Best of the West - Phoenix, AZ
Where do I begin? I suppose at the beginning. I first played beer pong a couple years ago while on break during a poker game. The now legendary Jeremy aka ‘Clawless’ was to blame. I thought it was a fun game, but never really thought of it as much more than that; fun.
Flash forward to now. SW Beer Pong has established itself as the premier organization in NM for hosting the best tournaments in town, and providing some of the best talent too. I have since played in many of their tournaments, and I thought I was ‘not bad’ as a player. I even recruited a guy from my work to play with me in the 1st annual SWBP Championships. I suppose I had evolved into a pong player, and looked at the game as more than just ‘fun’. I was approached by SWBP to play in this thing called ‘The Best of the West’ out in Arizona. My first inclination was to decline; I didn’t feel that I was worthy enough to go. After some coercion I agreed, only to back out a week later. Again, I just didn’t feel I was a valuable asset to the NM teams. Again I was talked back into a commitment, only to back out two weeks before the big event. Finally, after a relentless plea from Clawless (who already ordered my jersey), I finally said ‘ok, let’s do this!’ Funny how things worked out… Finally the fateful Friday came, and the reality of my situation finally dawned on me; I’m going to Arizona in the hottest month of the year to play in a beer pong tournament! Admittedly I was excited. There were four of us in one car, and the other 18 teammates in I don’t even know how many cars. We were the last to leave, as Beth had to work for part of the day. That put us behind everybody else by several hours, so it was chop chop, pedal to the metal!
It felt that from the start there were forces at work trying to keep us from our goal. Only 30 minutes in and we ran into a massive wall of rain. Literally, it was a MASSIVE WALL OF RAIN. Visibility was absolutely nill, yet Clawless would not yield. I mean, he did slow down a bit for safety reasons, but his heart never faltered. After several hours and many more torrential bursts, we arrived in Phoenix (or some suburb of Phoenix, that damn place is so sprawled out I really never knew exactly where I was) only to get lost while driving to the hotel. Even with Beth our navigator and THREE GPS devices, we somehow managed to get on the wrong Greenway Parkway (it was Road, not Avenue!). After an almost blowup from Clawless, we gained our bearings and found that damned La Quinta Inn. I had been informed along the way that there was a ‘King of the Cups’ satellite tournament that night, and as we were checking in to our hotel, there was less than an hour to get to SkyBox. A quick in and out at the hotel and we were back on the road. This time our GPS was faithful and we found the spot with about 10 minutes to spare. However, it didn’t really matter as the tournament did not get underway until around 9:30pm. Since I was the last minute addition to the team, I had no partner for the the satellite. Luckily, niether did Brandon, a fellow teammate, so we teamed up and registered. It was twenty bucks a team, and the final three teams would get entries into the big event to be held in September in Las Vegas, NV.
The bar was packed with pongers (is that right?), most of whom had come to play in the Best of the West tournament. As the games got started, I knew I was watching just that, the best players in the west. I mean balls were dropping into cups like Tiger Woods drops putts. Brandon and I won our first game, only to get crushed by a NorCal team. By crushed I mean they ran ten cups on us without a single miss. I was beginning to understand the seriousness of this game. I found out later one of the guys on that team was ranked No. 3 in the nation (SonomaJoe), so that made the defeat more acceptable. To his credit, the man was very nice, even going so far as to say ‘hey man, you almost had us there in the beginning, great game!’. Brandon and I gave it a valiant effort in our third game, only to lose by one cup. No big deal, I didn’t think we would get too far anyway, so bring on the beer! As for the rest of us, the night was only beginning. NM represented about 1/3 of all the teams playing that night, so people knew we were there. I remember the DJ saying something like ‘give it up for ________’, going through each state that was there playing. He basically forgot about NM, and somebody had to remind him, only to have the place BLOW UP when he mentioned our great state. NM was there to represent, and our presence was unavoidable.
