Overall event was great.
Stage was a very poor experience to play on with the wobbling, shifting etc…
It looked the B finals was a bit of a mess, with a main walkway/path right through their finals area. I, and others often walked right though their area. It might be nice to route things differently around the finals banks in a situation like that.
Bowen couldn’t really give commentary on anything out of reach of his microphone. A wireless mic to give him free movement would have been nice.
For the final 4, if there was a way to switch all of the monitors to the same game, people would not have had to crowd on the left so much.
JUMBO TRON. If there was a projector/screen centered above the A finals banks, the finals machines could be on a stage . . .or not. People could sit in bleachers . . . or chairs and still be able to catch all the action.
As a spectator it was really cool to see the presentation on a stage, but I think that’s less important than having an unobstructed view of the action on the playfield. Also, if the jumbo tron could show the stream that would be even better as the aspect ratio would be correct and you’d also get the DMD.
I wish I could be complaining about how the games on the stage played 
Just pictured in my head a hercules pinball machine rethemed to the original tron movie…
Having a row of red chairs going down the length of each row would be amazing. I don’t know how feasible it would be, but instead of the hundreds of chairs by the stage, having a way to sit for a few minutes while on a bank would be invaluable to me.
As someone who does technical production for live events, this kind of thing is orders of magnitude more technically challenging (and expensive) than what is currently happening. Totally doable, but there’s a lot of infrastructure to consider.
Besides the technical infrastructure, I’m assuming that all labor (and likely most rented equipment) has to come from the convention center. I know it’s union labor, and equipment through convention centers carries a pretty heavy markup.
Bottom line: production costs money. I think PAPA/Replay will get there, but this kind of thing is a little ways off. If @PAPA_Doug or @mhs would like any consultation on anything technical production, I’d be happy to lend my brain/resources to the cause!
Please don’t bring back the bleachers. Those were so uncomfortable, held relatively few people for the square footage due to most of us not being 70lbs. Plus you were trapped. I still felt trapped in the red chairs this year, but less.
I was really disappointed that the screens where not or could not be shifted to replicate the final bank onto the other 2. This was kind of done at papa and was very helpful, although still not perfect. Jumbo tron like ideas are great and I would love, but replicating the active table to all screens, or all the top screens and the score screen onto the bottom screens seems doing with the existing technology.
I agree the stage was awful (playing on it in qualifying), but as a viewer it was great. I loved the walk on up the ramp between players. I loved moments like Karl’s extra ball. I vote get a more stable stage, versus bleachers.
Year over year improvement was amazing. Whoever was responsible for lighting deserves huge praise. That might have been the best lit venue I have ever played in.
Same. I used those water fountains a bunch and they were right next to two bathrooms that totally weren’t gross. Maybe things were worse in the men’s than in the women’s, but every time I used them they were totally clean. There’s also water fountains in the lobby area, and upstairs which are both pretty far, but I had a fairly large water bottle (which I lost at Pinburgh. wah wah) so I didn’t need a ton of refills.
Also, speaking of upstairs, that rooftop view from the convention center was so rad. It was a great place to unwind each night after Pinburgh.
unwind 
except when you smoke something of questionable derivation from a guy who kinda looked like he might be on something other than pot (#round4regrets)
That’s why you wait till after round 5 Gene!
at least one of my group mates got a 12 as a result
Maybe some decent UPS for the A bank game at least? 
And to get a beer sponsor.
The consolation tournament lines were way too long. I only played 3/10 entries. It reminded me of classics at PAPA. I just hated seeing people sitting there waiting with hundreds of pins nearby…what a waste! The queue system worked great at INDISC. There is no reason for us to wait around in long lines when there’s such an easy fix available.
We pay convention center staff for janitorial services. If you see a bathroom that needs cleaned, feel free to grab any ReplayFX staff member and we can can reroute one of the janitors to fix it ASAP.
As many other have mentioned, there were a few water fountains available. Also the vending machines near the ping pong table were restocked throughout the weekend. Once again, just bring that issue to a staff member’s attention and we can let the convention center know to fix it.
Thanks for the feedback.
Not sure where that quote came from. According to the convention center, that was the best stage they have available.
The stage increased visibility and upped the spectacle for the casual show goers. Hosting Pinburgh at ReplayFX is a great chance to expose ‘outsiders’ to the world of competitive pinball by creating some extra excitement that makes people look and wonder ‘what the heck is going on over there?’
The stage debate reminds me a little of the first tournament where we had the big screens next to all of the Division A games at PAPA. Mark and I received quite a few complaints about the screens being a distraction and making it hard to play the game right next to them because they were in people’s peripheral vision.
We felt they were necessary to accomplish what we were trying to do, so they stayed. Players adjusted and I haven’t heard a complaint about them for years now.
At this point is is unknown if the stage will stay or go. I’m considering lots of different options and improvements for next year. The goal for us is always to make the experience better and better each year. Feedback is always welcome and encouraged. If anyone wants to reach out to me personally, they can email me at doug@papa.org as well.
Bowen didn’t even have a PA 2 days before Pinburgh when I went out and bought that one.
I am currently sketching out some new presentation ideas for next year. Hopefully that will mean we won’t need Bowen on mic and he can be free to TD.
The monitor switching setup we have at PAPA doesn’t really translate to a mobile setup well so, it was left behind this year.
It’s no longer a consolation tournament, it is open to everyone
Lots of improvements in process for the IPC next year. To be honest I wasn’t expecting 300 players in it! The idea was to have flexible playing times and only needing 4 games to qualify was supposed to leave everyone with plenty of time to enjoy the show.
It was a 1st year event this year and we will improve it for next year.
Thanks for the thoughts Doug.
I feel the stage is much, much different, and orders of magnitude worse.
With the stage you have something that is actually affecting the gamplay, directly affecting the tilt, path of ball, movement of machine etc… And its not all under the player’s control.
As a participant, it felt like the quality of the competition was being sacrificed for the quality of the presentation, and imo at too great a cost for the tradeoffs.