A 1992 Jamboree RV with turquoise accents sits conspicuously at a park off of Method Road with a young man sitting out front puffing a cigarette and strumming his guitar.
Upon further inspection of the RV, both sides sport a massive red, white and blue logo consisting of a flaming ping pong ball, an all too familiar solo cup and the acronym ‘ABAA.’
The American Beerpong Association of America has arrived in Raleigh — the first stop on a 60-college tour around the nation.
Christian Kunkel, 2006 Duke alumnus, and Kyle Lininger, 2006 Vanderbilt alumnus, are taking the country’s largest colleges by storm one cup at a time.
The ABAA is an organization founded by Kunkel and Lininger to shed light and bring new meaning to the popular drinking game beerpong, also known as beirut.
“The organization’s purpose is to make beerpong into more of a sporting event or recreational competition,” Lininger said. “People have a misconception that beerpong promotes binge drinking.”
According to Kunkel, he and Lininger conducted a study that indicates people who compete in ABAA tournaments consume less alcohol than the average college student on any given night.
The ABAA tournaments are the focal point of the tour as the organization is holding events at local collegiate hot spots to “bring beerpong to the masses in a form no one has ever seen,” Lininger said.
The tournaments require a $5 entry fee, but Kunkel is confident the reward for winning is more than worth it.
“The grand prize is an armful of merchandise and a medal,” he said. “The winner also receives a T-shirt.”
Recent college graduates and high school buddies, Kunkel and Lininger did the bulk of ABAA planning in Hawaii two summers ago.
“We originally talked about the possibility of selling tables,” Kunkel said. “But if you make tables cheap enough for college students — they aren’t very stable, so we morphed into an organization to host events.”
The duo picked up a third entity in Hawaii, Anthony Pakingan, a 2005 alumnus of the University of Hawaii, who serves as the tour’s videographer. A fourth RV mate, Tom Piontkowski, is the posse’s “point man,” according to Lininger.
Kunkel also emphasized another integral part of the ABAA mission — to provide a standard set of rules.
“We did a national survey which included 250 universities to find out the most common beerpong rules,” Kunkel said. “We took the rules most often used — not our own rules.”
Economically, the goal of Kunkel and Lininger was to keep the initial investment under $30,000, which they did.
“We bought the RV and spent the rest on merchandise,” Kunkel said.
As far as making money on the road is concerned, Lininger indicated that ABAA T-shirts are leaving the RV, deemed “Kunkiliningus” after its owners, faster than they are coming in.
“We don’t want to lose money,” Kunkel said.
But he made it clear money isn’t the primary goal.
“We just graduated — fresh out of school — and we saw this as an excellent opportunity to travel and meet people,” he said.
The ABAA insists that the organization is designed to promote safety while playing beerpong, which is why events are held at bars with security guards and lots of people.
Ultimately, Lininger said he wants to see the ABAA on Spike TV and ESPN one day.
“If they can show paper-rock-scissor competitions — why not beerpong?” he said.
Beerpong tournaments are not foreign events for students.
“I have played in a quote-unquote, league,” Chris Rojas, a senior in textile management, said. “I get competitive about it if I play my friends — I get into it.”
Rojas claims he is unbeatable on a good night.
“Let’s just say — on a good night — I am unbeatable,” he said. “I am ridiculous.”
Kunkel and Liningin possess a comparable confidence.
“We’re pretty nasty — I challenge anyone to beat us,” Liningin said.
Kunkel boasted the same message: “We might have to put some champs of our tournaments in their place,” he said.
The two most local tour stops for the ABAA are N.C. State and Duke.
According to Liningin, they tried to schedule a tournament at the popular UNC-Chapel Hill student watering hole ‘He’s Not Here,’ but the manager canceled on them due to a “scheduling error.”
No matter where they end up, the motley crew of four hopes to continue spreading the joy that is beerpong.
“America is for beerpong and beerpong is for America and that is why we emphasize America for emphasis,” Lininger said. “We want beerpong to assume its rightful place in American lore.”