Seniors Andrew Picoli and Will Gambling are the best beer pong players at Vanderbilt.
The pair, both members of Delta Kappa Epsilon, won the tournament sponsored by the American Beer Pong Association of America last Thursday at Buffalo Billiards, earning themselves credits to Buffalo Billards and numerous other prizes.
More than 300 people turned out to play or watch, and about 20 to 25 teams participated, Picoli said.
“The majority of teams were students from Vanderbilt, although I think the frats could have participated a little more,” he said. “There were only about three or four fraternity teams.”
Picoli and Gambling played 12 games and won all but one of them.
“We played really well,” Picoli said. “We lost our fourth match but ended up winning our next seven or eight.
However, the team said that despite their success, the competition at the event was very good.
“There’s overall very good beer pong at Vanderbilt,” Gambling said. “It definitely wasn’t a cake walk.”
Kyle Lininger, a 2006 Vanderbilt graduate, founded the ABAA along with 2006 Duke University graduate Christian Gunkel.
“About a year and a half ago Christian and I were playing beer pong, and we had gone 16-0 for the night,” Lininger said. “We were having a great time, and all of a sudden I turned to Christian, and I was like, ‘We should do this for a living.’”
“I think I turned to him and said, ‘I know you’re half joking, but I’m really serious, and I’m going to hold you to it,” Kunkel said.
Upon graduation, Kunkel and Liniger moved to Hawaii, where they finalized their plans for the tournaments, booking bars and finding sponsorships.
“People always ask us, ‘Did you really mean to say American Beer Pong Association of America?’ and we always say, ‘Beer pong is for America, and America is for beer pong,’” Kunkel said. “We say America twice for emphasis.”
Kunkel and Liniger also conducted research to unify and standardize the rules of the game.
“We took a survey of over 250 universities to standardize the rules of beer pong --terminology, table size, general rules,” Kunkel said. “We came up with a 12-page PDF file that can be found on our Web site. That’s how we can say we are an authority. We have heard every different way you can play.”
The duo then began their trip across the country, beginning in the Northeast and making their way through the South.
Along the way, the organization has attracted the attention of numerous publications, such as Sports Illustrated, U.S. News and World Report and collegehumor.com.
“Vanderbilt was our 10th stop,” Liniger said. “We normally target schools that have enrollment of over 12,000 because we have a better chance of a good turnout, and bigger schools also promote the partying atmosphere.”
“Our main goal is to promote beer pong in a safe, competitive manner,” Kunkel said. “We like to emphasize the fun over the beer. There is a stigma that beer pong is about over-consumption, but that really isn’t true. Most competitors in our event only drink about two beers.”
Students who are interested in participating in other tournaments across the country or learning about the ABAA’s official rules can visit the Web site at http://www.theabaa.com.
