PAPA "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS"..

* Pinball finals will now be broadcast on ESPN 14, between 3 and 6am every third Tuesday. ESPN 14 is available on DirecTV's "Total Nerd Choice Package"

* Bowen is announcing he's legally changing his name to "Beverly" and hopes everyone respects her new life choice.

* Keith Elwin has been suspended from competition after testing positive for steroids. PAPA reiterates its policy against "doping" and will not tolerate the use of steroids, pop rocks, or pretentious, expensive craft beer.

* Because of escalating flood insurance rates, PAPA will be moving its headquarters to New Orleans

*notices where you're located* ...I see what you did there. ; D

Also a play on the fact that New Orleans is about 3 feet below sea level..

That's a big waste of space, takes up too much room, meaning less pins. PAPA needs to go to the open "TROUGH" Concept to save space... Could add this as another Division... Trough sliding..

Just hours away now. I'll be in church when the announcement is made, but I will find out all the details soon enough.

God cant tell you?? He should know by now...

Just a couple of hours now.... and I'll pass on sliding thru a urinal trough!

http://replayfx.org/

Boom!

Preregistration will open in December 2014 alongside standard ticket sales. When the first 700 available openings sell out, we will manage a waiting list of 100 participants on a first-come-first-served basis........wow

Pinburgh that is

Official talkback thread here: http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replay-fx-festival-official-talkback-thread

Meh.

Thanks for all the fish!

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So the Replay thing was the announcement?

Pinburgh Tournament Sponsored By:

The Pinburgh Match-Play Championship, a PAPA event sponsored by pair Networks Inc., is the largest pinball tournament in the world, featuring 280 pinball machines and 700 players battling the silverball over three days of competition. Pinburgh will offer plaques for all of the top finishers in each division and a guaranteed $100,000 prize pool.

Pinburgh’s match-play format offers a social experience as players from all over the world compare skills during a series of multiplayer matches spanning the first two days. On Thursday, each player will compete in five rounds, each consisting of four, four-player matches to determine the appropriate skill division for all players. Divisions will be marked as A / B / C / D, with Division A being the most skilled. On Friday, players will compete against other players solely within their own skill division in order to determine seeding for the final rounds. On Saturday, the top 40 in each division will compete in separate divisional finals.

Preregistration will open in December 2014 alongside standard ticket sales. When the first 700 available openings sell out, we will manage a waiting list of 100 participants on a first-come-first-served basis. We expect this tournament to sell out quickly and are not responsible for any situations, server-related or otherwise, that prohibit a player from registering in time.

Pinburgh will cost an additional $104.99 fee on top of general admission into the event. Any player requesting a refund between December 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015 will receive a full 100% refund. Any player requesting a refund between April 1, 2015 and May 31, 2015 will receive a 50% refund. Any player requesting a refund after June 1, 2015 will receive a 25% refund. Please note that all games used in the Pinburgh tournament will be on free-play, keeping the overall cost of the event in-line with previous years.

Please be certain you can attend prior to reserving one of the limited openings in the tournament!

I think this would be considered as "Epic" for pinball.

I've never competed in a tourney. I know I'm not a "A" player, but how do you place yourself if your not sure how the rankings work? I'm a pretty good player based off comparing my score vrs other pinsiders. I've watched the pros on you tube and can see how different I play. I don't like to cradle the ball, but rather let the game flow. Playing this style would place me in to what group? I' don't want to enter a group that turns out to be too easy or hard. Looking for the right level of challenge. Any insight would help.

You play the whole field the first day and separate into the four classes based on that days performance, barring some people who have to play in certain divisions based on other wins.

^^^ Thank you... sound really fair that way

If previous Pinburghs are any indication, you just play and they automatically place you in whichever division your score dictates.

Note to self: don't open a thread and wait several minutes before replying.