Several of our boys made it quite deep into the tournament, with team DnA (Adam Holbrook and David Dominguez) surprising everybody with a huge third place finish. Adam was on fire, making just about every cup, but that is not to take away from David. His showboating and mad trash talking definitely made it hard for the other teams to focus and make cups. Together, they made a great stand, and showed Arizona that NM can in fact play this great game. They won entry into the doubles event at King of the Cups, and many of us will be going up to support them.
The final match was just an outright war between AZ and NorCal. Clawless will fill you in on the details, but all I remember is a whole lot of yelling, and tossing of shirts, and making of cups. We finally got back to the hotel around 3:30am, we were trashed, tired, and at our wits end. I just kept thinking ‘this is just the beginning buddy….’
Part 2
So I’ve never been much of a sleeper, and have always adhered to the one thing my dad taught me; you get enough sleep when you’re dead. So after a crazy night of drinking and ponging, we finally got back to the hotel and into bed around 3:30am. I don’t know why, but at eight o’ clock every morning, I wake up, no matter how much sleep the night before. I didn’t want to wake up anybody in my room, so I snuck out and decided to take some laps in the pool. I ran into Boston, who is a big time pong promoter, and he looked like hammered shit. I introduced myself and he told me his name, then proceeded to pass out face first on a sunchair poolside. I swam for about 30 minutes, and slowly but surely the hotel became alive with hung over pong players all creeping into the lobby for some free continental breakfast.
Jack, Beth, and Jeremy eventually woke up and not a minute later I found Kyle walking from room to room, iced bottle of Crown Royal in hand, yelling, “wake up bitches, SHOTS ON SHOTS!” I just happened to be walking past such a room when I got pulled in for some heavy liquor. Then I followed Kyle for two more rooms, but I knew I had to stop or I would keel over right there and die. However, that did not stop most of the team, particularly John Dubois, who, in his early morning drunken state, managed to break not one but TWO hotel windows. Keep in mind this is all before 10am. John seemed completely oblivious to the fact of what he had done, and Kyle called it one of his most memorable moments of all time. Jeremy however, was not nearly as entertained, knowing damn well SWBP would be footing that bill.
Twenty minutes later and off in the distance I see this amazing rolling machine; on the front were 12’ horns, and a huge bullring. It was the Whiskey River shuttle, and it was an old school bus that had been refashioned into what now looked like a raging bull. Inside the bus was very bare and basic. The windows had been covered with wood, all to discourage window breaking (thank god or John would have surely broke many more), and there was sparse seating. Two poles in the front and back provided something to hold on to as the bus hurled down the road, and the entire inside of the bus was covered in graffiti, remnants of drunkards past. The most common thing wrote was ‘______ was here, 20xx’. Of course we had to leave our mark, and thanks to Mr. Dubois, the bus was inundated with our presence. At one point John even fell over while writing because he was so drunk. Classic behavior on such a bus I’m sure.
After a 15 minute ride in the bus from hell, we arrived at Whiskey River. It was just after 11am, and the tournament began at noon. For the most part, Whiskey River was an old western style saloon, with a nice big dance floor right in the middle. For Best of the West, the dance floor had been converted into the primary playing area, with a half dozen tables set up and ready to go. The other half were on the far side of the bar, for a total of I think 16 tables.
Slowly but surely all the teams wandered in, all of them looking worn down from the night before. But these were hardcore pong warriors, and by the time the games began, most of them had drunk their hangovers away. I took this opportunity to wander about and talk to some of the other teams. Besides the NM squad, the most noticeable team was ’10 girls, 10 cups’, the all-girl AZ team. They had custom handmade t-shirts, each slightly different than the other, and all of them had their own nicknames. The team captain was Kim, and she made herself known, first by converting her t-shirt into a cape, and by saying such crazy things like ‘TITS’ when she’d make a cup, and “what the penis!” when she’d miss. When I asked how she thought their team would do, she simply said, “We’re gonna rock your world!” Many of the girls on the team had over two years of pong experience, and some had even played in the WSOBP in Las Vegas. Although they did not make it into the bracket play, they gave many of the teams a run for their money, including the NM teams. Against Team Drunk, we went 3-2, winning the final game by only one cup. NM#1 actually swept the ladies, but not without a battle. A ton of respect goes out to all ten ladies, with particular mention to Melissa “Just the Tip”, who almost crushed Huff and Mike in that final game against Team Drunk. I’m sure we’ll see more from all those ladies in the days to come.
