Tournament formats for group play

Bitchin’. Thanks buddy. I was kind of thinking the same thing.

So capped at 40 players, 4 hour qualifying then take X to finals and I would like to do 4 player groups and let each person choose a game and score each game IFPA scoring like qualifying.

I like to give each player a game to choose instead of the driving bus rule. Makes things a tad more interesting imo.

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We’ve been running group match play events for about a year now, and I really like it for the reasons mentions already (everyone plays, no one is eliminated early, etc.)

I’ve done tournaments with Swiss pairing which groups players based on the standings, so players playing better with face off against similarly-performing opponents. I’ve also done the balanced setting, which prioritizes people that you haven’t played before which is better for maximizing the number of different people you play.

The other thing we’ve done is group the machines based on how long they play and categorize them as such (if you have the luxury of say 12 games and only 20 people playing), and that way you can have a fast-playing round of older machines, and a longer round with DMDs. That way, you don’t get a group who plays a two-minute game of KISS Bally while another group plays a 30-minute game of Spider-Man. If we’ve maxed out our machines because of the number of people, then it’s easier for us to make adjustments to the “easier” machines to make them play faster (pitch, extra balls, harder settings, etc.). We used to run a three-hour qualifying where we only got six rounds in. Recently we did two-hour qualifying and still got the same six rounds in by grouping the machines and making adjustments to the longer playing ones.

In finals, we’ll split it up into A and B (and sometimes C) Divisions for finals. A Division is the one the counts for the IFPA finals cutoff, but it’s still fun and encouraging for people to win B and C instead of being eliminated after qualifying.

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I agree with this, and highly recommend it based on my experience whenever you have enough pins vs players to pull it off. Generally, Classics play shorter than Moderns, but keep in mind that some relatively Classic games can often have long ball-times as well. @haugstrup was nice enough to program in this Arena categorization, so take advantage of it!

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Okay so the lineup would be pretty diverse:

3 EMs
2 early SS
One sys 11
One early DMD
One mid 90s DMD
Probably 4 modern sterns (TWD tron GOT and IM)

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So I ran a test and put the 12 games into two groups, fast group and slow group. 6 games in each bank. Then I deactivated the slow bank and started the round. I assumed that each match would be on a different game in the fast bank, but everyone was listed as playing the same game? Not sure what I did wrong.

Do you have a link to the tournament?

https://matchplay.events/app/tournaments/7302

I think I see the issue. this option seems to be that they group will play the entire bank that you set up. I was expecting this option to just randomly assign a group to a game within that bank you have active at the moment. Each group playing a different game within that active bank.

Then I can do what others suggested. Switch back and forth between the fast and slow bank with each round.

Ah, yes. Using banks will kick MP into that behavior. What @Snailman was likely talking about is to use arena categories to do the switching.

  • Don’t use banks
  • Assign each arena a category (go up to the top level and click “Arenas” to edit your arenas). You can use the DMD/SS/EM categories or use A/B/C.
  • When starting a new round, use the dropdown to have MP only draw arenas from a specific category
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Always coming through in the clutch. Thanks!

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this made me think of something as I’m planning the Aerosmith launch party. Can one machine be in multiple categories? It doesn’t look like it. I was gonna have Aerosmith be one of the machines everyone plays even if we do match play in groups but I think the workaround is to create multiple arenas for Aerosmith and include one in each category so everyone will always/likely get it in their bank?

You still won’t be 100% sure, but including the machine multiple times will definitely increase the probability. Beware that if you use balanced arena assignments you’ll easily end up in a situation where certain players won’t get to play it at all (because other players in the group already played it). It gets… complicated.

Hey everyone. I’m having a tournament with 40 players that will have qualifying for 4 hours. Gonna do group matchplay with ifpa scoring. Wondering people’s thoughts on the groupings. Should I do balanced or Swiss? Looking to see which is the best test of skill and also help encourage the more novice players (probably half the field). I’m thinking Swiss. What do you think?

Balanced is the better method for a casual tournament because it keeps things moving at a steady pace. If you do Swiss you’ll eventually get the top players in a group and they’ll hold up the round with longer games and newer players will get bored waiting for the next round.

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Excellent. Thanks. Didn’t think of that. Balanced it is.

How many games per round? In 4 hours your number of rounds will be limited by how many games per round. I’m not a big fan of the balanced method. We attended a tourney recently that was all matchplay - no finals. There were about 20 players, and there were 4 rounds of 3 games each, IFPA scoring, balanced pairing. The guy who took 2nd place in the tourney was a beginner who actually sat on a stool to play pinball. How did he take 2nd. He never had to play ANY of the four highest ranked players at the tourney! It felt rigged and we were all quite shocked by the outcome.

[quote=“jdelz, post:34, topic:2377, full:true”]
Balanced is the better method for a casual tournament because it keeps things moving at a steady pace. If you do Swiss you’ll eventually get the top players in a group and they’ll hold up the round with longer games and newer players will get bored waiting for the next round.
[/quote]This EXACT situation played out in front of us and Matchplay was set-up for Balanced pairing.

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I mean there’s always a chance that a group will hold things up, but it’s more likely with Swiss.

I like balanced groupings with a single game for a qualifying session, followed by playoffs. It’s a great opportunity for newer players to make the cut and get into some serious playoff action.

I bet that guy who finished 2nd was stoked and will likely get more into competition. I can see how that might be annoying to lose to him at the moment, but in the bigger picture that sounds like a positive result for a smaller event.

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One match per round. At average 15-17 min games, that’s enough for hopefully 12-15 games in qualifying

I disagree. I think newer players have more fun playing players of similar level of play (i.e. Swiss). Losing every game because you are always paired with a far better player is frustrating. It is a balance of course, I think the convergence function of pinburgh manages this well, maybe something like that is better.