There really is nothing "unethical" about this. The paper isn't making the shot for them. This isn't a puzzle challenge or a trivia game show. Knowing what to shoot for, when, is only half the fight.

You have notes and I am playing you? I say good on you. Youlh were more prepared for competitive play than I was.

I'm very much the opposite. Coaching in the sense of what is banned in pinball competition goes much further than anything notes on a scrap of paper provides. Someone standing there telling you not just what to shoot next, but giving encouragement, telling you how to adjust your game, your habits and mentality in the moment is *HUGE* compared to an emotionless sheet of paper you have to stop and look at mid-game.

Here's one way I look at this issue: This game has a lot of similarities to golf. There are the basics of the game: how to hit a ball, what clubs to use in certain situations, how to get yourself out of certain situations = all the various universal flipper/nudge skills. The beautiful green course laid out in front of you, like different pinball machines, can either be extremely familiar or completely alien. In competition, you aren't so much playing your opponent -- you're playing the course (AKA Table). You're competing in the sense of saying you can handle the course better than your opponent, in the moment. Your opponent pulls out a piece of paper with a map of the different holes, information on wind velocity, the slopes of the green, etc, etc, etc. A piece of paper containing information that is, in the age of the Internet mind you, widely available to everybody. Golf is not purely a competition of knowledge, and neither is pinball. Your refusal to mentally prepare for the courses you are playing and having the information readily available when you need it is something your opponent's shouldn't be penalized for. Golf, like Pinball, is not purely a competition of knowledge (like game shows or trivia). It's a competition of physical performance and strategy.

Unlike Pinball, however, Golf has caddies that coach the players anyways. In conclusion, Golf < Pinball. I think we can at least agree on that.

Either decision is not an all-encompassing rule that applies to all things related. We can go tit-for-tat over the excuses for going one way or the other, but the bottom line we seem to be coming to is that it is a gray area at best. It's not going to devastate an event if everyone has personal rule sheets to bust out mid-ball as much as it's not going to completely ruin half the bracket's chances of winning if they are not allowed.

I'll allow it in my events, you can disallow it in yours. If someone is going to get completely riled up and start throwing verbal "*" on other player's wins/losses at an event, just because a tournament allows/disallows sheets mid-play: I encourage that person to stay TF home for the sake of everyone involved. Yah' know?