There was Chris Gracia and Brandon Marx, who ran both the King of the Cups tournament and the Best of the West. Chris is the owner of Fast Times Entertainment, and he basically runs the beer pong scene in the greater Phoenix area. Not only do they run the tournaments, but they also dominate the game. They in fact were the final winners the night before, taking down the King of Cups satellite. “This year we decided to focus on the big tournaments, and we’re ready,” Chris said. Of his partner, Chris said, “he rarely misses, but when he does, he knows he misses.” Well I think they have an excellent chance to go all the way, and I wish them both the best of luck!
I spoke to Big Nasty and Messiah G from the El Paso team, EP Elite. Messiah has been running the league down there for two months now. “I don’t take it easy on my guys, so they should be playing good today,” Messiah said of his team. The El Paso teams are best known for their loud and rowdy antics during their games. I witnessed it first at the SW Beer Pong Championships in NM, but even more so at the Best of the West. The best thing, in my opinion, about the El Paso squad was that, even after all the berating and yelling and teasing, at the end of every game they were gracious in both winning and losing. I think the El Paso team had the most heart, and I foresee many good things for them in the future.
Then there was the Blondies team from Las Vegas, NV. They named their team Blondies because a few of the members on the team were actually opening a Blondies bar in Phoenix. Promotion, promotion, promotion! I met Sarah, who was an amazing woman, and a formidable pong player. She and her teammate fared well the night before, but she elected not to play in the BOW, but instead support her man and her team. Shep was the captain, and quite a ponger himself. “We’re sitting in second after five rounds, so that’s good”, he said. Shep has four years WSOBP experience, and when I asked about his team’s chances he said, “We should make it to the finals, and we’ll see from there.”
There were other teams that I did not get a chance to talk to, like the SoCal teams and the other Arizona teams. In the madness of it all, I just never got a chance. But they all played great, and as the day wore on, it was clear that NorCal was the favorite to take the whole thing down.
Talking to Clawless about half way through, he was confident of NM#1’s chances. “I think we’re fifth or sixth right now, and we are 16-9 overall.” After discussing the other teams records, we found ourselves excited about our top ten guys from NM. We actually have a chance to go deep in this thing.
As for the games themselves, I think there is just too much to write about. I know I was not at all prepared for the amount of energy and focus you needed to give yourself and your team a real shot and winning. About half way through the tournament I was completely drained. Feeding on alcohol and hotdogs just didn’t cut it. By the end I was totally wasted, and I think my play reflected that. Team Drunk was just that, drunk, and by the end, we were all a bit worse for wear. However, it was “my first BBQ,” and I know next time I’ll be more prepared for what is to come.
When the Raging Bull shuttle finally showed up around 9:00pm, I was completely drained. We climbed on the bus and I sat down for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. We were all a bit anxious to get back to the hotel, and John Dubois even went so far as to try to hijack the bus. I had to physically remove him from the driver’s chair before he realized that it was for the best. Later he told me he wanted to punch me in the face, but deep down he knew I had just saved him from some serious jail time.
I think what I got most from this entire experience was the kinsmanship, the bonds that were made from friends old and new. The overall excitement of ever game, every cup made, and the respect that came from making those cups. I know that now I am officially a pong player, and this blog is just the beginning. As I write this, I am preparing to play in a singles tournament, and I actually like my chances. Wish me luck, and tune in soon for more ranting and raving from this beer pong rookie, soon to be a beer pong veteran! Cheers!
