The only thing you are doing to qualify is play all the machines in each catigory to quallfy for that catagory. You can get ten points on every machine and still qualify so that attempt to proove your point was moot. Anyways enough time debating this, It takes a ton of effort to put on an event there are a lot of behind the scenes things that you could not even imagine. Is any event going to be perfect? probably not. Again Sarah and her crew did a great job putting this even on. kypinman your post was perfect, Lakeman I agree if you ever want to get together at Pinwiz or any other location Let me know I would be more than glad to spend an afternoon practicing with you. I am not the best player but I don't play to be either.

-Brian

Martin, when someone says that enough tokens werent supplied for a three day event, and you reply by saying the business wants to make money, than yes you did validate my point. Im not hating on Pinball Wizard for wanting to make money, And like I have said before if you actually read what I have said, I never said or expected any tournament to have freeplay. It wouldnt hurt to provide more tokens or turn down the token amount for each game. I am not complaining because I didnt win any money or placed because that is not what it is about. A competitve tournament also involves people who arent going to win to at have the chance to see how well they can perform and feel self sccomplishment. I felt that I wasnt given the opportunity to do that with what was supplied.

Brian, if the goal is to qualify than that is weak in my opinion. If you are afraid to read which seems to be the current trend around here, my point is that a competition should allow people the opportunity to do their best and feel pride whether they win or not. I am a regular player at Funspot, and I know the people at ACAM enough to know what goes on behind the scenes, and the amount of work that goes into such an event. So dont assume or accuse me of not knowing anything about running an event. I welcome anyone who wants play games or pins with me, because I do like to have fun and socialize. I want any event to improve year after year and maybe it's my fault for caring too much.

lakeman421 Wrote: It wouldnt hurt to provide more tokens or turn down the token amount for each game. I am not complaining because I didnt win any money or placed because that is not what it is about. A competitve tournament also involves people who arent going to win to at have the chance to see how well they can perform and feel self sccomplishment. I felt that I wasnt given the opportunity to do that with what was supplied.

You are right, it wouldn't hurt you, but being fortunate enough to live close to this place and able to go weekly, I can't stress how many manhours have been spent getting these tables in shape over the last few months. I was floored showing up on Saturday to see 7 or 8 new machines altogether. This was all done without tipping regulars off as to what machines would be in the tournament.

The 13 80s games are 2.000 tokens a piece. the 17 90s games average 2.411 tokens per game, and the 9 2000s games running straight 3.000. Playing through everything once cost 46.995% of initial allotment with nothing 'extra' going towards all the manhours leading up to the event and all the hours that will be spent over the next couple weeks fixing the games that got the crap kicked out of them.

Like you, I knew I was 'dead money' in this but there was plenty of opportunity provided for me to feel self accomplishment, which I did in multiple individual games.

Any good event organizer will do a debriefing afterwards with the staff and or participants to evaluate what worked and what didn't.

Sarah seems like a smart cookie. I'm betting she can learn from the last 2 tourneys and make the third even better.

I didn't compete, but was there on Sunday to check it out. Here are my thoughts:

1. Group the games together. By this I mean do the extra work and get all ten 80's games side by side and have 2 scorers watching them. Repeat this step for the 90's and 00's. Now, maybe there is some reason this can't be done that I don't know about, logistics wise. However you can rarely go wrong by being better organized.

OR

Just make the tournament 20 to 30 random games and place them all in a row.

2. Set all the pins to 1 token equals 1 game. Having the modern games cost 3 tokens may shun some competitors away from that category. Now, to offset less tokens going in the machines you give out less prize money. IMO Sarah was way over generous with the payouts. She gave out like double what ACAM does in their yearly tourney and ACAM's supposed to be thee tournament of all tournaments at the largest arcade in the world. A tip of my cap to Sarah for giving out that much cash. The winners must be over joyed.

3&4 are EXTRA SPECIAL STUFF only if you have the time and resources to blow our minds

3. Get someone to MC the event. If you can set up an audio system it's always good to have a sultry voice giving tourney updates, reminding people of the rules, announcing how much time is left, conducting random interviews with players, etc

4. Get a webcam to stream the tourney over the net. Bandwidth can be an issue, but with today's technology this is almost a must have.

