2/4/12 WSOBP VIII Satellite Tournament
No Colorado and no AZ, and we still managed to pull in 50 teams for the first WSOBP satellite of the year! The Southwest is definitely coming together as a region. El Paso, Clovis, and ABQ were all in the hunt to take those first bids.
Before I get into the recap, I’d like to say a few words regarding the escalating confrontational atmosphere which has developed at our bigger tournaments lately. First, we will ensure that final tables have some sort of spectator boundary from here on out, so as to avoid any accusations of spectator interference. That aside, we cannot (repeat CANNOT) tolerate violence at our tournaments. The bar has already had a few lengthy conversations with us that it just can’t continue. We are in danger of losing the bar, which I cannot allow. So from here on out, if you touch another player, you are done. I’m sorry to your partners who weren’t involved, but you are done. This includes shoving! You have no right to lay a finger on another person (unless you’re grabbing my ass, that’s cool). I don’t care if they say the worst shit in the world to the thing you value most. This is beer pong, you better be used to shit talk by now or this isn’t the game for you. Second, we cannot (repeat CANNOT) have people hitting the furniture or breaking glass at the tournaments (outside or inside). There is a punching machine in the damn bar. If you are prone to needing to physically vent your frustration (PeeWee, myself, and you all know who you are), bring a few singles to the bar with you and rack up a high score on the machine. From now on, if you hit a piece of furniture in the bar (this includes the cabinets behind the playing area) you’re done. We are already starting to enforce these policies with our weekly tournaments, but I want to make sure all players are aware before they travel out here. I’m sorry guys, we just can’t risk losing the bar (especially since it’s our location for the Championships this year).
Ok, moving on. This satellite was our first attempt at the “modified double elimination” format, which we believed would give us the ability to run a multi-partner tournament wherein no same-partner teams would have to face each other before the finals. When putting the brackets together I realized that it actually isn’t possible to completely avoid that scenario from happening (as any time you have an odd number of players all playing with each other with 2 teams each, it’s not possible to separate each pair). However, using this format does make it extremely unlikely to occur, and we actually got lucky with the first satellite since we were able to separate the two brackets evenly.
After the tournament got underway, a few surprising losses occurred right off the bat in round one. Gotta Get Involved (PeeWee and Sonny) were beaten by Rerack Attack (Andy T. and Lee). Andy hasn’t played since the Series, and Lee has recently devoted all of his pong time to school for the remainder of the semester, so for them to beat the regularly high performing players PeeWee and Sonny was a shock.
In the other bracket, Clovis’s Tom Brady is GOD (Tim Annis and Jeff Swisslocki) were able to pull of the surprise win against ABQ’s No Remorse (Corey and Derek). Derek hasn’t been around the tournament scene lately, but few expected him to lose so early in the night playing with Corey.
Early knockouts included such high-profile teams as El Paso’s Adventure Time and Ron Burgandies, Clovis’s I Smell A Massacre, and the hometown ABQ’s Finest.
IT’S A TRAP! (myself and Ben White) suffered a first round loss to the Clovis/ABQ team Damage Plan (Edan and Valdez), but were able to slowly dig ourselves up from the bottom before facing them again late in the losers bracket, which we were able to pull off the victory. In the same bracket, the El Paso/ABQ team Brown and Browner (PeeWee and Omar) were making some noise, taking out teams like The Ones and Mexi and Sexy before facing IT’S A TRAP! and bowing out.
They Google Me (Glaser and Gabe) was probably ABQ’s second most favored team going into the tournament, and they were proving it while paving their way through the winners bracket. They ultimately lost in the winners bracket finals to El Paso’s Bang Cup (Tony A. and Andy G.), and so faced IT’S A TRAP!. Ben and I were narrowly able to pull off the win, thanks to some well timed missmakes.
We faced Bang Cup in the bracket finals. Even though the El Paso boys gave us a few chances, we weren’t able to find that rhythm that had carried us through the losers bracket, and so bowed out in third.
