(1 Article) x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x* From: David B. Stewart Subject: PAPA Flipoffs - Pittsburgh - Lots of Details Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball As promised, here are more details on the Pittsburgh PAPA Flipoffs. This is a must-see event for anyone within a few hours driving distance of Pittsburgh. I received a packet in the mail (I got the "executive packet" that goes to the sponsors ... I must be special :-) ). First, the Main Flyer ... the B&W artwork an absolutely terrific ... unfortunately I cannot scan it, as the design is copyrighted (and I suspect is a preview of the Steel City Pinball Association (SCPA) new T-shirts, to be available in time for PAPA-5. Here is the text info from the flyer (but nowhere as pretty as on the flyer): - Steel City Pinball Association presents ... 1994 PAPA Fall Flip-Offs - Grand Prize: Hotel Accomodations and air fare for the PAPA-5 World Pinball Championships in New York City, February 1995 - Plus $2500 in Cash and Prizes - 3 Divisions ... anyone can play A Division B Division Women's Division (women can also participate in A or B division) - Location: Beehive, 3807 Forbes Avenue, Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 [Ed. note: see addendum at end about location] - Qualify: Sat Dec. 10, 9AM-6:30PM Sun Dec. 11, 9AM-NOON - Finals: Sun Dec. 11, 1:00PM From a separate text-only rules sheet: [Ed. Note: This is a draft version of the rules, and rules are subject to change between now and Saturday morning's start of competition. All rules will be posted at the event. In the case of any problems arising not listed in the rules, then the tournament judges will make a decision, and that decision will be final. ] The Steel City Pinball Association has received will have many prizes for the winners and gifts for all who enter the flip-offs. These gifts and prizes were donated by our sponsors. Here is a list of sponsors. Without them, this event would not be possible. Bally/Midway Manufacturing Williams Electronics SEGA Pinball Premier Technology Amtex Software H. Lazar & Son, Inc. Betson Pittsburgh Mondia Distributing Inc. RCA/Victor Steve Epstein Professional and Amateur Pinball Associations Beehive Coffeehouses Steel City Pinball Association The Flip-offs are designed for all levels of players. SCPA encourages all levels of players to play pinball. There will be experienced players [ed. note, including Bill Kurtz, Steve Zumoff, Ellen Frankel, Rob Chesnavich, and I] to give pointers about the games if you desire. The SCPA has created 3 divisions to ensure fairness to the less experienced or beginning players. The tournament judges may determine if a player is not suited or over qualified for a given division. - The "A" division will be for players that are very experienced with the current pinball machines and are very familiar with the rules. [Ed. note: the skill level for this "A" division will be similar to the "B" division in New York City's main event, as Pittsburgh A-level players, including Bill, Steve, and I will not be participating in the tournament since we will be the judges.] - The "B" division is for players that are new to pinball, or have played in the past but not too much recently [Ed note: the skill level for this divsion will be similar to the "C" division in New York City] - The Women's division. Women may also enter into the A or B divisions [see note below about attempting to qualify in multiple divisions] The cash and prizes are the same for the B and womens division, and higher for the A division. Prizes are listed below. Qualification A player must qualify in order to make the finals. During the qualifying period a player will be trying to achieve the highest (and possibly second highest) scores on the six to eight different machines for that division. The players with these scores will move on to the finals. There will be 8 or 16 people in each of the division finals (depending on number of people enterring). If 24 people (not entries!) or less compete in a division, then 8 people move on to the finals. If 25 people or more compete, then 16 people make the finals. How to Qualify A player will purchase a "qualification card" for $2.00. The card will ask for basic information (name, address, option to be placed on mailing list, etc.). The $2.00 will be used as follows: $1.00 will be applied directly to the cash prize fund, and $1.00 will be exchanged for 4 quarters to play 2 games. All games are on pay-for-play, 50 cents per game. This money will be used by SCPA to cover all the expenses associated with running the tournament. A Card entitles a player to 2 games on the machine of their choice in the bank of machines for the division in which they are qualifying. You must give your card to the scorekeeper in order to have your games validated. The score card must be stamped by the scorekeeper for it to be valid. A player may try to qualify as many times as desired, any may change machine on each qualification attempt. But, if others are waiting for the same machine, then players must go back into line after each 2 games. Players are also limited to 6 qualification games per hour if there are other players waiting to play. How to Pick a Game Give the