Had a great turnout for the 1st round of season 3 with a total of 16 players in attendance. A couple of the the veterans unfortunately missed due to prior commitments but that just means they’ll bring the heat next round. We had several new players make a showing with some strong play. Looks like season 3 is going to be a competitive one. Can’t wait!!!
Standings after round 1
Only one week out from Season 3 of the RPL!! Woo Hoo!
This season should be an exciting one as we have added several members are now looking at a 16 person field to vie for title of RPL Champion!! We have a couple rule changes to this season to reflect players true rankings amongst other players in the league. That should make for some tight races across the board. Below is our new scoring system. Hopefully this will end up being a stable and easy to use system from here on out.
Stay tuned for updates over Season 3. Thanks for looking.
Richmond Pinball League second season ended with a final tournament. We had 10 players for the tournament which was a double elimination tournament with randomly selected groups of two playing best two out of three on randomly selected machines. We held the tournament at each of our two league locations with the winner of each location playing to determine the overall winner.
The video below is the final game in the Boocade portion of the tournament. This is a game of Fishtales between Taylor and Joe with Taylor taking the win.
With a possible 19 points on the line in this weekend’s tournament the race for second and third place is very tight. First place for the overall season is locked up as long as I can roll out of bed.
The tournament consist of 2 qualifying tournaments. Both are 2 out 3 double elimination tournaments at two locations. Top spot at each location is awarded 8 points, 2nd with 7 and so on. Any place below 8th also receives one point. The top player at each location will play in a best 2/3 to determine overall winner. Players coming in 2nd at each location will play for 3rd and fourth place overall.
Convoluted but it works. 🙂
Get ready….
Get set……
REGISTER!
Today may have seen the biggest sign that pinball is back. In under 2 hours 400 people from across the globe signed up for the largest pinball tournament in the world. What took weeks to fill in 2013 filled faster than anyone could imagine. Registration began promptly at 12 noon today and I sat at my keyboard constantly refreshing hoping to land an early spot for nothing more than bragging rights. Glad I signed up when I did, with a server delay that seemed to take forever I was the 135th person signed up. Phew.
Chris and I are both planning our first pilgrimage to the hallowed halls of PAPA this spring. There is certainly no other place in pinball that I want to visit and I think that Chris feels the same way. I’ve been in the hobby about 9 years and this is really the first time that I have felt like I had to get to PAPA. I don’t what it is, could be the history of it rising from the soggy grave from the flood 2004 or getting a chance to see some of the greats donkey kick their way to greatness. There is an allure to PAPA that has a hold of me and this is my year… and I can’t wait.
So here is the deal with Pinburgh, you get to play a LOT of pinball. I don’t exactly know how it works and I am pretty lazy to reading in depth rules but one thing I know is that I am going to get to play a LOT of pinball and possibly some pinball with some of the top players in the world. What I do know is that Pinburgh is set up as a match play tournament. You are placed in either 3 or 4 player groups and you get points for how you finish on each table. You play for 2 days like this and that is used to determine what group you will be playing in and attempting to qualify for. So basically you’re guaranteed two days of competitive play against varying players, not too shabby.
Stay tuned….
Flip This 2013 was Taylor’s first wppr point tournament and was a success. It was also my first try at videotaping a tournament. I ended up running out of room so I was limited in the available footage. Here it is in all it’s glory.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in New York City and had a chance to check out Modern Pinball NYC. You can find them online at modernpinballnyc.com. It is an incredible place for pinball. I have never been to a pinball location that has as many excellent titles that are maintained the way Modern Pinball NYC maintains them. Every game I played was error free, played very fast and was in excellent condition. Modern Pinball charges on an hourly basis with all the machines set on free play. I think the hour I played was around $10 which probably less than I would have spent on coin drops.
When I go to a place like modern pinball, I usually have a few titles that I want to play to get an opinion about and I also end up playing machines I already own. I end up playing the machines that I already own because I want to see whether or not my machines compare to machines that are in tip top shape. I quickly realized that my Whirlwind flippers were not up to par. The upper flipper shot on my machine has always required a perfect shot because there is not much flipper power. When I made the upper flipper shot much more easily on the Whirlwind at Modern Pinball NYC, I knew I had some work to do. I ordered flipper rebuild kits that night and rebuilt the flippers. The machine is much more fun to play with the more powerful and more responsive flippers.
I played Iron Man and was convinced that my Iron Man holds up pretty well against a well tuned machine. I played Fish Tales and I think my Fish Tales compares pretty well in terms of flipper power and speed of play. However, the playfield seemed faster due to a good waxing.
When I went in, I recognized the guy who was working behind the desk as Alberto Santana. I knew him from a youtube video where he plays a Johnny Mnemonic in an arcade. I had heard that Modern Pinball was staffed by high level players and had seen posts on Facebook of them with customers and providing tips and strategies. When I went in, he was busy and I didn’t want to bother him. As I left, he stopped me and my wife and wanted to know where we were from and how we had heard about Modern Pinball NYC. We had a interesting discussion about the machines and PAPA and tournament play. He reminded me to sign up for PAPA on the day it opens up because it can fill up fast. He also told me that Modern Pinball NYC works hard to wax the machines and make sure that everything is working smoothly to make them as fast as possible. Alberto told me that their goal is to have all the best arcade in america with public play machines that play like tournament machines.
