PAPA site just now still had 6 events with BAT as #6.
Yeah, it switched back to six since I posted that screenshot. No idea…
The biggest challenge for me as a TD, regardless of the event prestige or size, is trying to overcome objections from potential players that they aren’t yet good enough to compete. Not many people who are new to competitive pinball want to pay to get their ass kicked…not even $5 at small local monthlies. Why does that surprise you?
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It surprises me because I’ve been “paying to get my ass kicked” since I started competing. How else do you get better?
Seriously though- if a tournament is only fun if you win, that might say more about the format than it does about who is showing up to play. The odds of me beating Keith Elwin at Pinburgh last year were laughable but it was still an amazing time.
6 Events.
At Louisville specifically, there is an entire B division for players ranked 800 - ?
It will have way more than $100 in it.
Allow players ranked at a certain level to compete for free, get them hooked to competing.
At my semi-regular knockout tournaments, I just have separate A and B pots. If you’re ranked above a certain level you only contribute to and benefit from your pot.
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B Division is great, and serves a fantastic purpose, but it is still a world apart from anything local casual players are going to touch. I really feel like there should be something in the 1500-2000 range.
Try free tournaments. I run a free 3 strike tournament every second Friday of the month. Do it at 8 pm and new people come out the woodwork to play. If it’s free they don’t feel pressure. I know 5 bucks is nothing but I’ve tried that. Free actually added to attendance.
Also. Come up with awards for people other than the winners. I give out a prize to the first person knocked out. I also give a prize to the person with the most kills (get a kill if they issued someone their third strike)
I also think it helps that my location isn’t frequented by the best players in the world. Everyone down to the newest newbie has a shot.
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Agreed. That’s why this year’s TPF will have A, B, Novice, and Women’s division finals.
I set the Novice at 3000+ ranking restriction.
And first place for Novice will also get a custom molded trophy just like the A div champion. + $100 cash.
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Could you make another map with the majors and minors overlapping each other?
Would look cool
And im too lazy 
I think you need a cartographer! I just attached that image from the web
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I know forum posts are not the best way to give feedback, but i wanted to see if others agree.
I was disappointed with no streaming coverage( that i could find) for PATZ this weekend. On top of that, the neverdrains finals stopped being updated in the quarter finals. I am assuming this was an unforseen technical difficulty. This is just a timely example, I am sure it was a great event, and I don’t mean to single it out.
I would really like to see “ability to watch / follow the event” as part of the selection criteria. It would be good if their was a minimum expected commitment to be a circuit event. It would be great if we could get to a point all circuit events had archived videos.
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Lack of PAPA support for some circuit events is disturbing as well. Some events they go all out and others they just throw the Papa logo onto it. No posts or write ups on facebook page or on any pinball forum, etc…
If the event benefits a charity no disclosure of how much was raised or sent to such charity is communicated. No presentation of a check or cash is ever published publicly.
Hope these areas can be improved as gammagoat makes some great points in his feedback.
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We can’t travel to every event unfortunately. Last year our crew only fully made it out to one non-PAPA event (CLEPIN), and the director of the show worked with us financially to make it happen. We all have full-time jobs outside of PAPA so until traveling to circuit events becomes a full time job, our on-site support is limited to the free time we have.
This year all of the events are receiving a box full of giveaways for the event and each event has been promoted on our facebook page as well.
I send out an email prior to every event and ask the director what they would like to see promoted and also ask them to send us pictures of the winners to post on our social media. If they do not respond, I don’t have much to post.
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I’m betting the lack of a completed finals bracket probably has something to do with software failure on their end. Probably not much they can do once that happens in the middle of finals.
I would love it if every event had streaming, and archived video of the event. Realistically we are not at that point. It takes a ton of time, money and people to put together a quality stream for viewers. They are great when events can pull it off, I agree. At this point I would rather see the Circuit directors focus on running a high quality event first and streaming a distant second.
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Doug is correct on both points. The software froze during the quarterfinals and we had to change to paper. The top four finishers were:
- Aaron Grabowski
- Jason Magnuson
- Andy Rosa
- Jeff Teolis
We would have loved to stream the event. However, when we took into account the equipment cost, mediocre wifi at the convention center, and the added manpower needed to create a quality stream, we did not feel that we could pull off an overall tournament experience that met our standards. Instead we focused on running a very high quality tournament. IMO we were able to deliver on this.
As Doug said, pinball is not yet at a point where you can realistically expect all circuit events to provide a stream.
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Thanks for putting on the event. Hopefully I can make it someday.
PATZ tourney should probably focus on the basics like leveling games before worrying about things like streaming. Baby steps.
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Which game/games were not level? This is the first I heard of it all weekend. I would have fixed it at any point if I would have been told.
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