@PinballNarcissist blue line is this year, orange line is last year:
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just a “little” spike 
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I saw people looking at it constantly, but when I’d ask people who looked like they knew what they were doing for help they would frequently bring up their private league repository, ha. I have to go through and add more obvious “rules card” stuff skill shot, multiball, light spinner, etc. The website is snappy and a lot easier than looking up rules cards even if it’s not some great strategic tip.
EDIT: just read the pintips origin story further up the thread, nm 
Is this a common thing that leagues do? I am open to being convinced otherwise, but it seems like organizing a secret collection for a few insiders when pintips exists for everyone isn’t exactly the coolest thing I’ve heard.
They’re probably more useful for temporary information as opposed to general tips on how to play that game. For example, a league tip would be something like, “The right ramp on acdc is not back-handable.” It’s not privileged information, nor is it something that will apply to every AC/DC. It’s no different than being in some sort of group chat with your league members and telling a few people some information.
Sounds somewhat common from what I’ve gathered. Originally these were created before the existence of Pintips as ways for people to share knowledge privately between small groups of people for greater advantage during tournament play. After Pintips I guess people have just continued on and perhaps feel that they have more/more specific strategies than Pintips offers and they wouldn’t like to share their knowledge.
As with any competitive thing that has relatively large amounts of money on the line, people will press any small advantage they can gain. It doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but it’s certainly disheartening that people would keep game rules secret from fellow competitors.
Fun fact: Many of the large initial batch of tips came from league collections that people decided to share.
PinTips was created because I was tired of these private ruleset collections. I’m really happy that so many people have decided to share playing tips for hundreds and hundreds of games.
I would love to see contributions from some of the large leagues who have extensive private strategy guides (none mentioned, none forgotten), but I have pretty much given up hope there. Let’s just say I disagree with their decision.
Someone told me that they had spoken with long-time players who were upset about PinTips because it gives newer players a chance at understanding a wide range of games. Can’t really say I understand that attitude either.
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I hate both these things. 
It just makes me want to update pintips more.
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Understanding a game (on paper) and executing a strategy on an unfamiliar game are two very different things. I’m fine with folks reading pintips or even exchanging strategies between games. If anyone asks me for tips (between games), I’ll tell them everything I know. Maybe in video games good reflexes and a strategy guide can get you up to speed relatively fast on a new-to-you game. Will never happen in pinball. Read all you want. Me and my decades of experience will wait. d;^)
BAPA has never had a stash of game tips that I know of. Unless the previous president didn’t pass the scrolls along to the new president, I don’t think any exist. If they did, I would encourage the current president to make them public.
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I’d much rather win a game by playing better, than understanding the rules better.
It’s meant to be a pinball competition - not a competition as to who has the most knowledge of the most rulesets.
That’s why I’ll always answer any questions regarding rules freely and openly, as well as offer advice to someone I see missing a scoring opportunity.
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There was a spreadsheet that originated with BAPA and shared between bay area players. It was the very first collection of tips that was imported into PinTips 
Was it actually a collection of rules tips? I know that BAPA had a spreadsheet of machine-specific tips (where is the skill shot, how tight it is the tilt, how are the feeds, etc.) but I didn’t know about a rules stash.
It was a mix of both. Anything not machine specific went into PinTips. There’s still tradition for a spreadsheet at Pinburgh with tips of the “watch out, tilt is super tight on game X” variety. It’s been strictly stuff specific to the Pinburgh machines ever since PinTips was launched.
I managed to forget to look at that spreadsheet for 10 straight rounds – I think because I was busy talking with all the fun people I played against! 
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Did it only have info for games from the 90’s and older? I’ve been in league for more than 10 years now and I’ve never heard of it mentioned. Bowen (ping) was in BAPA many years ago. I could see him helping to put something together like this. I’ll do some snooping around and report back if I learn anything. There are a few current members who have been around longer than me.
I don’t know the origin story, but I think it was just compiled by people who went to Pinburgh. It only had Pinburgh games on it and only had info for a small subset of the Pinburgh games. Didn’t feel like the result of a long coordinated effort, just like something that was added to during each Pinburgh and then forgotten about until the next one.
Any chance of tagging tips for pinburgh 2018 so they can be machine specific but ephemeral?
Remind me again one month before Pinburgh 2018
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I’ll be doing an update / upgrade to my EMcyclopedia: more machines; revisions to current notes based on Pinburgh and whatever else I go to before I post it; more web-friendly / searchable / indexed / whatever. The first draft was just a word doc I’d been stitching together gradually for some time that I cleaned up so that people would have it to use in time for Pinburgh this year.
I was extremely pleased with the response, by the way. I had perhaps 60 or 70 people thank me for posting it - - friends, acquaintances, people I barely knew but had played a round or two with at some tournament over the past few years, and total strangers who recognized me from videos [or asking someone “which one’s that Bob guy?”] and made the effort to seek me out and mention it. “I won my match on machine X and I hadn’t played it in years. Thanks!” “I never liked that game, but now I understand it.” “I used to avoid EMs, but now that I know what to do, it’s more fun to play them.” That’s exactly what I’d hoped for - - to make EMs more FUN for the people playing them, have them feel comfortable on the games, give people who’ve rarely or never seen a game a fighting chance against those who have had more opportunity to play it before, show people the slightly different set of skills and strategies that EMs require, etc.
So yes, there will be updates. I’ll continue to “pass it on,” as Bowen does in his “how to play pinball” sessions and his tutorial videos, and as many of you do through your efforts here and elsewhere. And you’re all thoroughly welcome!
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Cannot say enough about how amazing a resource like Pintips is. I reccomend it to anyone getting into pinball regardless of them being interested in tournament play or not.
The creation of searchable banks by Corey Hulse took Pintips and the other guides to the next leve and certainly earned me several points on day 2.
Thanks to everyone that has contributed, and thanks to those that are working together to create an amazing resource for both the tournament and casual player.
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just curious, but does it make a difference if the tips are regarding the setup of that specific game – “the tilt is extra tight”, “the feed from the orbit is going STDM” or whatever?