Over in the other bracket, another team was making waves after taking an early round loss. Plan B&J (Glaser and Ben) had lost their second round game to Cheech and Pong (Edan and Corey). In the losers bracket, however, Ben was playing as the hometown rival, as his team knocked out both of Edan’s and Gabe’s teams on his way to the finals. They faced Clovis’s star team, Second Coming (Elliot and Ian), in the bracket finals. The first game was a close win, as Glaser decided it was time never to miss a cup. Ian was visibly frustrated in the second game. After missing a couple shots he would walk away from the table. The real nail in the coffin came when Ian attempted to distract a shot made by Glaser, and he knocked a cup over, even as Glaser made his shot. With that extra cup gone, it seemed as though Ian had mentally checked out of the tournament. Ben and Glaser won the game, and ensured that at least one ABQ team was in the finals.
The tournament finals was a city vs. city grudge match with Bang Cup representing El Paso and Plan B&J repping the homefield. One thing can definitely be said for El Paso: they support each other. Every game that an El Paso player was involved in resulted in all 15 El Pasoans surrounding the table screaming like it’s the Series. The final table was no different. I don’t know if it was the pressure of the final table, or the El Paso mob, but something had gotten into Ben as he struggled during the first two games of the series. Glaser didn’t care, though, and channeled his inner Hampton by only missing three times in the entire three games of the finals. They lost the first game, and El Paso was sure they had it in the bag. In the second game, however, Ben made a couple more cups giving Glaser the opportunity to close it out. The third game was when all the pressure came down on Bang Cup. Ben decided to wake up, and only missed once in the third game (Glaser didn’t miss at all). With six cups to go in rebuttal, Tony A. missed the first shot, and Bang Cup was out in second.
The full bracket can be found here.
Congrats to David Glaser and that guy he played with for taking the first satty of the year! Big thanks to El Paso and Clovis for coming out in force, and I hope to see you all at the next one on March 3rd!
- Clawless
Before I get into the recap, I’d like to say a few words regarding the escalating confrontational atmosphere which has developed at our bigger tournaments lately. First, we will ensure that final tables have some sort of spectator boundary from here on out, so as to avoid any accusations of spectator interference. That aside, we cannot (repeat CANNOT) tolerate violence at our tournaments. The bar has already had a few lengthy conversations with us that it just can’t continue. We are in danger of losing the bar, which I cannot allow. So from here on out, if you touch another player, you are done. I’m sorry to your partners who weren’t involved, but you are done. This includes shoving! You have no right to lay a finger on another person (unless you’re grabbing my ass, that’s cool). I don’t care if they say the worst shit in the world to the thing you value most. This is beer pong, you better be used to shit talk by now or this isn’t the game for you. Second, we cannot (repeat CANNOT) have people hitting the furniture or breaking glass at the tournaments (outside or inside). There is a punching machine in the damn bar. If you are prone to needing to physically vent your frustration (PeeWee, myself, and you all know who you are), bring a few singles to the bar with you and rack up a high score on the machine. From now on, if you hit a piece of furniture in the bar (this includes the cabinets behind the playing area) you’re done. We are already starting to enforce these policies with our weekly tournaments, but I want to make sure all players are aware before they travel out here. I’m sorry guys, we just can’t risk losing the bar (especially since it’s our location for the Championships this year).
Ok, moving on. This satellite was our first attempt at the “modified double elimination” format, which we believed would give us the ability to run a multi-partner tournament wherein no same-partner teams would have to face each other before the finals. When putting the brackets together I realized that it actually isn’t possible to completely avoid that scenario from happening (as any time you have an odd number of players all playing with each other with 2 teams each, it’s not possible to separate each pair). However, using this format does make it extremely unlikely to occur, and we actually got lucky with the first satellite since we were able to separate the two brackets evenly.
After the tournament got underway, a few surprising losses occurred right off the bat in round one. Gotta Get Involved (PeeWee and Sonny) were beaten by Rerack Attack (Andy T. and Lee). Andy hasn’t played since the Series, and Lee has recently devoted all of his pong time to school for the remainder of the semester, so for them to beat the regularly high performing players PeeWee and Sonny was a shock.
In the other bracket, Clovis’s Tom Brady is GOD (Tim Annis and Jeff Swisslocki) were able to pull of the surprise win against ABQ’s No Remorse (Corey and Derek). Derek hasn’t been around the tournament scene lately, but few expected him to lose so early in the night playing with Corey.
