For Father's Day, I am going to have my brother's family, parents, and my own family over, and I want to have a pinball tournament for the younger members with prizes.

I have eleven pins, and there will be six kids ranging from 6 to 15 years, pretty evenly distributed in age across that range.

I really want everyone to have fun, to win SOMETHING, and yet be proud of their 'accomplishment,' even if engineered.

(Un)fortunately, half the kids have some experience (including the youngest), and half do not, in symmetric age distributions, no less. That is, one young, one middle, one older child each in the experienced and experienced group.

Any ideas for contests/prizes that minimizes risks of hurt feelings?

Thanks!

#2 10 years ago

LTG

Pinside member

Hopkins, MN

12y 191K 56,934 24 7

Low score gets to shave all the hair off your head ?

LTG : )

#3 10 years ago

RIK

Rick432

Pinside member

Joliet, IL

11y 61,800 1,554 16

Quoted from LTG:
Low score gets to shave all the hair off your head ?
LTG : )

Sheesh, Lloyd! You're supposed to be SUPPORTIVE!

Besides, there'd just be a six way tie for the score of zero.

#4 10 years ago

LTG

Pinside member

Hopkins, MN

12y 191K 56,934 24 7

OP
Quoted from Rick432:
Sheesh, Lloyd! You're supposed to be SUPPORTIVE!

Well it would decrease the risk of hurt feelings. Immensely.

LTG : )

#5 10 years ago

RIK

Rick432

Pinside member

Joliet, IL

11y 61,800 1,554 16

Quoted from LTG:
Well it would decrease the risk of hurt feelings. Immensely.
LTG : )

Not MY risk of hurt feelings!

Besides, some of these kids are so cutthroat, they'd be going for eyebrows at first chance!

#6 10 years ago

RAS

Matt_Rasmussen

Pinside member

11y 64,300 2,388

Here's a good opportunity to teach what it means to win a contest, and no matter win or lose, it's fun. Because when they reach the real world, there really is only one winner.

But, I can see the fun factor, how about small best ball prizes? Something like that?

#7 10 years ago

MEL

blondetall

Pinside+ Member

11y 99,300 6,269

I did a little family tournament for Memorial Day with 7 people and 4 pins. (It was 5 pins until Revenge messed up.) I made score sheets for each machine, and every person got to play one game on each machine. My husband and I played and wrote down our scores but didn't count in the final tally, so there were 5 in the running. On each machine, the top score got 5 points, the next got 4, the last got 1. Then we took the points for all 4 machines, added them up, and that was the rank of winners. I made a prize table with a bunch of random stuff on it (an air freshener was the biggest thing there) and the winner got to pick first but everyone got a prize. I had about 12 prizes for 5 people, so there were extras and nobody got stuck with one leftover thing.

When I called my mom about father's day plans for Sunday, both she and my dad eagerly asked if we were going to have a Father's Day tournament. So, I guess we are. (But without the grandparents there and just my parents and sister who won last time, husband and I are playing to win this time around.)

#8 10 years ago

RIK

Rick432

Pinside member

Joliet, IL

11y 61,800 1,554 16

Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:
Here's a good opportunity to teach what it means to win a contest, and no matter win or lose, it's fun. Because when they reach the real world, there really is only one winner.
But, I can see the fun factor, how about small best ball prizes? Something like that?

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I don't want everyone to get a uniform "Certificate of achievement" just for showing up. But maybe to come up with small prizes that would not appeal to the older kids for specific goals that the little kids could go for.

Maybe even a mini redemption system wherein the more points you score on a pin, the more "credits" you get towards "buying" something from the prize table. They're good kids and I have little doubt that they would "share" credits if I could find prizes that match the individual tastes of the kids (without earmarking them obviously for specific kids)...

#9 10 years ago

RIK

Rick432

Pinside member

Joliet, IL

11y 61,800 1,554 16

Quoted from blondetall:
I did a little family tournament for Memorial Day with 7 people and 4 pins. (It was 5 pins until Revenge messed up.) I made score sheets for each machine, and every person got to play one game on each machine. My husband and I played and wrote down our scores but didn't count in the final tally, so there were 5 in the running. On each machine, the top score got 5 points, the next got 4, the last got 1. Then we took the points for all 4 machines, added them up, and that was the rank of winners. I made a prize table with a bunch of random stuff on it (an air freshener was the biggest thing there) and the winner got to pick first but everyone got a prize. I had about 12 prizes for 5 people, so there were extras and nobody got stuck with one leftover thing.
When I called my mom about father's day plans for Sunday, both she and my dad eagerly asked if we were going to have a Father's Day tournament. So, I guess we are. (But without the grandparents there and just my parents and sister who won last time, husband and I are playing to win this time around.)

Brilliant idea... I think this is the template I will follow! If I choose the prizes correctly, no one should feel stiffed, there will be a genuine sense of accomplishment...

... And I get to keep my hair. (Sorry, Lloyd!)

#10 10 years ago

MEL

blondetall

Pinside+ Member

11y 99,300 6,269

Here is my thread about it, showing the prize table and score sheets. I also made official-looking certificates.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/blondetalls-surprise-memorial-day-pinball-tournament-pics

#11 10 years ago

RIK

Rick432

Pinside member

Joliet, IL

11y 61,800 1,554 16

Thank you kindly, bt.

Further note, last week I painted a section of the pinball parlor wall with blackboard paint, so I'll be putting it to good initial use as the scoreboard!

#12 10 years ago

MEL

blondetall

Pinside+ Member

11y 99,300 6,269

Very cool. I thought about painting a wall with chalkboard paint, but we put up the Space Invaders mural instead. lol

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