That’s the correct move of course, but I’ll still tell an opponent if they have passed my score and the game is effectively over. Maybe they glance up at the display during a ball trap or something, and we can both move on.
I wrote this thing about tourney etiquette a few years ago. There are a few things I would add or tweak since I’ve gained more experience, but I feel like it’s a good start.
http://www.skill-shot.com/content/pinball-tournament-etiquette,2751
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With regard to draining the last ball when you are ahead, is it considered kosher to play it out if there is a possibility you may have to play that same game later in the tournament in order to get a feel for the shots?
Only if you are Andrei 
IMHO, only in pretty limited circumstances. If it’s the final game of your round AND you’re reasonably sure that you’re not blocking another group from the machine in the current round, nor delaying the start of the next round, then sure, go for it. If you don’t meet all those conditions, I’d suggest plunging it out of consideration for other players in the tournament. And anyway, if you’re in a situation where you can do the last ball walk-off plunge, there’s a decent chance you already got a good bit of play time on the machine and therefore got the feel for the shots.
And even if those conditions don’t apply, I’d personally be OK if a player used that ball for a play-test that was quick and clearly not running up the score… say, some reasonable shaking to get the feel for the tiltiness of the machine.
I let my ball 3 drain out in a tournament because a couple of people behind me said, “he’s got it, it’s over. He can drain out now and it’s done” and my opponent echoed it to me, saying, “that’s that, you got me.” So I let it go and fell about 5,000 short after the bonus piled up. I wear earphones whenever I compete now. Everybody was apologetic, but I was out. I wasn’t too mad, because I know I should have put myself in the clear before the bonus, but sometimes you are just ready to let it go and move to the next round.
You opponant is a dick
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I think he just echoed it and started a premature congratulations. But man, I shouldn’t have listened to anybody.
I know several people have proposed rules to PAPA/IFPA to cover that situation wherein if an opponent says it then it is a binding statement regardless of the actual outcome. I am in favor of such a rule.
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It could be covered under the existing rules for player interference?
I agree with this. Stating to your opponent that they have won is the same as conceding and/or forfeiting.
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I would agree in theory, and I think this would be great in a perfect world. However, I think in a lot of cases its impossible to prove someone said it unless the TD was right there. I can imagine a lot of scenarios where it could turn into a he said she said. Given that, I would put the burden on the player to check their own score, and that the scores determine the win.
We already have rules written about interference as mentioned above, and if someone is distracting their opponent, those rules can be used to tackle the situation to a similar degree.
I agree with this. There’s no way I would be able to resolve such an argument fairly without being there firsthand. Perhaps the language could say that if the player concedes to the TD then it’s binding, but otherwise I would not feel comfortable getting in the middle of that.
I’ve had it happen to me (it was a mistake by the opponent, who forgot their own score I guess) and it sucks, but I guess it’s one more thing to learn.
This is the kind of verbiage I mentioned would be going into the IFPAPA combined rules a couple of weeks ago.
Here’s the paragraph that will be added to handle these cases:
“If a player verbally concedes for any reason, the concession will only be considered valid if it is witnessed by a scorekeeper, tournament director, or all members of a four-player group. If a player attempts to use an invalid verbal concession to interfere with an opponent, the issue and resolution will be treated on a case-by-case basis, and the
offending player risks receiving a score of zero for the game in question.”
Tournament and League organizers are encouraged to use these combined IFPAPA rules, but of course you are not obligated to do so.
Perhaps the FSPA rules can work in a bonus point for someone who gets someone to give up their ball early thinking they have it only to lose - psych out point! (j/k of course)
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Had this come up, with both (“tired and emotional”) players agreeing that one player had conceded in error. (player 2 forgot he was player 2, conceded when player 1 passed his score…)
As the players agreed on what happened, we treated it as player 2 having conceded. If there was disagreement, I would have had to have player 1 play.
I like to think that players are going to take the more sportsmanlike approach, if given the option. 
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I think they have medication for that.
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I will always tell an opponent about a ball save, but am not a fan of on lookers coaching. If someone i’m playing beats my score, I conceed the match and regardless of the scores after bonus, I have forfeit the game. I can see how this would be an issue if someone did this and then tried to deny doing so after the fact, but in that case i would just knock them out!
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Said in jest, we are a friendly bunch here in the UK!
No matter how many times someone says you got it, don’t stop playing until you confirm for yourself. It may make you look like a jerk, or that you’re rubbing it in, but who cares. I love that feeling of dropping the flippers and shaking hands. I would hate that feeling of, oh, I actually lost.
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Someone asked about things that were named for players during the “How to Play” seminar at ReplayFX with me and Andrei. Meanwhile, Andrei had just won our head-to-head match on Full Throttle and was beginning to play out his last ball as last player. I answered the question:
“So there are things like Shatzing the inlane, and getting Belsito’d. Oh, and playing out the last ball, last player when you’ve already won, that’s named after someone, too. Andrei, do you know what that is called?” “No, what do you call it?” “We call it Massenkoffing.”
I think he does it because he likes to play pinball, and there’s a ball of pinball just waiting to be played … why not play it!
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