Typically, you can enter 15 times and cherry pick what your best scores were and throw out the rest, you can enter in all ranks unless you've already been established. A ranking being I think $20 an entry makes this rather expensive, but I promise you the heavy hitters do this to make certain they move forward as far as they possibly can.

You could enter in a, b, c and classics this same way, but A rank is where the serious points are. I'm not financially well off to enter 15 times for every rank, but I'm for sure going to take a crack at them all and hope for the best. After it's all said and done competition wise, you still have hundreds of games to play. I've never been to Pinburgh, but I'm going to try and make it my goal to do that next year, MPE got in the way of it this year.

In support of PAPA, it was the first event to open pinball up to me and to drive the nail in the coffin on me getting my first machine. It really is a fantastic event that must be seen to be believed. You are coming out from TX, so that does make it a little more costly for you, I would have to think long and hard about it, but if you loved the TX show, you will really love PAPA, IMO.

If you do end up coming out, I'll be keeping tabs on good bars and breweries/eateries. You may want to get in contact with me and others here on the board to see where the good breakfast and drinks are.

_{Post edited by Blakesell : For those just now reading this, this is totally incorrect information. Read further for corrections by others clarifying tournament details.}

I did say that somewhat incorrectly, you can play for all 3 divisions, but if you end up qualifying for a higher division, no matter how you did in the lower division is thrown out. I'm pretty certain you could, if not established as a different division, enter in all 3 categories. Robert Gagno went from B to A rank on the same day as I understand it, and how would you do that without entering both categories?

Do I need to reread the rules? I planned on entering them all and seeing how I fared this year.

You can go totally just to have fun. My gf isn't big on competition, but goes to play pinball and watch other guys... I mean, pinball players.

It looks like I'll have to rethink my strategy. I thought it was only if you qualified somewhere did you 'lock in' to any division. I also thought it was your highest scores within those entries, so that makes it doubly difficult that it has to be the highest one entry.

Tournament strategy is one thing I've wanted to learn more about anyway, time to read up! Thanks for the lesson SteveP!

Sorry I was so misleading with my details on competition. I was totally confused over what qualifies for IFPA vs. PAPA as they both have a different set of listings. I'm ashamed that I wasn't more knowing about tournament details, living as close to TA and knowing him pretty well as I do. Finger of shame to me.

Not sorry that PAPA is one of the greatest pinball events on earth, it's totally worth it, and I'll be taking the time to study up on rules more to try and qualify for something this year.

Tell ya what, if you're interested, I'll take some pics of the games when I get there early Thurs and post them up here. That'll be about as good as you'll get for the early notice.