The other wrinkle is how quickly we can whip something up. You saw how quickly I whipped up the KY residents standings. I could add OH residents to that filter, but that’s the extent of our filtering capabilities. I could easily add any state “neighboring state” to that filter to try and capture the people you specifically want to capture.
Remember that the SCS process is specifically trying to capture the players that earned the most WPPR’s in that state without any other restrictions.
So the event cap isn’t a restriction? Looks like one to me.
I don’t think it’s a restriction at all. IMO it’s just a limitation as to how the standings are calculated.
There’s no requirements that we put on any player that restricts their ability to compete (either by where the live or requiring them to play a minimum number of times to matter).
If this is actually true, then there’s nothing I can do to convince you otherwise. Haha
How is setting a minimum restricting or limiting someone from competing? Imo, in encourages MORE competition.
If someone manages to qualify for SCS with <5 events, I feel like they deserve it. A minimum cap sounds nice and protective but ultimately it’s just to save bruised egos.
Totally fair point. The way I see it, it’s just going to do what is kind of already happening. Have a SCS with mostly local and regional players.
I want competitive pinball to grow and I think it just “looks weird” when the news is covering an SCS and they don’t understand why the top 10 players in the KY rankings are from PA, CA, IL and TX. Haha
Every big time player that comes to LAX is there because it’s a Circuit event. Not because it feeds into SCS. So I doubt these guys are going to run around and set up all these goofy 1 game events to get to 5. They obviously don’t care about playing in the KY SCS now, why would they if this change is made.
I could make a similar argument that the cap is just to allow the lazy top ranked players an easy road to certain SCS events.
The restriction is “You haven’t played enough” versus no restriction being “just play once”. If a random person comes to my monthly tournament I can no longer tell them they are immediately put into the Illinois State standings after that one night. The restriction is that they have to play X number of more times before they count.
You can call that encouraging people to compete more, but it’s still a “restriction”.
I can tell you for a fact there are players from outside of Kentucky that come in specifically for LAX to qualify for SCS. These players know they don’t have a chance in their home state to make the cut (Illinois and Ohio in particular are VERY HARD to make the cut). The setting up of goofy 1 game events actually came from one of these players who emailed me and said, “Screw one game events, now that you count fractions of a game I would just do one-BALL tournaments” . . . so your assumption here is absolutely not the case.
Kentucky Players Championship standings updated to include players that are registered in Kentucky and any states that border Kentucky:
1 Drew Donohue
2 Trent Augenstein
3 Zach Sharpe
4 Sean Davis
5 Brian Shepherd
6 Chris Basler
7 Erik Wurtenberger
8 Tim Kerro
9 Chad Hobbs
10 Jason Werdrick
11 Evan Bingham
12 Whayne T Rouse
13 Derek Fugate
14 Michael Hartman KY
15 Dominic Kacich
16 Darren Kamnitzer
So the KY State Champion being from Cincinnati OH is just fine? Not weird at all! Ohio residents often win all sorts of Kentucky related State Championships in many sports.
If you’re gonna fight for the residency restriction at least dig in your heels on this one 
I would encourage these players to come to some of the 30 other events (soon to be over 50) in KY and get into the KY SCS. If LAX went away, they would have to do that anyway.
I would think if making the KY SCS really mattered to someone they would make the effort. Because pretty soon it’s gonna be tough to make it due to the additional events that will be in the state anyway so these people will have to come back into KY anyway. And we will welcome them with open arms!
Right now there are 4 ifpa events the weekend of LAX that one could play in. That means one other time they’d have to come to KY to get a qualifying card for state.
Not that big a deal if you ask me.
But I get it. Although I wish we could add one more wrinkle to the rules, I totally get why they are the way they are. I have a blast playing in events and running them, and will continue to do so.
Ps @pinwizj keep up the good work. I know I wouldn’t want your job. Haha
BINGO! That’s what the IFPA wants!!!
Forcing an out of towner to show up ‘one more time’ to check some box doesn’t do anything to motivate growing the local scene.
We want to motivate the State to develop a big enough scene that’s ultimately LAX becomes irrelevant for SCS qualifying on the merits of all the other activity available throughout the year.
To reiterate what you said earlier…this is kind of what has happened in Ohio. The Rosas can’t just waltz in here anymore and qualify on one event and now the highest out of state (non) qualifier is at the 32nd seed.
I do think the ifpa certainly helps motivate scenes, but the BIGGEST reason Ohio has grown so much is because of a select number of motivated TDs and operators combined with a growing number of machines on location.
Also, I don’t want to see large events like LAX go away. Those large point grabs are still motivation for great players whether or not they’re planning on attending those related scs tournies. Playing against out-of-towners is one of my favorite things to do.
Indiana was interesting this year in regards to the SCS. Main Street Mayhem 2 and the Houston Charity event the Friday night before ended up being the two highest WPPR events all year (a big thanks to Tommy for the great events.)
Surprisingly (jk) Trent won both and is ranked first in Indiana. Others from outside Indiana like Fred, Sunshine, Zachary, Phil and all the Michigan players performed well and are ranked in the top 24.
I am your typical grinder, but played much better this year yet I’m still in 2nd compared to Trent. I have my other counterparts who are in the same scenario in regards to SCS. However a couple of things have resulted from this.
Fort Wayne Pinball. This great location opened late in December and will be a force in the SCS as time goes on. Stop by and visit if you can.
Indianapolis is finally starting some IFPA events. Indy has had the La Margarita but now will be offering more events at places around town like The Sinking Ship and Centerpoint Brewery(Host of the IFPA 2017 State). Stop by these as well.
So by having a large tournament it has in turn driven TD in other areas of Indiana to get involved which is the whole goal.
And lastly I come from a sports background. If you don’t qualify or win, there has always been only one option.
PLAY BETTER
Right, because that’s never happened before…
Yup! And let’s not forget why we all loved Pinburgh… the change in format vs previous events opened up a new way to compete and shook up how people would finish verse each other.
Who was “better” or not didn’t change, but we competed differently and thus results differed. Which was fun!
And of course as a result over time… many players got better as they expanded their skill set and knowledge due to the different format
So, forgive me if this has been brought up, because I’ve been skimming along…
Just because REG qualifies in your state some weekend doesn’t mean he’s going to be back to win it all. Doesn’t it work out that the fewer events someone plays in a state, the less likely they are to pick that state for January? It just seems like a minimum would be unnecessary in most cases.
Akron regular or no Akron regular, Aleksander is still a Pennsylvanian unless we’re finally agreeing to give him dual SCS citizenship. 
Are the 2018 state standings available anywhere? I can find the current 2019 standings and the 2017 standings, but, not the 2018 standings.
And just out of curiosity if someone held a tournament in a US protectorate or territory (Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, etc) would that be eligible for SCS?
2018 standings can be found here:
https://www.ifpapinball.com/nacs/2018/index.php
Similar to Washington DC, while we don’t include them in the “SCS” because they aren’t “States”, they do get their own series that still feeds the NACS.
(But they’d need their own Territory director and the ability to run a championship in February…)
