Love the changes.

The first bullet of "Overview of Changes for 2015" says "league season", where the third bullet of "Basic Rules" says "league event". This is in regards to submission of results. Are both of those areas intended to say league event?

I don't really care about my world ranking. I know I can't travel as well as place high enough to make it very impressive. If I can get it to sub-1000 I'd be happy. What I am looking forward to is the credit monthly tournaments will now get compared to the annual events. This will do a lot for the dedicated players when it comes to their in state ranking.

My goal this year was to make it to every monthly my local place puts on. That's going well and my wife is perfectly fine with the 3rd Wednesday of the month being basically untouchable.

My goal next year is to be in the top 16 (or 20, depending on who shows up) in the state to qualify for that tournament.

I also want to travel more next year, but the big focus is hitting all of the state events I can.

I know it will take a few years for the past events to shake out so everything that is recorded was graded the same way. That's why I just want to get better and improve in the state while branching out for events just to do them.

If you are worried about local players, why not form a league? If you can find at least one place to play, get a group together and get some points that way. My league started with 9 players and an op location. Now we are at 19, just a few months in, and I'm about to start a waiting list. We have 2 homes that have opened to host as well. Nobody has the 8 games that we play at each event (except for the op location), but members bring machines to the host location so we do hit those numbers. Everyone has a good time, which is nice for me.

How small is small and what is the value of peanuts? The way it is going to be is so much better than, for example, that event that had 3 players and was still worth 25 points. The monthlies I play in have anywhere from 18 to 30 players in them. We play 10 machines, so with only 18 players that event is 3.6 points plus TVA. Currently, those monthlies are worth 2 points.

Ok, gotcha. Just wanted to make sure I was remembering correctly.

I think it was in a TPF thread, but somebody suggested that you don't get to buy unlimited tickets for events. Instead, you get a card and have 3 chances on each machine. Before you play a machine, the card gets punched, and then the scorekeeper submits your score. That would be more appealing to me since a friend of mine who did Zapcon's event last year said he spent close to $200 in tickets for him and his son. I was pretty shocked because I had no idea that you could pump and dump until you got a score you were happy with. Maybe up the overall price of a ticket (good for 3 plays on each machine) so that the pot doesn't go down too much. If you can't get there in 3 games, I don't think you should be able to keep chasing that magic game in the hopes of buying your way into contention.

I love this idea. 3 games is enough that if you are a great player, your scores will reflect that. I wonder if there is any chance that Zapcon will adopt this for next year. I honestly have zero interest in the purse total. I'm not rich, have two kids, and have a real life. I do want to walk away from an event knowing that I had a fair shake and placed where I did based on everyone having the exact same situation presented to them.

There are records in IFPA older than I am.

http://www.ifpapinball.com/view_tournament.php?t=610&e=&d=1980-10-26#results

I know they don't count for today, but they are there.

That was enjoyable. Even though I knew the details they went over, the outside things were really cool to have access to. I also have a new podcast to follow.

We moved to Vail from Tucson for the school district. Small world indeed as Vail isn't all that large.

I have one. I recently saw this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/monthly-tournament-at-brixies-1

I really like the idea of a single elimination event at a location where you can get a beer. Won't take several hours, but would be a way to get together for some fun competition. I don't like ties though, so I'm thinking something like this.

Let's say 8 players show up. The first round would eliminate half the players. The winners would move on. Those eliminated would each play another single game, everyone plays the same machine. Those scores are ranked, so there is a true 5th thru 8th. The next round does the same thing, but since there are only two players getting eliminated, their consolation game is basically head to head. Third round is the finals.

So, the winner has to play 3 games to get the win. Does that grade out to 12% since that is basically the longest path?

With 8 players that seems like it will be very fast. Maybe it could be adjusted for the number of players that show up. 8 and under, double elim. 9+ is single elim.

OK. I think that is on the low side of how many would show up. A little promoting and numbers showing up would be better, especially if we do it when there are beer specials.

Are weeklies/bi-weeklies considered a tournament or a league when it comes to submiting them ahead of time? Whopper Wednesdays in BC can be the example here. They don't have recent events, so I can really investigate on the IFPA calendar.

I just got word that a local place is willing to let me and another player help maintain their few pins so that we can bring in a few small events a month. If it's one a month, I can see that being addeda head of time, but if it's a regular thing (like 2nd and 4th Wednesday), it seems like it might fall in between a league and a monthly. It won't be a set roster. Whoever shows up, will play.

Just looking for advise how to do things properly.

After reading Bob's latest post on IFPA breaking down different events and how they grade out, I think I forgot a detail in my last question. In single elimination, does it matter if it's one game or best of 3?

8 player, single elim, single game, longest path is 3.

8 player, single elim, best of 3, longest path is 9.

So it could be either 12% or 36% depending on the number of best-of, right?

Thank you.

And, thank you.

I think this is going to be a very fun little bi-weekly event. Won't be over in a flash, but won't take all night either.

I'm curious too. January is a lot busier than I was prepared for. So far, we've had:

1 bi-weekly
1 monthly
1 league event
1 'annual' style event. 19 players and will grade out to 100%.

Tonight, we have the beginning of a 3-day qualification/16 player bracket finals event. Tough to get away for that one, so not sure if I'll make it. Qualifying goes until Friday, so maybe I'll head up after the work week is over and try to make a run.

Also have another bi-weekly tonight.

So far I've come in 5th in the league event, won the first bi-weekly, let's not talk about the monthly (13 of 19, ouch), and came in 4th in the one I labeled 'annual'. To say I'm very anxious to see where I currently sit is almost an understatement. I'm off to a much better start than last year with my first win ever (only been doing this ~a year) in a non-league event, and did a decent job against some good players in the big event.

