Common phrases and symbols

Contents

Below is a list of common words, phrases, and symbols used in country abilities.

Symbols

  • Beer pong ball: A ball / a shot. Normally you have 2 shots per turn, but can be more.
  • Cup: Represents your team's cup/s.
  • Opposition cup: Represents your opposition's cup. Sink these to win.
  • Water cup: Represents a water cup. These do not need to be sunk.
  • Sword: An offensive ability.
  • Coin: A coin. Or any method that gives a 50/50 chance.
  • Dice: A die/dice.
  • Cards: A deck of cards.
  • 2 player: 2 players are required to play this ability.
  • Spice: Spice jar see: Netherlands.
  • Bagpipe: Bagpipe see: Scotland.

Common words and phrases

  • A shot: A single throw of the ball. Usually represented by this symbol: Beer pong ball. Normally you have 2 shots per turn, but can be more.
  • A turn: All shots from one team. Alternate turns with the opposition.
  • A round: Includes both your turn and the opposition's.
  • Declare: You must tell the opposition what your ability does. No secrets.
  • A cup-length: Should be obvious. The diameter of a standard red party cup.
  • Special cups: This refers to unique cups that cannot be moved or removed from the game using another country's ability. The full list is included in the FAQs below.
  • Void: The ability, or shot, does not count for that use or that turn, whichever is appropriate.
    Note: when one (or more) shots are determined to be void, balls back and grenades cannot be triggered on that turn. This is because you have not sunk all shots on your turn.
  • Cannot be used to end the game: The phrase means the game does not end nor progress to the redemption phase if your ability would remove the opposition's final cup. You must always leave one cup leftover.

    Example 1: Burkina Faso cannot use Attempted Coup to remove their opposition's final cup.
    Example 2: If Colombia activate Coke Craze when their opposition has 2 cups remaining, then sinks a shot in one of these cups, only one cup is removed.
    Example 3: If Japan have one cup remaining and their opposition has 2, they cannot use Mutually Assured Destruction to deliberately lose the game. Don't know why you would anyway.

For definitions of bounce shot, rim shot, celebrity shot, trick shot, rebound shot, balls back, grenade, re-racks, and redemption, refer to the base game rules.

Turn order

Confused about when your ability activates? Don't know when Redemption gets activated?! Consult this handy diagram!

Diagram of turn order.

FAQ

General questions

What's the difference between a shot / a turn / a round?

Refer to the list of common words and phrases above.

What are "special cups"?

Cups that cannot be moved or removed from the game using another country's ability. Special cups are:

  • Canada's Great Lake cups
  • China's Great Wall cups
  • Equatorial Guinea's water cups
  • Greece's Trojan Horse cup
  • Italy's Rome cup
  • Malawi's Lake Malawi cups
  • Netherland's Land Reclamation cups
  • Nigeria's spam cup
  • North Macedonia's back middle 3 cups
  • Peru's upside down cups
  • South Africa's three protected corner cups
  • Turkmenistan's Door to Hell cup
  • Vatican City's Pope Cup
  • Vietnam's Ho chi Minh cups

Cups that are not special cups (and therefore can be removed (but not necessarily moved) using an ability):

  • Australia's Outback Exploration cups
  • Botswana's Diamonds Are Made Under Pressure cups
  • DRC's Make it Rain(forest) cups
  • Ecuador's Galápagos Islands cups
  • Indonesia's Bootleg Bali Merchandise cups
  • Madagascar's additional cups
  • Romania's Vampire Castle cups
  • Vietnam's Vietcong cups
What happens if my country’s setup doesn’t fit on the table?

Get a bigger table. Or try your best to squeeze it on. Or don’t play that country, we’re not your mum.

Can I start my initial setup closer to the middle of the table than normal?

Keep it consistent if you can. There should only be a gap of about two fingers between the edge of the table and the back row of your cups.

What if I accidentally drop, slap, or shoot a ball into my own cup?

Refer to optional house rules.

Can I deliberately sink my own cups, such as to prevent a re-rack?

We’ll defer this decision to the host of the party. Personally, we think it’s for cowards.

By definition my “country” isn't a “country”, but it has a “country” ability. It should be referred to as a state or territory instead. Are you an idiot?

