FPO has traditionally been a tournament where everyone qualifies for the playoffs that were normally held on Friday and Saturday. FPO also included a Classics tournament normally on Friday. After thorough discussion, debate, and feedback from players and volunteers, we have decided to retain as much of the traditional FPO format as possible. Due to FPO being a PAPA circuit event, we have made some changes to accommodate for the expected larger number of players as well as PAPA TV broadcasting the playoffs and finals.

Here are the details on format, schedule and hotel information for the Fairfax Pinball Open, PAPA Circuit Event tournament for 2014. See www.vapinball.org/fpo-info for more information. This web-site currently contains outdated information and will be updated this weekend with these details.

Dates and General Event Information
Friday, February 21st through Sunday, February 23rd. Show is open to the public and competitors on Friday and Saturday. There is a $10 / day entry fee. All games are on free play and there will be plenty of non-tournament games for play during the event. Sunday is not open to the general public but is open to all competitors and spectators. There will be no door fee on Sunday. The event will officially close upon conclusion of the main playoffs on Sunday.

Location
Best Western in Fairfax, Virginia.
3535 Chain Bridge Rd, Fairfax, VA 22030
703-591-5500

A group rate is available for $65 / night. You must ask for the Pinball group rate to receive this rate.
Nearby Airports: Washington Reagan (DCA), Washington Dulles (IAD) and about an hour away is Baltimore-Washington Airport (BWI).

The hotel is located south of the Route 66 and Route 123 interchange, just one light away off Route 123. There are plenty of food options in the area, some within walking distance, and other hotels as well within a few miles.

Main Tournament
FPO will use PAPA style qualifying with 3 games selected out of the main bank of games for each entry. There will be two separate divisions, A and B. Only A-division is eligible for WPPR and PAPA Circuit event points. In each division, every participant is qualified for the playoffs.

Playoff Format
The top half of qualifiers will be seeded in the winner bracket portion of the playoffs. The bottom half of qualifiers will be seeded in the loser bracket portion of the playoffs. This effectively means the top half is playing in double elimination and the bottom half is single elimination. If there are more than 64 players in a division, those players seeded 64 and higher will play a preliminary round to establish the player in spot 64.

Final match to determine the winner will follow normal double elimination rules. The winner of the loser bracket must defeat the winner of the winner bracket twice to win the tournament (two separate matches). The winner of the winner bracket need only win one match to win the tournament.

Note: A-division playoffs will be limited to the Main bank, but B-division playoffs will also include the Classics bank of machines.

Playoff Schedule
Playoffs will begin Saturday night at 6pm. Playoffs will continue until midnight is reached, or the bracket reaches a specific point for A-division. A-division playoffs will be suspended until Sunday morning once 16 players remain: 8 in the winner bracket and 8 in the loser bracket. A-division playoffs and B-division playoffs (if not finished) will resume at 10am on Sunday. We expect that both divisions will conclude before 4pm to accommodate out-of-area travelers.

Qualifying Schedule
Qualifying begins on Friday at 2pm and ends at 1am. Qualifying resumes on Saturday at 10am and ends at 5pm.

Cost:
A-division $10 / entry, B-division $5 / entry. There is a separate $5 registration fee for the tournament.

Classics Tournament
The classics tournament will be conducted on Friday. Qualifying begins at 2pm and ends at 8pm. We will once again use PAPA style qualifying with the number of games per entry to be determined. Playoffs will commence at 8:30pm. The top 16 qualifiers will compete in a single elimination tournament to determine the winner. This is a WPPR eligible side tournament. Cost per entry is $5.

More information will be provided on the web-site as more details are provided including potential mini-tournaments throughout the weekend.

From all the volunteers that put on FPO, we hope to see you this February.

The Fairfax Pinball Open and PAPA Circuit event is a little over a week away and takes place 2/21 through 2/23.

Details can be found on www.vapinball.org/fpo-info.

We're still tweaking the classics format but will be either 2 or 3 game entry, PAPA style qualifying, top 16 (or possibly 24) in playoffs on Friday night.

We're also still deciding on the final format for the Barry Oursler fundraiser tournament that will take place all day Friday and Saturday. Most likely a pay-as-you-play format, so no time constraints involved other than end time which will be Saturday night. No playoffs to avoid affecting Main event. All entry fees are being donated, but we have some nice prizes from Stern and Jersey Jack for top place finishers (big thank you to both for being so generous).

If you are planning on attending for the main tournament, it is not required but please PM me on Pinside with your name (preferably same as your IFPA profile if you have one) and division (A or B) you plan on playing in the main event. This will help with setup to avoid wait times. No money taken at this time, that will all happen at the door.

If you have any questions, please post them here.

Thanks and look forward to seeing or meeting you if you attend.

Kevin

We're finalizing games and will post a list but they are subject to change for the tournament banks.

Restrictions on divisions will be updated by tomorrow, but in general it is up to the player to choose their division with rare exceptions, i.e. FPO director has discretion to restrict players to A on case by case basis.

I'm happy to hear so many people had a good time. I'll be posting results tomorrow with more details than other people may have posted.

Answer to the league question: take a look at fspazone.org. That is the web-site for the local leagues based in Virginia and Maryland. Email me from the website for the Virginia league if you want to know more.

Thanks,
Kevin