Southeast student competes in World Series of Beer Pong during break

Beer pong is a well-known ritual among college students. Many students have taken part, and those who haven't probably know what the game is. There are four players standing around a table, shooting ping pong balls into red Solo cups.

Now place 50 of those tables in one ballroom of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip, and this is the experience Southeast Missouri State University student Ryan Prickett, a former baseball player at Southeast, and his brother Cody Prickett got to experience in January.

Ryan and Cody Prickett competed against nearly 500 teams at the World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas in January. Submitted photo

According to bpong.com, The World Series of Beer Pong features more than 1,000 participants from 45 states and five Canadian provinces. There are two options to get into the tournament: buy in or win a satellite tournament. There are over 100 satellite tournaments held in 19 different states and one Canadian province. Satellite tournaments are small tournaments that are held by bars in towns across America and are put together through the Beer Pong Association.

Cody Prickett started playing beer pong far before his brother by competing in tournaments where he lives.

"I first started playing competitive beer pong at a local bar in Owasso, Okla.," Cody Prickett said. "Once I started playing and getting better, I got hooked and competed more and more."

By competing in all of these local tournaments, Cody Prickett was able to get his brother interested in competitive beer pong tournaments. According to Cody Prickett, he asked Ryan Prickett to play in a tournament with him, and that is how he got started with competitive beer pong.

"My brother got me started in competitive beer pong. He wanted me to play a tournament with him because we played for fun all the time," Ryan Prickett said. "We got second in our first tournament and made around $80."

After competing in that first tournament Cody Prickett went on to compete in others while Ryan Prickett went back to school and played purely for fun. Ultimately Ryan Prickett and his brother Cody Prickett competed in a satellite tournament in their hometown of Tulsa, Okla., to get their bid.

"A Tulsa tournament was being held for The World Series of Beer Pong bid and my brother had just come home, so I asked if he would like to play with me in the tournament for a bid to Vegas," Cody Prickett said. "We played 12 teams in that tournament, including teams from Arkansas and Virginia. We ended up going undefeated in order to get our bid."

According to Ryan Prickett, playing in the tournament was a spur of the moment event. He actually stayed in Tulsa an extra day before returning to school in order to play in the tournament.

The World Series of Beer Pong took place at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Submitted photo

As with any other big competition, there is preparation that needs to be done. Some compete in other tournaments, and some just play for fun in order to practice.

"I just shot a little bit here and back home, probably didn't practice as much as I probably should have," Ryan Prickett said.

Ryan Prickett and Cody Prickett headed to Las Vegas in order to compete in the World Series of Beer Pong tournament in January.

"The local tournaments on average you can win anywhere from $100 to $250 apiece," Ryan Prickett said. "In the World Series the winners got $50,000, $9,000 for second place and you got paid out all the way to 10th place."

The tournament was bigger than either of the guys expected. There was a room full of 160 beer pong tables and almost 500 teams competed in this tournament.

"The experience overall was an amazing atmosphere," Cody Prickett said. "There were DJs playing music the whole time and everybody in the event was very friendly."

The World Series of Beer Pong took place over three days. On each of the first two days the teams played six different games. The top 160 teams going into the third day got to compete in the final round for the grand prize money.

"Our team name was Brotensity because we were brothers competing in the tournament," Ryan Prickett said. "We had a comeback to make the final day of the tournament, we went 1-5 on the first then 6-0 on the second to put ourselves in the final round."

The team finished 145 out of nearly 500 beer pong teams in the tournament.

There was a lot of activity outside of the tournament itself. All of the players in the tournament were required to stay in the hotel where the competition was, and according to Ryan Prickett there was a costume contest, so there were a lot of people that dressed up in crazy costumes.

"On top of playing in the tournament everyone who competed or paid to watch got a wristband that got us into Club Pure for free, which was pretty fun," Ryan Prickett said.