Got in at the last minute for the Lyons Spring Classic. It's just a few days before the IFPA Worlds (at Game Exchange in Denver), so it looks like a tough lineup of players. Hoping I even make the top 64!

Glad to see a tournament thread here. Tournaments have exploded in Florida, but I don't see a lot of chatter here on pinside about tournaments. At some point I would like to have a small tournament (~24 people) at my house. I'd be interested in seeing some different formats that I could use. I was thinking about using a bank of five games and having a standard qualifying except that each player only gets 20 tickets to split among the 5 games as needed. Qualifying would cut the field to 10 players with the top 6 getting a single bye. Finals would be in groups of four and possibly the bank of machines might be rotated slightly.

We've also discussed having a Pinbrawl of sorts here in Florida set in a central location. Any thoughts on how to run something like that?

Our tournament scene in NC is growing as well. We have some really talented players, really cool people, who I wish had more events locally where they could display their skills.

Wish we had a few more suitable public locations, but there are some great collections owned by kind and hospitable Pinsiders who've made possible some great charity events recently.

We have a circuit - worthy location at Flippers in Grandy, NC, and it sure would be cool to get a regular visit from the top - ranked players... The Outer Banks of North Carolina is a nice place to visit for reasons other than a fantastic pinball arcade, too.

I'd love to help organize a multi - day major show and tournament here in NC. People coming in would love how convenient it was, and it would be well - supported locally too.

Thanks for starting this very cool topic. Unsurprisingly, a fair number of top tournament players post on Pinside. Hoping to see some of them jump in here.

Vermont is, and has always been, a competitive pinball desert. I'll be working with the owner of a new venue ( opening in June -- http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/arcade-and-ale-house-to-open-in-burlington-vt ) to change that. We're still in the initial planning stage, but we're going to try to have tournaments and other events, and potentially a branch of the New England Pinball League.

I play in a handful of events every year (http://www.ifpapinball.com/player.php?player_id=2623), and it'll be nice if we can foster a local competitive scene. I'd appreciate any tips from anyone who's been in a similar situation -- either starting a scene from scratch or something close to that.

I sent you a PM.

We have almost nothing on location, but the barcade that will be opening in June will have 12 or 14 machines. The owner is already involved and talking about events. I'm sure he'll have ideas about marketing in general. I guess I'm looking for tips on the best way to get anyone interested who has a chance of being interested in playing, given that there has been almost zero pinball here other than in people's homes.

I think a strategy app would be great, but I don't feel like I've got the chops to contribute tips.

There are strategy tips from IFPA in the Pinball Arcade as part of the tables.

Good thread! In Alabama we have a great location at BumperNets. About 30 pins. We have a 10 week league there 3 times a year, host Stern launch parties, and we just had a Pin-golf tourney. It would really be hard to get a PAPA circuit event as these tend to revolve around a larger convention or Expo. I'm really excited about the SFGE coming up in ATL on the weekend of June 20th. Only 2.5 hours from B'ham. It will be the first circuit event in the southeast.

I've been to the LAX in Louisville the last 2 years and that is only 5 hours from B'ham. Great event!

Do you mean the first event in the southeast for 2014?

The Southern Pinball Festival in Orlando, Florida in Nov 2013 and Nov 2012 were part of the PAPA circuit. This year the name has changed to Free Play Florida and it will also be part of the PAPA circuit.

I've never played in a pingolf format before, but I have a general idea of how they work. Any notable differences in how to approach your games?

Actually I know of someone working on something like this. If you went to Pinburgh you might've seen the Pittsburgh Pinball League folks with their iPads out with notes on how to play games and the BAPA league folks have some great info too.

I love tournaments and am hosting my first WPPR tourney next month. The scene in NorCal is great with tournaments almost every week.

Depends on whether the target for the hole is a score or goal (extra ball, a specific mode, etc.). If it's a goal, it's obviously pretty straightforward. If it's score, it really depends on what the score is. For example, let's imagine that the goal is 65 million on The Addams Family. You might go for multiball rather than modes, even if your typical strategy for getting a big score is trying for Tour the Mansion. Hope that illustrates the kind of adjustment you might want to make.

A few other pointers:

1) Avoid 4s (on 3-ball) and 6s (on 5-ball) as much as possible. Should be obvious, but I guess the idea is not to stop buckling down just because you have a couple (or four) bad balls on a game.

2) Assuming you have average skills for the group in the competition, don't get too down if you feel like the course is kicking your butt. It's very likely most other people are having the same problem. I've finished close to the top in golf events where I felt like things were mostly going pretty poorly.

3) If you actually do poorly, remember that golf isn't the same as pinball. It overemphasizes early success in a way that pinball doesn't at all. Lots of people are big money last-ball players -- or at least people who enjoy games with nonlinear scoring (see: Family, the Addams). They tend to dislike golf a lot. Thus my suggestion that golf events generally use goals rather than scores.

I played my first PinGolf last year and it was tough as crap; Super fun though.

I understand.

Just because an event is in Florida doesn't mean it is even close to residents in the state. Florida is a long state from Key West to the panhandle.

I have been doing my part to build things in the WI region.

On year 3 of madrollinpinball charity event >> golf in the morning and brawl in the afternoon
www.madisonpinball.com for details

Super fun event and all top quality playing games for the most part. Already have a waiting list for this year but likely will open up as things get closer and more games get committed. Probably my favorite weekend fo the year!

We also recently put 4 pins on location and hold a monthly event in Madison.

I am not a very good player but I get lucky every once in a while.

house balls!

Hoping an opponent gets house balls is not a reliable way to win. And just because they were struggling on a particular game does not mean they will struggle the next time they play that game. It could be a game they are good at, and just had some bad breaks. Pinball is like that.

