Quoted from jackofdiamonds:Tournament pinball is a TERRIBLE way to introduce pinball to a new generation.
How long does the average tournament take? 8hrs? 3 days?No "millenials" are gonna have that kind of patience/attention span.
No extra balls ,no specials, no matches,no explosions........boring.
Pinball at its best can't compete with a 50" flat screen blowing up bad guys while you chat and join forces with people all over the world.No way.
Pinballs got a couple of options.Go all the way back to making it a gambling device.Scores ,goals, skill=money.
bring back P2K platform.....so you can blow stuff up with a pinball shot.
Hmm... well, I've run over 40 tournaments that say you're wrong.
I introduced the pin golf tournament to Pin a Go Go and in the first year, nearly half the field was playing in their first tournament ever. Several players went on to continue competing locally and one player started his own league in the Sacramento area.
Another player who started at my tournaments now operates games in SF. And another now runs the bay area pinball map and runs tournaments of his own.
You complain that tournaments take too long but then complain that extra balls aren't allowed. EBs aren't allowed in large part because they'd make the tournament that much longer. I'm pretty sure you haven't competed much.
A lot of people have a warped view that competition isn't fun. It's an opportunity to challenge and test yourself, and equally important, meet people who are just as passionate as you are about the game and how to play it. Tournaments are social, stressful, but always fun if you don't take the event and yourself too seriously.