Finally knocked that JJP off of his throne!!!! Insane game.
There are several upcoming tournaments that are worth checking out if you are not getting your competitive pinball fix from our league. We will be trying to finish up our league during the month of January so we are on track to start season 3 in February.
Dec 21st Pinaholics Anonymous – this event is held at a private residence in NOVA. The owner is a top notch guy and very passionate about competitive pinball. I have not had opportunity to attend one yet but I have heard nothing but good things.
If you want to attend this event you can find info here
Jan 18th Maryland Championship- info posted to Facebook
There will be some changes to the tournament structure for 2014, but the basic concept will remain the same.
Bud, “Easy WPPR points!”
Buzz, “This ain’t as easy as it looks.”
Entry fee will be $25. Entry fee for players from MD will be $20. Entry fee for first time tournament players, women, Town Hall regulars or PG county residents will be $15. Two complimentary classics entries for Town Hall regulars and for those travelling more than 100 miles.
The winners of A division will take home $250 for fist place, $125 for second place and $60 for third place. The winners of B division will win $120 for fist place, $60 for second place, and $40 for third place. Winner of the last chance tournament will win $100. There will likely be attractive acrylic awards to the winners as well. All monies collected for entry fees will be returned to the players in the form of cash or awards. So if we have a large attendance, the payouts will be higher.
For players looking to play for higher stakes, there will be a $40 optional sidepot. If 10 or less players play in the sidepot, the payout will be 50/30/20. If 11 or more players play in the sidepot, the payout will be 45/30/15/10.
The top finisher from Maryland will win a signed WOZ translite!
There will be a prize/cash award to the top Town Hall regular finisher.
There will be eight rounds of match play in which players will play one four player game per round. During the match play rounds, scoring will be 10/6/3/1 for first through fourth place. Scoring for three player groups will be 10/5/1.
Players will not play any other player more than once during these eight rounds.
After the eight rounds of match play, the top 12 qualifiers will advance to the A division playoffs and the 13th through 28th qualifiers will advance to the B division playoffs.
All remaining players will participate in the last chance playoffs. In the last chance playoffs, the players will be randomly placed in four players groups and groups will randomly placed on one machine per group. The winner of each group will remain in the playoffs, all others will be out of the tournament. The winner of the last chance playoffs will win $100.
Like MPC 2013, there will be $20 bounties on each game. There will be separate bounties for players who are WPPR ranked >200 and 200 or less. For example the bounty on TZ for players WPPR >200 may be bonus greater than 100M, while the bounty for players WPPR 200 or less maybe a score 700M or more. Only one $20 bounty per player can be collected. There will also be separate $60 mega bounties on each game, such as start Rule the Universe, complete Final Battle, loop champion on Shadow (10 loops), start LITZ, etc. Mega bounties can be collected during the practice period before the event starts as well as during the event, but $20 bounties can only be collected during the event. Only two mega bounties per player can be collected.
In the A division playoffs, the top four qualifiers will receive a first round bye. The 5th through 12th place qualifiers will be placed in two four-player groups and will play a three game PAPA-style quarter-final (scoring will still be 10/6/3/1). The top two players from each group will make the semi-finals. The semi-finals will also be a three game PAPA-style round with the top two in each group advancing to the finals.
In the finals, players will play a round of three four-player games to determine the winners.
The B division playoffs will be run in the same manner as the A division playoffs, with the exception that there will not be any byes.
Extra balls will be disabled. Death saves and Bang Backs will not be allowed.
Tilts will be tight. Physical abuse of the pinball machines such as kicking, lifting and then dropping, or punching the glass, will not be tolerated and may be cause for elimination from the tournament.
The vengeance timer on Shadow will be set to 10 seconds. Games in general will not be bastardized other than tight tilts and wide open outlanes.
There will be a side tournament on a classic machine. It will run from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Entries will cost $5 for two entries. Entries may be played anytime that players are not playing in a main tournament group. Players may purchase multiple sets of entries.
At 8:30 p.m., the four highest qualifiers will play one four player game to determine first through fourth place.
If the classic machine breaks down before 6 p.m. and is determined by the tournament director to be unfixable, an alternate game will be used for the remainder of the side tournament. If this occurs, the top four qualifiers from each game will make the playoffs and there will be two rounds in the playoffs.
Beverages are available at the bar. There are many food options within walking distance, and outside food is allowed inside the bar.
In case you missed it, here is a link to the event from January 2013:
https://www.facebook.com/events/314006628700465/
Additional in depth tournament details will be posted here soon.
I will not be playing.
Taylor did a fantastic job with the first IFPA sanctioned tournament in the bunker. Thanks for the hard work and planning that made the tournament go so smoothly.
Please send photos or video that you have from the tournament so we can add it to a longer post later.
For now, I am going to repeat the Facebook posting of the man who took home both trophies. From Chris Newsom:
RVA Pinball 