King of the Hill Format?

General
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Reaching out to the masses for some feedback on a unique format that I’m referring to as King of the Hill, or Last Man Standing. Not sure what the official name is. I heard about this format on a podcast but I can’t remember which podcast therefore I don’t remember all the rules/specifics for the format and hoping everyone here can help me out. We ran the format last night with 7 people and everyone really enjoyed, including 2 newbies.

Here is the format description from what I recall from the podcast. Form a single line. Start up a game and the first person plunges. They play the ball until they lock/stall the ball. Once they lock or stall the ball they jump away from the game and the next player in line jumps in. Rinse and repeat. If you drain you are out. Last person standing collects the pot. We played it on Aerosmith Premium last night and we considered the following shots as “stall/lock” shots:

-Center ramp
-Right ramp
-Left scoop
-Elevator lock
-Toybox lock

Items that we were confused on. When the player drains and a ball save/VIP pass saves the ball, is the person still out, do they play on until they lock/stall the ball, or do they jump out of the way and pass it to the person?

What happens when a multiball is started? Does the player only have to lock/stall one of the 3 balls? Or do they have to drain down to one ball, and the lock/stall that ball?

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We play something similar in Seattle called Stall Ball. I’m not sure our rules are ‘official’ though. Just stalling one ball in multiball passes the game to the next player. Ball save / VIP / EB wouldn’t eliminate the player or change players. Basically you’re only eliminated if the next player would be up in a two player game. We played on Creature and we counted KISS, left ramp to whirlpool, Move Your Car, Snackbar, and Slide as the stall shots.

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Jessica streamed a match recently and got me thinking on this again. I was wondering what games had the most stall points. Though when I came here to find a related thread, I see ramp shots being used as well, like on Aerosmith (wow!), but also on the whirlpool ramp on CFTBL (ahhhh yeah, makes sense).

Could some of you post games you’ve played this on and spots/shots that were used for handoff? And maybe indicate how many actual stall points vs in-motion handoffs exist?

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World Cup Soccer is up there.

Lower left saucer
Lower right saucer
Assist saucer (near the goal)
The goal
Striker
Left or right ramp when lock is lit

When we use it for Stall Ball, we allow all of the above to count as a stall except the goal itself, which would probably make it too easy.

Taxi is another game with a decent number of stall points:

Drac
Lock shot (when not occupied)
Santa
Gorbie

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@neilmcrae ran this kind of ‘tournament’ at the UK Pinfest in Daventry last month. He streamed it, and am sure will be able to provide the link.

It was played on The Shadow, with a queue of 30-40 people in varying degrees of drunkenness - was great fun.

Khan, Battlefield, Sanctum, Mode start where used as the indicators for change

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World Poker Tour: Left Ramp, Right Ramp, Ace In the Hole, Left VUK, Right Scoop

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No Fear - Left scoop, left ramp, skydiving lock shot, no fear mouth, right ramp

Demolition Man - Left ramp, center ramp, middle ramp, middle subway, upper subway, right ramp

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First the rule responses,
Any ball save, revive, VIP, etc would count the same as a kickback, a continuation of the current ball, the player is safe on the “drain” but still has to stall the ball

Extra Balls don’t count for the current player, if they drain they’re out whether they get an extra ball or not (this would be a rule that you can vary for an easy/hard setting, you can easily rewrite this rule to say that an extra ball is a continuation like a ball save)

Any stall that would count in single ball play would count in multiball, but a player is only eliminated after they drain the last ball on the playfield

A stuck ball does not count, normal tournaments rules for flipper placement will apply, if the ball in stuck on the outlane post the player must attempt to free it

A tilt is an automatic elimination (I did not see this written anywhere else and this seems obvious but also necessary to list)

Now my additions to the games list:

Medieval Madness: Catapult VUK, Castle Lock, Getting in the moat of the castle (short of the lock, bounce of the gate, or roll off the bridge), destroy the castle, right eject hole, complete the princess

Attack from Mars:Left inner orbit/lock, destroy the saucer, dirty pool, right scoop

Tales from the Crypt: left scoop, crypt eject hole, right VUK

Last Action Hero: All three scoops, rear VUK, crane lock

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Nobody has mentioned the scoop on TNA. Surely that is enough time to hand the game off to another player! LOL

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Yeah it’s a good fun game and good with beer :slight_smile:

YouTube.com/neilmcrae1 and you’ll find the two streams for the event I ran, although my commentating needs more practice lol

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Can’t believe I forgot the multiball/TV scoop.

WCS has 8 stall shots!

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We ran one on Beat the Clock at Buffalo - you’ve got the upper left collect saucer and the top center saucer. The concept was to get a plunge so you can skill shot, but otherwise you had to scrap the ball usually in the upper left saucer. It was a darn good time!

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In a small space, it’s important to designate which way to exit the machine (i.e. LEFT). It is then the responsibility of the on-deck player to step up when the previous exits, however if that player exits the wrong direction there may be grounds for a re-plunge, although generally speaking any good faith attempt to gain control counts as a turn.

We have played with a “prove it” rule which makes initial turn order less important. Consider the entire queue a “round.” At least one player must make a stall every round. If a round (measured beginning by whoever was furthest ahead in the queue) ends with NO players making a stall, all players in that round are re-instated.

I have played with “Gentlemen’s Rules” for Multiball, where one player might have 2 balls cradled on the right and 1 ball cradled on the left. The player shoots the left ball to a stall shot then yells “STALL” and the on-deck player steps up, and the players momentarily both hold the left button to transfer the cradled balls, while still keeping the right flipper active to attempt to recover the ball coming into motion.

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