{"id":51091,"date":"2016-10-10T07:35:12","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T11:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.pro\/?p=51091"},"modified":"2017-04-27T14:41:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T18:41:57","slug":"coming-soon-home-run-beer-pong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/2016\/coming-soon-home-run-beer-pong\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Run Beer Pong: <\/br>A Design Double Header"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ah, two of America\u2019s greatest pastimes: playing baseball and crushin\u2019 brewskis. Our ever-innovative product development team had the genius idea to combine them in our latest original product: Home Run\u00a0Beer Pong<\/a>. When our team is working on something new for our assortment, they typically need some guinea pigs to test it out – and lucky for us on the blog squad, people to document the process! I’ll admit, I\u2019m no sports expert. But since I have<\/em> played a fair amount of beer pong in my day, I figured I was qualified enough to tackle the reporting of this product-testing event while Cassie<\/a>, our blog editor, handled the photos.<\/p>\n

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Allow me to set the scene for you. It all went down in Conference Room A-2 – the table free of it\u2019s usual keyboards and mouse pads, instead replaced with a mini paper baseball diamond (the real game has\u00a0a board, not just a sheet of paper – remember we were product testing). Our single can of Canada Dry was cracked and ready, and our two opposing teams were eager to show off their baseball playing, soda slugging skills. Another disclaimer: the real game is meant to be played with beer, obviously, but we were playing at 11 AM on a Thursday and we only had the conference room booked for an hour, so we kept it low-key. But, you\u2019re free to chug ginger ale instead if that\u2019s what you\u2019re into.<\/span><\/p>\n

From left: Team Ken (Red Team), Team Craig and Jackie (Blue Team)<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s meet the players. We had many statistical minds on the field\/conference table, including two whole Kens! Ken<\/a> \u201cThe Elder\u201d is our Data Scientist, and Ken \u201cThe Younger\u201d (also known as \u201cYung Ken\u201d in some underground rap circles) is our Jr. Data Scientist. They obviously formed a team. Team Ken. AKA the Red Team. Next up is Craig<\/a>, our Data Analyst, and Jackie, our PR Intern who did double duty slugging it out <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>documenting the process on the UGoods Insta<\/a>. Craig and Jackie don\u2019t have the same name (bummer) but still made a fine Blue Team. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>After a brief review of the rules from the brains behind it all, Senior Product Developer Tiffany<\/a>, the game commenced.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You bat using a small catapult, which in the final version<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0secured to the board, but our players toughed it out and held it in place as they launched the ball into the cups. You can also rotate the catapult to get an optimal angle. The ball is attached to a string so you don\u2019t have to go chasing it all over the room, which could become a problem if you\u2019ve had one too many ginger ales.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A single! Look at that fizzy goodness.<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting the ball into any of the 4 cups in the first row counts as a \u201csingle,\u201d which means you move your game piece one base on the mini baseball diamond. The real game will have real game pieces, but we used War Heads<\/a> – which we all know are the bossest nostalgic candies of all – since the game was still in its development phase. Making it into any of the three cups behind the \u201csingles\u201d would be a double, the next two a triple, and the single cup furthest away is a home run. When you get a hit (sink a cup), someone from the opposing team has to drink that cup. The premise really is a combination of beer pong and baseball, but you aren\u2019t drunkenly swinging bats around and the cups are more mini and much cuter. Also, unlike in traditional beer pong, the cups are refilled after each team\u2019s turn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Craig savoring the sweet taste of Canada Dry.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just like in real baseball, 3 strikes means you\u2019re out. You switch between players on your team until you reach three outs, and then the opposing team is up. Another important rule that quickly became relevant in our game is that if the ball bounces off the <\/span>board<\/span><\/i> into a cup, that counts as a strike, not a hit. If the ball bounces off <\/span>another cup<\/span><\/i> into a cup, that counts as a hit. <\/span><\/p>\n

The finished game board will come with a piece of chalk that you can use to keep score right on the board, but Tiffany handled the stats for this test game. And man, was it a close one. Both teams had some standout moments and also faced some heartbreakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tiffany keeping score, me recording the play-by-play<\/p><\/div>\n

You can choose to play for 9 innings like traditional baseball, or for 6, which is \u201cLittle League\u201d style. We opted for Little League due to time constraints. We didn\u2019t want whoever had the room booked next to come in for a meeting and find us playing a drinking game in the middle of the day. <\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout our 6 nail-biting innings, some ideas for \u201chouse rules\u201d came up. Like, (this is mostly a joke) what if these cups were filled with hard liquor instead of beer? Something to consider for more <\/span>serious drinkers<\/span><\/a>. Also, we decided we should probably get a beer pong baseball fantasy draft going around the office. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Though we\u2019re all winners here for getting to do this in the middle of a work day, after a very close final inning, the Blue Team ended up being the real MVPs. Good game, all! We\u2019re excited that the real thing<\/a>\u00a0will be available soon\u00a0so that our UG customers can try it out, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Editor’s note: Baseball season is in full swing. Get Home Run Beer Pong here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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