If a show doesn't have a quality tournament, I won't attend. That's probably not the case for most people but it seems lame to not have a quality tournament when it can easily be done without wrecking the show for everyone else. Also, anyone claiming that tournaments on modern games are about insider knowledge is completely out of touch with reality. I learned about 99% of what I know in the last three years by watching Bowen's videos and, most importantly, actually getting out there and playing pinball instead of agonizing over what Hallmark toys to put inside a machine.

The false assumption here is that the machines brought for tournament play would be brought if a tournament didn't occur. Maybe this is the case at shows with crappy tournaments where they just yank the best games off the floor for tourney use, but I'm not talking about those ones. At most shows with good tournaments, the games brought for tournament use are brought by tournament organizers and players so that the tournament can have good games. Those people would not be likely to bring those games if the show had no tournament. I'd also be surprised if games were more likely to receive damage by use from good players in tournaments than they would be by the general public that pays whatever entry fee to come to the show. Bopping the sides of a cabinet is a skillful method used to control the ball and does not cause any damage to the machine. Slamming the lockdown bar, while a dick move, also does not cause damage to the machine. Intentional tilts, while also dick moves, don't cause damage to the machine. I don't recall any incidents in the over 150 tournaments that I have played where a machine got damaged by a player other than one isolated incident of someone punching through a playfield glass. The player was punished and immediately offered to pay compensation to the machine owner.

Do many shows really have a problem with not having the latest Sterns available for play outside of the tournament? Good tournaments tend not to use exclusively Sterns and I imagine distributors usually bring the latest games as well.

Sorry if I come off as overly confrontational, it's just frustrating to see things that are inherently untrue being said about tournament play and tournament players. I obviously understand that tournament play isn't for everyone, nor should it necessarily try to be. However, I think tournaments enhance shows more than they detract from them and ultimately pinball gains great publicity from things like PAPA TV which highlights tournaments at good shows across the country.

I should also mention that I think the other portions of Clay's post are spot on. Nothing sucks worse than going to a show and constantly running into junk games that people bring just to get them fixed for free. Overcrowding also sucks. The part that kind of confuses me about the post is that it's not like any of this stuff isn't common knowledge; if we all had access to 200+ machines and a warehouse to run events in, I'm sure pinball shows would be better. It's just not a realistic or feasible option in most parts of the country. The way Clay's show is structured sound great, sure, but is the suggestion that people buy 200+ machines, spend years dialing them in, then open their collection up to the public at a loss? While some people like, for instance, Clay, and the great folks at PAPA might be willing to do that, I don't think the model of having collectors bring machines to a common venue will ever go away. It's really necessary in most parts of the country and I don't think it's really fair to call the Ann Arbor show a "model" upon which to base other shows when it's clearly just not possible to do so.

It's funny, the Texas Pinball Festival ruleset and game choices have been the laughing stock of "serious" tournament players for quite a while. Those tournaments end up finishing at wacky times like 4am or whatever, use multiple of the same game and make other dubious decisions like putting WOZ in a tournament bank when it had effectively not even been released yet. I wouldn't base your impression of most show tournaments on TPF; I can assure you that they are outliers when it comes to tournament rules / game choices / other decisions. I heard that this year that tournament went quite a bit better than it has in the recent past, so good on them for coming around to more standard formats.

I guess I should have said that I currently won't go to a show without a tourney. The reason for this is because my funds for pinball travel are limited so I have to prioritize what events I travel to based on how they fit into a larger picture. I enjoy playing in tournaments so shows with tournaments get higher priority than those that don't have tournaments. Additionally, I don't aim to "get paid" playing pinball but if a tournament can offset the cost of the trip, then that makes me more likely to attend. Of course the reason I go is to have fun playing pinball (both in tournaments and out) and to hang out with my out-of-town pinball friends. If money was no object and I could afford to go to anything I wanted to, I would absolutely go to quality shows that don't have tournaments. As phishrace mentioned earlier, anyone can see that a good show is a good show, tournament or not. It's unfortunately just not something I can really do right now.

With all that said, I don't know a single competitive pinball player who is in it to "get paid". For real, if you asked me to name one I honestly couldn't. Everyone I know is there for the love of the game and the thrill of competition. Running a show with no "serious" tournament is totally fine and I understand Clay's reasons for wanting to do so, even if I don't necessarily agree with them personally. However, it really bothers me that tournament players are getting slammed so hard in this thread. Maybe tournament players are all dicks (including myself) and I'm just oblivious to it. I just don't think that's the case, though.