Ring Of Fire Beer Pong Explained (AKA Circle Of Death)

Ring of fire sounds pretty metal, doesn’t it?

It is.

It’s not a mode you play when hanging around with buddies having a few drinks. It’s a pissing contest to see who is the better beer pong player

And believe you me, people will talk trash like there’s no tomorrow if you lose.

But what is ring of fire beer pong?

It’s a show of skill, accuracy, and the ability to actually hold down your booze.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of one of the most breakneck moves in beer pong, and a way to win your match in a small number of moves.

 

Ring Of Fire Beer Pong: The Rules

Ring of fire is also known as the beer pong circle of death, which tells you a lot. These are the rules you need to know. Arm yourself with this knowledge before you take it to the table.

 

The Goal Or The Possibility

Sometimes, you specifically play ring of fire beer pong. This is different from having the ring of fire rule included in your rule set.

Ring of fire beer pong specifically focuses on making the ring of fire with no other goal in sight.

Understand the difference, and outline it to your opposing team so they know what they’re signed up for as well. It’s all in the phrasing.

 

Focus On The Ring

Your goal is to hit the two back corner cups, the end of the pyramid cup, and the center cup to make the ring of fire.

That should be your primary focus, because in some versions of this game mode, you lose if you don’t make a ring.

 

Ten-Cup Only

Six-cup (another type of beer pong) doesn’t work with ring of fire. You have to be able to actually make a ring with the cups, and mathematically, that’s just not possible with six-cup beer pong.

 

Excluding The Rule

If you go for a ring of fire and make bad shots, that is to say, you hit other cups that aren’t in the ring, you cannot call ring of fire for the rest of the game, regardless of how many rounds you intend to play.

This applies to standard beer pong with a ring of fire rule. It should also be noted that if you hit the other cups, nobody can call ring of fire for the rest of the game.

 

Differences Between Ring Of Fire And Regular Beer Pong

When you call ring of fire, the main difference is that it becomes the focus of the game.

Everyone is going to try and knock out the corners and center cup, and call ring of fire to wipe the floor with you.

In fact, some people specifically play ring of fire beer pong with the made-up rule in place that anything other than the two corners, one front, and one center cup will disqualify you.

They want to play for a ring of fire finisher, and nothing else. We do not recommended going along with this.

The main difference here is that when you win a game of ring of fire, you’re going to make the opposing team each drink three of those cups fairly close together.

That’s a quick way to win and get the opposition completely plastered, if you play enough games in a row, that is.

 

Competitiveness Over Fun

Nobody is calling the ring of fire rule because they’re quirky and just want to have a good time.

You call this rule at the start because you’re a hardcore beer pong player, and you want to put the pedal to the metal.

There are rules for serious beer pong players, and then the basic rules that only apply to casual players.

Somewhere in the middle, you might find someone who wants to show off without really knowing what they’re doing, and that’s when they’ll include ring of fire in the rule set.

This just gives you an opportunity to wipe the floor with them. In my personal experience, I haven’t seen anyone call ring of fire, unless they were fairy try-hard at the game from the start.

Casual, party beer pong tends to be played simply to sink the balls in the cups with the most basic subset of rules imaginable.

 

Best Alcohol To Use In Ring Of Fire Beer Pong

Well, it all comes down to personal preference, really. There are some times I played beer pong and I couldn’t stand the taste of the awful brew that was poured into those cups, but I drank it anyway.

However, in the spirit of fun and not wanting to make your competitors vomit the second  a sip touches their lips, you should probably agree on a quality beer.

You should also keep cost in mind, and not have too high of an alcohol content, so that you don’t get completely sloshed after your first round of beer pong. These are our top picks.

 

1. Coors Light

Love it or hate it, you have to admit that it’s smooth. That might be due to a lack of alcohol, but it’s still a lot easier on the palate than Bud Light. Sorry to all (three of) you Bud Light drinkers out there.

 

2. House Beer

While I’m personally not a fan of House Beer, I’m not going to turn my nose up if that’s what happens to be in the cups on the beer pong table tonight.

It’s not half-bad, and comes with a light, smooth taste. That’s the theme of all these beer pong beers: smooth brews that go down easy.

 

3. Miller Light

Low-calorie beer with an alcohol volume of just a hare’s breath above four percent. Not too shabby, right?

It’s smooth, it’s easy on the taste buds, and even if it’s not your favorite, it’s not going to be a majorly abrasive flavor on your tongue.

 

Do They Play Ring Of Fire In Professional Beer Pong?

It all depends. Because there are regulation rules written about beer pong and the ring of fire, you can definitely find some matches where the ring of fire was introduced.

However, these are usually just amateur teams that are new to the scene.

Why’s that? Well, experienced teams of highly-skilled beer pong players will be able to cause a ring of fire with one hand (and one foot) tied behind their backs.

Professional beer pong has its differences from casual games, but typically, there’s up to $50,000 on the line (which gets split up between a very small number of people).

You’ll find that a lot of rules—such as ring of fire—are stricken from play when you’re dealing with professional organizations and tournaments.

Anything else simply wouldn’t be fair to the players, since they put in so much work to get to the point that they’re at.

 

Should I Play Beer Pong Circle Of Death?

You have to be a good shot to even think about playing ring of fire.

Take a look at the rule set from earlier, and remember that in most cases, if you hit any of the other six cups in a ten-cup game, you automatically lose.

That’s a lot of pressure (especially after you’ve been drinking for a bit). Instead of going through all that and then drinking five cups while your buddy chugs the other five, work on your shots prior to getting yourself in beer debt.

Personally, I don’t play ring of fire beer pong all that often. And I have my own portable table for beer pong at home.

It’s fun every now and again, if it’s just with a friend or two, but it puts a lot of pressure on you and then makes your second game start with a gut full of beer already.

You have to pace yourself, you know?

If you have the following skills down, you can try to play ring of fire in public settings:

• At least 80% accuracy
• Ability to hold your booze
• An exceptional second player who shares these traits
• The ability to not be swayed by trolling/antagonizing

That last one is tricky though, because our inhibitions start to melt away when we’re tipsy, and so do our emotions.

If you really think you can hold your own in ring of fire beer pong, go for it. But be realistic about it, before you dive in with both feet.

 

Beer Pong Circle Of Death: Final Thoughts

Sounds pretty intimidating, huh? If you have any beer pong experience at all, you’ll be able to smash this one out of the park in no time.

That being said, it takes diligence and the ability to hold your own if you lose a few rounds. Alcohol tolerance is big here. Above all else, keep your aim true and focus your shots and you’ll be able to master the ring of fire.

Also, it’s perfectly okay to brag six ways ‘til Sunday if you end up winning—everyone does when they win the ring of fire.