Let the games begin
Speakeasy's list of the most popular outdoor (drinking) games
By William Strome, Staff Writer
May 18, 2008 | noon
Winter Quarter at Ohio University is like Soviet Russia. Fortunately, for OU students, that means Spring Quarter is just around the corner with warm weather, sunny skies and outdoor drinking games to be played.
During the winter, a dreary gray cloaks the sky, covering the sun like a frozen curtain for seemingly the longest, miserable and most depressing ten weeks of the year. Students march through the mounds of slush building up on the sidewalk like the Communist soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad. Not to mention, it does not help that the Lausche Heating Plant behind West Green looks suspiciously like Chernobyl.
Fortunately for all residents, Athens, Ohio, is nothing like Russia half a century ago aside from the climate that takes a striking resemblance to Moscow's virtually constant winter. Despite the monotonous gloomy winter weather, one thing keeps OU's student body sane.
"The best part about Winter Quarter is that Spring Quarter is next," senior Chase Gunning said. "It's what keeps me going."
As the sun shined down and the temperatures went up, cornhole boards and beer-pong tables were set up faster than freshmen and sophomore sorority girls could lay out their towels on "South Beach." With the anxiously awaited warm weather prevalent, students looking to uphold OU's reputation flocked from their dilapidated houses and cramped dorm rooms to the front yards and porches to partake in the most notorious campus wide pastime—drinking.
Already with the party school reputation, OU's rowdy form shines brightest when the sun does as well.
"There really isn't anything better than being outside and tossing some beer pong," Gunning said.
Whether it is competitively in beer pong or a little more lax over an outing of hillbilly golf, students will be outside and many of them will be boozing. Outdoor drinking games come in all ridiculously absurd forms and most of the Bobcat faithful love every single one of them.
Beer Pong
Without question the most popular and notorious year-round drinking game, beer pong, is best enjoyed under the sun. Every student of every background can share common ground on that debate.
"Outdoor pong and short skirts [are] my two favorite parts about Spring Quarter," Gunning said.
For the few that have never played, beer pong is played on about a 6-foot long sheet of plywood with two beer-pong balls, two water cups, two to four beers and 12 or 20 empty plastic cups. The empty cups are arranged in a six- or ten-cup triangle on each end of the table. On each end, behind the arrangement, stands one team of two players, or four players total in one game. Next to them is one water cup per team for cleaning the ball if it were to land the ground.
The object is simple: Sink the ball in the other team's cups. Each player from the two-man team shoots one ball each turn. If both players hit a separate cup, they shoot again. If they hit the same cup, the shooting team wins and the losers have the honor of downing the remaining beers on the table. If one player bounces the ball and it lands in a cup, the receiving team must drink an additional beer on top of the already made cup. Once a team has made all of their cups, the opposing team has the chance to save the game. There are two methods for ending the game officially: Either the potential losing team shoots and continues to shoot if they do not miss, until they have made all the shots, or they must make one shot to nullify the victory and continue the game.
Cornhole
Unlike beer pong, consumption is not in the written rules of the game, but is encouraged. A game with very little movement and concentration, cornhole has rapidly taken over front lawns from Mill Street to High Street and everywhere in between.
"It's easy and relaxing and perfect for sipping on a brew," junior Ross Crist said.
Cornhole is played with two boards that are tilted at a 45-degree angle off the ground and placed about six to ten yards apart, facing each another. Each board has a hole about five inches in diameter and roughly six inches from the far end of the board. Teams are of two, but instead of standing at the same board, they face each other on opposing ends. Each team has four beanbags, eight total, which they hurl at the far board. One member from each team tosses one bag at a time, alternating after every shot, until all eight bags are at the other end.
As for scoring, a bag that lands on the board is one point and a bag that lands in the hole is three points. Each team tallies up its points and whoever scores the most is awarded the difference in total points for that particular round. For example, if Bob makes three in the hole and one on the board, and Tom makes one in the hole and two on the board, Bob scored and 10 points and Tom scored five. For those who struggle with simple subtraction, ten minus five is five, so Bob's team is awarded five points. To win, a team must hit 21 points exactly or they get bounced back to 13 points.