Just as an FYI, last year your JAN 29th win (~5 points) would have been worth 25/# of events that year. It looks like the H2H event is every 2 weeks, so 26 events a year. Would have been less than a point last year. Now weeklies, bi-weeklies, and monthlies are rated the same as annual events. 25-30 player monthlies at my local place used to be worth ~2.11 for a win. The current method is much better. It still favors locations that have a large following, but many of those places have a long history of organized events.

Locally (Tucson area), we can't compete with Phoenix, and between those bodies, we make up the SCS list. I started the Tucson league (one event a month) because the Phoenix one was at capacity and locals wanted a place to play with friends. I also started a bi-weekly head to head event for two reasons. To try and get a trickle of new players interested with low (and now no) entry fee. Also it gave anyone who wanted it a way to work on playing head to head. Everything else available locally is a linear format and that doesn't give you the same nerves as when it's just you and another player and you have to show up or you will have a short day.

7th in the state isn't bad at all, and that is what I would focus on for now. Many of the top 100-200 players get in a huge regional event or two a year, which is where a lot of points happen. If you want to travel for those, that will help your world ranking quite a bit. But, if you want to bring up the point values locally, do a few events yourself and try to bring in new players. I think that you will find that over the course of putting on a few events, you will evolve how you approach things. I know I have seen this personally, and I imagine IFPA is having to go through this on a larger scale as well.

I'm currently 11th in AZ and my short term goal is to get in to SCS finals this year. After that I will maybe play less in the PHX events, but try to travel to some of the larger events to do those.

Like Frax said though, I wish my ranking was the same in the few different places you can look. I don't know what I'm ranked in the world right now, but can get a pretty good range to guess at.

I noticed this in the AZ SCS and AZ players' world rankings since Tucson has gotten involved with IFPA events. Local monthlies started late 2013 and IFPA was a part of that shortly after. In 2013 there were a handful of Tucson players in IFPA's records and zero in the state's top 16. In 2014 Tucson had 5 players in the top 16. Currently there are 5 Tucson players in the top 16 and 1 in there who is from PHX, but heavily active in Tucson events.

We are also seeing top local players work their ways up the intl rankings too. We had 2 crack the top 1000 this year and a few of us aren't far behind. The top 3 spots in the state are still in a pretty firm grasp, but 2 of those 3 travel as well and have been doing this for a little while.

The best part: There isn't a single person I see at events that I hope doesn't come to future events. That's the best part about this hobby is the competitive participants may be really good, but are typically also really cool/good people.

Any insight on what changes may happen with elimination grading? The regulars in my bi-weekly elimination event are actually pretty interested in the ways things work and changes that happen.

Sounds good. Whatever change happens will affect the group the same as far as the event standings go in the future, so nobody will have it any easier getting a trophy than they do today.

I think what was being said is that a rating system isn't very good at its job if the top players are not at the top. I didn't read that as it is set up to have players x,y,z (and so on) ranked in the top 100.

There is one way to get into the top 100. Play high point events and do well. My state has one convention which is pretty large. The main event was just over 21 points and the classics was just over 20 points. There are a few others in state that will get close, but that's it. Compared to some of the CA events, Zapcon isn't even 2/3 of those events. CA has and advantage over AZ, but that's just the way it is.

GA looks like an area pretty ripe for growth, but, just like AZ, will have a tough time competing with CA and NYC point values. So what choices do I (we) have to crack the top 100. Travel. Until then, stay in the top 16 in your state as that is a much better evaluation of how you are doing compared to local players.

Josh, you know I run TPL, but also the Tucson bi-weekly. I opened the ATL H2H records and was instantly jealous. Seriously, 12-14 players every 2 weeks. We get 5-8 every 2 weeks, but it's grown from the 3-5 we were getting earlier this year. Dude, Dbaum, keep hitting those up. Those events are going to end up with a huge total points value in your state. You are solidly 5th of 14 in several of the events and look at the INTL rankings of the players finishing ahead of you. You pick off one of those guys every now and then and before you know it you will be right there with your numbers.

True. It's almost a chicken/egg issue, maybe more of a damned if you do damned if you don't. You can't have large point event without large attendance, but once you have those large points available, you are going to have some traveling competition showing up to make things that much harder.

Am I reading this correct that the first ranking was 1414? That's basically winning (or coming close to) the first event you play in right?

Good point, thanks for the clarification.

Honestly, the location we currently use for the bi-weekly sucks for getting new eyes. It's got a pretty good bank of 4 machines though, so we are happy to support it. All of the players we have gained are ones I know and have played with (against?) at the monthlies at the 30 pin location we all started at (D&D). Actually, that's not entirely true. We have one new player who walked into D&D during a league event and has taken hook, line, and sinker. He's a cool person and a good player.

Now, with the second location for our bi-weekly we will have access to many more eyes. Roller hockey and indoor soccer on alternating days, so a new set of traffic every hour every afternoon-evening of the day. Decent bar with good food. I will have large signs too. I already have a FB page for the event, but didn't really think about free events sections in the papers. Will look into that. The populations is certainly there, now it's just getting people aware and interested.

Did something change over the weekend, or recently? AZ #1 was in the 150's and is now in the 120's. Looks like everyone was affected, but not sure what happened.

I guess I should also clarify. AZ's #1 player had ~150 points for the 2015 SCS and now they have 128.xx. I actually moved up a few spots in AZ over the weekend, but that's because an entry from an event went live.

Makes sense, but I thought the non-rated player hit had already happened. Is this something that will happen every few months, or will future results account for any non-rated players who played?

Gotcha. Thanks for the info.