Many will say no, I say YES. Stealing locked balls is part of pinball. The player has complete control over their game and strategy of play. For example if playing any one of a number of sys11 games I often avoid trying to lock balls on a 2 player game until there is atleast 1 locked and I feel like it is time to try and cash in.

I think it is a great level of risk v reward.

Yes, of course.

Just like in a game of billiards, you have to always watch how you leave the table for the next player.

Yes, part of the strategy. In tournament one chooses the game, the other picks the order. If my opponent picks a System-11 with ball stealing I go second to increase the chances of doing so. Part of the game. If you don't want your locked ball stolen don't lock it. Or if you lock it and don't take advantage you just lost on a risk/reward decision.

Definitely OK... Maybe not so much a tournament issue since you're dealing with mostly solid players, but some of the games that allow stealing a locked ball also have progressive jackpots. In Pinbot for example you can get a huge jackpot for getting mulitball, re-locking one ball and hitting the left ramp. After a night of inexperienced players on my Pinbot, I hit it for 3.5 million points.

Acceptable - yes. Preferred - no. It does allow for some extra strategy, but many players will not like it if you use that type of game.

If you have non-strategy players, you can usually set the menu not to hold locked balls between players.

That can be sorted on Pinbot (and some other games) with fixed jackpot rom patches.

I have ten sys11 games sorted for the World Sys11 Champs in two weeks, all have fixed jackpots to equalise them.

Qualifying will be single player only so no lock stealing there.

However playoffs will be head to head, so let the lock stealing begin!!!!

rd

Qualifying should always be single player only. That way the game is the same for everyone.

If you quickly start a new game, before the bonus is finished racking up from the last ball, you can even keep your locked balls for the next game.

I agree with RD about the ball stealing not being the biggest deal. Jackpot building in Taxi or letters completing with ELVIRA and Rollergames can be a bigger benefit.

Its pretty cool there are updated ROMs to take care of some of these issues.

Game settings will take care of most of those.

With Elvira, from memory the HARD settings will reset the Elvira letters back to E for every ball (and player)

rd

I'll stick to just the lock-stealing aspect....
As with any good answer, it depends. You need to consider the following:

#1: What game type? How much control does a player have over physical ball locks left to those they are competing against?
- For qualification: You don't have control over the locks left to every other player trying to qualify. So as mentioned, needs to be single player, and ensure that physical locked balls are kicked out & drained at game over.

- For 3-4 player match play: You only have direct control over the locks left to one player out of 2-3 players. So depending on #2 consideration below, I'd lean toward not using physical ball lock games for this. Pinburgh/ReplayFX has chosen to use physical ball lock games for their 4-player matches, but there are some pins (based on #2 below) that I disagree with this practice.

- For 2-player match play: It's part of pinball. You have direct control over the locks you leave for your opponent. Singular opponent. You have to consider the risk you take in leaving an advantaged game state to the ONE OPPONENT that you're facing.

#2: How difficult is it for players to re-lock balls? If it is difficult, and the main (or only) viable strategy on the pin is to progress toward multiball that has dominating jackpot scores, I would lean toward not using it. The pin Radical comes to mind. Especially in a 3-4 player setting. On the opposite end of the spectrum would be something like Sorcerer, where you're always just one shot away from locking a ball again.

I think that is how I would stand on the issue. If you are a tournament director, I feel you should make every attempt to eliminate games in the first place where it could happen. During our December tournament, I had the decision of kicking out a machine to make it an even-numbered bank. What did I kick out? Hollywood Heat. Why? Because of the "ball stealing" element attached to it (even though it was playing better than Cybernaut, which I kept in).

As for walking in to a tournament and seeing a game in a bank that IS capable of allowing one or more of my balls to be stolen? I do not complain or raise a fuss. Why? Because it is ACCEPTABLE, based on the fact that the TD decided to put that in the bank. I just adapt strategy and go on with my game, possibly playing a little different than I would if it was just me standing there by myself...

Many tournaments or meets I've played in where this is the case simply say that games where locks are steal-able are either single player only, or you are welcome to play them multiplayer if you are okay with other people stealing your locks. Makes it nice and easy for everyone.

It's part of the game. Tournaments should avoid it if they can, but if the games are to be played, it's just part of the overall strategy. I had a problem where in WH2O I had my two balls locked going into ball 3, but on the other player's ball 3, he started multiball. So my balls were no longer locked (they had 2 virtual locks, but I needed to re-load the mech). I was able to get two locked again, and I hit Insanity Falls. As it was circling around the bottom of the ramp, it launched out and jumped my flipper for an unavoidable drain. I lost that game by less than 1 million points, which cost me the finals. I took second rather than first because of that ball lock problem.

But I wouldn't argue against having that game in the tournament. I could have started my multiball on ball 2, but I didn't. He started his and bit me in the butt. I was pretty upset that a game malfunction essentially cost me hundreds of dollars and a 1 instead of a 2 on my trophy, but that's pinball.

For games like Rollergames, it's really disappointing to lose your locks, but man up and deal with it if it happens. There's nothing stopping you from doing the same if you have the chance.