Heard the pins were pretty boss. Hows the lighting? Heard it was a bit dim.

Nice. Psyched

Glad to see it was a good turnout and that people enjoyed getting crushed. Hope you guys enjoy it next year, and that you dont have to buy more tokens after the first day.

I'm not down if you read my previous post. I had fun and Pinball Wizard is a great place. The people were nice and the pins were in great shape. And yes I did the math and by the looks of it you have a few chances on each machine to put up scores. You need more than that for anything else you do especially in pinball where you need to learn the games and there is true randomness involved. And once again if you read my post I am not blaming anything on the tournament because I know Im not an elite pinball player and that I wouldnt win. I was convinced to try it under false information about this tournament by a salesman and I believed that paying for a three day tournament would last for all three days. If raising your hand for five minutes to post a score because of the shortage of volunteers and poor planning is your definition of a well run event, then it was well done. I am just expressing my thoughts and opinions based on my experience at the tournament and I am sorry that I didnt realize its not allowed.

Kypinman I agree. Rob go back and read every post from Lakeman it was negative right from the begining from buying tokens, hearing about people all ready buyimng tokens, to not having a chance of winning. I didn't read anything to possitive. And the complaint about waiting five minutes to log your score I was there all weekend and did not wait more than two minutes except when a machine malfunctioned and would not give my score. There were six or seven people at most times collecting scores which was fine. Another issue not realized by the general public is that when aurcade was updating it basically paused and froze the ipads. If the score taker was trying to enter a score at the same time the score takers had to reboot the ipad. You could have twenty people keeping score and that would not change. On the lack of tokens that is because some people are selfish and greedy. I played all weekend and did not have to purchase more tokens. My only complaint was the ignorant players who didn't care that other people were waiting for the machine that thay were playing and kept funneling tokens into the machine regardless of how many people were waiting. I friend of mine said the same thing on Saturday " oh I all ready spend an extra 60 bucks on tokens". I asked why is that going to change how well you do? You are the level of player you are and pumping twenty bucks into a machine is not going to make you a better player. It is not the Arcades fault that you are the level of player you are and that you have the misconception that you have a chance of coming in first place. Playing that way makes it a game of chance instead of a game of skill. I played my tokens, I didn't buy any more, and I came in 41th over all, I think that is pretty good for someone who doesn't play that serious that often. If you read any of my post from the past it is easy to be in the cheap seats giving suggestions on how to run an event. Be realistic and understand that there is a lot that goes on behind putting one of these on. Yes it would be nice having twenty people taking score and ten techs to fix broken machines but these are employees and get paid. it is expensive to hire extra people and have them legal for one day. There is tons that goes on in putting one of these on and the prep work is daunting. Sarah and her crew did a great job putting this on and deserve possitive recognition for their work instead of people trying to make it better. Sometimes hearing how it could be better can be a real PITA and becomes negative real fast. Let the dust settle and give it a few days before ripping the event apart. This is the second year for pinwiz. Sarah was very active on the floor and I am sure she recognizes there there are issues and will make them better next year. Personally I would like to thank Sarah and her staff for the great job that they did. The machines and staff put up with 35 hours of grueling torture from over 100 tired pinheads and survived. Job well done and I hope that you will continue the effort put forward to make this event happen. Again you all did a great job and your efforts are greatly appreciated by many.

My opinion to your post is you knew what you were getting for tokens, you knew what the time frame was, You know how good or bad you play ( still not the arcades fault because you need many warm ups on each machine before you can play a real game ). No one had your arm behind your back or forced you to to register or even go, again you read what was included before you put up the 60 bucks and registered. Nowhere did I read that we will provide you with tokens until you get a good score or provide you with tokens to last the weekend. Your post came off like they are screwing you because the games are not set on free play and you " Have to buy more tokens" to last the weekend which is not the case. You have every right to voice your opinion but expect that people are going to agree or disagree with your opinion. I am also sorry you did not have a good time or you were unsatisfied.

Robbie, I'm not too sure of your expectations or "mislead" of our tournament, I follow PAPA tournament rules for the pinball machines that include- no free balls where available, no game matches, no buy-ins, no replays, and set to tournament settings where available. And, I'm not sure how you can blame Aurcade scoring as they did a wonderful job of technical support during the tournament (which was transparent to the players) and the initial set-up of the games in each tournament. As an arcade, we utilize their system for scoring, there is no need for them to be present during the tournament. We placed a record number of 5581 scores during the 35 hour event, 39 pinball machines, which equates to an average 2.66 scores per minute! I know my feet hurt after 14 hours each day of repairs and taking scores. And many thanks to my staff for their dedication and long work hours. That's a lot of scores for the 6 employees (not volunteers) to log in with the iPads.

If you would like to discuss more, feel free to stop by the arcade. Sarah

Hi Robbie, I'm not offended and always favor constructive feedback. ACAM (BTW- I am a board member) and The Pinball Wizard Arcade offer two different types of tournaments. Their tournament is video game based and the one you entered this weekend is Pinball based. Pinball machines are far more expensive to maintain and prepare for a tournament compared with video games. At The Pinball Wizard Arcade all Pinball Machines are 2 or 3 tokens and video games are 1 token. When we hold our video game tournament in November, all the video games will be 1 token to play. Sarah

Buisness dares to make money, news at eleven. ;)

Hope the dates for the video tourney drop soon, couldn't make it for the pinball but maybe november will work out.

Lakeman....I think you are missing the point when it comes to gameplay. You are alluding to the fact you can "buy your way" to a better score....in fact this is why the golf industry is so profitable. Golfers constantly think "if I just go buy that new driver with the new whiz bang club head I will shave three strokes off my score". When in reality you could hand Tiger Woods a persimmon driver and he would still beat most everyone. This is a tournament of skill....not luck or learning. Learning is otherwise called "practice" and is best done outside a tournament. If you took 39 pinball games the world has never seen before, the same players would be at the top of the scoreboard regardless of how many times everyone played them. Skill is something you come TO a tournament WITH, not develop at it. I agree you said you had fun, but where I had issue is that you were placing blame where it wasn't deserved or justified. As a gesture of good will and sportsmanship I will offer to "sponsor" you in next years tournament if you in kind will make the commitment to "practice" between now and then and give your review of your experience once you have more skill. To use your golf example....just assume the tournament is like a golf course you have never been to before and get just one try at...it isn't about learning the course, but is all a out the skills your bring to it. Best regards and hope to hear from you.