I was thinking the same thing, (well, more like a club) for here in Anchorage. I know a lot of people here have pins but no idea how to start one.

I think it starts with finding a public place that has a few tables and possibly good beer,
then talk with the owner and see if he has an off-night usually Sun. Mon. Tue. that you and a few guys can play pinball and drink.
Then the last thing is to get the word out 'pinball league forming every _night at pm-_pm etc etc' and see what happens ? You get a few people and bounce a few ideas around
keep it easy ,loose, & fun see what happens

I know that won't happen up here. The best we can hope for is a person or persons who have several pins willing to host a night. The most I will ever have at one time is 3 pins. This would work for a small group but 10 people will crowd my basement.
Rhetorical Question: Would you be willing to drive 30 mins to an hour to play 3 pins? But, I guess you have to start somewhere.

My league starts Monday. First time playing. The bar it's held in, John's Place in Fairfax, Va. has allowed them to keep machines in the room where the pool tables are next to the bar.

They do it on an off night, and all players have to pay the 50 cents to play their 4 games a league night. I think that goes to the bar owner. John is a great guy to let us play there, and it does require some incentive for him to allow the machines to stay. Most are owned by someone that is deployed for the military, so that helps keep about 10 games on location. The guys that run the league definitely contribute their own time to keeping the games running and making sure people respect the place.

It's called the Free State Pinball Assoc. (VA, MD, and DC) Here's the site, and at the very least they have an extensive set of rules that explains scoring and league play. The Player's guide link and General Pinball Information links at the top of the page will show you the rules, and how scoring is handled. Hope this helps.

http://www.fspazone.org/

Nice link VT8man
also found some other league info on it-

http://www.fspazone.org/leagues.html

hmm... you've got me intrigued. I play in a couple leagues, but it's the same things - a little mysterious. Maybe I'll do a write-up for this.

I was wondering this also. I would think you would want 1 pin per 4 players to reduce idle time with an extra or two in case a machine breaks but since I've never been in a league I could be way off.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1st-tournament

I posted how they run there tournament scroll down a bit.

http://www.nationalpinballleague.com/

I haven't played yet, (this Monday) but I am getting a feel for the rules myself. The FSPA has been doing this for awhile though, so the rules they have have evolved over the years I'm sure, as players find different problems or ways to gain an unfair advantage.

Didn't know if you found the link on that page of the official rules. You can see in Appendix B, the revision record that they have been updating them since 2003.

Out of the 10 games they have, you will play 4 per week. You will be grouped with usually two or three other players per week, based on where you sit in the rankings. The lowest player in a group gets to pick one of the four games to play, giving them a small advantage and the other 3 are picked at random. So they try their best to group you with players of similar skill. The winners each week move up in the rankings obviously and losers can move down.

http://www.fspazone.org/rules/current-fspa.html

To get through all the matches in one night, if you had 4 machines, I would think once you are beyond 12 players, you might run into a lot of standing around. Especially if you have a good player that has a really good game. You could stagger game times by 30 minutes to at least get the first few players started. With 12, you could do 4 player games, always leaving one machine open for the group that finishes their game first.

Also FSPA puts the games at a very hard level, to make players better and avoid a wizard from sitting on a machine all night.

Morning all,

Been looking all over trying to fint a set of rules for a pinball league as I want to get one going, I know I have seen them on Pinside beofe.

Can anyone point me in the right direction or email them to me at [email protected]

Thanks

Email sent..

I have a couple sets of rules, PM me if anyone wants them and I'll email them.

Over here in the UK we have regional pinball leagues. The rules used for meetings are viewable here: http://www.ukpinballleague.co.uk/rules.php

We have a local pinball group here in Cincinnati that is more of a social gathering than a league...we go to one or the others house and have some food (everybody usually pitches in and brings something) and some drinks host supplies some and everyone usually brings along their fave as well! We socialize and play pinball...and there are usually a few fairly competitive folks that will start some side tourneys for a few bucks. Sometimes some of the hosts will have some more organized tourneys with prizes for the winners...but it is all low key and more of a social thing.

Then we have the Ohio Pinball League, and it is more competition based...I just had an article in the PinGame Journal about it in the last issue...There are 24 people in league. OPL is in it's 9th season, and there is a waiting list to get in. There are 7 sessions total, 6 regular rounds, and finals. The way the sessions work are, there are 4 people per group and each group plays 6 different pins, chosen by players in each group depending on the players rank in the league. Rank also decides whether the player will pick 1 pin or 2 during the given session. you play a 4 player game on the selected pin high score gets 3 points, 2nd gets 2 points, and 3rd gets 1 point. There are 2 bonus points per game…The way they work is if the 1st place score is more than 2nd and 3rd combined then 1st gets the bonus. If not then 3rd place gets it. Then if 2nd place is more than 3rd and 4th combined then 2nd gets it. If not then 4th place gets it.
After the position round everyone is separated into divisions A B and C Depending on where they are ranked (ie. 1-8 are A division, 9 - 16 are B and 17-24 are C) finals is head to head play in each division...player 1 plays player 8, 2 plays 7, 3 plays 6 etc. you play best of 3 games with rank deciding game or position (ie. going 1st or 2nd) then on next game looser chooses game or position and so on. Finals is double elimination, so if you loose in the first round you go to the loosers bracket, and play until you loose again.