-Don Sifu
Where do I begin? I suppose at the beginning. I first played beer pong a couple years ago while on break during a poker game. The now legendary Jeremy aka ‘Clawless’ was to blame. I thought it was a fun game, but never really thought of it as much more than that; fun.
Flash forward to now. SW Beer Pong has established itself as the premier organization in NM for hosting the best tournaments in town, and providing some of the best talent too. I have since played in many of their tournaments, and I thought I was ‘not bad’ as a player. I even recruited a guy from my work to play with me in the 1st annual SWBP Championships. I suppose I had evolved into a pong player, and looked at the game as more than just ‘fun’. I was approached by SWBP to play in this thing called ‘The Best of the West’ out in Arizona. My first inclination was to decline; I didn’t feel that I was worthy enough to go. After some coercion I agreed, only to back out a week later. Again, I just didn’t feel I was a valuable asset to the NM teams. Again I was talked back into a commitment, only to back out two weeks before the big event. Finally, after a relentless plea from Clawless (who already ordered my jersey), I finally said ‘ok, let’s do this!’ Funny how things worked out… Finally the fateful Friday came, and the reality of my situation finally dawned on me; I’m going to Arizona in the hottest month of the year to play in a beer pong tournament! Admittedly I was excited. There were four of us in one car, and the other 18 teammates in I don’t even know how many cars. We were the last to leave, as Beth had to work for part of the day. That put us behind everybody else by several hours, so it was chop chop, pedal to the metal!
It felt that from the start there were forces at work trying to keep us from our goal. Only 30 minutes in and we ran into a massive wall of rain. Literally, it was a MASSIVE WALL OF RAIN. Visibility was absolutely nill, yet Clawless would not yield. I mean, he did slow down a bit for safety reasons, but his heart never faltered. After several hours and many more torrential bursts, we arrived in Phoenix (or some suburb of Phoenix, that damn place is so sprawled out I really never knew exactly where I was) only to get lost while driving to the hotel. Even with Beth our navigator and THREE GPS devices, we somehow managed to get on the wrong Greenway Parkway (it was Road, not Avenue!). After an almost blowup from Clawless, we gained our bearings and found that damned La Quinta Inn. I had been informed along the way that there was a ‘King of the Cups’ satellite tournament that night, and as we were checking in to our hotel, there was less than an hour to get to SkyBox. A quick in and out at the hotel and we were back on the road. This time our GPS was faithful and we found the spot with about 10 minutes to spare. However, it didn’t really matter as the tournament did not get underway until around 9:30pm. Since I was the last minute addition to the team, I had no partner for the the satellite. Luckily, niether did Brandon, a fellow teammate, so we teamed up and registered. It was twenty bucks a team, and the final three teams would get entries into the big event to be held in September in Las Vegas, NV.
The bar was packed with pongers (is that right?), most of whom had come to play in the Best of the West tournament. As the games got started, I knew I was watching just that, the best players in the west. I mean balls were dropping into cups like Tiger Woods drops putts. Brandon and I won our first game, only to get crushed by a NorCal team. By crushed I mean they ran ten cups on us without a single miss. I was beginning to understand the seriousness of this game. I found out later one of the guys on that team was ranked No. 3 in the nation (SonomaJoe), so that made the defeat more acceptable. To his credit, the man was very nice, even going so far as to say ‘hey man, you almost had us there in the beginning, great game!’. Brandon and I gave it a valiant effort in our third game, only to lose by one cup. No big deal, I didn’t think we would get too far anyway, so bring on the beer! As for the rest of us, the night was only beginning. NM represented about 1/3 of all the teams playing that night, so people knew we were there. I remember the DJ saying something like ‘give it up for ________’, going through each state that was there playing. He basically forgot about NM, and somebody had to remind him, only to have the place BLOW UP when he mentioned our great state. NM was there to represent, and our presence was unavoidable.
