Great replies, and certainly helps if any of these scenarios come up again. Always learning more about rulings through real life occurrences
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I always use the āWorld Championships Finalā litmus test for any ruling - if this was happening on the final game of a world championship, does it still seem right?
Would you void the game in the world championships in this case? What if the scores were 25B to 10M?
-cAyle
I would hope that in the world championships there would be a tech available to reattach the broken wire. If that was the case itās probably a +1 ball situation instead. But I never have that kind of tech at hand so I would void the game still 
The ruling has to be the same no matter what the scores are. For any non-trivial rulings Iāll always get a second opinion and I try to not tell the other official the scores of the game to get their ruling without the bias of knowing whether itās a super close game or the opposite.
When you have 5 balls worth of data, I think that weights extremely heavily in the direction of NOT voiding the games.
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So an SE Bracket with a R1 consolation bracket then? PinJudo format?
Something along the lines of 40 players, first 12 play, top 6 move on and play the next 6. First set of losers drop to C, next set of losers to B, and all of the A B C bracket then play out, but it was very confusing, no real way for me to describe. Bottom line players were put into wrong bracket. The responses here have helped if this kind of thing ever happens again.
The only bummer was my win in the A bracket on Grand Prix that was effectively voided. I put up about a million points on an epic third ball that lasted almost 10 minutes while everyone watched. I nearly passed out while playing, lol. And the owner of the game was next on the game and got to watch me blow it up. Wonāt ever forget that game.
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Indeedā¦ K-man blew up my Grand Prix on that game, rolling it in three balls for 1.2M. And it was mostly on one ball - hadnāt ever seen my GP (or any GP) have a ball stay up for that long. And you were dialed into those spinners ā which is the name of the game on GP, and why I enjoy it so much.
Regarding the bracket, it was Single Elim, single game, with a bunch of byes. Adding to what Kevin saidā¦ because there were 6 pins in a tourney, 12 players played head to head. Those who lost in the first TWO rounds dropped to separate C division finals. Those who lost in rounds three or four dropped into B. Anyone who lost in rounds five and beyond was simply out. Seeds 28-23 got one bye. Seeds 22-17 got two byes. 16-11: three. 10-5: four. 4-3: five. At which point when #3-4 joined in, there were now 8 players. Two rounds were played to narrow those 8 down to 2. Those two then faced the #1-2 seeds in the semiās. So being in top two seeds gave you 7 byes all the way to semifinals, which was a bit much.
B & C finals were identical group-play single-game formats, supposed to be played on the tourney bank once pins became available from main bracket being down to 8 people (4 matches) or less. 12 in B played three 4-player matches, with top 2 from each advancing. Then two 3-player matches, with top two from each advancing, leaving four players to play single 4-player game as championship match.
Itās a brutal (difficult to play, and difficult to understand) format that Marcus created to try to squeeze in as many finals that he did over two six-hour segments set aside for finals.
Clear as mud, right? 
Can you send me that bracket so I can frame it and hang it up in my bedroom?
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At the time I played that grand prix I had no idea Colin, who was watching/waiting, owned the game. Might literally be the best ball of my life on any EM or even SS. Great game and was in excellent condition.
Just to add some further perspective, under FSPA rules, there is NO compensation to Player 2 here. Having a random member of the public jump on your game is considered a distraction, not interference. Itās totally on the player to maintain control of the game when itās their turn.
The suggestion here would be to stand at the machine and wait for the plumb bob to settle, not away from the machine where a child can walk up and interfere with it.
ok, before someone else chimes in here with their rendition, I present my cautionary tale.
It was the finals of the Star Trek launch party. There were about 30 people gathered in a U formation around the game. Somebody had tilted before me so I was taking my time to get up for my turn.
Suddenly, not even 10 seconds in, a 5-year old with his mother had walked into the area where the Star Trek was at. Instead of walking through the area, the kid saw the flashing Punch It button and started to reach for it. I ran up and pushed the kid to the side before he could push the button. I apologized to the mother, she apologized not knowing there was a tournament happening. The kid was not hurt. Now some like to embellish that I punched the kid. I maintain that it was more of a clawing motion.
Keep it family-friendly, folks! and donate to kids! Else theyāll turn out like me!
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Classic pinball tourney moment! It will live in infamy. And the story will continue to be embellished!
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Keep clawing those toddlers all the way to the top.
no, thanks, Iām pretty much just interested in fun events these days.
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Scenario 4:
Player drains on AFM. Outlane rollover malfunctions and triggers the Mystery award. Strobe Multiball awarded: 3 balls pop back into play. Is that a beneficial malfunction and could that player continue play?
Those switches share a common row. Its a mechanical malfunction. Same type of error could cause the ball trough to fire a ball into the shooter lane on a drain.
Player cant continue play. Game must be fixed unless last ball. Current ifpa rules I think would entail a score adjustment if agreeable - which is a bit nebulous for my liking.
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