Announcement tl/dr:

Pinburgh moved to a larger location
More people accomodated at Pinburgh
Pinburgh to coincide with new arcade festival

EDIT: Corrected "pinball festival" to "arcade festival"

Pinburgh + a huge ass expo with a billion things to do

Actually it sounds more like it will coincide with a huge arcade, video game and console festival. To tell you the truth I am not sure how I feel about this. I have always wanted to make a pilgrimage to Pinburgh at least once in my life. Now it seems I have missed out on seeing it as it was in its pure form. No offense but the video game and console people are a whole different cross section of people and I have always enjoyed pinball centric shows more than combined shows.

Oh well. I guess there is always TPF to make a pilgrimage to...

I agree with you. But if we're always looking for new blood, this merger would showcase the hobby to a very needed younger audience.

Have you ever attended PPE or CAX? Those two shows are/ were polar opposites. PPE was all pinball, CAX is pinball and video games. The average age at PPE was 10 or more years older than the crowd that attends CAX. Lots of gray hair. I'm surprised AARP never opened a booth there. They were great shows and I actually added to the gray hair count, but it was a much older crowd.

CAX on the other hand has a much younger average age. It makes the show feel more like an arcade, which is what most of us a trying to recreate in our game rooms at home. I've never been a video game guy. When I learned how to play pinball, there were no video games. But there were kids in the arcades, including me. The sights and sounds inside CAX are about as close as you are going to get to what arcades used to be like. This show should be similar in feel.

As far as experiencing Pinburgh in it's purest form, that's kinda silly. It's match play. Nothing more. If you want to experience PAPA in all it's glory, go to regular PAPA. That's old school. This new show sounds awesome. I doubt I can afford to make the trip, but I would if I could. This is the type of show I enjoy the most.

Wait, so Pinburgh will be at the 'establishment' convention center? So no tailgating scene. Boooooo!

Great announcement, nice work to all the PAPA folks. Already have it on my calendar for next year.

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Cool announcement. Any other details on what the other tournament is all about for 3 entries for $10 I think it is?

Now that we are only about 6 weeks away from Papa17, can someone in the know post up where they think pre-papa tournaments will be so that some of us can make travel plans and accommodations?

This sums up my thoughts on it. I've competed at previous Pinburghs, and this taken at face value sounds like it's just not going to be as cool.

But I could be wrong. They had to do something because the event outgrew the facility, apparently. Actually, I think the parking might've been the biggest problem with it all, moreso than room for banks of machines for competitors.

But let's see how it all works out, and hopefully it'll be even better, though I doubt I will attend.

The amount of planning and effort to organize something like this is gotta be off-the-scale. Very best of luck in making this a success.

P.S.>>. Make sure you include Cosplay. Those Chicks are HOT!!!

The other tournament is the world championship of classic video games, called the Replay World Championship.

This announcement is as exciting as a newspaper headline of some cow has broke the fence in the village of Scheveningen.

Yep. Most people my age and younger (< 37) are way more exposed and into video games than consoles, but I think exposure to pinball will hook a LOT of them. In this digital age where all gaming is done on a screen, pinball has something really unique going for it.

The 4/$10 entry tournament is a PAPA style qualifying on VIDEO GAMES. It is not pinball related. Having just been to the SFGE in Atlanta, I look forward to taking in the whole event. But with SFGE, it was a PAPA Circuit event, which took place in a small section of one room. How in the world are they gonna pull off Pinburgh in the midst of a full fledged expo? What I am most confused about is the # of pins vs. # of players. In last years Pinburgh there were 200 machines = 50 sets. There were two groups(eight players) on each set of pins simultaneously, which was 400 players. Now they are saying 280 pins and 700 players. 280 pins = 70 sets. For 70 sets to support 700 players they would have to put 10 players simultaneously on each set. That is 2.5 groups/set? It doesn't add up unless they are going to a different format of some kind. Can anyone make this a little more clear?

as far as my math goes is that with 280 pins (4 players on each machine) makes 1120 people all on the games at once maximum. and how they divide it among the sets. is for the tournament director to solve, but i have faith as 1 of them is an master of math so he will probably figure this out how to roll 700 players

Many of us in the hobby now came from videogames, so I cringe when people say the two camps don't mesh. The videogame crowd enjoys pinball. At MAGfest this past January (another console and arcade gaming convention in Maryland), there wasn't a single moment in time where the line of pins were empty, even at 4AM on Saturday night/Sunday morning after the convention had already been going on for several days. This combination is a good thing for the hobby, and entices new blood to get into it.