Several of our boys made it quite deep into the tournament, with team DnA (Adam Holbrook and David Dominguez) surprising everybody with a huge third place finish. Adam was on fire, making just about every cup, but that is not to take away from David. His showboating and mad trash talking definitely made it hard for the other teams to focus and make cups. Together, they made a great stand, and showed Arizona that NM can in fact play this great game. They won entry into the doubles event at King of the Cups, and many of us will be going up to support them.
The final match was just an outright war between AZ and NorCal. Clawless will fill you in on the details, but all I remember is a whole lot of yelling, and tossing of shirts, and making of cups. We finally got back to the hotel around 3:30am, we were trashed, tired, and at our wits end. I just kept thinking ‘this is just the beginning buddy….’
Part 2
So I’ve never been much of a sleeper, and have always adhered to the one thing my dad taught me; you get enough sleep when you’re dead. So after a crazy night of drinking and ponging, we finally got back to the hotel and into bed around 3:30am. I don’t know why, but at eight o’ clock every morning, I wake up, no matter how much sleep the night before. I didn’t want to wake up anybody in my room, so I snuck out and decided to take some laps in the pool. I ran into Boston, who is a big time pong promoter, and he looked like hammered shit. I introduced myself and he told me his name, then proceeded to pass out face first on a sunchair poolside. I swam for about 30 minutes, and slowly but surely the hotel became alive with hung over pong players all creeping into the lobby for some free continental breakfast.
Jack, Beth, and Jeremy eventually woke up and not a minute later I found Kyle walking from room to room, iced bottle of Crown Royal in hand, yelling, “wake up bitches, SHOTS ON SHOTS!” I just happened to be walking past such a room when I got pulled in for some heavy liquor. Then I followed Kyle for two more rooms, but I knew I had to stop or I would keel over right there and die. However, that did not stop most of the team, particularly John Dubois, who, in his early morning drunken state, managed to break not one but TWO hotel windows. Keep in mind this is all before 10am. John seemed completely oblivious to the fact of what he had done, and Kyle called it one of his most memorable moments of all time. Jeremy however, was not nearly as entertained, knowing damn well SWBP would be footing that bill.
Twenty minutes later and off in the distance I see this amazing rolling machine; on the front were 12’ horns, and a huge bullring. It was the Whiskey River shuttle, and it was an old school bus that had been refashioned into what now looked like a raging bull. Inside the bus was very bare and basic. The windows had been covered with wood, all to discourage window breaking (thank god or John would have surely broke many more), and there was sparse seating. Two poles in the front and back provided something to hold on to as the bus hurled down the road, and the entire inside of the bus was covered in graffiti, remnants of drunkards past. The most common thing wrote was ‘______ was here, 20xx’. Of course we had to leave our mark, and thanks to Mr. Dubois, the bus was inundated with our presence. At one point John even fell over while writing because he was so drunk. Classic behavior on such a bus I’m sure.
After a 15 minute ride in the bus from hell, we arrived at Whiskey River. It was just after 11am, and the tournament began at noon. For the most part, Whiskey River was an old western style saloon, with a nice big dance floor right in the middle. For Best of the West, the dance floor had been converted into the primary playing area, with a half dozen tables set up and ready to go. The other half were on the far side of the bar, for a total of I think 16 tables.
Slowly but surely all the teams wandered in, all of them looking worn down from the night before. But these were hardcore pong warriors, and by the time the games began, most of them had drunk their hangovers away. I took this opportunity to wander about and talk to some of the other teams. Besides the NM squad, the most noticeable team was ’10 girls, 10 cups’, the all-girl AZ team. They had custom handmade t-shirts, each slightly different than the other, and all of them had their own nicknames. The team captain was Kim, and she made herself known, first by converting her t-shirt into a cape, and by saying such crazy things like ‘TITS’ when she’d make a cup, and “what the penis!” when she’d miss. When I asked how she thought their team would do, she simply said, “We’re gonna rock your world!” Many of the girls on the team had over two years of pong experience, and some had even played in the WSOBP in Las Vegas. Although they did not make it into the bracket play, they gave many of the teams a run for their money, including the NM teams. Against Team Drunk, we went 3-2, winning the final game by only one cup. NM#1 actually swept the ladies, but not without a battle. A ton of respect goes out to all ten ladies, with particular mention to Melissa “Just the Tip”, who almost crushed Huff and Mike in that final game against Team Drunk. I’m sure we’ll see more from all those ladies in the days to come.