Rob Ross Wrote: 1. Group the games together. By this I mean do the extra work and get all ten 80's games side by side and have 2 scorers watching them. Repeat this step for the 90's and 00's. Now, maybe there is some reason this can't be done that I don't know about, logistics wise. However you can rarely go wrong by being better organized. 2. Set all the pins to 1 token equals 1 game. Having the modern games cost 3 tokens may shun some competitors away from that category. Now, to offset less tokens going in the machines you give out less prize money. IMO Sarah was way over generous with the payouts. She gave out like double what ACAM does in their yearly tourney and ACAM's supposed to be thee tournament of all tournaments at the largest arcade in the world. A tip of my cap to Sarah for giving out that much cash. The winners must be over joyed.

1. I think the idea is to keep congestion down, there are some spots especially around the 90s games in the first row where it is tough to get by.

2. I saw a few spectators playing empty tournament games which I would think would be more prevalent if they were all set to one token.

-The backroom was about 20 degrees cooler than anywhere else on Saturday, but was generally underused by players. With the cell phone store running promos, that backroom would be an excellent spot for a charging station given that most players were using tablets and phones to see their scores.

Very little knowledge about golf....OK.....nice. Mr. Lakeman... I extended to you a very real and sincere gesture to pay for your entry fee next year and you have to insult me. Seems clear to me you dwell in the world of "if I suck at something, blame it on random chance, not my lack of skill". If golf were a game of random factors dictating how well you did, how on earth would the same people always be at the top of the leaderboard? Heck....you can't get much more random than a game of poker...yet time and time again the same players are at the final table. Randomness has nothing to do with success. Skill is the deciding factor. A random factor thrown at you may set you back, but it is those skilled who are able to overcome. What I assume from previous posts is that you are a classic video game player ( I have also participated at ACAM ) and now makes sense as most classic arcade games are highly predictable / pattern based games ( there used to be a small cottage industry that published the "how to beat such and such game" based on the patterns needed to win ). Nothing wrong with enjoying the "predicactable" heck, that is what most scientists cherish....but please do yourself a favor....use the same concept of "continual improvement" on your pinball game skills and leave the "random" excuse oout of it. Pinball relies on two things, ball control and point system knowledge. The second is the easy part...just takes some reading online. The first part takes a lifetime and a lot of tokens! Good luck on your journey to pinball excellence, no hard feelings, I just hope you can re-examine how you view your personal success in life and not use "random factors" or "dumb luck" as a crutch through life. Once you truely accept you are in complete control of your fate...success will run to your door.

Robbie - I think the reference to papa by Brian was the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association and not about your dad......a quick edit to your post might be useful my friend.

Hank, I am not insulting you, but you can't pretend like you know all about golf when you don't and I even said you can correct me if Im wrong which you didn't. The same people aren't always at the top, because random factors are involved with anything. If you think randomness has absolutely nothing to do with success, you're thoughts on the subject are a little cloudy. In golf you can hit a great shot that costs you strokes and the tournament. In poker you can make the right move and still lose all your chips (I used to play online for a living, so I know a lot about poker). If you go all in with AA and someone calls with 7 2 off suit and you lose, people aren't going to tell you you lack skill. People get lucky and other people get unlucky. It happens and Im not blaming my experience all on luck. Skill and knowledge out ways luck in anything, so don't treat me like I'm not aware of it. I've been learning ball control, but knowing the point system is where I lack the most. I will continue to learn about scoring more points, and see where I can improve. The main point I made was that you pay for the same amount of money for the same amount of tokens at ACAM, but in the tournament it costed two or three times more than the games at ACAM. It didn't make sense to me and I pointed it out. At the time I felt ripped off, I said things in a way that I shouldn't have, and I apologize for that.

Bowen, I was told by an Admin on this site about the tokens and the free games. They advertised themselves as running the tournament, but none of them were there. That is why I felt like I received false information. I have never done a pinball tournament, and I wanted to try it out. Based on the false information and my experience, I felt like I was ripped off. If I ever try this tournament again I will take your advice and just compete in one of tournaments. Most likely the ones that only cost two tokens, because the three token games and the four token mystery game turns me away.