I like the idea of the pinball pinball pinball/king of the hill format. I personally haven't played it yet but the concept seems fun. I think that is the format Michael Ritter is doing in Milwaukee for the event he runs. So he may be able to provide additional insight if you're interested in that type of format.

Is king of the hill the 'last man standing' type format where you play a game and then stay there until someone fails to beat your score and then you move on? That's an interesting format.

More or less, yes. Although I've seen it where the LOSER stays on the game and the winner goes to the back of the line. It's kind of a second chance for the loser and it'll help keep the scores balanced. But if the person loses twice in a row, the winner and loser would be sent to the back. You also don't get choice of game. When one game wraps up, the next person in line gets sent to the open machine.

Accomplishment Olympics. See how fast someone can blank something on blank game and then....

What you're describing sounds different (more like 'flip frenzy' as described recently on head2head).

Last man standing works like this:
- Start of tournament player A plays game A and puts up a score.
- 'second round' player B plays game A and either beats player A's score or doesn't.
- 'third round' whoever has the low score between player A and B stays at game A and waits. Higher scoring player moves on to game B, player C starts on game A (so in the 'third round' there are 2 active 1 player games and 1 person waiting)
- 'fourth round' player D starts on game A, current low score on game A still waiting, all winners shift over so now there's players on games A, B and C
(and so on)
Eventually, after all the players have passed game A, the player left on game A is eliminated for good, and on down the line.

It takes a bit to get going, but it's unique and fun to do now and then.

Not sure what Michael does in MKE. But the guy doing it near me is coreyhulse . But I believe he does a point for each game you win. The tiebreaker in the event that people have the same amount of points is whoever played the fewest games (in other words, lowest amount of loses)

You're right epthegeek , I think we are talking about two different formats. My mistake!

No retry. If you do really horrible, you're going to sit and rot and get mocked. I did this at Yancy's house once. First player up, first game was Close Encounters - did horrible. Chatted with everyone else as they came through to smite me. The end.

Last Man standing works best with a bunch of games though, so may not be great for location tournaments.

I've run this style a few times. Many people seemed to enjoy it especially when the there is a crowd watching the 2 players play games side by side. Not really intended to be a die hard serious event, but it is very fun IMO.

FORMAT: Drag Racing

TD WORK REQUIRED: Moderate to Involved; need to keep track of time also need to have a tiebreaker format.

PLAYERS NEEDED: Any even amount. Powers of 2 best.

GAMES NEEDED: 2 for the drag race, and 1 more to settle ties.

TIME: As fast as desired. Works well with a 1-minute /1 ball format.

SUMMARY: Players are competing head to head in a timed match.

DESCRIPTION: Randomly pair an even amount of players. Two games will be run concurrently. Player 1 starts a 2-player game on his machine, Player 2 starts a 2 player game on his machine.

Both players are “racing” in lane one. This is a TIMED round. Players have 1 minute to score as high as possible in LANE 1. If the player loses the ball before the 1 minute mark, they have crashed and just step away and the score is as stands. If the player is playing at the end of 1 minute, the player just stops playing when TIME is called. The ball(s) drain and bonus is counted. Both Players now have a score in LANE 1.

The Players now switch machines and are racing in LANE 2 (player 2 slot). Same format.

At the end of the next minute the scores are compared. If one player won both races they advance. If there is a tie, then the tiebreaker is decided by the qualifying result with the higher qualifier advancing. The loser forfeits his title or PINK slip. ( I literally filled in player data on preprinted pink paper with our club logo etc so the players could collect them)

Process can be repeated to halve the field each time.

SUGGESTIONS: Have a predetermined way to settle ties that helps advance rounds. This can be accomplished by having racers play a single pre-qualifying game to rank scores or ties can be settled afterwards on a single game. With a pre-qualifying result ahead of time, this settles drag racing ties faster, but the lower ranked player will feel he is already at a disadvantage having to win 2 games.

Using a timed game after the races to settle ties moves the races along faster.

MODIFIED OPTION FOR DRAG RACING:

4 games used per round. This allows for 2 groups of 2 players to be lined up across 4 machines. Line up Players 1 2 3 4 on Games A B C D. Player 1 is racing against Player 2 on Games A and B, Player 3 is racing against Player 4 on Games C and D. Two races are running at once to help move the tourney along.

At the end of the (2) 1-minute rounds, the scores are compared on each machine and tallied.

Have each group now switch.

At the end there will be a Win-Loss result based on the 4 games played. Have a method available to settle ties. The single game qualifying run works here as well.

Enjoy-

Are these games owned by you are an operator?

If you own the game, I always though the "thunder-tilt" tournament sounded fun. Don't recall which event did this but they tied the stand up targets into the tilt mech on an AC/DC and you had to see who could get the high score with the added challenge of tilt's on the PF. Could work with other games. Just select a random target and go from there.

How about times games? Best score with a game with a max time of ___ mins. TPA does this with their online tournaments and I really like that format. For an event with people gathering it could also help limit the wait time as you wont have any marathon games.

You're opponent picks your mode. For games that are mode based this could be fun. Youplay your own ball but when it comes time to select your next mode to play your opponent get's to pick the one you have to play.

I also really enjoy pin-golf.

Doesn't really matter. Player order gets shuffled throughout the entire tournament as people are "in jail" on various games, and the one currently out front is "driving the bus" as we say. At least until (s)he has a bad game and is in jail. No better feeling than being stuck in jail through several players, until someone finally lays a huge egg to bust you out.

You just have to enforce (via honor system, ideally) that everyone plays each game without skipping any. Usually the jailbirds keep a close eye on it, for obvious reasons.

Another good thing about this format is that people can start late. Just work your way through the games and catch up. Usually doesn't take long, because the jail scores are low and you can quit as soon as you surpass them. And jailbirds never complain about late starters.