A Case of Beer - The Lottery Draft - [a case of the summer]

Instead of telling you about an unusual or unknown game, I thought this week I'd discuss a manner of running a beer pong tournament.

Back in my college days, when my friends and I moved out of the dorm, we used to arrange an annual beer pong tournament.  And over the summer, while I was home, I did my best to have one with my hometown friends as well.  Back in 2005, I ran probably my best tournament yet, when I did the Lottery Draft (wrestling fans will recognize the name -- it's a play on the then-yearly Draft Lottery).

So how does it work?  Everybody's name is put in a hat.  One name is randomly selected.  That person then picks their partner (logic being that he/she will pick a strong partner or somebody they play well with).  That team will then pick one of their opponents.  The person they picked (logically a weaker player) then gets to pick his/her partner (again, likely a strong player or somebody they team well with).  The process continues until the bracket has been filled (and obviously, anybody who was selected as a partner or opponent can no longer be picked out of the hat).

The reason I came up with this is because it's the best of both worlds.  Some people like to pick teams, others like teams to be picked randomly.  Plus, I really like the idea of picking one of your opponents (which could increase your chances of victory), but giving that person the power of improving their chances by choosing their own partner.  There are a lot of fun possibilities, too.  Let's say you're a great player, but a really crappy player makes you their partner?  You really don't know what might happen!

For what it's worth, I didn't win that year's tournament.  One of my best friends from home was the first name picked, and he (surprisingly) picked one of my best friends from school.  They picked my brother as their opponent, who in turn picked me as his partner.  We lost that game, but due to the double elimination rules, we fought our way through the loser's bracket and ultimately came in third place.  The team to win?  My best friend from home and my best friend from school!  Kinda fun that the first team to come together under this process ended up winning it all.