Our ruleset is modified with the following:
Tilting BEFORE validating playfield will result in loss of ball.
We have several classic sterns, and a few years ago we had a person tilt for like 3 minutes trying to hit the correct lane. That was the last time that was ever done.
To win a match on Counterforce, I intentionally drained when I knew I had enough multiplied bonus to clinch the win. I had many multipliers that were at risk and wasn’t confident I could save them.
I mean, I think you explained the difference yourself? One is tilting, the others aren’t. 
Similar to several of the examples above:
It can make sense for the last player in a game of Tron to drain with double scoring running to get double bonus, but I’ve never seen it or heard of it happening. Anyone out there?
If pingolf or some other formats, it wouldn’t even have to be the last player doing it.
I don’t see why tilt isn’t allowed. But if you’re holding up a match, I can see why it’s a rule (even though there are other shenanigans that are allowed that can hold up matches too). But I have no idea if that’s why it’s the rule, hence why I asked.
I’ve done this one and it rules. 
I saw someone lose on Counterforce by having the ball get stuck on the insert above the left outlane. As TD all you can do is drain it, but by waiting they lost all those multipliers and fell short. 
Was trying to avoid getting a strike during semifinals of a tournament on Monster Bash. On ball 3 I was able to nail the Big 6 stack for the first time on a real life Monster Bash machine and quickly jumped past everyone.
and that was in part asking for an ruling about tilting an plunge only EB.
I was very pleased with myself when I knew to intentionally do this at Nationals in 2015 in Vegas. I think I got about 13M more bonus (base bonus included Portal and a ton of bonus multipliers) for doing this, a 13M I doubted I could grind out by playing. I likely was player 1, so it wasn’t to get to a win; it was just to extend my lead more
… and someone made an intentional drain against me during Pinburgh 2013 round 10 on Swinger to get or maximize his triple bonus
Of course it’s allowed. It’s just not allowed in competitions that are using the stock PAPA/IFPA ruleset. Feel free to refine the rules for your own events!
Not new, but more and more these days I find myself strategically not flipping during multiball. Seems like every game comes with six balls now and add a balls can be gotten in multiple ways. More modes adding balls after completing phases of modes and ball savers can be extended. Six balls is too dam many. If ball saver is running, I’ll let several drain to get better shots. I know I didn’t invent this, but it sure seems like it’s a strategy I use more and more lately. I do see plenty of casuals enjoying six ball multiballs, so I understand why they’re there.
Swinger - During pinburgh qualifying I dumped my last ball as P1 from a trap to get a 15K bonus. Secured the win. You don F around with 15K in hand on swinger
A few weeks ago I was in a tournament final where 4th place got to pick game or position for the following game. I was bus driver for game 1 and won that. Six Million Dollar Man was picked for game 2. I promptly house balled ball 1 and then decided to phone it in rest of the game to get game pick back for game 3 after falling way behind everyone else. Didn’t like having to do that in order to regain back a game pick. But at the same time not giving my “best competitive effort” for this game was the sacrifice in order to give my “best competitive effort” for the totality of the round due to format.
Sounds like your best competitive effort to me
But what is the line from best competitive effort to sandbagging?
In Olympics badminton some teams where trying to lose to get easier matchup in later rounds.
Purely based on intent. TD ask you if you were trying your best to win, you say yes or no.
During 2018’s Battle at the Sanctum, the center target on Frontier was notorious for triple-registering. I won a game on it by focusing down the center target and cashing in 30k/45k a shot on an otherwise tough machine.
It’s how I learned that shot is actually safer than it seems as well!
There was a game plan Captain Hook at the LAX tournament a few years back that did the same thing. Free.