Tournament etiquette

I was playing in a semi-final match at the circuit event in ATL recently. Playing KISS, I attempted a save, got a danger or two, drained out the right side and turned away in disgust. One of my competitors(maybe 2 of them, not sure) frantically yelled to tell me of a late ball save. I turned just in time to swat the ball, gain control and went on to have a long well scoring ball. As soon as I drained I turned and gave the guy a big double thumbs up, because I appreciated it and would like to be able to return the favor. It was good sportsmanship! I couldn’t help but notice that the highest ranked player in our group(no names will be told) looked pretty pissed about the whole thing. When I had finished my game and beaten him, he wouldn’t even shake hands, saying “the game’s not over yet”. I hope that if I ever get that highly ranked, I will still be considered a nice guy and a fair competitor!

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This happens all the time (people yelling about ball saves) but TECHNICALLY it is coaching - it’s kind of a crappy situation all around. I don’t think I’d get super-pissed about it, but personally I view it as illegal.

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Yeah, I try to remember not to yell ball save in a serious tournament, but it’s easy to forget, because to me it’s just natural to warn someone of a ball save when playing a friendly game.

I know me myself wouldn’t have a problem with someone yelling it to one of my opponents, honestly I would prefer to win something because I played better, not because my opponent forgot about a ball save.

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If pinball is going to grow as a spectator sport the idea of coaching needs to be viewed differently. I would personally like to see tournament finals more like rock concerts than golf tournements.

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Well, it CAN be vaguely rock concert-y. I think Raymond’s ball on Super Orbit proved that more than anything lately.

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That was awesome. After the energy of the A finals this year I can only imagine how amped it is going to be next year.

You can still have a rock concert without having someone shout “shoot the left ramp now you dummy”. At NBA or NFL games this isn’t a concern because it’s too difficult to hear crowd voices, and because there isn’t an unlimited amount of time to use that information.

The spectator side can and should improve, at Pinburgh and otherwise :slight_smile:

I remember seeing a competition on twitch a while back where people where hooting and hollering at really bad times. Seems like there was a trumpet or a vuvuzela in the background too. Might have been at the PAPA facility. I was aghast and lol at the same time.

On that type of coaching, I’m all for it when I’m playing and enforce to the max when someone else is playing. d;^)

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Then we accomplished our goal: you watched and were entertained. :wink:

You’re probably thinking of the FSPA vs. PPL League Challenge. That’s specifically intended to be a non-traditional format, and the noisemaking and crowd involvement are encouraged. It’s just something radically different from the usual “golf match” style of spectatorship - normal pinball tournaments don’t have dozens of spectators cheering on their team. The actual game format of that Challenge is pretty crazy, too: team play, different rules every round, player sub-outs, etc. It’s all in good fun, and the stakes are just an Angela Drobka trophy and the pride of our leagues. (Speaking of which, current record: FSPA 2, PPL 0. Just sayin’. :wink: )

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JUST a Drobka trophy?

tisk tisk

My apologies, no disrespect intended to Angela. :slight_smile: Actually, the FSPA v. PPL trophy may have been the first Drobka trophy, or at least the first one I ever saw.

I was torn. On one hand, I wanted to scream STFU!!! in the chat room. But you guys were all having fun. Well done.

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Just seems like the knowledge base at that level is so high they players already know that shooting the orbit will do something. I just think it will be cool when the finals are on TZ with one scoop shot for LiTZ and the crowd is chanting scoop
scoop
scoop
scoop!!

Oh well, I’ll just be quiet and go play dollar games with my friends and get rowdy.

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Dollar games on what? Something like Monday Night Football? :slight_smile:

Oh yeah!!!

Yes, that was the PPL vs FSPA competition, and active coaching, subs, and crowd noise were part of the rules. It was fun!

I also remember people talking about a PAPA finals where everyone was gathered around watching the video and the crowd reacted audibly to what the player was doing (gasps for missed shots, other things like that). I think some of the PAPA TV crew were wondering how that would affect the player if this kind of thing became common.

I’m certainly not a fan of “rubbing it in”, so to speak, but when it comes to certain tournaments, particularly ones that you have to pay for each game you play, I’m all for playing that last ball until you drain. It’s almost insulting, otherwise.

That was PAPA 8, the first year where an overhead camera was being used (to film a documentary), and the display monitor was far in the back of the room. I’d say since PAPA 13, now that those cameras are being used every year, the crowd does react audibly, and it does have an effect on players. I would love even more reaction and crowd involvement, as long as none of the involvement is about coaching.

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If there’s nothing to be gained, I won’t play further. But if there are additional rounds, and I’m likely to play the game again, then I would in all likelihood play it out unless I already felt comfortable with the game.

The other times I would play it out were in the expo era of single games, partially to psych out the opponent or again to get a better feel of the game especially if it was game 1 of 3.

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Oh wow, it’s getting worse with PokĂ©mon. The Boston World Championships just ended, and two of the competitors were arrested by the police for making death threats over Facebook, then bringing hunting rifles and a shotgun to the competition. (The story behind this is that one of them was banned from a forum for unruly behavior and was going to take out his revenge on the people there.) I pray that this will never happen to pinball, because the last thing it needs is bad press like that.

Again, it feels so refreshing to me that everyone is so NICE. I guess the pinball playerbase is older and more mature that I don’t see the trash-talking and mother insults I’m accustomed to seeing in the types of competitions where there are mostly kids, teenagers, and young adults competing. A certain shooting video game was released with no voice-chat to avoid this toxicity. Naturally, the trash-talkers focused their aggression on the developers.