Boston Beerlympics - A Booze Drenched Logistical Nightmare?

April 25, 2007 6:57 AM

So while belly up to the bar recently, some friends and I began talking about group activities for the summer. The idea of a “Boston Beerlympcs” came up. The idea is that we’d form a few “nations” or teams that would compete against each other in weekly and biweekly events over the summer. However, like many ideas thought up over a few pints, the execution and logistics eludes us.

So, I apologize for the length. This may be an example of me overbeaning the issue, but I get the sense that if we want the Beerlympics to last through the summer, we need a guiding plan. If you have any thoughts even tangentially related to the question areas, please feel free to post’em (like that’s ever been a problem for AskMe before..)!

Games
One of the unspoken goals of the Beerlympics is to bring a few vaguely connected social circles closer together, so we want to make this as inclusive as possible. This means that all our events can’t be simply “Drink the Beer” type drinking games as there are a few non-beer drinkers, a few non-drinkers period, and many who wince at the idea of a summer spent murdering their liver. Games could be outdoor, indoor, or inbar.

First Question: What sort of friendly competition games/events could we have that would not necessarily involve drinking? We’ve thought of the classics like darts, pool, Guitar Hero, and so on, but are at a loss for much more.

Team Formation
Our goal is to have 4-5 teams of people, each with at least 5 members. At minimum, we think we need at least 3 “nations” participating in each event.

Second Question A: Given that we want to be inclusive and know that some folks are not willing to give up one night a week/weekend for an entire summer, how can we structure our teams and events to let those who want to participate, but don’t have the time to go whole hog, so that they feel included and that their contribution/involvement is welcome? How do we handle “drop ins”?

Second Question B: Also, how do we handle the reverse, where certain team members (Former college Beirut champions, wicked darts players, lords of the three-legged race, etc) don’t dominate events? Should we have a handicap, or is that not fair to the ringers who may only shine in one event?

Second Question C: How do we form the teams anyways? Draft? Random?

Scoring
We’d like to have medals, even if it’s just me spray painting large metal washers gold, silver, and bronze for each event. Also, at the end of the summer, we’d like to have a final closing ceremony bash. However, how to score the various events may prove to be tricky..

Third Question A: Should we standardize the scoring of each event as much as possible?

Third Question B: Should events be weighted when it comes to national standings? That is, should team events score more ‘points’ than single player events?

Thanks for reading. Again, if you have any ideas that you’re not sure we’ve considered, know any games that we really shouldn’t miss, or any general advice, please let me know!

posted by robocop is bleeding to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

Maybe try cornholing, horseshoes, and/or competitive shirt on-putting (most shirts put on in a minute, could be a team event) as events.

Draw numbers out of a hat to form teams. Random enough.

To be inclusive, track individual accomplishments as well as team "stats".

Buy foil-covered chocolates to use as medals and glue them to fishing line if you intend to do medal presentation ceremonies. You should be able to find gold- and silver-colored foil -- bronze may be more hard to come by.

Good luck. The whole thing sounds like fun.
posted by cog_nate at 7:19 AM on April 25, 2007

As for games, I once played a round of bar golf in Tokyo (18 drinks in 18 different bars) in which the vague directions to each bar which we were given turned the whole thing into something of a scavenger hunt. After the front nine, we decided that the last foursome to assemble at each bar would pay for that round. It turned into quite a competition. Without the non-drinkers, the rest of us would probably have retired to the clubhouse, but fun was had by all.
posted by three blind mice at 7:42 AM on April 25, 2007

For both fun games and ones that don't penalize the unskilled too much, may I suggest...

Bowling. You can mitigate skill by tweaking rules. Instead of making it a competition of highest score, set a benchmark of (say) 80 pins as the target score. Each player tries to bowl an 80, with a minimum per-frame score of at least one pin required (or you incur a penalty) so they don't just roll and 80 and five frames of gutter balls. The team that gets the closest to 80 on average is the winner.

I'd suggest mini-golf too - split the teams up and aggregate scores at the end. I used to play an informal tournament with friends with lifelines (move your ball twelve inches closer to the hole, trade scores with an opponent for a hole, take two strokes off your final score, etc), and it's a lot of fun. We took a whole Sunday and played three different courses, stopping for lunch and drinks between rounds.

Another "game" that could be fun is a poker run. You bar hop, drawing cards at every stop, and the best poker hand at the last stop wins. If you don't want to bar hop, turn it into a fairly easy and fun scavenger hunt. Make them do something semi-embarrassing at each stop, like telling an ice cream counter girl, "I'd like two scoops of melon, if you know what I mean" in order to get their card and next clue. Dumb stuff like that.

So far as being inclusive of those who can't participate every week, form your teams with one extra team called "The Stragglers." They're the team that is made up of the once-in-awhile or one-off attendees. Make them wear t-shirts or hats or beauty queen sashes that say "Straggler Pride," while competing for the future of all those who couldn't make it last week, and are spending most of August in Kennebunkport. Draft your teams otherwise, and let them develop the bonds that come with being in regular competition.

