature full signs trains though - woo woo!
1/01/01 - 7:47 pm (Mountain time) - Stopping in the Denver outskirts at a Burger King for some grindage. Along the way here, we saw...
- a semi truck flipped onto its side
- a burned out semi trailer that caught in fire
- a semi that almost hit a fox 50 feet in front of the car when I was driving and swerved
around it just in time.
That pretty much sums up the last 6 hours. I drove and Salmon and Balkman played Mario Party on Game Cube. Brodey was asleep on the backseat still, where he would be until Balkman drove, which was arguably the most exciting part of the entire drive out.
01/01/01 - 8:00ish pm - Balkman got behind the wheel for the first time and had to endure the worst driving conditions of the trip. He drove through the Rocky Mountains, in the dark and with snow on the ground. The turns were sharp, the visibility was low, the downhill grade was steep and I was hiding underneath my hood listening to my headphones and shielding my eyes from the road. I seriously thought we were going to die, but I was confident in Balkman's ability to keep me alive. He came through on his promise, and we made it. It's so beautiful up in the mountains, especially around Vail and Colorado Springs; places that I could never afford to live, but I couldn't bring myself to look out the window.
01/02/01 - 12:00ish am - 6:30ish am - Balkman and Brodey took turns driving through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. We arrived it Las Vegas at about 6:30 am. We decided to skip stopping in Mesquite for now because it was far too early to check in to the hotel. Since Brodey, Balkman and Aaron had never been to Vegas, we thought it would be nice to check it out once in the daytime and once again at night (when we go back on January 6th before driving home.) I was super psyched to be in Las Vegas again, but everyone was so tired and didn't feel like staying long. I'll talk more on this when I bring it up on the entry about January 2nd's events. We got to the hotel in Mesquite at about 9:30-10:00 am, but out hotel room wasn't ready yet. Arriving at our final destination meant that this road trip was complete for now, and the fun can now begin. Stay tuned for Day 2 of my trip out here and the beginning of the WSoBP.
www.pookon.com
1/01/06 - 2:57 am - 7 minutes into the trip, we're trying to leave Milwaukee and we've already lost Balkman and Aaron's girlfriend has already called to check in on him.
1/01/06 - 3:00 am - We just got pulled over by a Shorewood Cop because Aaron was driving without his headlights on. We calmly spoke with the cop and reassured her that we were not drinking (it was New Years after all) and that we were on our way to Nevada to compete in a beer pong tournament for a grand prize of $10,000. She gave us a friendly reminder to keep the headlights on at night and wished us well.
1/01/01 - 4:45 am - leaving for Mesquite for real now. Brodey finally decided to finish up working. We had been waiting for him for over 3 hours now (Salmon and I were at Aaron's at 1:30 am). I suggested that the people in the car (Brodey, Balkman, Aaron and Salmon) call me the enemy because I will be able to see all and I will write what I see (referring of course to Almost Famous.) Brodey responded with "My only enemies are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MaDD). I'll try and use my writings to get them on the cover of Obscure Sports Quarterly (OSQ) or coverage on ESPN 8 - the Ocho. Aaron was coming up with possible comeback taunts to the opposing team when they try to taunts his team, including this clever one, "I live in the town that invented beer...don't give me that bullshit." Balkman said that it could possibly be a future t-shirt for members of the chbpl.
1/01/01 - 9:05 am - we're 70 miles from Des Moines and in the middle of Iowa.
1/01/01 - 9:45 am - Salmon is driving and raced a dude driving a VW Bora with a license plate reading VWPower. This is the greatest race that Iowa's freeway has seen since the Corvette/Pontiac GTO race of 1964, and we all know how that turned out. Salmon's Honda won the race, finishing ahead of the Bora in laps 1 and 3, before totally losing sight of it when he pulled ahead of it for good.
1/01/01 - 12:25 pm - crossed over the Mississippi river and into Nebraska - the home of Arbor Day. Seriously, that's what it says on the sign. The display sign for the city of Omaha did feature full signs trains though - woo woo!
1/01/01 - 7:47 pm (Mountain time) - Stopping in the Denver outskirts at a Burger King for some grindage. Along the way here, we saw...
- a semi truck flipped onto its side
- a burned out semi trailer that caught in fire
- a semi that almost hit a fox 50 feet in front of the car when I was driving and swerved
around it just in time.
That pretty much sums up the last 6 hours. I drove and Salmon and Balkman played Mario Party on Game Cube. Brodey was asleep on the backseat still, where he would be until Balkman drove, which was arguably the most exciting part of the entire drive out.
01/01/01 - 8:00ish pm - Balkman got behind the wheel for the first time and had to endure the worst driving conditions of the trip. He drove through the Rocky Mountains, in the dark and with snow on the ground. The turns were sharp, the visibility was low, the downhill grade was steep and I was hiding underneath my hood listening to my headphones and shielding my eyes from the road. I seriously thought we were going to die, but I was confident in Balkman's ability to keep me alive. He came through on his promise, and we made it. It's so beautiful up in the mountains, especially around Vail and Colorado Springs; places that I could never afford to live, but I couldn't bring myself to look out the window.
01/02/01 - 12:00ish am - 6:30ish am - Balkman and Brodey took turns driving through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. We arrived it Las Vegas at about 6:30 am. We decided to skip stopping in Mesquite for now because it was far too early to check in to the hotel. Since Brodey, Balkman and Aaron had never been to Vegas, we thought it would be nice to check it out once in the daytime and once again at night (when we go back on January 6th before driving home.) I was super psyched to be in Las Vegas again, but everyone was so tired and didn't feel like staying long. I'll talk more on this when I bring it up on the entry about January 2nd's events. We got to the hotel in Mesquite at about 9:30-10:00 am, but out hotel room wasn't ready yet. Arriving at our final destination meant that this road trip was complete for now, and the fun can now begin. Stay tuned for Day 2 of my trip out here and the beginning of the WSoBP.
www.pookon.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)