My estimate is that ~0.5% of the players in NEPL use NEPL points to qualify and play in a different New England state championship compared from the one where they play the majority of their regular season NEPL matches. I don’t know what percentage it would have to be for this proposal to make any sense, but it would have to be much, much higher.
Players who play in any of the NE state championships would pretty much not be affected by your proposal. They’d pay more and receive commensurately more on average. What do you say to more casual players (aka, 2/3 of our players) who have no interest or ability to play in a state championship but will be taxed $6/season?
With such a large league it sounds like you guys are going to upset large chunk of players regardless of the decision you guys make - assuming you make a “decision for all”.
Seems to me the opt-in would be the best solution here. If out of 200 players 40% care about WPPR’s and 60% don’t, you can just have those 40% fund the right to earn those points for themselves, and the other 60% of the players can move forward not worrying about it.
Dave Hubbard’s example of 10 out of 50 players opting in and killing the WPPR value of that event is definitely a possibility, but with the NEPL being soooo freaking big, even at 40% opt in, that’s still an 80 player league (full base value, etc).
What’s all the fuss over a $1? All the other leagues in the amusement world have fees, pool, darts etc that money also goes to state level events. If pinball wants to make it to the mainstream it needs to grow beyond this.
It’s less that and more “in the past this awesome event has grown to be consistently 50+ people, so it’s worth a special trip just to play it.” If that event suddenly gets neutered, that might upset some people. This is a possibility in the per-player scenario. If the TD for this hypothetical event declares ahead of time that ALL participants will be opted-in, then the special traveler is protected somewhat, minus the dollar-protesters.
I don’t think any event can ever guarantee a participation level and an associated WPPR score, so participants shouldn’t really be coming thinking “1st place is worth 123 WPPRs!” …
For me the problem isn’t expectation vs. reality, it’s reality vs. results. If I had to beat 15 people to finish where I did, but only 5 of those people decided to pay in, I’m going to be miffed because the tournament results aren’t going to reflect what I actually did in that tournament. I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again: I’m strongly in favor of “everyone or no one.” Certainly I’m going to run my tournaments that way.
I think most will do everyone or no one. If the dollar is deducted from the prizepool, which I think most will do, then it only impacts the top few finishers who: are happy to be walking away with cash anyway, and will be the ones who gain the most in terms of WPPRs.
I’ve never had to supply email addresses to the IFPA before and I’ve also never had someone refuse to give a name. It’s not like I check ID for someone’s legal name so I guess people might be giving fake names, but that seems kinda unlikely.
Officially everyone is supposed to have a registered email, but not having one will prevent you from participating in state/national/world championships.
A lot of the casual players in the various IFPA endorsed leagues I’m in (not ones I run) have never registered an email address to my knowledge. I wasn’t asked to give one when I started playing in leagues; I went in and registered it myself later. I didn’t realize it was expected for TDs to get that off people. If it is, that’s not generally known in my neck of the woods.
I play exclusively under a fake name. It’s an old stage name that grew into a nickname. I just don’t want prospective employers Googling me and learning I take multiple vacations every year to play pinball. It’s never been a problem for Pinburgh or any other event. I’m not likely to end up with a check anyway.
I can think of at least one other Pinburgh player who was likely using an alias.