Early knockouts included such high-profile teams as El Paso’s Adventure Time and Ron Burgandies, Clovis’s I Smell A Massacre, and the hometown ABQ’s Finest.
IT’S A TRAP! (myself and Ben White) suffered a first round loss to the Clovis/ABQ team Damage Plan (Edan and Valdez), but were able to slowly dig ourselves up from the bottom before facing them again late in the losers bracket, which we were able to pull off the victory. In the same bracket, the El Paso/ABQ team Brown and Browner (PeeWee and Omar) were making some noise, taking out teams like The Ones and Mexi and Sexy before facing IT’S A TRAP! and bowing out.
They Google Me (Glaser and Gabe) was probably ABQ’s second most favored team going into the tournament, and they were proving it while paving their way through the winners bracket. They ultimately lost in the winners bracket finals to El Paso’s Bang Cup (Tony A. and Andy G.), and so faced IT’S A TRAP!. Ben and I were narrowly able to pull off the win, thanks to some well timed missmakes.
We faced Bang Cup in the bracket finals. Even though the El Paso boys gave us a few chances, we weren’t able to find that rhythm that had carried us through the losers bracket, and so bowed out in third.
Over in the other bracket, another team was making waves after taking an early round loss. Plan B&J (Glaser and Ben) had lost their second round game to Cheech and Pong (Edan and Corey). In the losers bracket, however, Ben was playing as the hometown rival, as his team knocked out both of Edan’s and Gabe’s teams on his way to the finals. They faced Clovis’s star team, Second Coming (Elliot and Ian), in the bracket finals. The first game was a close win, as Glaser decided it was time never to miss a cup. Ian was visibly frustrated in the second game. After missing a couple shots he would walk away from the table. The real nail in the coffin came when Ian attempted to distract a shot made by Glaser, and he knocked a cup over, even as Glaser made his shot. With that extra cup gone, it seemed as though Ian had mentally checked out of the tournament. Ben and Glaser won the game, and ensured that at least one ABQ team was in the finals.
The tournament finals was a city vs. city grudge match with Bang Cup representing El Paso and Plan B&J repping the homefield. One thing can definitely be said for El Paso: they support each other. Every game that an El Paso player was involved in resulted in all 15 El Pasoans surrounding the table screaming like it’s the Series. The final table was no different. I don’t know if it was the pressure of the final table, or the El Paso mob, but something had gotten into Ben as he struggled during the first two games of the series. Glaser didn’t care, though, and channeled his inner Hampton by only missing three times in the entire three games of the finals. They lost the first game, and El Paso was sure they had it in the bag. In the second game, however, Ben made a couple more cups giving Glaser the opportunity to close it out. The third game was when all the pressure came down on Bang Cup. Ben decided to wake up, and only missed once in the third game (Glaser didn’t miss at all). With six cups to go in rebuttal, Tony A. missed the first shot, and Bang Cup was out in second.
The full bracket can be found here.
Congrats to David Glaser and that guy he played with for taking the first satty of the year! Big thanks to El Paso and Clovis for coming out in force, and I hope to see you all at the next one on March 3rd!
- Clawless
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Upcoming Events
WSOBP 8 Satellite Tournament
March 3rd, 2012
Southwest Beer Pong
Spectators Sports Bar
Guy/Guy Teams: $50
Guy/Girl Teams: $40
Girl/Girl Teams: $30
Preregistration Discount Here
Albuquerque, NM
March 3rd, 2012
Southwest Beer Pong
Spectators Sports Bar
Guy/Guy Teams: $50
Guy/Girl Teams: $40
Girl/Girl Teams: $30
Preregistration Discount Here
Albuquerque, NM
2012 Southwest Beer Pong Championships
August 3rd-5th, 2012
Southwest Beer Pong
Spectators Sports Bar
Friday: WSOBP 8 Satellite
Saturday: $5k Doubles Main Event
Sunday: Singles Championships
Albuquerque, NM
August 3rd-5th, 2012
Southwest Beer Pong
Spectators Sports Bar
Friday: WSOBP 8 Satellite
Saturday: $5k Doubles Main Event
Sunday: Singles Championships
Albuquerque, NM