I think we need to go deeper. @coreyhulse would agree that there are a lot of wonderful pinball communities in Pennsylvania and all of them deserve representation. I propose that we start hosting SCS finals on a per-county basis to keep those pretentious yinzers away show what Pennsylvania Pinball is really like. Besides, we already do a lot of competitions by county anyways!
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Just to circle back to this one Ray . . . taking your opinion and my opinion off the table, if you were running IFPA and you saw this in response to each of our posts, would you be motivated to make that decision to remove North Dakota from Nationals?
I say that without any jest, because we do try to ultimately make decisions that are supported by at least half of the player base. Iāve passed on many things I would have personally implemented by now because that support simply wasnāt there as strongly as I would have hoped.
Now this I can get behind. Since San Francisco is both a city and its own county we can just have SF City Champ be the SCS tournament. Josh wonāt even have to make a trophy for it.
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Agreed! County Champs for everyone!
āAs of 2016, there were 3,007 counties, 64 parishes, 19 organized boroughs, 10 census areas, 41 independent cities, and the District of Columbia for a total of 3,142 counties and county-equivalents in the 50 states and District of Columbia.ā
Challonge maxes out at 256, so weāll need Andreas to expand the capabilities of MatchPlay.
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I wholly agree with the concept of āTournament of Championsā, but IFPA does allow the 2nd place finisher to serve as a Representative. I donāt necessarily disagree with doing that, but when the 2nd place finisher shows up at Nationals, they are NOT the Champion. Not to diminish what they accomplished, but to coin a phrase āThere can be only oneā
In your āthe tournament could be less meaningfulā argument you outlined above, it could be further argued that among the top 2, one player might know ahead of time for a fact they cannot make it to Nationals, so the other player already has the invite regardless of the outcome. That certainly takes pressure off the match.
Would they still fight it out to claim the title? Sure, but itās a way different feeling knowing you are going to Nationals regardless.
Yes i would. because if i was president of the IFPA I would make my decisions based on what was fair to the competitors. not based on how many little red hearts i get from my fan club.
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Good to know! 
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Itās the one concession I made to the initial rules write-up. A MAJORITY of the feedback I received pushed for there to be an alternate finalist to represent the state should the champion not be able to fulfill their duties. I didnāt want to make that concession, but ultimately I did.
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Not only that, someone could play in one event in ND, not win, get invited to SCS, finish last, have all other finishers drop out and go to nationals. 300 plus dollars just for walking through the door even though theyve never won a tournament, or faced off against a ranked player.
tournament of champions
Being in Champaign, IL (~2-2.5 hours from Chicago/St. Louis), Iām glad CP Pinball events count as Illinois events, as it gives me extra opportunities to qualify in my home state (and maybe more opportunities this year, from what I hear).
I guess my point is that this redrawing around āmetro areasā could be detrimental to those of us in the middle. Being caught between 3 states (IL/IN/MO) is already a challenge, but NACS is just another factor to consider when deciding where to travel and play.
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Pretty sure that is not allowed. Only representatives are the actual winner and the 2nd place finisher.
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even so, someone who has never played against a single ranked player should never be getting 300 or more dollars for competitive pinball.
So itās the cash thatās the problem?
obviouslyā¦
wait, you didnt think all this kerfuffle was about imaginary, useless pinball points did you???
I never know for sure. If itās just about the money then it sounds like you would be fine with allowing those representatives at Nationals, and they are simply ineligible for any prize money?
They can still enjoy the prestige of trying to win the National Championship, representing their State, battling other champions in a high profile event. That $300 they donāt deserve we would just donate to charity, or I would keep to run IFPA, etc.
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Iād take the title over the money any day
I offered the $15K prize for Colin, Elwin and Cayle to split before the Pinburgh final if they let me have that one
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Sure, why not. Or like i suggested earlier they could leave that money in their SCS tournament. If nationals is not about fairness, play one handed wearing an eyepatch for all i care. But nationals is also about a prize pool that all pinball helped build.
As of now, no one as done that, because who the hell wants to go to ND, set up, and play in a tournament just to squeak into nationals and get their ass whomped?
Not worth $300 to me, thatās for sure.