By the way, I'd totally set up the games with bizarre rules and penalties the stragglers can choose to inflict on the regular teams. Make them the villains. I think the stragglers will have a lot of fun in the role, and your regular teams will have a common enemy to rue over pitchers of Sam Adams after all is said and done.

Hope this gives you some ideas to play off of. Sounds like fun.
posted by peacecorn at 7:44 AM on April 25, 2007

Second Question A: Given that we want to be inclusive and know that some folks are not willing to give up one night a week/weekend for an entire summer, how can we structure our teams and events to let those who want to participate, but don’t have the time to go whole hog, so that they feel included and that their contribution/involvement is welcome? How do we handle “drop ins”?

My suggestion is to have events be individual events as much as possible. That way, if you have only one person from nation A show up on a given night, and four people from nation B, A still has a chance to win the gold - they just have one shot at it that night, as opposed to the four chances nation B has that night. Drop-ins could be assigned to whichever nation has the least people there that night.

Third Question A: Should we standardize the scoring of each event as much as possible?

Third Question B: Should events be weighted when it comes to national standings? That is, should team events score more ‘points’ than single player events?

Yes, I'd do something like 5 points for gold in an event, 3 for silver, and 1 for bronze. I wouldn't weight any event more than any other.

Games: is there some regionally popular card (or other?) game up there in Boston? If you were in the midwest, I'd suggest Euchre, but I understand that's not widely known outside the midwest.

And I'm astonished that Guitar Hero could be considered a "classic." I feel old.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:57 AM on April 25, 2007

Sounds like a fun idea. I suggest starting with a one-day kick-off event, perhaps a Saturday Beer Decathalon. That way, you can get an estimate of level of interest and number of participants, and you could get feedback from attendees in terms of frequency, types of activities, and team formation for future events.

As someone who organizes several sports teams, I can tell you that it is very difficult to get busy, working adults to show up regularly to a weekly or bi-monthly event. It might be easier to form new teams every week, because different people will show up, and that way the regulars would get to meet more people as well. I would suggest instead of keeping score throughout the summer, have a mini-awards ceremony after every event. If you want, you could track individual scores (every time you're on a 1st or 2nd place team, you get X number of points) and give out prizes to the top scoring individuals at an end of season party.

Oh, I'm in Boston and the all the bloggers here are hooked on the website Universal Hub- might be a good way to advertise when the time comes.
posted by emd3737 at 8:15 AM on April 25, 2007

create a champion for each event, rather than a beerlympics wide champion. that way you have a darts champion, or a beer pong champ, etc...
posted by shmegegge at 9:17 AM on April 25, 2007

Disc golf.
posted by baphomet at 10:23 AM on April 25, 2007

To accomodate a variety of schedules, have events at different times of day and different days of the week. Also, when people 'sign up', have them fill out some kind of schedule that reflects when during the week they tend to be busy/available. Use the schedules to decide the teams, so that teams have an even distribution of availability. This should randomize the player distribution to some extent.

In addition to the above, make sure that everyone has at least one friend on their team - it's tough to be surrounded by strangers.

Drop-in players get put on the team with the fewest players that night, or the team that is the farthest behind in points.

Offer couples the option of being on a team together or being put on separate teams. Letting couples have their way on this point will make them more likely to show up to events.

I second DA's 5/3/1 scoring system. All events are worth the same number of points.

Remember to be considerate re: location. T-accessible locations might be hard for people who have to drive and park, and non-T locations will be difficult for the carless. Try to mix it up fairly. Same goes for locations around the Hub; easy to Brookline = difficult to Davis, and vice-versa.

Consider checking whether local breweries would host events as private beer tastings. If the events aren't actual drinking games, then I don't think there's a problem with holding a Go Fish tournament as part of a private beer tasting.
This could work out great, in that there would be a beer aspect, but not focus.

Non-beer games:
Sudoku - every player gets a puzzle of similar difficulty; 1st/2nd/3rd to solve (correctly) score points for their team. It's a quick, individually-oriented event that can be piggy-backed on another larger event.
Lawn games - badminton, bocce, croquet can all be played at a local park without making a field reservation. No drinking in the park.
Events via email - every so often, send out a challenge that can be done via email, either by individuals or by the group. This can help the 'schedule-challenged' players participate. Examples include: solving a riddle and emailing you back the answer the fastest; working as a team to write a 500-word short story that includes beer, to be read and judged at the next event night; give each team a week to create the best website for their team (limited to some free medium like yahoo). I know these aren't totally beer-related, but they will help keep people involved and excited along the way.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 12:19 PM on April 25, 2007

Coolio. Thanks for the advice and ideas, guy!

We'll be shooting for some sort of web-presence soon and will post it to projects.

As Mefites, we hope that you'll be rooting for our country, The Great Nation of Lepusia, as we have, like, an awesome crest and stuff.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:18 AM on April 26, 2007

this is an awesome idea, as a fellow Bostonite I can only imagine the glory
posted by Meemer at 3:02 PM on May 3, 2007