24 Hour Final Battle PAPA Circuit Event: 2016

We wil be opening registration for the 24 hour final battle tournament on Monday May 9th at 7 PM. You can either register online or in person at The Sanctum. To register in person just show up at the The Sanctum and pay the entry fee during our open hours. To register online we will post an email form on this site tothesanctum.org submit an email and that will hold your spot as we send you a link back to submit payment. Your spot will only be held for 24 hours until your payment is submitted.

Entry fee is refundable until August 31st after that it is only refundable if we are able to fill your spot

The entry fee for this year is 60$ and full details of this event can be found here:

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Here are the full details if anyone is unfamiliar with the event:

The 3rd Annual Final Battle is a 24 hour long non stop marathon tournament taking place the weekend of November 4th-6th and is a PAPA circuit event. Cost of entry is 60$ for the main event and registration will open Monday May 9th at 7PM either in person at The Sanctum or online at tothesanctum.org. This will be limited to 100 spots. Registration details will be posted on the website before it opens.

The event kicks off Friday November 4th with a pre battle pingolf tournament open to all to give players a chance to see the games being played and try them out. Cost of entry is 15$. We will have 6 classic games setup for pingolf with a match play finals for the top 10%. Golf starts at 3PM. Round must be completed by 7 PM. Finals start immediately after that and the facility is closed at 10 PM so everyone goes home to rest.

The main even starts Saturday the 5th at 10 AM. Doors to the facility open at 9 AM. This is a matchplay format with straight Swiss seeding throughout the event. The first round will be a complete random pairing of groups.

Each round will be 4 player groups playing 3 preselected games. Scoring is 3-2-1-0. In the case when people drop out as the event goes on and we have a 3 player group they will always be at the bottom and scoring will be 3-1.5-0.

After the first round is complete we will immediately start the next round. New groups will be formed by top points working our way down. We will play as many rounds as we can in the 24 hour block. Since this is daylight savings weekend we gain an hour so the event will commence at 9 AM on Sunday.

We will have a few small periodic breaks in between rounds to allow people to head out to local places for food/supplies. We will have a fridge for everyone to use and a water cooler. Please bring your own water bottle to fill to help us keep down on the waste and clutter of empty cups everywhere during the event. We have chairs and couches for seating but welcome people to bring folding type chairs for sitting in our hallway. We will be using matchplay.events for tracking results and this will provide text message notifications to all players when rounds are starting and will be paid for by us.

Prize money will be structured as follows:

Starting with the first round we will have a 100$ bounty available to any player who at any time during the 24 hour period can beat The Final Battle on The Shadow.

After round 1 if any player scores a perfect score of 9 for the round they will receive a bounty of 50$. If more than one player scores a 9 the 50$ bounty will be split between all of them. If not one scores a 9 the 50$ moves on to the next round and another 50$ is added to the bounty purse. This continues for every round and keeps building until collected and then starts fresh with another 50$ for the next round.

When we start the final round every group is playing for a prize purse. The top 4 players will be awarded trophies and the following cash prizes
1st place-1000$
2nd place-600$
3rd place-400$
4th place-200$

After that the 4 players in each group below are playing for a prize purse for the winner of the group you are playing in. The higher your group number the higher the prize purse. The purses are as follows
Group 2-125$
Group 3-120$
Group 4-115$
Group 5-110$
Group 6-105$
Group 7-100$
Group 8-95$
Group 9-90$
Group 10-85$
Group 11-80$
Group 12-75$
Group 13-70$
Group 14-65$
Group 15-60$
Group 16-55$
Group 17-50$
Group 18-45$
Group 19-40$
Group 20-35$
Group 21-30$
Group 22-25$
Group 23-20$
Group 24-15$
Group 25-10$

This is all based on a full field of 100 players and is subject to change it the field is not full when we start the event.

This is a marathon tournament so there is no finals and anything can happen in the last minute just like in a marathon. Don’t let someone with a burst of energy bolt past you in the final round!

Every player who plays for all 24 hours and never sits out a round will be awarded a completion medal just like finishing a marathon. These will be custom cast medals just for this event.

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Don’t forget to register tonight!

I hope “Mail sent successfully.” is actually true with the heavy traffic :laughing:

Edit: It did :slight_smile:

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Per Jim on FB, all 100 spots sold out in under an hour and people are now being added to a waitlist.

