Beirut also commonly known as ‘Beer Pong‘ is the most popular drinking game among college students today. Roughly twenty years ago the game emerged into society and caught on like wild fire. Beirut evolved as a “paddle-less” version of Beer Pong, a similar game that used paddles to propel the ping pong instead of throwing the ping pong by hand. According to Wikipedia there are two stories of where Beirut originated from. The first story explains that the game was popularized in 1983 after a student from Lehigh University observed a game at Bucknell University. The other story goes on to say that the game was developed in 1986. This is when a fraternity at Lehigh University created the game after all ping pong paddles were broken for regular Beer Pong. True Beirut .com supports the first story due to extent research in this area and finding many “old timers” who have claimed to play the game before 1986.
Anyhow, the reason the game is called Beirut instead of ‘Beer Pong‘ is because of an interesting history fact. Since the name Beer Pong had already been assigned to the game with paddles, a name for the game without paddles was in need. What ended up coming to these student’s mind oddly enough is the 70’s. To be exact they saw throwing the ping pong balls into the opposite cups symbolizing the “bombings” from East Beirut to West Beirut while they were at war in the 70’s (In Lebanon)
The game of Beirut spread very fast across the nation picking up a bunch of different variations of the game as it went. Although the game is called Beirut, it is often referred to as Beer Pong in many areas. It has been agreed among most people that calling the game Beirut or Beer Pong is acceptable and can be used interchangeably when referring to the game. Tendencies show that more people from the north refer to it as Beirut and more people from the south refer to it either as Beirut or Beer Pong. Simply it is argued that ‘Beer Pong‘ is easier to remember and makes more sense to the novice player. But most serious players call it ‘Beirut‘.
I personally believe the game started in the 70’s but did not get popular until the 80’s and has been spreading ever since. There is now not 1 university or college in the US that does not have a few hardcore Beirut players.