A pinball podcast with a duration for only an hour - what have you been drinking. 
Nice.
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One of the hardest parts about scheduling a tournament is the sheer variability in game length, both between machines and between instances of the same game. It makes things like a bracket much easier to run than swiss, which lets people keep playing if they want to but (typically) requires the whole field to start a round in one batch. It also makes qualifying with a queue easier to run than “you get to play your game of ___ at 2pm”, which from a planning perspective would be much nicer for the players—you could either schedule all your games back-to-back or space 'em out, depending on what you like.
I’m not sure how you keep the loading up on the games (maximizing the amount of pinball/hour) while giving people more predictability.
If I’m going to be able to play, say, 10 games of qualifying in a bank during the day due to the number of players, I’d much rather play them in ‘batches’ of several games than play one, queue, play one, queue, even if the queueing is done in software.
One idea for compromise between limited and unlimited qualifying: player with less games played on a machine (or total?) queue ahead of those with more games played, perhaps after a ‘soft cap’ of 30 attempts. (I.e. you can play Addams even if you’ve run your quota of tickets out, but only if no one with tickets left wants to play it.)
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Thanks for the feedback and ideas. You’re definitely right about the “leave when you want” advantage of a qualifying system. I also agree that limited qualifying should still provide enough of a chance and experience to make it worthwhile for anyone traveling a long distance.
Are there a lot of unlimited qualifying tournaments with electronic queues in the US? I haven’t encountered any in the Northeast. There is nothing to do except wait for 15-20 minutes and look longingly at the open non-tournament machines.
On the plus side, I really did enjoy watching other players ahead of me when there was a TV screen set-up like at PAPA Classics.
It’s amazing the amount of TV shows and movies you can pile through though!
PAPA18 - Black Mirror, House of Cards
PAPA19 - House of Cards, Making a Murderer
What will PAPA20 bring?? I’m guessing House of Cards and ‘something’ 
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How about the original House of Cards Trilogy?
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You outline the situation well - I just think I have a different take-away. Pinburgh is a match play format that costs $200 (sure half is the “show,” but you cant play the event for less). That price is not cheaper than the average spend of a qualifying player in an unlimited Herb format from my experience. Herb events don’t necessarily require more money than matchplay.
Now, I do understand there may be players who can’t afford $200, and there are players that can’t afford $100, or $60, or $20 or $5… But the baseline is, imo, that once a tournament costs something, there are players who are going to be priced out. And unfortunately its the world we live in. Not everything is accessible.
So as a baseline, I feel like Unlimited events are just as inaccessible as Match Play formats and Limited events. And for that reason, I feel like $ shouldn’t be a factor in a discussion about how effective the qualifying/elimination process is.
INDISC, CAX, NWPC, MAGFest, and presumably some others that use the DTM software are all electronically queued. No idea about other majors as I don’t go to them, but that’s pretty much all the unlimited qualifying events on the West Coast (and MAG of course).
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I thought all unlimited qualifying tournaments used DTM (or matchplay.events 
). How in the world would you stay sane without it? Are people using… spreadsheets?!
Disclaimer: West coast resident.
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Great episode! I’m not a fan of the herb style myself and would much rather play match play. Seems like every tournament format has a flaw of some kind though. Is there a perfect format? Are there other formats that maybe we should see more of?
Herb Pro: Easy to run
Herb Con: lines, cost
Limited Herb Pro: Easy to run, rewards consistent play, fixed cost
Limited Herb Con: If you are from out of town and don’t qualify with limited entries given, you are done and stuck
Match Play Pro: More social, imo more fun
Match Play Con: Complex, number of competitors limited by number of machines, plumbing bills
Pin Golf Pro: Tim Arnold
Pin Golf Con: Tim Arnold
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LOL
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In Episode 5 we discuss:
Gross birthing stuff, Lost in the zone, Revenge from mars, Vegas, Pin Pin, OKC KERI, AC/DC, T2, The Pinball Olympics, and Staying Positive During Competition.
Butts.
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It was cool hearing Zoe give Flipperspiel a shoutout. Adam does an awesome job running that place and I love dropping in when I’m in town.
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Id love to check it out!
Bro road trip. Bro’d trip? Meet you there.
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Flipperspiel is what it’s all about!
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Flipperspiel deserves kudos - great spot and Adam really takes care of his machines. Every time I am in Vegas, I try and host a tournament there and people seem to really appreciate his spot - thanks for the shoutout (gotta go listen now
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Of course ya’ll are aware, that Nascar over here is an uofficial Formula 1 themed game named and skinned Grand Prix.
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Trent’s got one set up in his barn. Shoot the garridge!
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