I care about WI SCS and the WI pinball community, not about WPPRs.

I guess, I look forward to not being ranked/my ranking dropping and no longer being restricted at larger events

Check out the Championship Series section on our website. I think we have 7 or 8 that currently run.

The fee structure is only for US/CAN, as there are tax/legal issues that I was made aware of from our legal council and tax accountant. Everyone outside of the US/CAN gets to be ranked for free.

how do you deal with certain counties in states which prohibit paying in or paying out for competitive pinball (ie. MGC) ?

Hilton, your personal attacks do nothing to help make your point. They make me think you haven't evaluated the effects of the changes accurately enough to state your case so you're trying rhetoric in place of reasoned, well thought out arguments.

Some of your comments here reflect poorly on you and do not reflect the character I hope you possess.

There's the answer Hilton. Just secede from the union and you get free points.

Thanks Hilton!

It should be an interesting experiment.

I'd guess the answer there would be someone can sponsor the results or tough cookies.

It's a only dollar oh man, if you want WPPR then pay it, if you don't then don't pay it. Pretty simple concept. Didn't realize people are so hard up for cash buying all these 10k pinball machines. Sure would be nice for players to be subsidized a little so they could travel to Nationals. 16 players have a great shot every year in every state and province and 40 have a chance at Nationals I just don't see the downside here. If you want your events to be truely competitive and create a National Championship that people strive to go to then pay the fee, if you want no entry fee then continue as is you just don't get WPPR.

it is being look at. It seems the majority of WI players dont care to donate a larger portion of funds to nationals, esp when states like WI run more events/players than many other states.

The more active TDs will luckily be able to discuss options at MGC next week. Perfect timing to brain storm what we dont like about the current system and see what our collective path forward is.

When people register you can have the sidepot registration sheet.

Everyone that signs up for the free event can opt to also register for the endorsement fee to be ranked.

At the end of the event, you take the 20 players that participated, remove anyone that didn't care about being ranked, and submit the results as you do now made up of whoever did opt-in for the WPPR's.

Logistically that is far easier than the IFPA creating an automated system chasing down 50,000 players for payment. (for me - since under my process above I don't actually do ANY work)

I don't know how to answer that. It's a dollar. I guess I'm biased because I know I'll likely always make the state cut. I haven't won a championship yet, and even if I did, I'd likely be killed at nationals, and given the amount of money it would take to travel there, eat and lodge, plus the unpaid time off of work...

I get Hilton to a point. But he goes well beyond that point to truly insulting people's motivations. Like anything that involves some skill, those who are better will win more. Even the best player who ever lived, Keith Elwin, I seriously doubt he could make a living doing nothing but play pinball, though he could try.

When I've played in your events in your home, I've taken an unpaid shift off work (at the cost of about $150), paid the $40 in gas, plus the entry fee, and only if I won did I even break even. That's with sleeping in my car.

That, and to get to the place I am skill wise, I've been playing for about 40 years. I practice. I've worked hard at it. If there is a *tiny* (in the grand scheme of things) bit of cash at the end of it, I've earned it.

It is not "just a dollar". It is the principle for many and the turn off for the community building for others.

people like having ranking, that is obvious. I think many are even happy to pay in to IFPA for the service they provide.
many are not willing to pay a prize pool so a select few can cash out at the end of the year at SCS and nationals.

MGC can rope it into the show fee they have now, and if they want to opt-in to having their events count for WPPR's, then that's up to them to pay that fee on behalf of those that play. It would become another 'show expense' for them.

As far as paying back to WI, we would likely do what we've done for our World Championship tournaments. Explicitly announce NO PRIZE MONEY FOR WI SCS. I then invite the top 16 finalists over to my house after it's done, and gift them with a certain about of money for being 'nice guys'.

Same in WI. We just don't care about PAPA curcuit events. lol.
I would say the State Trophy is a driving force for competitive pinball in WI. IMHO. At least for me it is. I have already had some emails and texts about the changes and none have been positive. The one thing that keeps getting brought up is "cash grab".

I can see you are trying to do something positive for the SCS but not sure if the people below the top 16 will see it that way.

Perhaps, as Donovan alluded to, you are trying to get the number of IFPA events which are more frequent or run in a garage out of the ranks. If that is the case, well played.

Which was the point I was making with the website. The u.p.y.o.u.r.s. ranking system is symbolic of your position to thumb your nose at authority, not me telling you 'up yours'.

how does this work for the event point value and structure?

Lets say 20 people show up for an event. 5 people opt to pay in $1. Those five people finish 4, 5, 8, 12, and 20th.

When submitting, do I only include them as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?

I assume the event is only worth 2.5 points if grading at 100%

QUESTION . IFPA Will collect money and then send each state their portion. If over $600 they will need a SS # and send the TD a check. Then the TD Will have to pay out this money from gambling or "prize money " while playing pinball. Not sure how you state handles gambling or prize disbursing . I dont want to sign for a check that im now responsible for paying taxes or accounting for the gambling winnings in check form. Legal and tax issues? Still willing to support the payment just they might to rethink the purpose.