So, if you have a choice of games, the best strategy is to pick a game you are comfortable with. You are not playing the opponent, but rather each playing against the machine. If you know your opponent likes the exact same types of games that you do, and you have the option, let him pick the game and you choose position. But you'd better be certain he will pick similar games and not have the attitude of picking a randomizer and hoping you get house balls.

Yeah. Never pick TZ or TAF.

Playing games you are comfortable with helps. But who's to say they aren't twice as comfortable? It's a tough choice to be honest, but I suppose that's part of the fun in it.

Definitely the last option. If I ever had to play vs. Bowen or Elwin, I'd take choice of game and find the oldest, meanest, stubby flipper game in the room. Gobble hole woodrail, ideally.

If someone is better than you at a game involving both luck & skill, your optimal strategy is to crank up the variance (luck factor). If you ever have to play cards vs. Phil Ivey, choose Uno over Texas hold 'em.

Against good players?

Don't pick Williams games.
Don't pick newer Stern games

Go for Gottlieb System 3, early solid state (less popular ones), EM's, etc. Basically any game they would be unlikely to know. Even some data east/sega games might be ok if they're the more obscure ones.

I let them pick game if I have a choice. I've had several wins against good players like this simply because they are way too overconfident and then tank their favorite game, or they aren't aware of how I play on a specific game. I'd give a specific example, but too many good players I know read this forum.

I came here to ask the same question that Spraynard asked 2 weeks ago.

The tournament went like this:

I felt like I played okay during pingolf, but not great, and wasn't confident that I'd make the cut. 36 strokes was the cutoff and I had a 34, so I'm in. (Just as stevevt predicted in point #2 above).

Played Zach Sharpe in the first round (best of 3 match) of the double elimination. He picked Congo, and won. I picked Space Time, because it's an older game and he shot a 6 on it the night before. I got crushed. Turns out he's good at that game and just had a bad game the night before.

Losers bracket matched me against Trent Augenstein, another player much better than me. He picked Congo and had a pretty bad/unlucky game. Mine was worse. I picked Kismet, because it seemed like a luck-fest (it was part of pingolf the night before). His outlane drain on ball 5 won the game, though neither of us even reached par from the night before.

So...if I had to do it again, would I make the same choices? Honestly, I don't know. It certainly would have been more rewarding to pick a modern machine, and then win. And lots of good players put up lots of mediocre scores all weekend. But, maybe if I had squeaked by in Kismet, I'd have a different opinion?

Hey Ryan, you at least qualified We probably bumped into each other in all the confusion at some point on Friday night, though.

Better luck next time.

Keen tournament player here, but there's not a great deal of them in Australia. Certainly better than many other countries, but could be a lot more. I'm involved in two Sydney leagues - Z Ball and WildBall. Which are fantastic leagues and I've got to know some really cool people and play some amazing collections.

As for pingolf, I've played that once and didn't get par score (or goal) on anything and qualified last. That was a rough night. Thankfully a bunch of guys didn't turn up for the final and so I got in anyway and ended up finishing in 4th. Funny how that happens.

I'm not a great player but seem to always end up around middle of the pack or just outside a podium finish. If I can keep in the top 50 Australian players I'll be happy (currently 23rd).

My IFPA profile: http://www.ifpapinball.com/player.php?p=17414

Thanks.

Feels like I'm generally not playing my best in tournaments yet. Will have to get that figured out.

I'm guessing your name is Chad?

EM/older games definitely increase the luck factor, but the days of good players not knowing how to play them is over. There's been too much interest thanks to classics tournaments for them not have skills on older games these days. Just go over the winners' lists of recent PAPA classics tourneys, and compare the names to typical A-division performers.

For myself, at the last Pinburgh, probably 2 of my best games were on EMs. Rolled both Dragon (600K ball 1) and Jungle Queen (80K single ball). But to the point of luck being involved, got destroyed on 2 games I had crushed in the past (Surf Champ and Argosy).

Yep, that's the one. Good luck in your next tourney.

Don't sweat it. With more experience, it will sort itself out. Just getting to know some of the folks your regularly compete with is huge. Once you're comfortable in the environment, you relax and don't do nearly as many dumb things. Doesn't take long either.

The only 'rule' you should stick to (other than the official rules) is to get your rest. Get off your feet whenever you can and don't play drunk or hungover (trust me on that last part d. You'll always play better when you're not fatigued.

In! I've been playing pinball for about 2 years now, and been really into the competitive side for about a year. Having a great time playing with some of the best. Managed to beat Trent and Andy in the classics division at PATZ, not too bad!

Timmy had a similar start. For those that didn't follow the other Lyons Thread. Timmy my son whom just turned 15, 2 weeks ago, played in the Lyons Spring Classic and in the IFPA nationals. We drove in from Alabama to play. Timmy drew Trent Augustine first round and won both games staright to advance in the winners baracket. Only to have to play Zach Sharpe. Timmy almost took it to game five. He at least got 1 win which was awesome considering. He lost his next match in the 3rd round versus Will Mckinney. They went the distance though, and was only decided by 1 or 2 million on SM. All in all a great match. He got to play his qualifying round with Keith Elwin, Jen Pevler and Nathan ( excuse me if I spelled anyone's name wrong ). It was a Awesome weekend!! We enjoyed it quite a bit. We love to travel to tournaments and play and meet new people. We also got to meet Rotor Dave and his family and the Palmers Jeff, Nancy and their 15 year old son Atticus whom was there to play in the IFPA Nationals as well. It is great to see the youth movement in these tournaments. This is where the pinball future is.

Really like this thread!!