Wow, the Printimus tourney (Poland) Classics had a brutal qualifying format.
http://www.pinballnews.com/shows/printimuspinball2015/index.html
I think that PAPA-ticket qualifying is already brutal enough… but to have any new completed ticket cancel out your prior ticket, regardless of your scores on your new ticket??? Ouch.
I actually think this is a great format. That is basically what we do for our SuperLeague here, and the strategy challenges are fantastic to think through. It also makes the results really fluid over time. For instance, say you have a card with a #1 score on AFM, and then the rest is semi-garbage. You need to consider not only your own points and where you stand, but also the very real possibility that you will lose your #1 AFM score, which means that the current #2 AFM player will gain 10 points back when their score becomes #1 again. This kind of stuff happens to us every month and I love it.
It makes for an interesting risk/reward scenario if you are currently qualified. Do you sit pretty, or do you try to better your qualifying score? You’d have to decide for yourself whether you think your score will hold, or whether you are likely to better it. I can certainly see a lot of agonizing decisions.
One notable side effect is that it basically eliminates sniping at off-ticket games to try and push down other people’s scores.
This also has the downside, depending on your perspective, of allowing a few players to “choose” who stays ahead between existing other players. For instance, if you’re on the outside near the end but have a ticket which, if removed, would switch who’s #1 vs. #2 overall, or who makes or doesn’t make the playoff cut, then #2 might be more than happy to buy you one last entry. If you get into the cut on it, no big deal, they took over the top spot which is what mattered to them.