Robopound
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robopound, typically referred to colloquially as Robo, is a fast-paced team drinking game originally created in the 1970's at Princeton University where it still maintains enormous popularity. To a limited extent, robo is played at some other universities (including Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley), and is highly popular in Scotch Plains, NJ. Princeton's version has a sizeable following, though an alternative form of the game was created in at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where it has been a mainstay in the realm of competitive drinking.
On party nights, groups of students can be found huddling around homemade bars in dorm rooms or tables in the taprooms of eating clubs competing at Robo. The game is a Quarters variant involving two teams situated opposite each other across a table. Players stand while playing, and alternate turns attempting to bounce quarters into plastic cups approximately one-quarter filled with beer.
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[edit] Washington University
[edit] Setup
A standard game usually uses one 12oz. beer. The side cups are filled to a height that can be downed in a single gulp, and the middle cup is filled with the remainder (usually about 1/2 cup). Three quarters are also required to play Robo; two which are the shooting quarters, one which is kept by the middle cup as a reserve in case a shooting quarter falls off the table.
[edit] Play
Begins with one player from each team donning a quarter in their shooting hands, and taking aim at the two cups directly in front of them. The two starting players must be caddy-corner from each other, that way they are not shooting at the same set of cups. Sometimes, a spectator is needed to initiate play and they do so by yelling "3...2...1...ROBOPOUND" as loud as possible. However, in other versions, play is begun after a quarter touch by the two leading quarters shooters.
At that point, the two players can attempt to bounce their quarters into the cups in front of them. If one of the players makes a cup, the player opposite him on the other team (not the one who shot), has to drink the cup and dump out the quarter. The drinking team must relinquish their quarter to the other team so they may continue shooting as the drinking team finishes their beer and retrieves their quarter. This ensures that the drinking team cannot shoot until they have finished their cup. Of course, it is possible that both players will miss their first cups, at which point their partners need to retrieve the the same quarter and attempt another shot. Play continues in this manner until all the 4 side cups have been made, at which point teams must try for the middle cup.
The middle cup represents American values at their finest. The team who makes the 4th side cup leading up to the middle cup will undoubtedly have first shot at the middle cup--demonstrating that hard work and persistance do not go unnoticed. However, the team who is behind heading into the middle cup still has a chance to overcome adversity and attain victory--demonstrating that a champion can be born even from the most dismal of circumstances. Whichever team makes the middle cup is proclaimed victor of the round. At this point it is the losing team's responsibility to drink the middle cup, wipe the playing surface, and setup for the next round.
[edit] Quarter Play
The hardest thing for any beginner to learn is proper quarter play. There are three quarters in a game of Robopound. In a perfect round, only two of these quarters should ever be used. The third quarter is kept at the base of the middle cup, only coming into play if a quarter bounces off the playing surface, or is swallowed by a competitor. In these instances, the team who lost their quarter may use the middle quarter, and typically the other teammate will attempt to retrieve the lost quarter and return it to the middle spot.
Under no circumstance should all three quarters be in play, which usually happens in the form of one team attempting to use two quarters (i.e. when one player shoots and misses, the next player will immediately shoot using the other quarter, not taking the time to pick up the one he/she should be using). This is a serious offense and usually results in nullification of the results of that particular game. If the team who did not perform the infraction wins the round, then they may count the game as a victory, despite the other team's infraction. If a team cheats in this manner, they have no chance to win that round.
If both original quarters are off the table, then clearly there are not enough backup quarters to cover this situation. Play is stopped and the lost quarters are found. Play is restarted using the countdown and both teams shooting simultaneously.
[edit] Misc. Information
- While a typical game of robopound may take up to twenty seconds there are some examples of astonishing roboplay. One of these examples occured at Drake university in 2006 when Ryan keizer was defeated in a six second routing by the honorable young masters luke stauffer and steven anderson. keizer furthered his personal shaming by not immediatly killing himself to redeem his family's good name.
- A typical Robopound game is played in the "Best of " series format, with the number of rounds pre-determined by both teams. Tournament format usually consists of a best of nine format for each series, but one individual series can take anywhere from 31 to 51 games (or more), depending on how intoxicated the competitors would like to be.
- While reaching for a quarter, it may be possible that a player may accidentally block an opponent's shot. In this case, play is stopped and the team that was blocked gets a free shot at that cup. As soon as their quarter hits the table, the blocking team can pick up their quarter and shoot. An intentional block is not condoned and any player who engages in this is banned from the sport. His or Her team also loses that specific round.