Horseshoes and Bocce Ball
Considered a dying breed around campus, horseshoes and bocce ball are now seemingly found only on beaches or at family reunions.
"They're dying, but they shouldn't be. They're classics," junior Jamie Fowler said. "It's not that they're bad games. It's just that cornhole has completely taken over."
Also seen at old folks' homes and dive bars nationwide, horseshoes and bocce ball have slowly been replaced with more active games or, simply, ones that encourage faster inebriation.
Horseshoes has a set up similar to cornhole but with an even more Redneck style of play than drunks tossing beanbags onto wooden boards. All that is needed to play are two teams of two, four horseshoes and two stakes driven into the ground about 40 feet apart. Each side tosses its two horseshoes, alternating after each toss. When the shoe wraps around the stake, called a ringer, that team is awarded three points. If there were no ringers, the closest shoe earns one point. Game is played to 21, and the winning team must win by two.
Bocce ball consists of eight weighted balls that each team, usually two players per team, tosses toward a smaller ball and earns points for however many of its balls are closer than the other teams'. Like cornhole and horseshoes, if three of Bob's balls are closer than Tom's best ball, then Bob's team earns three points. About as simple a game as they come, bocce ball is more often seen on beaches and during family get-togethers, as opposed to an OU Spring Quarter fest.
Louisville chugger
This is the perfect game for one person to make a complete fool of himself or herself in front of everyone at the party. The game is played with one wiffle-ball bat with the bottom end cut off in order to fill the bat with a full or half a beer. The player chugs the beer from the bat while everyone counts how many seconds it takes to finish the brew. For however many seconds it took that person to chug, they must put his or her head on the end of the bat, stick the end of the bat on the ground and circle around it as many times as it took them in seconds to finish the drink.
Once they have circled around the bat and stumbled aimlessly around for a second or two, the player must either hit an empty can tossed into the air or kick the empty can lying on the ground.
Junior Zach Crusse is partial to the kick. "With a kick, you’re guaranteed to watch people fall," he said.
Keg wiffle ball
With identical rules to baseball, keg wiffle ball is played on the baseball diamond and with brewskis. With a keg placed on second base, drinking becomes just as much a part of America's pastime as the double play.
According to junior Becky Verner, when players are at bat, they hold a beer in a plastic cup in one hand and the bat in the other. Once the batter gets to second base, he or she must refill the beer to the top whether the drink is finished or only one sip less. In order to score a run, however, the base runner must finish his or her beer before crossing home plate.
Hillbilly golf
Despite the tacky name, hillbilly golf is arguably the fastest growing outdoor game after cornhole. Played with ropes with golf balls tied to each end called bolas, teams of two toss their bolas at PVC pipes and score points for however many ropes wrap onto the pipes while hanging on. Teams of two face each other, like cornhole, standing next to the PVC pipe structure.
According to LadderGolfGame.com, the structure has two vertical pipes on each side with three horizontal pipes attached to them and spaced about six to eight inches apart from one another. The bases are about six yards or paces apart, and instead of alternating tosses, one team tosses all three of its bolas first. Points are tallied after both teams have tossed, and only the bolas still hanging onto the pipes count. For wrapping a bola around the top pipe, three points are awarded. For wrapping around the middle pipe, it is two points and as for the lowest, one point. Only one team can earn points following a round, similar to cornhole, and the winning team must score exactly 21.
Beersbee
As seen played during each spring fest, Beersbee is played with two empty beer bottles placed on two separate poles about 40 feet apart. Teams stand on the same side behind one of the two poles and toss a Frisbee to try to knock off the other teams' bottles.
According to BeersBee.org, teams must stay behind the pole to avoid "goal tending" their bottle and must catch the Frisbee to avoid awarding the tossing team a point. The tossing team, however, must toss the Frisbee so that it is catchable for the other team, or generally about three feet off the ground. If the Frisbee is uncatchable, it is considered a scratch and no points are awarded.
With a beer in hand at all times, if the bottle is knocked off the pole by the Frisbee, then the receiving team must catch the empty bottle and/or the Frisbee to avoid giving the throwing team points. Two points are awarded if the bottle hits the ground and one point for the Frisbee. Games are to 21, win by two, and teams award the opposition three points for not having a drink in hand.
Good luck and enjoy! Let the games begin!
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