Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Two University of Michigan graduates have won the "World Series of Beer Pong," the first national competition of the controversial drinking game. School officials, however, are warning against binge drinking. Advertisement Jason Coben and Nick Velissaris split the $10,000 prize for winning championship, held outside Las Vegas Jan. 2-6. The Ann Arbor News reports the duo took on 160 other teams. Beer pong, a game gaining popularity in college towns, is played on a table with 10 half-filled cups of beer on each side. Each team tosses Ping Pong balls into the other team's cups. If they make it, their opponent has to drink the beer. A winner is declared when all of an opponent's cups are emptied. The game has grown from party house pastime to competing with pool and pinball at local pubs. While Coben compares it to "playing darts at a bar," Patrice Flax, the head of the University of Michigan's Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Program said the drinking game encourages binge drinking.
