If I might point out a couple things, to help you decide how and what to run.

Bump and win - high score gets 1/4 of cash, 3/4ths goes to players who beat much lower bump and win score - ( assuming set to five winners ) major problem is if someone comes in and plays four games right before tournament ends, they win 3/4ths of the money.

Regular tournament. Say you have it set a $2 a play. $1 goes to operator, $1 gets added to jackpot.

Now imagine a good player comes in and puts in $1 and plays one game, and wins 10 games. And then plays five tournament games. The jackpot increased $5, only you make it up because no money went into the game.

LTG : )

I don't know if I can explain this any simpler.

A great player comes in and plays one game and wins a bunch of games - follow me ? Wins them by beating scores or specials.

Now say you charge more for a TOPS Tournament game. Part of the money is for the game, part of it goes to the tournament prize ( cash or prize prize )

So the player that won a bunch of games, uses those credits up on the more expensive tournament games. Only you didn't take in any money for the free tournament games he played.

Understand that ?

Or maybe this. Game is $1 a play. Tournament is $2 a play, and the jackpot goes up $1 for each play.

So a great player puts in $1 and wins ten games. Then plays five tournament games. So jackpot went up $5, but when you empty the cash box, there is only $1 there. See the problem ?

I'm just trying to point out that running TOPS takes some planning so you don't lose a lot of money on it.

LTG : )

I ran a bunch of Tops tourneys and never had that problem. Replay boost (default) doesn't allow a player to get that many credits. Specials are rare on most of the newer games. Even if replay boost was turned off, any player is going to get fatigued building up all those credits before he plays his money game. Not a good strategy to exert all your energy getting free credits, then play for cash. We did lose a quarter here and there with folks buying 3 games for $2, but we were good with that.

I did mine all cash only. I started them all at $0 and priced tournament games at $1.50, with 75 cents going into the pot (non-tournament price - 75 cents). As Lloyd mentioned, don't do bump and win. I usually paid out the top 5 spots. Be sure to end it on a weekend, so folks can be there to collect their prize or cash. Also, be sure to set Show Player's Cash to on. The dollar signs on the display will attract eyeballs (potential players). Good luck.

Never done a tops tournament but I'd make the drive up there for it! Sounds fun!

where the heck is Hartford, WI?

Had to look it up to find it. How many other games do you have there? I would probably not make the trip for 1 game, but a few nice games and I would shoot over to play sometime...

You can set max free games pre game in the settings

Yes. But unless you set it to 0, and then no one plays regular games. You can still win free games and play tournament games with them.

LTG : )

really maybe for the cherry master games? But I have played coin pushers in WI that pay out quarters and pinball is a game of skill and there are pinball tournaments in WI that pay out cash.

lets say you get 1 free game replay + one more for getting GC / HS1 and keep doing that over and over.

But you can trun off that free game for getting GC / HS1.

With a max of 1 free game and no Bonus for putting more cash in before starting (easier for quick math)

You get one paid game 1 - 1 replay = 0 and then say one more pay up to enter.

You still have the coins to cover 2 games in the game. Just had 3 games played (entering counts as 2)

How do you enter your contact info in a tops tourney?

You don't. Name and pin number. Pin number is one you make up.

LTG : )

LTG is the happiest pinsider I've seen. Always a smile with every post.

Sounds good to me.

Didn't know there was pin there. Hartford has been a wasteland for pinball in the wild. I'll definitely check out the game.

You shouldn't make that a requirement. If there is cash involved, you won't need to contact anyone. They will be there with their hands out when the tourney is over. As I suggested above, end it on a weekend, so the winners can be there at the end. If there is any question at all about who won, the pin numbers will confirm who is who.

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to participate. Making registering at the desk a requirement just adds an unneeded layer. Updating the website with the current leaders initials is about all I would suggest.

I would suggest giving them at least one week of break in time before starting a tourney. Problems popping up halfway thru are not good. Make sure the games are solid first.

The other thing I forget to mention above is the length of tournaments. Mine usually lasted about 30 days. I always adjusted the number of days so that it ended on a Sunday. Biggest pot was over $400.

You are making this much harder than it is. New Sterns are not old Bally / WMS games, you can't win that many credits on them. Best you can do is 5 credits on a single game and that is only under very *very* unique circumstances...replay, GC high score for 2 credits...if that is enabled, usually its 1 now...a match at the end of the game and a special during the game which are much harder to come by then they used to be. So basically worst case scenario is 1 game, 4 credits in an absolute unique perfect storm which is not going to happen. Most likely someone could win a replay and match for 2 credits, that is it. A replay alone for a good player gets them nowhere. And don't make people sign up on a website, that will kill 90% of your participants. If people win, like was said, they will find you, and if they don't that's their loss.

The biggest problems you are going to have are; if it isn't in a location with a lot of more die hard pinball players, people are not going to do it. Casual people don't care and don't think they have a chance anyway. It is hard to get many die hards to care for this same reason. Next, if you don't start the pot out with some money in it, say $5 or $10 at least, people are not going to do it cause they don't want to win 50% of nothing. Next, this one is the real killer for multiple tournaments over time, if there is a really good player who uses bang backs and death saves to win every tops tournament and people notice it, they will stop playing...trust me. Pots here locally went from several hundred dollars to literally dollars after repeated abuses by a single player. Finally, if it is not advertised well, people will not know about it and not do it. The cardboard tournament sign is not enough and it means absolutely nothing to almost everyone, more die hard players included, cause locations will leave them on all the time anyway even when a tournament is not running. You need better, custom signage saying what is happening and how it works. Take care of these things and you have a chance of doing something that people will enjoy.

Stopped by there the other day to play som pinball. It was closed

2PM or so. Start up the tourney!!

Sweet! Won't be able to get up there for a bit, but when I do watch out
Congrats on your first tourney!

Gave it my best shot although I don't have much time on X-men. High score was ~3.5M when I arrived. ~35M when I left. Shouldn't be to hard to beat.

The gauntlet is down.

I'll need it. All it's going to take is someone like centerflank to go up there and I'm toast!

OK so Tops tourney is over. What are the results?

Obviously not a TON of interest in Hartford WI.

Thanks for running the tournament anyway! Supporting the pinball community is much appreciated!

Just to be clear, does the Sheboygan one end Friday the 30th or the 31st? Was hoping to get up there sometime Saturday.

Thanks, I'll need it. I've never even come close to that score. But I'll drop a few bucks in to support the habit.