Rage Cage: Official Rules

Make your shot and stack your cup on the player ahead of you before the player behind you stacks theirs on yours.

Six to twelve players stand around a large table. Set two cups per player in a tight cluster in the center of the table, touching, and pour beer into each, about a third full. One cup in the middle of the cluster is the cage cup. Fill it to the top.

Two players standing on opposite sides of the table each take a cup from the cluster and a ball.

Rule 1. Starting

Rule 1.1. On the whistle, both starting players finish their cups and begin shooting.

Rule 2. Shooting and passing

Rule 2.1. A shot is made by bouncing the ball off the table into your own cup. A ball that goes straight in without touching the table does not count.

Rule 2.2. A shooter shoots until the ball goes in. There is no limit on attempts and no turn order. Speed is the game.

Rule 2.3. When you make your shot, pass your cup and ball to the player on your left, who begins shooting at once.

Rule 2.4. If you make your shot on your first attempt, you may pass your cup and ball to any player who is not already holding a cup.

Rule 3. Stacking

Rule 3.1. If you make your shot while the player on your left is still shooting, you stack: place your cup inside theirs.

Rule 3.2. The stacked player passes the stack and their ball to the player on their left, who shoots into the stack. The stacked player then takes the stacking player's ball and a new cup from the center, finishes it, and resumes shooting.

Rule 3.3. A ball that bounces into a center cup is not a make. The shooter finishes that cup, adds it to their own stack, and keeps shooting.

Rule 3.4. A stack is shot at like a single cup. It gets taller as the game goes on. The Commission regrets nothing.

Rule 4. Ending

Rule 4.1. The cage cup is taken last. The player who is stacked when the cage cup is the only center cup left takes it, finishes it, and is caged. The game ends.

Rule 4.2. The caged player racks the next game.

• Empty center cups. The center cups stay empty, and a stacked player takes a drink of their own drink. Approved. Slower, and easier on the floor.
• Scoring by stacks. Each player counts the stacks they make, and the most stacks wins, rather than the game ending in a caging. Approved.
• Double stacking. A player who stacks may immediately shoot again to stack the next player too. Commissioner's Discretion. The Commission notes that the game was already fast enough.
• Slapping in place of stacking. Not a house rule. That is Slap Cup, a separate game with its own rules.

Are Rage Cage, Stack Cup and Slap Cup the same game? No. See the full ruling in Part 6.

A player makes their shot and stacks at the same moment the player behind them stacks onto them. Who is stacked? Both stacks count, in the order the Official saw them. If the Official saw them at the same time, the player in the middle is stacked once and the Official buys themselves a moment by consulting this rulebook.

May a player shoot before the cup is fully in their hands? No. The cup must be set down on the table before a shot is taken. Shots taken mid-pass are not shots.

• Stacked. Penalty: finish a new center cup. Signal: the Official stacks one fist on top of the other.
• Shot without a bounce. Penalty: the shot does not count. Signal: infraction (Provision 7.1).
• Caged. The game ends. Signal: the Official holds both hands up, fingers spread, like bars.

Rage Cage is one of a family of cup games, including Stack Cup and Slap Cup, whose names tables use interchangeably and whose rules they do not. In some places it is called Boom Cup. The Commission's archive contains a full drawer of rulings that begin with players agreeing to play "the cup game" and end with them discovering they meant three different ones.

Fill the center cups with any non-alcoholic drink. Everything else plays as written.