Not sure if that helps you out...but even if you decide to not go the league route, you could still do the more social pinball group and go from there to decide if you want to start a league...

Phoebe

The OPL is a serious league with some great folks and great players from around Ohio. The other Ohio league in the Buckeye Pinball Association (BPA) is in "kinda in the middle" the 2 described by Phoebe above. I'm happy to share our BPA league rules and scoring to anyone intersted, just shoot me an email at bfob AT aol DOT and I'll send you details. The BPA was founded in 2009.

Bill Pobega

Phoebe,
Enjoyed your article in the recent Pingame Journal,Your experiences,your husbands,and the trials of being in your first league made for enjoyable reading.

The bare bones of league play in BAPA is as follows:

1. Players are organized into four player groups or as close as possible.

2. Four games are played each league night, order of players is rotated each game so that no player gets an order advantage. There are times when people have to wait for games. People socialize, or play non-league games. It's not a problem.

3. Extra balls are not really played. You get to plunge the ball and flip it once. After that, you have to stop playing. (An EB can still be a game changer on games which carry over bonus). Also, if your one flip starts a video mode, or mini pf mode (Battle the Power, Stewie Pinball, etc) you are allowed to play those out.

4. Scoring is 1st: 4 points, 2nd: 3 points, 3rd: 2 points, and Fourth: 1 point. This is different than tournament finals scoring, which is often 4-2-1-0. Giving last place a "pity point" keeps things more friendly to newbies. Nobody wants to end the night with a fat zero.

5. The groups on the first night of league are random. If you do well, you will be paired with the players in other groups who did well. Each week you will be moved into a group with people who scored similarly to you. Thus, in a night there might be a big skill disparity, but over the course of the league season, you will eventually end up in groups reflecting your skill.

6. In cases where there are only 3 players in a group, whether or not players finish 2nd or 3rd is determined by if their score is above or below the median score for all players. The scoring is computerized using smart phones, so the median and proper scoring happens automatically. For most leagues starting out, it's probably fine to just score people 4-3-2 because your odd number groups will be your newbie players, and a few extra points is likely not going to make a huge difference for them in the long run.

7. You have to attend 5 league nights (out of 16) to be eligible for the playoffs. Your performance during the league nights determines where you are seeded in the playoffs.

8. League starts at 8pm. Many people show up an hour earlier to warm up or socialize. A typical league night goes until around 10:30 for the lower skilled groups and 11:30 for the top groups.

9. Four games doesn't seem like much, and for some, it might be possible to make it five games, particularly if some are EMs. However, if you have decent players, four games is plenty.

10. Playoffs is a double-elimination bracket. In BAPA, the bracket is played all the way out and all ties are resolved. It's an all-day affair and a potluck kind of event. Here is the bracket: http://www.bayareapinball.org/elim32.html

11. Another useful piece of software is ALJ Tournament Maker. It's free.

12. The league uses a public location but also some private. The general rule is you have to attend one night at the public location before you can go to the private ones. Some people are especially lonely and/or shower-adverse, and/or not yet ready to accept their lactose intolerance. You don't want these people in your house.

Great info and has given me some ideas of what ways there might be to go have placed this site out there to see if I can get any bites and see what happens next.

www.australianpinballassociation.com

We seriously have nearly 70 people in the Pittsburgh Pinball League and we play EVERY WEEK during the 8 week season (3x per year). Players can pick from 3 different days each week to play. We started out with a public location that had 4 games as a regular Thursday night spot, Friday nights are hosted by a different collector (4-50 games) each week and Sunday afternoon is at another public location. Players are randomly assigned to groups of 4 and pick game or order-of-play based on what order they were drawn. They play on 3 machines for the standard 4-2-1-0 points system (ie, a 12 is a perfect night). At the end of the season points are totaled and the top 16 go the A finals, the lower 16 are in B and the rest in C. The average league night takes several hours with plenty of social time. Finals takes 10-12 hours on one day... with plenty of social time. The top 4 in each division are awarded cash and trophies. There are also 'door prizes' including a free MACHINE given away each year (this year is WCS94). Dues are $20 for the season. There's plenty more to the details, but that's the basics.