Florida's alternate SCS: The Sunshine State Showdown

General
1

With IFPA sanctioning still unknown, Florida has decided to go it alone and form our own “alternate SCS”: the Sunshine State Showdown

We are going to keep the format of the traditional SCS championship, taking the top 16. But we will determine the top 16 by using the top four players from four separate “showdown” tournaments.

Because we don’t have IFPA points, eligibility for the showdown tournaments is based solely upon tournament participation throughout the year. If you compete enough times, you can qualify for a showdown.

Each showdown tournament in January 2022 will be Best Game qualifying on 6 of 10 machines over the course of an afternoon. The top 16 from that qualifying will advance to a head to head bracket that will whittle down the final 4.

The final 4 from each of the four tournaments will collide at the state championship. We will do random seeding that day and proceed as IFPA usual to determine a state champion.

Let’s face it, we have no idea when this virus will be completely under control such that people could easily and freely compete as before. I feel this system allows people more freedom to choose when and where they play so they feel more comfortable. It also embraces the tournaments that have already happened and allows them to count towards a possible ticket to the championship.

The overall format, qualifying criteria and venue selection were my idea, but I must credit Jeff Palmer for thinking of some of these concepts years ago.

Other states: It’s not too late! (But it’s getting there!) You could embrace this system today in your state and grandfather in whatever tournaments have happened in the first four months while giving your players plenty of time to qualify over the rest of the year.

Visit https://sunshinestateshowdown.com for all the up-to-date details and a 10-minute introductory video.

PS: I’m going to do a Twitch stream tonight to answer any questions from Florida players, but naturally others can drop in too and ask whatever they want. 7pm Eastern Time at https://www.twitch.tv/pinballandcancer

Thanks for your time and attention!

5 Likes
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Players get to pick there Showdown Group after they play and after maybe others have been ranked?

Should it be based on where you play as in where your Showdown Group is?

3

Great question Joe. In Florida, we have a lot of road warriors who will drive to just about anywhere to play an event. While our four choices are relatively geographically dispersed, It’s not perfect. We have to go by what venues are available, whether they could accommodate a large crowd etc. The venues themselves also have different types of games that some players may like and others don’t. The vast majority of our tournament players know instantly from these four choices where they would like to go. So we are letting them go where they want to go.

PS: every player’s choice of venue will be secret. I will be the only one who knows where everyone wants to go. To make it fair, I already told everyone where I want to go.

4

and players can’t see where they rank / number of points local top 16 have till the end?

As the best play seems to be put your info in at the end that place where you can get in to.
Say place one you need an lot of points to get in but it looks like place 4 the top guy does not have an lot of points.

participation based on showing up only?? or how well you do at each event?

Is there an max events that count or can some just play in all of them do badly and still get in just on I did all events so I have more points then other player who do better at events?

5

I think there may be a misunderstanding.

Under this system, there are no rating points. All we are measuring is attendance and participation. If people attend and play, they receive credit hours for showing up. You have to accrue 10 credit hours over the course of an entire year. It really doesn’t matter if you finished first or last in any of the tournaments. If you went and played and tried, you get credit.

It will take the average player only 4 to 5 tournaments to reach 10 credit hours. I think it will be very easy to get most dedicated players out to an event 4 to 5 times a year. (We have players doing four tournaments a month!)

You choose your venue when you submit your credit hours.

I answered a lot of questions like this on my Twitch stream tonight, which will be available for the next two weeks or so.

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Just as an FYI in case you didn’t know, I recently learned that if you Highlight a segment/stream on Twitch the highlighted video will stick around for years (and maybe “forever”). This is how I’ve been getting around the 2 week thing in streams I help run.

7

Sounds fun @normaj!
I am definitely one of those “Road Warriors”, driving down from South Georgia regularly to compete all over Florida. I appreciate the flexibility and look forward to compete in a Showdown in January (as long as it does not compete with big events like INDISC)!

8

Yes. Highlights stay forever. So if you want to keep a stream around, just highlight the whole thing.

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The rules state the Sunshine State Showdown is only for Florida residents (see the player eligibility section)

“The SSS is restricted to Florida residents. A resident is someone who possesses a valid Florida driver’s license or government identification card. Children will be considered residents if they are enrolled in a Florida K-12 school. College students will be considered residents if they possess Florida resident identification (not a school ID).”

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:dizzy_face:

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

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Get your folks together in Georgia to do it. Nothing special here. This could work for any state. I’m surprised more people haven’t tried jumping on this bandwagon. It’s already mid-May. Soon it won’t be possible to cobble something like this together.

13

Only events I’ve been able to find are in Florida. I live 20 minutes from the Florida border, and there is not even 1 pinball on location in my town. There is some in Macon, GA, a 2 hour drive, but they are not allowing events yet.
Not sure why there is a restriction, usually an SCS did not restrict where someone came from, just that they qualified by playing events in that state.