Have to agree on ditching the super bands, but I might point out that what you may view as a weird kickout is possibly intentional in order to make games as hard as possible. Consistent games allow players to get too comfortable and result in marathon games. Check out the A division TZ scores for an example of what happens with consistent "happy" kickouts. You basically needed to hit 900M to not have a bad score, and that was largely due to a slot machine kickout that required zero effort to safely trap on either flipper. Unless the kickouts were literally untouchable (maybe they were on a C bank game; I never got to play those as I was in A), they were quite likely not a result of a lack of consideration. The A division WCS had its Final Draw scoop bent out to the left as far as possible to prevent players from safely backhanding the MB start on that game.

I had an amazing time at PAPA 17 and it was super fun to hang out with everyone again. I even managed to qualify in A this year (unlike last year where I got knocked out by one point by the last ticket submitted in qualifying), although I completely shit the bed on Sunday losing by 60k on Metallica and failing to advance to the round of 16. Perhaps my only suggestion in the future would be to either pay down to 24th or revert to only taking 16 finalists. I have no real desire to make money playing pinball but when you spend $200 or more throughout the weekend trying to qualify it would sure be nice to get a little of that money back for making the cut regardless of how you do on Sunday. Maybe if I wasn't a broke college student I wouldn't care, but it is slightly weird to make the finals of a "pump and dump" format tournament and not get anything for doing so. Anyway, I really enjoyed myself this year and can't wait to come back for PAPA 18!

Oh, one other suggestion before I forget: If modifications to game settings or bizarre physical bastardizations are performed, it would be nice if they were listed on a note on the machine. Players weren't told ahead of time about the disabled magnet on TAF or the odd WOZ settings. Kind of lame to walk up to a game and do something you usually do only to have it not work the way you expect it to.

OK, this post turned out more negative sounding than I meant for it to. PAPA is truly the happiest place on earth and I have no qualms with blowing tons of money to fly all the way from Seattle to Pittsburgh twice a year to visit. I strongly encourage anyone who has the chance to at least come and check out PAPA once, regardless of how much tournament experience they have. It's like nothing else you'll ever see.

I've thought about it long and hard and my opinion really is that if PAPA allows you to play in a certain division, you should not feel bad about playing in it. At the end of the day, all divisions other than A are going to use some arbitrary criteria to draw a line in the sand and consequently the top finishers in each division are the best players who managed to fall under those criteria. Maybe they are underranked, and some people think that they are sandbagging. Who cares? Any restricted division is going to have that situation going on no matter what the restrictions are based on the fact that the pool of players is drawn from certain criteria that are not directly correlated to ability to perform at PAPA or whatever the tournament in question is.

A division is an open tournament. Anyone who wants to can sign up for it by noon on Saturday. The restriction on players changing divisions after noon on Saturday does not prevent players from choosing to play A before noon on Saturday.