Feedback for Jim for next year: Please take into account that Monday at 7 is prime NEPL time. I kept our crew waiting while I registered, and I guess I’m glad I did. Sunday wouldn’t have been great (Mother’s Day) and Friday and Saturday were Allentown. Basically, if it were pretty much any other time of day today, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

Thanks Steve for updating everyone. So overwhelmed with the response. Absolutely crazy. Everyone crashed the site hitting it over and over at 7. Then once we were able to get in and get the form up I had like 70 something emails in the first minutes. Took a bit to get everything sorted out and make sure I made no errors in giving people spots. It was definitely under an hour we had the thing sold out and a strong waitlist. Been cleaning up the last with payments and a few drops in the past 36 hours. Awaiting 2 more payments and the list will be finalized.

We currently have a waitlist about a dozen deep or so right now. There is a link on the homepage if
You would like to get in on the list. It’s early enough there is probably a good chance many on the waitlist will get in.

Thanks for everyone’s support!

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And here’s the list. Quiet the competition!

Scott Wilson
Monica Mohan
James Calcia
Matt Guay
Bowen Kerins
Derek Laplume
Davey Plaisted
Wayne Savage
Steve Gourley
Jake Rudder
Dana Carvey
Chris Nosiglia
Matt Boschert
Nic Quieroz
George Magyar
Maggie Bielein
Holly Danowski
Andy Obelnicki
Tim Sexton
Greg Poverelli
Steven Bowden
Adam Kiesler
Bo Williams
Mark Hauser
Bob Sovatsky
Dave Goodwin
Charlotte Filmore Handlon
Kenny Weiner
Kevin Birrell
Jacob Erskine
Ed Zeltmann
Jeffery Bondorew
Sarah Demarest
Seth Clayter
Tim Tournay
Todd Baumeister
Hank Lashua
Gene X Hwang
Steve Daniels
Daniel Coyle
Karl DeAngelo
John Espositto
Augustus Eustis
Doug Parsons
Chuck Webster
Austin Smith NYC
Dominic Nardini Andrew
Jerry Lindsay
Dave Aceto
John Delzoppo
David Bourque
Ken Martin
Madmike Richardson
Kevin Duffy
Jeremy Lota
Alberto Santana
Lindsey Rhoades
Mike Korcynski
Germain Mariolle
Sanjay Shah
Brian Hill
Alex Rudder
Christopher CJ Smith
Ken Rossi
Justin Evans
Theresa Nessel
Jade Ang
Austin Chenelle
Mark Fillipelli
Pierce Mclain
Joe Lemire
Jay Ramey
Mike Testa
Leslie Kozloski
John Tomsich
Trent Augenstein
Tim Kerro
Nicole Bernier
Andy Stevens
Keith Merrill
Sunshine Bon
Ron Houde
Christina Cimino
Jerry Bernard
Joshua Senzer
Dennis Gardner
Johnny Modica
Matthew Carlson
Sam Thompson
Phil Harmon
Alex Harmon
Phil Birnbaum
Robert Wong
Tom Nelson
Jody Jodon
Jeremy Hakes
Joe Said
Cristin Gasson
Dale Geiger
Christopher Brescia

18 states and 3 Canadian provinces. What location goes home with the gold?

MA-16
CT-16
NY-16
ME-10
NJ-6
Quebec-6
PA-5
VT-3
CA-3
OH-3
VA-2
MD-2
RI-2
WA-2
MI-2
NH-1
DC-1
NC-1
FL-1
Nova Scotia-1
Ontario-1

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Those of you who survived it: how was it?

Amazing, just like last year only with more machines, more people, and yet also way more space. Up there with Pinburgh as a well-run, can’t-miss tournament for me (esp. since I don’t have to travel very far!)

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This was my first time and I had a blast and was very impressed with the quality of the event! Awesome location and all the games played well. Lots of attention to detail by the organizers and it was clear that they’ve done this a few times.

I was really surprised that there weren’t any dropouts. I expected at least 5 or 10 to bail in the late hours.

Thanks to Jim and Mark and all the volunteers at the Sanctum for making this happen. It must have been tough for you guys to sit out to keep everything running smoothly. I really can’t say enough good things. I’ll be back next year for sure!

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Were there really no dropouts the entire 24 hours? That is crazy.

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Amazing time. Like drinking Pinburgh from a fire hose. I’m still pretty zonked. Finally went to bed at 4pm, seven hours after the tournament ended. I had developed this crazy notion that if I fell asleep I might die. It’s all good though, here I am.

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Here’s an excerpt from an email I wrote to a friend about my first time in this tournament:

Around 3am you hit a wall pretty hard…vision, reflexes, stomach…not to mention legs and back from standing, though part my fault because I could have sat down more between rounds, but kept playing to stay awake and for practice. Around 7am you get some sort of a second wind, maybe because there are only 2 rounds left and you wanna sprint to the finish. In the end, Kerins had too big of a lead (he needed a zero for a small chance of one of us catching him), but all other top 10 positions where up for grabs in the last round. Damn you World Cup Soccer! …cost me 2nd place.

