Ships and Dip 4 - Flip Cup!

How cool is this: getting to play Flip Cup against one of your favorite bands?

I think it's very cool and Guster put themselves out there for the event.

What is flip cup? Glad you asked. It's a drinking game, of course. The goal is to chug your beverage (generally beer) from a plastic cup, put the plastic cup mouth up and hanging on the edge of the table, flip it up in the air with your fingers hitting the bottom of the cup so that it lands mouth down on the table. You get as many tries as it takes to get the cup in the right position. Once you succeed, the next player on your team does the same. The first team to get the final cup in position wins the round.

Actual written rules!

I consider myself a semi-seasoned veteran after my last Jimmy Buffett tailgate event in Alpine Valley, WI. I'm not sure how many rounds we played but it was a lot.

32 teams with six players each entered in a single elimination tournament with the winner getting to play against the Guster guys. It was all very official with referees and an official bracket from flipcupguys.com. Who knew that such a thing even existed?

Guster

Guster and some volunteers played a demonstration game then Guster took on all comers while everyone worked their way through the brackets.

My team (less Blondie)

Our group had two entries and we divided up between a “kids” team and a “grown-ups” team. I was on the kids team, natch, along with Blondie. Blondie was our anchor and I was fifth but the other team finished while we were still on player four. Bummer. Of course that meant I couldn't show my mad flip cup skills under game pressure. Alternatively, it meant I couldn't show a huge choke under game pressure either.

The chugging was easy as we only had 2 ounces each of beer but the flipping is something you have to just get the feel of. It's almost an exercise in Zen.

Completed bracket

The grown-ups (who actually had one kid on the team) also lost in the first round but the tournament champions came out of our bracket so we consoled ourselves with the “at least we lost to the best” thought.

We need to have costumes next time - this team made the recap video

It was a fun way to spend some time in the afternoon while we were enjoying our day at sea. And, again, the artists were there with the fans and completely accessible. I know I keep repeating myself on their mingling but it was just super nice.