Main Match-Play Tournament

¹ The advertised limit of 52 players listed above is based on expectation of 13 functional machines in the Main Tournament Bank. Maximum number of players in a round could be increased or decreased depending on machine availability.

Specific details on the format of each round are included below.

Prize Pool

FVFO Entry is an entry into the 2015 Fraser Valley Flip-Out PAPA Circuit Event, courtesy of our sponsor Nitro Amusements. It will be held September 24th thru 27th in Mission City, BC, about 2 hours north of Seattle.

NWPC Entry is an entry into the Northwest Pinball Championships PAPA Circuit Event, courtesy of this year's new organizers of the event: Kevin, Raymond, Germain and Nicolas. They have taken over from Cayle and Eden. It will be held August 28th thru 30th in the Seattle area; exact location TBD (possibly Marysville). Each prize entry includes one game on each machine of both the main bank and classics bank. The player can purchase additional entries to improve their score on any of the machines.

Qualifying Rounds Details

The tournament will be played on the Main Tourney Bank of machines.

Each round will have a maximum of up to 52 players. The players will play a 5-game partial round-robin that will include 3-player and/or 4-player games on five different machines against varying opponents. The list and order of matches will be posted at the start of the round. Players will not play the same machine twice, and will face different players every game.

Points will be awarded for each game, as described below in the section Game Scoring. The top seven players (identified by the highest point totals for the five games) will move on to the quarter-finals, with the top score in each round earning a bye straight into the semi-finals. In case of a tie for first or seventh, the tie-breaking procedure described below will be used.

To register, stop by the tournament desk any time after registration desk opens on Friday, or as early as you can on Saturday, as entries could sell out later in the day. Registration for any round closes when it is full, or 15 minutes prior to the start of the round.

Sign-up is first-come-first-serve, and you cannot sign up for a retry until you’ve completed your prior round and results are posted that you did not move on to Sunday rounds. When you sign up, pay your registration fee and select which of the qualifying rounds you want to compete in. Once a round is full, no additional entries for that round will be accepted.

A player can try to qualify a maximum of three times. If a later round sells out and a player still has a retry available, then it will be "tough luck". It is highly encouraged that the first try is one of the Friday rounds, just in case the later rounds do sell out.

A player can only register for one round at a time. If they finish in top 7, they move on to quarter finals (or semi finals if top finisher), and not eligible to play in subsequent rounds. If they are not in top 7, they can register for another round (up to 3 rounds total) once results for a round they just played in are final.

Qualifying Round E conflicts with the Classic PinGolf finals. Players who hope or expect to make it to the Classic PinGolf finals should plan on playing in earlier qualifying rounds, and not risk the conflict. If a player does play in both the PinGolf finals and Round E simultaneously, they do so at their own risk. If it is their turn in both tournaments at the same time, then it will be ruled as an "intentional delay" for the game they are not readily available to play. Per the PAPA Rules that will be applied in this tournament, after one warning, this will results in a forfeit of the game and a score of 0. Recommendation is to plan ahead and not end up in this circumstance!

It is possible that at the end of Round D, there are more players that want to retry in Round E, but not enough remaining open spots. If that occurs, then priority will be given to players based on their Round D results, highest point-total among those who did not qualify get priority; if there’s a tie for last entry into Round E, tie-breaking rules described below will be used.

Note that when players sign up, the list of who is signed up for which round will not be made public. Only the number of remaining spots in each round will be advertised.

Machines used for each game will be pre-determined by the schedule. The schedule will be posted on the main tournament computer screen, as well as posted online to this website. Note that scheduled machine may change after the start of the round in case of malfunctions or other issues, at the tournament director's discretion. If there is a need to change which machine is played, then it is possible in this case that the same machine gets played twice during the round by one or more players.

Prior to the start of each game in a round, a tournament official will place a scoresheet on each machine, then announce the start of the game. At that time, players should proceed to the machine they are schedule to play on, verify on the scoresheet that they are at the right place, then begin play when all players are present.

Order of play is as shown on the scoresheet for that game. Playing out of order at any time will result in a disqualification, and a recorded 0 points for that game.

Points will be awarded for each game, as described below in the section Game Scoring.

Quarter Final Round Details

The top seven players from each qualifying round will compete on Sunday.

The top-point earner from each of the five qualifying rounds receives a bye straight into semi-finals, and thus does not play in this round.

The other 30 players will play a 4-game partial-round-robin quarter-final round as 3-player games, with the top 16 players moving on to semi-finals.

Any ties for 16th place will be resolved per the tie-breaking rules given below.

Procedure for starting each game, order of play, and scoring will be same as in Qualifying Rounds.

Note that for purposes of PAPA Circuit Points and IFPA WPPR Points, the final order in this round will establish the finishing position for players in 22nd through 35th place.

Semi Final Round Detail

The semi-final round will include 21 players (top 16 from quarter-finals, plus the 5 qualifying round winners who received byes), and consist of another 4-game partial-round-robin format, also as 3-player games.

The top 7 players move on to the A finals, with the top finisher getting a bye to guarantee them at least 3rd place in A finals.

Excluding the top 7, the next top 7 players not ranked in IFPA Top 250 move on to the B finals. The highest finisher among these 7 will get a bye to guarantee them at least 3rd place in B finals.

If there are not at least 7 players with IFPA ranking of 250 or below who finish between 8th and 21st this round, then the highest ranked quarter-finalists with IFPA ranking of 250 or below will be brought into the B finals.

Any significant ties will be resolved by tie-breaking rules below.

Procedure for starting each game, order of play, and scoring will be same as in Qualifying Rounds.

