What started as an activity learned in elementary school and turned into a hobby led Decatur students to compete in the World Cup Stacking Championships.
Decatur High School student Sam Epstein first learned about cup stacking in his sophomore gym class. He ranks second in the state of Georgia this season and 11th overall in the state for his career.
Epstein, who holds a record time of 6.578 seconds in cycle formation, will compete in the Sports Stacking World Championship in Orlando, Florida in March.
Cup stacking first started in California in 1981 and has gained an international following over the years. The goal of cup stacking is to assemble the cups in different formations and then disassemble them as quickly as possible, DiCatrisch previously reported.
“I got a cup, a mat, a timer. I bought it with my Christmas money in 2016 and have been accumulating it ever since,” Epstein said.
Since then, Epstein has competed in the local World Sports Stacking Association (WSSA) Hotlanta competition and Junior Olympics every year.
“I decided to go because it was right around the corner. I did really well and met a lot of cup stackers there,” Epstein said of his first appearance at Hotlanta.
Epstein's encounters with world record holders inspired him and further fueled his interest in the sport.
Although tournaments went virtual in 2020, Epstein was able to compete in three tournaments before the COVID-19 pandemic. He became a member of Team USA in 2021.
“That's when I feel like the community has grown,” Epstein said. “Tournaments were also easier, so we had more new participants than before. Let's say you were trying to play your first tournament, you didn't have to fly all the way there, you didn't have to drive all the way, you just zoomed in. That’s all you need.”
Mr. Epstein took a leave of absence in 2022 due to rule changes related to timers, but resumed in early 2023. He played in a tournament at the Mall of America in Minnesota last year.
“We had a really good tournament there. We carried that momentum forward and [am] I’m going to the world championships,” Epstein said.
The stacking community is a good group to be a part of, Epstein added. Although it is competitive, there is also a sense of camaraderie among the players and they support each other.
“People don't really care what kind of place they get. [about] We focus on the times when they can perform at their best,” he said.
It's difficult to get a perfect stack, and tournament placements are often decided in a matter of seconds, making this sport quite competitive. In a competition, stackers stack their stacks three times and compete for the fastest time.
“Three chances sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not, especially when you're moving fast,” Epstein said. “The cups are really delicate. They tip over easily, so that's why it's so difficult.”
Lenia Epstein, Sam's mother, said that when Sam brought home his first cup set, he was faster than her son by about two days. The two watched videos online to learn how to do different stacks together.
“He didn't understand right away, so we were studying together. At first I was a little faster than him, but that only lasted a few days, and then the rest of the time he was He was faster than me,” Renea said.
The mother-son duo sometimes competes in parent-son doubles as a hobby, where each can only use one hand and must work together to complete the stack.
Sam Epstein is looking forward to meeting new people and achieving a long-held goal at the World Championships.
“The world championship was always my goal,” Epstein said. “The fact that this is the culmination of everything I've done so far. [is exciting]”
Rianna added that going to the world was something Sam always talked about when they started stacking.
This article was brought to you by WABE content partner Decaturish.