scorekeeper your qualifying card, and the score keeper will fill in the "which game" and 'division" portion for you. You may enter one division and then switch to a higher division later in the qualifying round. You cannot switch to a lower division. The divisions are ranked as follows: A, B, Womens. If a person qualifies for finals in more than one division, then they must choose which division they want to compete in for the finals by the end of the qualification round. A player then must decide which machine they want to try to qualify on. WHen a player is ready to play the score card should be given to the scorekeeper in order to get a place in line on a particular machine. The scorekeeper will call your name when your machine is ready. They will call your name 3 times (within about 5 minutes). If you do not respond, then your card will be placed at the end of the line on that machine. You must play both of your games for that qualification entry on the same machine. If you want to try to qualify on a different machine, you must buy a new qualifying card for $2.00. A player should choose a machine based on their own ability on a particular machine, or pick a machine in which the highest qualifying score so far seems within their ability. After the 2 games are complete, the scorekeeper stamps your card and gives it to the Score Master, who keeps track of all the scores for the tournament. Highest scores to date will be kept updated on a score board. Finals The finalists will be the highest qualifying score(s) on each of the machines. Because a couple of players of players have already qualified through local competitions at the league locations (3 in A division, 2 in each of B and Women's divisions), it is possible that not all the machines take the same number of qualifying scores. [Ed. note: For example, suppose the B division has at least 25 people entering, and a bank of 6 machines. 2 people have already qualified from local competition, and therefore there is room for 14 new finalists. But with 6 machines and 2 high scores on each, that gives you 12 people. In this case, the 2 leftmost machines will each take a 3rd highest score. Selection of additional qualifiers will always be done from left to right on the bank of machines, so you can take this into consideration when picking a machine ... I've also been told that the left-most machine in each bank will be Road Show]. Four machines plus one alternate will be used in each division for each round of the finals. The alternate will be used in case of a mechanical failure. The machines for each division/round will be predetermined by the judges. The games for the finals will be played as four-player head-to-head competition. The people will be grouped based on their "seeding". (A table is given to demonstrate seeding; I won't copy it here, but as an example, here are examples of foursomes (game no. represents qualifying machine): Foursome 1: Game 1, 1st place Game 2, 1st place Game 7, 2nd place Game 8, 2nd place Foursome 2: Game 3, 1st place Game 4, 1st place Game 5, 2nd place Game 6, 2nd place Etc. There is also a formula listed for determining where the winners of the local competitions fit in. Players will stay in these groups for all games during that round of the finals. Each group will have a bye if there are 5 groups [Ed. note, there is the possibility of have a 20-people final ... in order to take at least 2-players from each machine + local winners ... again, I only have the draft version for these rules.] The highest seed in a group has choice of player position in their group in the first game (and in case of two players with same position, then left-most qualifying machine is assumed to be the higher seed, so in Foursome 1 above, 1st place Game 1 gets first choice, 1st place Game 2 gets second choice, 2nd place Game 7 gets 3rd choice, 2nd place Game 8 gets no choice.] After the first game the player position is based on the overall standings of their group. [Ed note: I'm not sure if this means that highest overall ranking gets first choice or lowest overall ranking gets first choice. PAPA uses something similar to the former, except that it's based on ranking on previous game, and I know that SCPA uses the latter for league play. I'll have to ask the rule makers for a clarification on this point]. Who Wins? Each foursome will play 4 games on 4 different machines. In each match, players will be awarded 3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd place, and 0 points for fourth. These points will be added for all four games to give a point total for the round. Ties will be broken by cumulative score for the match. [Ed note: The draft rules I have are not clear on what happens after this. I spoke to Bill this morning, and seems like Steve was putting this together. I suspect that it will be similar to PAPA, and go from 16 to 9 (3 groups of 3) to 4 (1 group of 4), or perhaps always be groups of 4 i.e. 16 to 8 (2 groups of 4) to 4 (1 group of 4). I'm also not sure if they will order all cumulative scores of all foursomes (as done at PAPA) or take the top 2 of 4 in each foursome. Whatever is decided for the exact format, it will be posted clearly at the event.] Prizes These are some of the definite