There was Chris Gracia and Brandon Marx, who ran both the King of the Cups tournament and the Best of the West. Chris is the owner of Fast Times Entertainment, and he basically runs the beer pong scene in the greater Phoenix area. Not only do they run the tournaments, but they also dominate the game. They in fact were the final winners the night before, taking down the King of Cups satellite. “This year we decided to focus on the big tournaments, and we’re ready,” Chris said. Of his partner, Chris said, “he rarely misses, but when he does, he knows he misses.” Well I think they have an excellent chance to go all the way, and I wish them both the best of luck!
I spoke to Big Nasty and Messiah G from the El Paso team, EP Elite. Messiah has been running the league down there for two months now. “I don’t take it easy on my guys, so they should be playing good today,” Messiah said of his team. The El Paso teams are best known for their loud and rowdy antics during their games. I witnessed it first at the SW Beer Pong Championships in NM, but even more so at the Best of the West. The best thing, in my opinion, about the El Paso squad was that, even after all the berating and yelling and teasing, at the end of every game they were gracious in both winning and losing. I think the El Paso team had the most heart, and I foresee many good things for them in the future.
Then there was the Blondies team from Las Vegas, NV. They named their team Blondies because a few of the members on the team were actually opening a Blondies bar in Phoenix. Promotion, promotion, promotion! I met Sarah, who was an amazing woman, and a formidable pong player. She and her teammate fared well the night before, but she elected not to play in the BOW, but instead support her man and her team. Shep was the captain, and quite a ponger himself. “We’re sitting in second after five rounds, so that’s good”, he said. Shep has four years WSOBP experience, and when I asked about his team’s chances he said, “We should make it to the finals, and we’ll see from there.”
There were other teams that I did not get a chance to talk to, like the SoCal teams and the other Arizona teams. In the madness of it all, I just never got a chance. But they all played great, and as the day wore on, it was clear that NorCal was the favorite to take the whole thing down.
Talking to Clawless about half way through, he was confident of NM#1’s chances. “I think we’re fifth or sixth right now, and we are 16-9 overall.” After discussing the other teams records, we found ourselves excited about our top ten guys from NM. We actually have a chance to go deep in this thing.
As for the games themselves, I think there is just too much to write about. I know I was not at all prepared for the amount of energy and focus you needed to give yourself and your team a real shot and winning. About half way through the tournament I was completely drained. Feeding on alcohol and hotdogs just didn’t cut it. By the end I was totally wasted, and I think my play reflected that. Team Drunk was just that, drunk, and by the end, we were all a bit worse for wear. However, it was “my first BBQ,” and I know next time I’ll be more prepared for what is to come.
When the Raging Bull shuttle finally showed up around 9:00pm, I was completely drained. We climbed on the bus and I sat down for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. We were all a bit anxious to get back to the hotel, and John Dubois even went so far as to try to hijack the bus. I had to physically remove him from the driver’s chair before he realized that it was for the best. Later he told me he wanted to punch me in the face, but deep down he knew I had just saved him from some serious jail time.
I think what I got most from this entire experience was the kinsmanship, the bonds that were made from friends old and new. The overall excitement of ever game, every cup made, and the respect that came from making those cups. I know that now I am officially a pong player, and this blog is just the beginning. As I write this, I am preparing to play in a singles tournament, and I actually like my chances. Wish me luck, and tune in soon for more ranting and raving from this beer pong rookie, soon to be a beer pong veteran! Cheers!
-Don Sifu
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