Note that for purposes of PAPA Circuit Points and IFPA WPPR Points, the final order in this round will establish the finishing position for players in 8th thru 21st place. The B finals will not affect those points. Finishing order for 1st through 7th is determined by the A Finals round.

Final Round Detail

A and B finals will operate independently and in parallel, with the constraint that a B finalist with a machine pick cannot select a machine in use by A finalists.

Each division will have its own Final's bracket, as shown here:



– Finals Game A1/A2: Semi-Final seeds 2/5/7 and 3/4/6 play three-player games; First and second move on to Game B1/B2; losers go to Game B3 to battle for 6th/7th position.
– Finals Game B1/B2: First from A1 plays second from A2; Second from A1 plays first from A2. The two winners move on to Game C1. Losers go to Game C2 to battle for 4th/5th position.
– Finals Game B3: Winner gets 6th, loser gets 7th.
– Finals Game C1: Semi-Final winner, and winners of B1/B2, play a three-player game. Loser gets 3rd place. 1st and second move on to Game D.
– Finals Game C2: Winner gets 4th, loser gets 5th.
– Finals Game D1: The final game. Winner of C1 picks both position and order. Note that when a player has a machine pick, the pick is from the subset of machines selected for the finals. If the finals are broadcasted on live Internet TV, that subset of machines will likely only include machines under the camera.

Tentative Machine List

AC/DC LE • Breakshot • Eight Ball Deluxe • Flash Gordon
Funhouse • Iron Man • Judge Dredd • Mustang
NBA Fastbreak • Nine Ball • Paragon
Raven • Space Station • Wizard of Oz

Game Scoring

The scoring system has been revised as compared to last year's event, but the same concept of bonus points remain.

Scoring for each game will depend on the number of players in the game.

4-Player Games:

Base points = 6-4-3-1. Two bonus points are awarded:
– 1st place player earns bonus point if score[1st place] > score[2nd place]+score[3rd place], else 3rd place player gets that bonus point.
– 2nd place player earns bonus point if score[2nd place] > score[3rd place]+score[4th place], else 4th place player gets that bonus point.
This means 1st place player gets 6 or 7 points; second place player gets 4 or 5 points. Third place player gets 3 or 4 points, and 4th place player gets 1 or 2 points.

3-Player Games:

Base points = 6-4-1. Two bonus points are awarded:
– 1st place player earns bonus point if score[1st place] > score[2nd place]+score[3rd place], else 3rd place player gets that bonus point.
– 2nd place player earns bonus point if score[2nd place] > 2 * score[3rd place], else 3rd place player gets that bonus point.
This means 1st place player gets 6 or 7 points; second place player gets 4 or 5 points. Third place player gets 1, 2, or 3 points.

2-Player Games:

Two-player games will be avoided, but they could happen due to forfeits or missing players.
– Winner who does not double opponents score wins 5-3.
– Winner who doubles opponents score, but has less than triple, wins 6-2.
– Winner who triples opponents score, wins 7-1.

Forfeits and Disqualifications:

Any player that forfeits a game by not showing up, that player receives 0 points for the game, and the other players score the game with one less player.

Any player that is disqualified in a game due to a ruling receives 0 points for the game. The other players score the game including the disqualified player, and assume a score of 0 for that player.

Tie-breaking rules

A significant tie is one where the winner has a significant advantage (such as who moves to next round or who gets a bye).

To resolve significant ties, A ONE BALL SUDDEN DEATH playoff game among tied players will be played on a randomly selected machine from the bank.

Non-significant ties that only affect seeding will be broken randomly, except for at the end of the semi-finals.

At the end of the semi-final results, if there is a non-significant tie, then results of SF Game 4 only will be used to break the tie. If still a remaining tie, then results of Game 3 will be used, and so on. If still a tie after considering Games 2 then 1, then a coin-flip will determine seeding.

Malfunctions and Rulings

Anytime an abnormal circumstance occurs, a tournament official should be notified. To ensure consistency throughout the tournament, PLAYERS SHOULD NOT RESOLVE ISSUES ON THEIR OWN. Except for rules explicitly covered on this page, PAPA Section VII will be used to address malfunctions and as the basis for rulings.

– Tournament players are expected to remain in the tournament area for the entire round. However, it is understood that short breaks are sometimes needed and the best time for the break is between games. A player who is away from the machine at the start of a game for more than five minutes, or in the middle of the game for more than 30 seconds (from the time a tournament official is notified), could be ruled as an intentional delay and result in a score of 0 for that game. The tournament official will determine if an intentional delay penalty is to be applied, depending on the circumstances. If a player does not report to a machine in a timely manner, please notify a tournament official. One exception: a player will be allowed up to 1 minute instead of 30 seconds prior to their turn if the previous player ended their ball with a Tilt or Danger warning.

– Tournament officials reserve the right to modify any machine between games or between rounds, including changing of settings, tilt sensitivity, machine level, or any other adjustment that is deemed desirable to make the tournament run more smoothly and be more fair and fun. Since a player is only competing against the other players in the same game, all players will encounter such changes at the same time, and it is part of pinball to be able to quickly adjust to changing conditions of a machine.

– Extra balls will be disabled whenever possible. If for any reason an extra ball is earned, please refer to note on backglass as to whether it should be played or plunged. If an extra ball is plunged, then player may touch flipper buttons to setup skill shot, then plunge ball in attempt to get the skill shot. But once ball is in motion they must step back and cannot touch the machine, unless the ball returns back to plunger lane and is not auto-plunged, at which time they can re-attempt a skill shot. If there is no note on the backglass, contact a tournament official for a ruling before play of the group continues.

Additional Information

Tournament Director: Dave Stewart
For questions and inquiries regarding tournaments at NWPAS, please contact wapinball@gmail.com.

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