Quoted from ifpapinball:Gotta put my TD's to work!
I have been reading these threads and haven't made any comments but wanted to get a few thoughts out.
First of all, I run tournaments in Madison, WI. For a long time, WI was a pinball wasteland. There was literally ONE tournament a year that people started going to. Yes, there was an entry fee and everyone was happy to pay it. Even us schlubs who knew we wouldn't be getting anything back out of it!
Fast forward a couple of years. Games are now available to play in public locations, monthly tournaments are occurring. Why? Two-fold. First and foremost, to introduce (or reintroduce) pinball players, get together, and hang out and have fun doing something we enjoy. Secondly, to introduce NEW people to playing by making it casual and fun. Mixing new people in with seasoned veteran players has always worked out well. They learn the ropes, and many of them have found their way into the "fold" so to speak. There's absolutely no barrier to entry such as asking for $5 to participate - if we had done that I feel that most people who have never played before would probably just say "No thanks, I'll just watch". We still get new players participating every month. Because of this, there's a really fantastic crew of players in WI / MN that now get together to play some pinball and hang out.
TD's already do a lot of work. Have to coordinate the space, figure out the rules of the tourney, setup a web page so that it can be accessible for public, promote it so people show up, submit the request to IFPA, actually RUN the tournament (there's never any drama in pinball, right?!??), consolidate results, submit to IFPA. This is done voluntarily. I personally enjoy meeting new players, getting people (especially kids) interested in pinball, etc and don't mind doing it. Now we will be asking for $1 per player, and adding a few additional tasks of collecting and paying money to that list.
Will doing so Promote Pinball? My opinions: For seasoned players and regulars, SOMEWHAT. For new players, NO.
I understand the prize pools for SCS and National is what's trying to be raised here so that we can promote these larger annual events. However, in doing this I really hope that sight of all the smaller events that are used to rank players isn't lost. If those start going away due to lack of interest / ambition / whatever, pinball will once again crawl back into it's hidey hole.
I'll be keeping an eye on how this unfolds in the coming months.
- Sean