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Hey Mark. How does this style of qualifying compare to European formats? I thought that limited qualifying entry tournaments were pretty much the norm in Europe. I also thought that in general people from the US were not interested in spending the time and money traveling to a foreign country to get eliminated from qualifying after three attempts. I'm sure the same would be true of people flying form Europe to the US. I was thinking of trying to come up for the Frasier Vally tourney but, after I found out there were only three attempts per machine I was totally turned off. With a pump and dump, at least you are still able to try to qualify over several days.

I'd also like to suggest instead of feats of strength on PAPAtvlive do feats of pinball skill to get back your monopoly money. Like calling out a series of difficult shots and flipper skills. Using T2 as an example, left ramp to right loop, loop pass to left scoop. That or do a feat of pinball skill while looking at the A bank monitors. Like a Shatz to spinner on Alien Star while only looking at the monitors. M Division!!

I think sticking to the system is a great idea but, this is going to be really bad for the charities without offering something else to attract players. So far, the charity events in our area have been our only chance at having another full value tournament at our main location Pinballz because the annual location rule is waived. I've been to every one we've held and I think at least one in DFW. Now with the new wppr system, if I were given the choice between staying in Austin or driving 6 hours to DFW with the possibility of picking up 3-6 WWPR points and donating $50 in the process, I'll stay home. Maybe I'm a cold hearted, selfish, opportunistic bastard but, those 25 WPPRs make up a big part of the reason I played the charity events in the first place *going to hell emoticon*

In the new system 25 WPPR would be absolutely huge in our area. I doubt I'll be seeing any of the DFW crew next year unless its at TPF or HAAG because of the new points system. The most we've had at one of our local events is something like 10-15 maybe. I threw an event at my house for no WPPRs and invited 122+ people from our FB group with free BBQ, drinks, trophies and I think there were 20 people at most. Most of those people that showed up didn't play in the tournament and the tournament would have probably been worth negative wpprs in the new system.

So we will continue to play PB and try to attract more interest because its fun and its what we like to do but, THINK OF THE CHILDREN! *going to hell emoticon*

I think its still possible to raise money for charities but, I think the charities will now have to offer some sort of monetary incentive. Using 25 WPPR points as incentive was free under the old rules structure and was good enough incentive for me. Perhaps the winners of charity tournaments can be entered in a drawing for a new Stern machine or have air/hotel expenses covered to a circuit event within reason. Some incentive needs to draw players to charity events. Obviously I have no confidence in the kindness and generosity of others lol *still going to hell emoticon*

The one lucky game is probably not enough to beat Keith's second entry. This deep pockets unlimited qualifying argument for unskilled players really doesn't pan out in the long run. Remember, they have unlimited qualifying attempts too. I'm not saying that it doesn't help to have unlimited qualifying attempts but, if you don't have the skills its just not happening. I totally agree with Adam.

Agreed! I am definitely for longer more meaningful tourneys. I think one of the reasons why we see so many pump and dump formats is with some pretty basic software, its not hard to track score entries. Keeping track of seeds and random game selection for a match play event or a swiss style tourney is much more difficult to develop. Pump and dumps also build the player prize pool where a fixed entry does not. Maybe in the future when software is more widely available we will see less pump and dump formats. I think in a perfect world the IFPA would provide the software through a web GUI and you would be forced into a range of popular formats sanctioned by the IFPA if you wanted WPPR points. In a perfect world Josh would have 8 Josh clones working around the clock on the IFPA site while he vacationed in the keys etc.

I still think the more important argument for a pump and dump style vs three entry is that it discourages people from traveling to a far off event because they know that their tournament could be cut short if they fail to qualify after only 3 attempts per machine. Regardless of how well a format judges skill, I'm not going to spend $600+ attending an event where I can be done on day one.

This belongs here I think. I'm sure a lot of people have heard it already if you troll pinball website like I do at work Great interview and Josh addresses a lot of the questions in this thread about the wppr rule change and other cool pinball stuff.

http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-109-second-at-papa-first-in-your-heart-or-an-evening-with-josh-sharpe-again_27676