- While reaching for a quarter, it is also possible that a player knocks over a cup. If this is the case, play is stopped. Play is restarted as if the opposite team had made the knocked over cup; i.e. they get first shot on any remaining cups. The other team must wait for their quarter to hit the table before picking up their quarter and continuint play. If the middle cup is knocked over, then the round goes to the opposing team.
- In very rare occasions, a shot on the side cups will balance on the lip formed by the two cups coming together. Any quarter which remains balanced on the lip of a cup signifies an automatic victory for the team who shot that quarter.
[edit] Original and Standard rules
Standard Robo (the variety played at Princeton University) involves two teams of four players, each forming a line on opposite sides of a waist-high table. Eight cups partially filled with beer (typically enough to be fairly easily gulped all at once) are arranged in two staggered lines in the middle of the table.
Before play begins, one player on each team is designated as the "first shot." This player must be on one end of his or her team line. The player at the opposite end of the line is designated as the "first drink." Shooting passes one way down the line, while drinking passes the other way. Once cups are hit, any player may "tighten" the remaining cups by moving them in to reform two staggered lines.
To start the game, the two first shots have a social. Unlike most of the frenetic gameplay that follows, the social is not constrained by time pressure. One player tries to bounce his or her quarter into any of the cups. Then the other player is allowed the opportunity to do the same. If both players "hit" cups, those players each drink the cup they hit, remove the quarter from the bottom, and repeat the social. If neither player hits a cup on the first shot, time-pressure gameplay begins, and the next team mate in the line on each side takes their respective quarter as quickly as possible and tries to hit a cup. Except in the case of a social, players are always allowed only one attempt to shoot. If one player hits a cup and the other does not on the initial social, time-pressure gameplay begins, and the first drink must drink the cup with the quarter in it while the next player in line on the team that won the social takes a shot. Once the first drink finishes the beer, he or she must get the quarter out of the cup as fast as possible and give it to the next shooter in line on his or her team, at which point that player may shoot.
For example: The first shot on team A misses on the social but the first shot of team B hits a cup. The next shooter in line on team B then takes the quarter that team A originally used and shoots with it. Simultaneously, the first drink on team A must quickly take the cup with the quarter in it and drink it to get the quarter out of it and give it to the next shooter on team A. If team B successfully hits another cup before team A does, then team A must relinquish the quarter it would be shooting with, even if it is already in a shooter's hand, to team B, while the next drinker in line on team A drinks the new beer with the quarter in it. If on the other hand team A recovers the initial quarter and hits a cup before a player on team B does, team A takes the other quarter in play and continues to shoot with it while the first drink on team B must now drink the cup with the quarter. Play continues like this until the last cup has been hit or until there is an interruption.
[edit] Off-table
If one quarter bounces off the table, a timeout results, often involving players covering the cups with their hands to prevent further shooting. The missing quarter is then recovered. If no player had the other quarter in hand at the time that off-table was called, or if both quarters went off the table simultaneously, the players on each team who were next in line to shoot have a social, with identical rules to that of the game-starting social. If however one player had the other quarter in hand, he or she may call possession. In this case, instead of a social, the quarter that had gone off the table is placed on the table. The player with possession then has an opportunity to shoot. As soon as he or she takes a shot, the next shooter in line on the opposing team may pick up the quarter that was placed on the table and shoot with it, and normal time-pressure gameplay resumes. A player may also call possession if play was stopped when he or she were about to drink a cup; in this case, time-pressure play resumes when this person lifts the cup off of the table to drink it (known as pulling the cup).
[edit] Multiple cups hit
If one team hits a cup, and then quickly hits another cup before the opposing team has finished drinking the first cup (resulting in the two quarters both being in cups), the drinker of the second cup may not immediately begin drinking. The first drinker may finish the first cup without time pressure, and place the quarter on the table. The second drinker then places his or her cup on the table. The shooting team may pick up the quarter and shoot again as soon as the second drinker picks up his or her beer, a condition known as "shoot on their pull." Normal gameplay then resumes.
If players on both teams simultaneously hit cups, those players drink the cup they hit and have a social.