Roy, they would not put 4 players on each game because that would be 16 players on a set of 4 games and there would be a lot of waiting. However, I did notice that they added time to make each session last 2:15 instead of just 2 hours. Maybe 3 groups to a bank of 5 pins? As you stated, I'm sure Bowen can fill us in on the math part!

Pre-PAPA tournaments will include Pinbrawl on Wednesday at the PAPA facility. There will also be one event on each day; Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before PAPA at various locations around the city. Once the details are finalized they will be listed on the IFPA calendar, posted here and listed on PAPA.org.

Substitute the word "new" for "younger" and you pretty much have it. Part of the goal is to expand the base for the good of the game.

For those who are interested in pinball-specific things, there will be plenty. For those who want to cross-over, there will be plenty. Including one does not prohibit the other.

You obviously have never seen how exciting the town of Scheveningen can become when the cows are loose.

Each bank of four games will include three groups of four. The games will be spaced wider than before because we now have more space than at any previous pinburgh, meaning more elbow room for players. The groups will start in a slightly different order seed-wise as well to eliminate some previous bottlenecks.

We've been tracking these numbers for two years and have a pretty solid handle on how long things will take and where the problem areas reside.

Thanks Mark. Makes more sense to me now. Start with an open machine upstream of the higher seeded group, to allow for possible longer game times from them?

In the past, all of the groups bottlenecked behind the top seeded group, which became largest timing-related problem we faced. The current arrangement will involve them playing the longest game last, meaning this bottleneck won't be possible. Also, the lower-seeded groups will begin with an open game in front of them, allowing them to move through games at a more natural pace. Add in the extra physical space and time, and things should stay on track similar to in the past.

Also, incidentally, the previous two Pinburghs were test-runs in many ways for 2015. We have a chunk of group specific notes that will help the upcoming festival.

Also, I just wrote a response on the FSPA board in response to some questions that mirror comments I'm seeing here. Hopefully the following will help clear a few things up:

The festival is intended as a comprehensive gameroom / coin-op event, so not everything will be pinball related. This was done intentionally as a way to help spread the game. It is also the required platform for running a pinball-event this large. Or, to put it another way, the previous model was not sustainable over the long term, and the two pathways to success were either contracting or expanding. We chose the latter.

There will be more pinball-related content than at any previous gaming event, so if some prefer to focus on pinball-only, they will still have a tremendous amount to do solely within the world of pinball (The entire PAPA collection plus new games we will be attaining for this event, pinball seminars, pinball side events, and a parts marketplace).

We tried to keep the cost roughly the same for Pinburgh players. We were very conscious of trying to balance this price with what it had been in the past while offering more for the money, and upon seeing much of this event come together so far in the planning stages, I feel like we will be able to accomplish that. In short, we don’t want the expansion to come on the backs of the players. If anything, we’re focusing on offering them a great deal more for their money.

Yes, spectators or other attendees will have to purchase a ticket to attend, but there will also be far more occurring than at any previous event at PAPA HQ, and they will not be required to spend money on tokens, so for many, it will even out.

In the end, we will be offering over 110,000 square feet of things to do, not counting the auditorium for seminars or extra rooms for social events. The primary goal is to help pinball by going large and expanding the base.

I'm sure we won't be able to please everybody, but in the end, I still think we'll put on a pretty fun event that should do a great deal to help the game.

mhs

Oh, also, the PAPA WC will still be taking place at the usual location, so for anyone still interested the traditional PAPA fix, don't worry, it's not going anywhere...

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hommina, hommina, hommina ...

See... I told you on page 1

That is one big buttload of games to move! Wow.

Get there early, as you have to move your share

Those are mostly models trying to make names for themselves...

How are you going to move all those machines back and forth? Holy Moly!