Dressed in an old T-shirt and jeans, Peter Altholz regales a group with a story of how he ended up partying with the Gym Class Heroes last Monday. What would be an unforgettable night for anyone else is just a typical occurrence in the life of one the creators of the World Pong Tour.
Altholz and his partner Sam Pines, a graduate of Marist College with a degree in sports journalism, created the World Pong Tour two years ago. Pines started his own league during his senior year of college and thought it would be a good idea to take the league to the national level.
"In the original league, we had 12 teams and just played for fun," Pines said. "After that ended, I thought it'd be really cool to do a beer pong tour where we would go to like 50 states and have $10,000 of funding from sponsors."
Altholz, who previously had experience with promotions and sponsors who and already owned the promotions company "Best of Buffalo," thought that the World Pong Tour could take off if started on a smaller scale first.
The first NY Beer Pong Tour started in October 2006.
"We didn't have any local sponsors and only went to six cities," Altholz said. "It wasn't a flop, but we could see that it had a lot more potential."
In February 2007, Pines and Altholz tried again, traveling to 15 cities around New York State with FYE and Red Eye Trips sponsoring them. Allowing 32 teams per tournament, the tournament sold out in almost every city.
Now starting their fourth tour, they have doubled their team capacity from 32 to 64 teams per event, and the stakes are higher than ever before. Grand prize receives a seven-night/day spring break trip to Cancun, courtesy of Red Eye Trips.
Altholz, who attended UB until his sophomore year, decided to take an indefinite leave of absence to run his own promotions company, having been in promotions since he was fourteen years old.
"When I lived in Westchester, I used to do the promotions for teen nights and would get party buses to take kids back and fourth to different events in the city," Altholz said. "I always tell kids to go to college and get a degree. That just wasn't for me - there isn't any book or college that could teach me what I'm learning right now, doing it myself."
Altholz takes care of the marketing and business side of the World Pong Tournament, while Pines, the commissioner of the tour, does the legwork and promotions. Traveling for about five weeks at a time before a tour starts, Pines goes to every city beforehand and promotes the tour at local bars.
Altholz and Pines employ Divas in every city the tour travels to, who encourage players to join the tournament and referee each game. Pines travels to each city, encouraging as many teams to sign up as possible. Participants can sign up to play right up until the day of the tournament.
"It's a lot of traveling, but it's a lot easier with our new van," Pines said. "Plus I'm a single 22-year-old guy and I get to go around and party for a living, promoting the tour. It's a lot of work but it's also a lot of fun."
According to Altholz and Pines, the tournament is played with simple beer pong rules. Played with normal cup formation, there is a single re-rack in triangle formation once per game, and players can only throw one at a time. The game doesn't end when a ball goes into a water cup or when teammates make it in the same cup - although if both teammates each eliminate a cup, then the balls are sent back.
The games are played on custom-made tables supplied by BJ's Beer Pong, with the World Beer Pong logo in the center and its different sponsors advertised around the edges. The tournament is played double-elimination style so that each team gets a better chance of walking away with a prize.
To play in the tournament, teams must pre-register and pre-pay a fee of $40. The fee gets each teammate a T-shirt, a set of cups and the chance to win a trip to Cancun for spring break, along with hundreds of dollars in gift cards.
"There are also prizes given away to second, third and forth place. Each team will at least walk away with a free T-shirt and the chance to showcase their skills, to see if they really are the best beer pong player," Altholz said.
While Altholz and Pines get to travel around New York State playing a game they love, they also take a sense of pride in what they've accomplished.
"It's not just about the beer pong, but it's about my love for promoting," Altholz said.
Last year during one of the tours, The Wall Street Journal covered one of the tournaments in New York City with the intention of writing a story on the untapped industry of beer pong. Pines and Altholz didn't make it into the article, but their tournament was showcased in a live Web feed on The Wall Street Journal's Web site.
"It's a good feeling to see your work recognized like that; it's something that we have put a lot of time into," Altholz said. "Creating an event where students can test their skills and showcase their talent, everyone always says they're the best beer pong player and now here's there chance to prove it."
In the future, Altholz and Pine would like to expand their tour to outside states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They hope that someday there will even be a tournament in China and they'll be playing all around the world.
The next tournament kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at Mojo's. The tournament starts at 8 p.m., but teams can arrive at 7 p.m. to practice their skills.
"Since the tour is kicking off in Buffalo, we really need students to come out represent Buffalo in the World Pong Tour," Altholz said. "As always, we want to remind everyone that drinking is always optional for each tournament. We supply beer for those that want to drink but it isn't frowned upon if someone wants to just play with water; we just want everyone to be responsible."
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
