Pinburgh Feedback from a 1st Time Player

Events
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I know there are a bunch of other Pinburgh threads here, but I wanted mine to be separate. This might get long, so I apologize in advance. I also wanted to post this here because I see that some of the people responsible for this event are frequent posters.

First of all I’d like to say Thank You! I really can’t repeat that enough…Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! All of the guys and girls that put on this event are rock stars! I can’t wrap my head around the volume of work that has to go into this event. It’s mind boggling, seriously.

I run a league of 25ish players and monthly tournaments that draw about 8 - 15 people. I know all the work that I have to go through. Sending out emails, printing out score sheets, making sure there are enough pens, charging batteries in laptops / iPads, entering scores, checking entered scores, updating the website, and on and on and on.

I just can’t fathom how much work is involved when you have a thousand machines to not only move but to fix, 850 players + guests, iPhone / Android Apps, streaming gear, commentators, volunteers to organize, tools to bring and about a billion other things I wouldn’t even think about.

Just leveling all those machines makes me want to have a heart attack. I hate when I have to check the level and clean the damn glass on the ones in my house, let alone a thousand of them.

I thank you all for providing me with the best pinball experience I’ve ever had and something I will NEVER FORGET as long as I live. I didn’t even dream that Pinburgh / ReplayFX would be so kick ass and so well run. I would consider it perfect in every way and couldn’t find anything to complain about even if you paid me…seriously. If anyone says anything different to any of you, well, I’m not going to write here what I would say to them, but it wouldn’t be nice.

Once again, to all of you involved, please pat yourself on the back for me. For those of you that I didn’t get a chance to thank in person, THANK YOU!!! :hugs: You made my first Pinburgh an experience of a lifetime. From the bottom of my heart, you have my gratitude and respect.

Is it Pinburgh 2019 yet? :blush:

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Thank you for attending.

I have 6 pages of notes/suggestions for improvements for 2019, but it’s always good to hear some positive feedback!

I’m glad you had a great time at your first Pinburgh!

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The firework display after A finals was pretty good. Hope you can keep that in the plans for next year :wink:

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Really glad that you enjoyed your first Pinburgh! It was awesome to come across this post this morning. It’s stuff like this that make me happier that I’m part of the volunteer base! To echo what @PAPA_Doug said, there’s always room for improvement in some form or another, but very pleased to see it was a positive experience for you!

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It really does seem to get better every year.

The additional space was awesome. It made it seem like there were 200 fewer players.

The presentation of the finals had more pizzazz than ever.

Everyone seems to have gotten over 1-32-33-64?

E Division probably made more people happy than it caused gripes. Prize money would be cool, but it’s already an expensive weekend, so it’s not like winning’s gonna change your life.

The increased size of the Intergalactic bank was great. If this had been full-on p&d, I would have wound up giving more than 20 to charity, fwiw.

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I think the reason for no prize money in E is to avoid sandbagging. You wouldn’t want players in E who are great but only there for the money.

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I know a few people in E were trying to set up impromptu winner-take-all pools for prize money in E, also. I think it was around a $5 buy-in.

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My biggest problem last year was the 65-96-97-128 group that same round. #65 could be in a Round 10 group with 3 people who were mentally checked out. This year they did 65-66-67-68 which is much more fair in my opinion.

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Thank you for attending and for your awesome post!

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Pinburgh was super awesome, as always.

  • Layout was really really well thought through. Central area for tables/gathering/techs and tds made it easy to wander from there to the banks. Banks were also laid out in a really simple way. Pretty much perfect I thought

  • Stage area looked awesome, with banners, plenty of seating and the projectors worked great. The sound system was… ok if you were up near the front, but not quite loud enough in other areas. I think the finalists (both in A finals and WIPT) along with techs and TDs might have appreciated some seating to use up on stage, at least for the finals.

  • Speaking of which… padded seats. Awesome :slight_smile:

  • Intergalactic was really great too. There was some overhead lighting glare on a couple of machines, but nothing intolerable. Software was a little clunky, but did its job perfectly.

Overall - pretty spot on from start to finish. That I can only find a couple of really minor things to complain about shows just how well run this show is. Huge thanks to everyone that put time into making it happen!

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I also had a fantastic time at my first Pinburgh. I liked the layout, there was plenty of space in/around the banks. Everybody was friendly and the techs/TDs were great and kept everything moving. I’ll be back!

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