[edit] The pitcher
Once the final cup has been hit, the pitcher is brought out. There is no hiatus in gameplay while the pitcher is being brought out; it is the responsibility of the team who made the shot on the last cup to get the pitcher situated as quickly as possible while the other team is drinking the last cup (Exception: In one on one play, the person who hits the last non-pitcher cup is given a few seconds to set up the pitcher as he has no teammate to do this.) In competitive Robo, the pitcher should be a full standard pitcher of beer. However in friendly games, often a partially full pitcher or a full plastic cup stacked on top of an empty upside-down cup is subsituted instead. Shots on the pitcher conform to the same rules as regular gameplay. As soon as a team gets a quarter into the pitcher, that team wins the game. The losing team must then split up the pitcher and drink it. (Exception: if players on each team hit the pitcher simultaneously, or if the initial shot on the pitcher was a social and both players hit it, then the pitcher is poured out into a temporary holding container in order to retrieve the quarters, then refilled, and another social takes place. This repeats until there is a winner.)
Sending it back
If the pitcher being used is a full standard pitcher, the losing team has the option of "sending back" the pitcher. In order to do so, the first player designated to drink from the pitcher on the losing team must drink its entire contents, without removing his or her lips from the pitcher. If completed successfully, the pitcher is considered "sent back," and the winning team must then drink a pitcher. The first player designated to drink from the pitcher on that team may of course then excercize the option to send the pitcher back again, and this process may repeat as long as players are capable. Vomiting is freely encouraged and "pulling the trigger" is a common technique employed to free up stomach space and improve endurance.
[edit] Variants
Nonstandard team sizes - Though standard Robo involves teams of four, it is not always possible to come up with eight people to play with (or, just as often, more than eight may want to play). Teams of two, three or five are certainly common, though more than 10 players generally creates logistical difficulties based on the constraint of table size. When the size of the teams change, the number of cups is often changed. Typically the number of cups used should equal the number of total players, or two plus the number of players, especially for one-on-one or two-on-two games. It is also possible to play with uneven teams if absolutely necessary (i.e. two-on-three), but the relative skill and drinking ability of the players should be balanced as much as possible.
"T.I. Rules" - Named for its popularity at the eating club Tiger Inn, this variant has identical rules to the standard game except for a different cup arrangement, namely non-staggered rows of cups.
"Cannon Rules" - Named for its alleged popularity and/or origin at the now-defunct Cannon Club, this variant is also identical to standard Robo except for different cup arrangement. In this case, the cups are spaced out in rows and not moved in after shots are made.
"Virginia Rules" - Game variant played at the University of Virginia. It is nearly identical to standard rules, however, is generally played with teams of 3, and cups arranged in two, non-staggered, and immobile lines. Instead of a pitcher, a full carafe is used, making the final shot more difficult.
[edit] Glossary
- Off-table - Gameplay stops when one or both quarters are off the table.
- Pants-down - If a team gets completely skunked, by failing to hit a single cup or the pitcher during a game, that team must drop their pants until they successfully make a shot in the following game. Also known as a Throwing a PG or Perfect Game.
- Possession - One team had possession of a quarter when the other quarter went off the table, giving them priority in shooting when gameplay resumes.
- Pulling - The name given to the action of lifting a cup off of the table in order to drink its contents. Most commonly refers to the special case when this action resumes gameplay, such as after a quarter falls off the table, but can be used more generally as well.
- Re-rack - Movement of the cups to rearrange them into a tighter configuration, always consisting of two lines. Can be performed at any time during play. However players must be careful not to move cups in such a way that it disrupts shooting by opposing players.
- Social - Neither team has shooting priority; shooters take turns without time pressure until there is a winner (a spectacle of masculinity akin to women's basketball).
- Sent-back - The first drinker on the losing team finishes the entire pitcher, "sending it back" such that the winning team must then consume a pitcher.
- Zamboni - To use an upside-down cup to push spilled beer off the table, in order to improve shooting accuracy. Can be performed only when play is suspended, i.e. before a social, or when the quarter is off the table.
- Suave- A pancake like shot used only by one person who lives in Scotch Plains.
- Shenanigans- Called when a player's hand hits an opponent's quarter or causes him/her to miss his/her shot.
- Lame- A label usally attached to the Princeton folk who keep editing U of I rules even though it doesnt concern them despite the fact that the upstanding gentlemen of U of I would never think to deface their section of the article (save this one instance).
[edit] See also
Bouncing coins, a similar drinking game played in the UK.
