PressureLife vs. Becky’s Bar & Grill

PressureLife won’t go down without a fight. Happy Dog and Mahall’s may have kicked our collective asses, but our latest outing was a chance to challenge some establishment to a truly honorable game: beer pong.

Okay, maybe “honorable” isn’t the correct word, but it’s a game that should fit right in our challenge wheelhouse. We’re a ragtag group of journalists running a magazine. Beer pong has beer. That’s about as good of a fit as you’re going to get. Becky’s Bar & Grill is also well-versed in the world of beer, so we challenged them to a best-of-three beer pong match to determine who would reign supreme in our third Pressure vs… outing.

Unlike our first two competitions, this challenge was full of drama. It was full of action. It was full of balls occasionally dropping in water.

Unfortunately, it did not start off well. PressureLife art director Hannah Allozi Gelston and writer Darrick Tahir dropped the first game in a close battle. To make it worse, Becky’s claimed victory by knocking the final Pressure cup off the table, a demoralizing end to the first match.

Unlike other Pressure vs… challenges, there was still hope after an early deficit. After a slow start by both teams, writer Gennifer and extremely handsome editor Alex Bieler both remembered how to throw things into plastic cups. It was inspiring. The duo capped off a relatively easy victory by making the final two cups in quick succession, while the Becky’s duo could not redeem themselves with, well, redemption shots.

With the match all tied up, would PressureLife falter in its (minor) moment of glory? Almost! Creative director/owner Jim Bacha and illustrator Aaron Gelston stormed out of the nonexistent gates and took a massive lead before hitting a major cold streak. Becky’s final two representatives made a valiant effort to make the game close, but Bacha sank the final cup to silence a very pro-Becky’s crowd.

After all the tosses, bounces, and flicks, the final tally was 2-to-1 in favor of PressureLife, a minor miracle after the Happy Dog and Mahall’s affairs. Now we can go into our challenges with our heads held high, at least until the next crushing defeat.