prizes. The amount of the cash prizes will be based on how many people enter. Other prizes may also be added based on participation levels. A division: 1st: Air fare to New York, Hotel Accomodations, Free Entry for PAPA-5, and Cash 2nd: Hotel accomodations in New York, Free Entry for PAPA-5, and Cash 3rd: Cash and small gifts 4th: Gifts B division: 1st: Hotel accomodations in New York, Free Entry for PAPA-5, and Cash 2nd: Hotel accomodations in New York, Free Entry for PAPA-5 and Cash 3rd: Cash and small gifts 4th: Gifts Women's division 1st: Hotel accomodations in New York, Free Entry for PAPA-5, and Cash 2nd: Hotel accomodations in New York, Free Entry for PAPA-5 and Cash 3rd: Cash and small gifts 4th: Gifts Players who win hotel rooms or air fare are not required to go, but there is no cash substitute for these prizes. There are also no cash substitutes for any of the non-cash gifts/prizes. The SCPA, the Beehive, or the sponsors are not responsible for any events that may happen as a result of winning these prizes. The hotel rooms are based on double occupancy with 2 beds. That is, the winners get 1/2 a hotel room (1 double bed), and will share the room with one of the other winners. Men and Women will be accomodated in separate rooms. The accomodations are for 3 nights, but you may choose to shorten your stay if you don't have the time. You may also extend your stay, but must pay regular hotel rates for the extra day(s). Special Rules of Play [Ed. Note: Standard rules about Tilt, Slam Tilt, malfunctions, etc. are listed on the rules sheet, but I'm not going to type them in. They are pretty standard from other tournaments]. Tournament Mode: All games will be set on tournament mode. A player will not receive extra balls, specials, matches, or replays. Machines either disable the extra balls or specials completely (typical of Bally/Williams games), or automatically award you points instead (typical of SEGA/DE/ Premier games). Death Saves, Bang Backs, etc. Not Permitted!!!! If you perform them you will be disqualified for that game and given zero points. [Ed. Note. I'll try to get this ruling modified to allow outlane-drain claw saves on Freddy.] [Back to Ed. notes.] That's it for the draft of the rules that I received. Addendum: Location: The Oakland Beehive. This is a Coffeehouse and Dessertry. They have lots of varieties of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, capuccinos, sodas, iced drinks, juices, ice cream, cakes, cookies, etc. They do not serve alcohol. The Beehive is co-owned by Steve Zumoff, a pinball addict like the rest of us. He is also owner of the Southside Beehive, where SCPA holds one of its leagues. The Oakland Beehive is in the heart of Oakland, next door to University of Pittsburgh, and a 7-minute walk from Carnegie Mellon University. It is well known as a hangout place where you can talk all night long with your friends, or play your favorite games such as scrabble, cards, monopoly, chess, backgammon, etc (bring your own or borrow one from the counter for $0.50 + I.D., its your choice). The Beehive is also in the middle of lots of restaurants, bars/clubs, and shops, about a 10-minute drive from downtown Pittsburgh and Mount Washington (great view of Downtown!) The Beehive also has a decent-size theatre (seating capacity around 300 or 400 people). This is where the pinball tournament will be held. As I understand it, the theatre will still be showing its regular movies in the evening (typically at 7:30, 9:30, and 11:30pm), and the pinball machines will be moved to the side during the movies. (The movies is one of the main ways that the Beehive stays alive, and although they are letting SCPA use the theatre at no charge for the pinball event, they won't cancel the movies and lose out on their biggest night of the week). [Hey Bill, you think we can convince the owners to give a discount on the movies to anyone who tries to qualify at the Flip-Off?] Unfortunately I don't know what movie(s) are playing that night. Wouldn't it be great if it was Addams Family, Demolition Man, and Tommy :-). Actually, this movie theatre usually plays more "art-oriented" movies (e.g. The Piano, Like Water Like Chocolate, etc.) rather than Hollywood-style movies. They also play a different movie in each time slot, so they'll play 3 different movies in one night. Anybody from Pittsburgh, can you check out what movies are playing their this weekend? This event is primarily the creation of Bill Kurtz, current President of SCPA. I helped in getting Pittsburgh to host the event, and I'm helping out by keeping RGP informed and judging at the tournament, but it is primarily Bill, with the help of fellow SCPA members and Steve Zumoff that have done all of the organization. But from the brochures I've seen and the sponsors they've gotten, I can tell that they are very well organized, and so this has the potential to be one of the best regional tournaments around. All we need is your participation! Hope to see you there, Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dave Stewart, Founder of Steel City (formerly Three Rivers) Pinball Association Email: Telephone: H: 301-604-4251 W: 301-405-4251 Remember the PAPA Flipoffs in Pittsburgh, this coming weekend, Dec. 10-11.