When I think of a Governor I think of William J. Lepetomine

Gov1 (resized).png

Gov2 (resized).jpg

Can't you see this man is a ni?

I also need to ask Josh...

Why the heck announce this on April 1st? What was the logic behind that?

It's been considered for years. We make no quick decisions regarding anything we do. EVERY decision we've made has come with large amounts of hate, and large amounts of support. We see this as a similar reception at this point.

We will revisit this throughout the 2018 season once we see how it's going. I have no problem repealing WPPRcare if it's not meeting the goals we want it to meet.

That was certainly one of the 'healthy consequences' we had on our Pros/Cons list. It was put on both lists

Lets not spin this with verbiage

It is clearly SharpeCare

You have this 100% correct.

I sort of figured that

What is the anticipated impact on "Superleague?" We don't have this in CO, but I saw one recently in Tucson, AZ. Just curious.

Chuck - I can talk with you offline about our process. We have things in place for this to at least 'work for now' and if we do run into issues then we'll either blow the whole thing up or find an alternate path.

Good thing for you is that I run Illinois, so you don't have to worry about any of this personally

If your primary goal is to make IFPA's role easier, then I think you'll succeed. If your goal is to generate more money for SCS, then I would wager my proposal would be superior.

so, your new rankings wont be a very good reflection of skill if continually the top players opt to not pay in?

For extremes, lets assume an event with 110 people that grades at 100%, where the top 10 finishers all opt to not pay in for your fee.
That means the 11th place finisher is now #1 and gets big ranking points?

That's just me being an asshole . . . I couldn't help myself

I figured. takes one to know one I guess

#hiddenagendas

Yep . . . if the top players opt out, then they aren't "our" top players.

That 11th place finisher is going to LOVE THIS

Watch out Josh, Hilton might put his bid in for IFPA President 2018.

You need to worry about this guy winning the SCS in IL now
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Every player would have to be accounted for in the endorsement fee for them to count in the standings, so ultimately that will depend on the TD.

I hear KME is gonna qualify through WI for Nationals, allowing the Sharpe's to cash in IL!

Yep, not unreasonable at all for those who take the rankings seriously. Those of us who don't will opt out. It will be interesting to see the results, since apparently the casuals can still compete and "win" but just not earn WPPR points.

I see value in the system, but due to local geography, not too interested in the state championship thing the way it sits now. Not a big deal for me, I'll pay an extra dollar at Pinburgh and for our league, but this doesn't do anything to boost my interest.

Those who play for money will like this. Those who play for fun will be 'meh' or dislike the change.

He may not be able to if no IFPA events exist in the state but he is welcome to come to play in my basement for non IFPA events. Yep that's what I thought he's not coming.

I haven't seen a Sharpe in WI for years. Why is that? Oh yeah, MGC no longer gives out cash payouts.

Since event values are based on number of players (and now players that pay the IFPA) this will defianelt have impacts.

No idea how it will play out, but i don't plan on paying a single dollar to IFPA myself which means every event I play in is worth .5 less points as a result.

If the local players all want to organize and get the money together for monthly events then a large discussion is going to have to happen.

I hope we can come up with a WIFPA plan moving forward.

Events that I run, I will plan to just take the money off the top of the league or tournament prize fund, and keep entry fees the same.
So most players won't even notice a difference, and all players will be counted for IFPA.
The money will come off the top of the "elite players" winnings!
I will NOT be giving a dollar back to anyone that doesn't want to be counted for rankings.

LOL their names are Colin and Charlotte

Ok, I am now officially trying to top the 'unranked unwashed masses' list When tournament results are posted, will there be a way to see the entire field, or would a 20 person tournament with only 10 paying IFPA show just those 10? Might make things interesting to track down the actual results and grade the non-IFPA folks...

I thought it was PAPA

Oh don't worry, I'm flying back home during PAPA for Charlotte's birthday, and then flying back out to Pittsburgh a second time during the weekend.

#ilovemykids

In more pressing news, who's watching Wrestlemania tonight? Is this really going to be the Undertaker's last match?

I'm about to leave for it soon.

Enjoy! I am going to drink some Whistle Pig and shoot some pool while I watch it myself.

I'll ask about this again with a direct quote...

"Option 4 –> Find your own plan. Kickstarter? Patreon? GoFundMe? Outside sponsorship?
TDs can come up with other funding options if they choose, we just wanted to list some examples."

"TDs can come up with other funding options if they choose"...

Why doesn't the IFPA try doing this first let's say this year?
Why not the IFPA do one if not all of these campaigns to fund the prize seeding for next year?
Why doesn't the IFPA instead get more sponsorships and try new ways of funding prize pools outside of TDs?

Seems like there are so many ways to make this fee invisible to players.

Probably the worst thing to do is present some sort of "opt in" and ask for a buck. Just creates a mess, all over a dollar.