We know. Yes. And shut up.

Rim shots / bounce shots

I shot a ball and it bounced on the table, and on the rim of a cup, before landing in another cup. What happens now?

That is worth 3 cups - the opposition must remove the cup that the ball landed in, the cup it ‘rimmed’ along the way, and one more of their cups of their choice.

I shot a ball and it bounced along the rim of two (or more) cups, before landing in another cup. What happens now?

Every cup that was ‘rimmed’ along the way is counted as being sunk, and must be removed.

Balls back / grenades

Is balls back or a grenade triggered if my team only has one shot and we sink it?

No.

Is balls back or a grenade triggered if my team has three shots and we sink two of them (but miss the third)?

No, you must sink all the shots on your turn to trigger a balls back or a grenade. Refer to the base game rules diagrams.

Is a grenade triggered if my team has three shots and we sink two of them in the same cup (but one in a different cup)?

No, you must sink all the shots in the same cup to trigger a grenade. However, you this scenario oes trigger a balls back. Refer to the base game rules diagrams.

If my team has three shots on our turn and we sink them all (in different cups), do we receive balls back with 3 shots?

No. If balls back is triggered, you always receive 2 additional shots no matter how many shots were taken.

Re-racks

If I miss the opportunity to re-rack the opposition, can I retroactively use it?

No. You can only re-rack the opposition into a triangular formation when they have 3 and 6 cups remaining, or into a unique formation if it is specified in the opposition’s country ability.

If I trigger a balls back, can I request a re-rack before shooting my additional shots?

No. Balls back is considered to be part of the same turn, and you can only call a re-racks at the start of your turn.

Redemption

Can I use my country's ability during redemption?

No. The redemption phase is not considered part of either team’s turn, and therefore neither team can activate an ability.

Can I use re-rack the opposition during redemption?

No. The redemption phase is not considered part of either team’s turn, and therefore neither team can can be re-racked.

My team sunk the opposition’s final cup, but we still have one (or more) shots remaining. Do we have to shoot the rest?

No. In fact, you can limit the amount of redemption shots the opposition will receive by forfeiting any remaining shots. The opposition will only receive redemption shots for each shot you took on your turn. Alternatively, you can shoot the remaining shots and attempt to trigger a grenade or balls back, as this will completely remove the opposition’s chance at redemption.

The opposition has one cup left. If I land a bounce shot in this cup, do they still get redemption?

Yes.

The opposition has one (or more) cups left. If I trigger a grenade, and the grenade would remove all remaining cups, does the opposition still get to attempt redemption?

No. The grenade removes all remaining cups. It is game over with no redemption.

The opposition has two cups left. If I sink both cups and trigger a balls back, does the opposition still get to attempt redemption?

No. Triggering a balls back remove the two remaining cups, but you are still left with two shots and no cups to shoot at. It is game over with no redemption.

I sunk two cups, triggered a balls back, and now the opposition has one cup left. If I sink this cup now, how many redemption shots does the opposition get?

The number of redemption shots will equal the total number of shots you took on your turn. If you took two shots to trigger the balls back, then had two additional shots from balls back, the opposition would receive four redemption shots. As a reminder, the opposition only needs to sink one of these redemption shots to stay in the game. However, they will not get to refill any cups. A successful redemption shot will always leave that team with one cup remaining.

Country abilities

Can I use my ability to remove an opposition’s special cup (such as Italy’s Rome Cup) and instantly end the game?

No. That would be dumb. A list of all special cups is included above.

Both my team and the opposition want to activate our ability at the same time. How do I determine which ability is activated first?

These circumstances should be very rare. Usually, abilities are only able to be activated on your turn. However, if the ability can be activated at any point during the game (for example, England’s Royal Decree), then whichever team declared their ability first must activate it first. If you both declare at the same time, the team who’s turn it is must activate their ability first.

The opposition’s ability is far too strong / my ability is far too weak. Can you change it?

Boo hoo. Probably not. Some countries are designed to work well against certain abilities or certain playstyles. You should play against numerous countries and opponents to find somethat that works for you. In saying that - if you think you’ve found a genuine discrepancy in the rules, send us an email at worldwidepong@gmail.com and we’ll look into it. No promises though.