This is not a tournament for a fat prize purse, $1000 for the winner + top 4, then only the winner of your final group gets a nominal prize, so someone who finished in the 40s but won their group got any money, but me finishing 6th overall but second in my group got nothing. Then again, didn’t really do this for the money, and a good argument to this is that even the lowest ranked have something to shoot for in the end.

The Friday pingolf pre-tourney is a good appetizer and warmup for the main event. Casual, and low key, half the people, with hardware and $100 top prize. Why not?

Location, machines, and organizers were great (very comfy couches). Hotel was good and cheap (lot’s within a 3 mile radius, i stayed at the Best Western), half hour from the airport. Food was decent, had a couple of places around there and they got a food truck to come over. Machines were in good shape with tight tilts and NO ballsaves. A bit crowded but well ventilated…definitely maxed out at 100 people.

The toughest part is driving to the airport after the tournament and waiting to get on the plane. I was dozing off constantly and was worried I would fall asleep and miss my boarding. Once on the plane, slept throughout.

Overall a truly unique experience, think of it as Pinburgh condensed into a 24hr non-stop stretch. It really tests your limits, but it’s satisfying when you’re playing at 5am and can still get that competitive blood flowing. Your body just puts aside the pain and tiredness while the ball is in play. Kind of one of those bucket-list items, you have to experience it at least once.

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Try a 9 hour drive home immediately after the tournament! I did the first 5 then handed the wheel off to my travel partner who took a nap in the back seat.

Definitely agree that the last round is wildly important, and hard to give it the proper focus after playing for so long. Luckily I hit my third wind just in time for a strong finish, but I saw some players who were near the top throughout bomb out their last group and drop like a rock in the final standings.

I have a feeling registration will fill up even faster next year. Especially if it’s still a circuit event.

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It was a really incredible event. Huge props to Mark and Jim and everyone who helped make it possible.

Still on the fence whether I would do it again - but it was a great experience, and I truly do love their lineup, and their dedication to oddball games.

Thanks for coming everyone and all the kind words. Mark and I chose to step back this year and strictly be TD’s. At first we were a bit bummed to not be playing but very early on we were both enjoying ourselves tremendously and had more fun this year in the previous two years.

Our first year we had 40 people. Took a bit to get 40 signed up. It went well had about 5 or 6 dropouts. Many didn’t quiet understand what they signed up for and never intended to be there for the whole 24 hours. Last year we went to 64 players. Had one drop out due to an emergency they had to tend to and one other who just flat out couldn’t take it and just disappeared. We had no idea where he was until he texted me he had enough and was in his bed! This year going to 100 I was sure to see people not make it the whole distance. But everyone proved me wrong and I was extremely pleased by it. Not a single medal left behind.

We can’t wait for next year and are very thankful to everyone who came and how great everyone was. No issues arose. People took rulings against them with dignity. No abuse of machines. Everyone cleaned up their camps and all around treated the event with respect. Anyone who has any suggestions to better this we would love to hear from. I understand being a bit bummed in a big event like this to not get anything for 6th Johnny. It sounds like you understood our motivation for the prize payout structure. I see bigger events where people tap out really trying early on as the chance for making it to the top has disappeared. We want everyone to play every game to the best of their current ability right to the end and not just phone it in for a medal. Those medals alone cost us a decent penny :slight_smile:

100 felt perfect for size. Enough diversity in players and Not excessively crowded where you were uncomfortable. I think we will plan for the same number next year and will announce the registration date in late spring most likely.

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This was my third year going to this event. It keeps getting smoother and smoother. Mark and Jim did an amazing job. The new space is great. The games were in great shape and the guys were super on top of everything, fixing games between rounds. It was fun to have that many people though it does mean we get through fewer rounds. We had the option to play as much between rounds as we liked. This is one of the best events out there besides Pinburgh.

This year I hit a wall super early and never recovered. I was doing well early on and then tanked, but thanks to the structure of the payouts and the thought of getting that medal I never stopped trying to improve my standing even as I sunk lower and lower. 1st seed in round 3 to 58th after the last round. I cannot wait to do it again and hopefully not hit the wall so hard.

It was super fun to met new people and play pinball with people just as passionate about pinball as I am. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to test their metal, stamina and focus.

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It’s really interesting to look at the new graphs @haugstrup added to Match Play to see when people hit a wall, and when/if they recovered (it’s tough enough to come back from a 0-3 round in match play, but try it at 3 in the morning).

Remember that lower is better on this graph!

Here’s yours:

Mine:

And Mr. Consistency, @bkerins:

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@mrboboto Are there other kinds of data you’d like to see? Graphs are always more fun to make for larger tournaments. :slight_smile:

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