Taking drinks and making shots

More than 100 people gathered at Thirsty Turtle Saturday afternoon to participate in a qualifying tournament for the World Series of Beer Pong.

Students and non-students alike played on 16 tables set up throughout the first floor of the bar. While good sportsmanship was on display throughout most of the day, a sense of fierce competition hung in the air as the double-elimination tournament, which started at about 1 p.m. and concluded around 6 p.m., weeded 54 teams down to a final champion.

The College Park World Series of Beer Pong Satellite Tournament, hosted by UMDBeerPong.com, was one of the northeast and mid-Atlantic region's qualifying tournaments for the fourth World Series of Beer Pong, which will be played in Las Vegas in January.

The eventual winners, Shawn2, made up of university alumnus Sean Foster and Anne Arundel Community College student Shawn O'Hare, were awarded with a paid entry and hotel stay for the World Series tournament, valued at $1,000, where they will have a chance to win $50,000.

The teammates have quite a history of playing together, they said, but not in many organized competitions, although they did win a trip to Jamaica for a tournament last year.

"We have been playing together on and off for about three years now," O'Hare said. "This is one of our first tournaments."

Stevenson University senior Cory Ditzel, who said he came from Baltimore to College Park for the tournament, finished in fifth place with his team, Redonkulous.

"I play whenever I can, in leagues and tournaments," he said. "Of course I'm disappointed."

The atmosphere grew noticeably tenser as the day progressed. By the championship game, fists were pumping and players were enthusiastically shouting with each cup hit.

"It definitely gets more heated toward the end," Ditzel remarked.

While it was a beer pong tournament, most of the teams were using water in place of alcohol.

Garrett Lang, a Maryland alumnus and founder of UMDBeerPong.com, said he was very pleased with the turnout for the event and competitive nature of the games.

"It's definitely really intense," he said. "These guys take it seriously."

Lang anchored the day's matches, calling out for teams to play at certain tables and running the music that was playing in the bar throughout the day. He has also started a fall beer pong league that holds its games every Tuesday night at Thirsty Turtle.

Lang mentioned he is happy with the overall progress of the game, which he considers more of a sport than a form of competitive drinking. His fall league is made up of 27 teams, 10 more than the league he hosted last summer.

He said College Park's beer pong events, including the fall league and the World Series satellite tournament, are drawing bigger crowds than ever before.

O'Hare and Foster, who got to keep a giant bracket of the tournament for their winning efforts, said they had a few close calls during their championship run on Saturday. However, they mentioned that they only had one game go into overtime.

They seemed more than ready for the January tournament in Las Vegas, proposing a challenge to any additional opponents. Last year, there were about 300 teams in the World Series, Lang said, and more are anticipated this year.

"We'll welcome more competition," both teammates said.

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