More Casual Pinball League

0

#1 1 year ago

OP

EZE

Eze01

Inactive member

Great Falls, MT

2y 10,000 1

My friends and I have been really getting into playing pinball for about a year or more now and the topic of a pinball league has come up a few times. I am currently the big fish in the little pond having a lot of the GC scores around town so folks are kind-of looking at me to lead the charge with getting things organized. I'm also a mechanical engineer so this sort of thing does not bother me. I've been looking up IFPA rules and looking at other leagues (Buffalo Pinball etc) but when I brought up to the group what most leagues do, many people thought that some of these rules are either intimidating for new new players or just not as fun as just playing a game. I do understand why many of these rules are in place as when competition gets real, having an EB awarded to someone via a mystery shot is extremely unfair.

I just don't think most people around here are close to that level. Another issue I'm seeing is most rulesets say bring 20+ people to 1 location on 1 day where there are at least 4 machines. Our town's machines are all spread out at different bars so it just wont function like that here. We really just want to generate interest in the game and have a semi structured format where people can learn and have fun.

With all that said, does anyone have a ruleset or guideline for a more casual format? I've got a few ideas, perhaps give everyone a week to put up their best score on a particular machine for that week, take a photo, and upload it to a shared drive somewhere. An issue with this is that people can play any number of games to get the score they want. This would be much more like GC chasing for the week. Another idea someone had is to pick a number of machines each week and have one day where your pod of 4 people will play a particular machine. A limited number of games, 3 maybe, should be played to limit achieving your perfect score each time. Seems fair and the group of people will verify rules adherence. Someone suggested handicap because the 3 or 4 dedicated players will scare off all the other competition. I don't think that is a terrible idea either.

Am I crazy? should we just follow some standard IFPA rules? Or is there a casual fun format that will encourage people to actually play and go after some good score?

0

1

#2 1 year ago

LXL

Isochronic_Frost

Saratoga Silverball

7y 221K 9,389 108 1 1

OP
Quoted from Eze01:
My friends and I have been really getting into playing pinball for about a year or more now and the topic of a pinball league has come up a few times. I am currently the big fish in the little pond having a lot of the GC scores around town so folks are kind-of looking at me to lead the charge with getting things organized. I'm also a mechanical engineer so this sort of thing does not bother me. I've been looking up IFPA rules and looking at other leagues (Buffalo Pinball etc) but when I brought up to the group what most leagues do, many people thought that some of these rules are either intimidating for new new players or just not as fun as just playing a game. I do understand why many of these rules are in place as when competition gets real, having an EB awarded to someone via a mystery shot is extremely unfair.
I just don't think most people around here are close to that level. Another issue I'm seeing is most rulesets say bring 20+ people to 1 location on 1 day where there are at least 4 machines. Our town's machines are all spread out at different bars so it just wont function like that here. We really just want to generate interest in the game and have a semi structured format where people can learn and have fun.
With all that said, does anyone have a ruleset or guideline for a more casual format? I've got a few ideas, perhaps give everyone a week to put up their best score on a particular machine for that week, take a photo, and upload it to a shared drive somewhere. An issue with this is that people can play any number of games to get the score they want. This would be much more like GC chasing for the week. Another idea someone had is to pick a number of machines each week and have one day where your pod of 4 people will play a particular machine. A limited number of games, 3 maybe, should be played to limit achieving your perfect score each time. Seems fair and the group of people will verify rules adherence. Someone suggested handicap because the 3 or 4 dedicated players will scare off all the other competition. I don't think that is a terrible idea either.
Am I crazy? should we just follow some standard IFPA rules? Or is there a casual fun format that will encourage people to actually play and go after some good score?

You’re looking for the Selfie League format. That’s exactly as you described. Became popular during covid.

0

1

#3 1 year ago

ZAC

zacaj

RPC

Rochester, NY

11y 158K 10,385 85 122 1

It'd be bes tot generally follow IFPA rules, but they're not something that will really come up that much especially in casual play. They're more for dealing with issues during a finals if something bad happens. There's nothing in the IFPA rules that requires you do not play extra balls or anything, and if you're mostly playing random location games, it might be hard to stop them anyway.

We used to have a league nearby where they'd just pair you up with a person and you had a week to meet up with them somewhere and play a best of 5 head to head match. Could be a bar with many games, could be a place with a single game. Could be someone's basement. Next week you'd get assigned a different person, etc

0

#4 1 year ago

DJK

DJK77

Pinside+ Frequent

5y 48,550 102

Check out match play events, very helpful with formats and you can try out the software for free over a limited time. Group matchplay seems to be the most common format. If you get 12 ppl to sign up for league and break up into 3 groups of 4 you would want 3 machines at the location. Our league plays 2 games on each machine. Track points total over 8-12 weeks and drop the lowest score (people will miss a night).

Card based best game (selfie) or pingolf are fun formats for all skill levels and can run over a time period if you don't have a single good location for a league.

As for extra balls you can just say plunge them, but in selfie and pingolf it's easier to just play them!

0

#5 1 year ago

MSL

SantaEatsCheese

Pinside+ Pro!

Crofton, MD

5y 209K 9,626 6 85 1

If everything is spread out, do a selfie league. Have a website (or facebook group) where people post photos of themselves next to the machine with their high scores.

If done one league and a handful of tournaments. In leagues, people of the same ability get lumped together over time so even "bad players" are competitive and can have fun.

Lets say you have 16 players in your league, and 4 locations with 4 pins each.

Divide players into groups of 4 based on what you think their skills are.

Groups are A, B, C, and D, with A being best and D being worst.

Group B plays four 4 player games. Whoever wins the most points in Group B goes to group A, The two in the middle stay in group B, and the one who is in last place moves to group C. This happens for each group.

Now, the person who won last week is in a higher group and least likely to win, and the one who lost your group is in a worst group and most likely to win.

It evens itself out after a few weeks.

Here is a link to a random leagues rules http://fspazone.org/players-guide/

You could also try a tournament which is surprisingly fun.

Crabtown near me does 4 strike tournaments every week. Players are randomly grouped head to head to play a game. If you lose, you get a strike. 4 losses and you are out. But people with 1 strike only play people with 1 strike, 2 strikes against 2 strikes, etc. so by the end of the evening the worst players are playing the worst players and the best the best. The worst players get to play at least 4 games, most people play around 7 games, and the best might lay 10 or 12.

In any case, have fun and good on you for taking the initiative on this one.

By Eze01

1 year ago

Topic Stats

You

Find in topic

Linked Games

Eze01

Isochronic_Frost

zacaj

DJK77

SantaEatsCheese

Reply

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!