IFPA17 Games Chosen & Not Chosen

Games
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I’ve been wanting to compile this list for a while as I had a keen curiosity as to what games the players in IFPA17 at The Pinball Asylum back in May would actually choose to play out of the 48 chosen by IFPA. Below is the list of games and how many times they were chosen, and not chosen, as played in IFPA17 by the top 32 players who qualified and advanced to the final head-to-head bracket.

I find it interesting that Argosy and F-14 Tomcat tied and won the day with 14 players choosing it, or nearly half of the 32. Both are very controllable and playing well. Congo wasn’t a surprise at all with 13 players choosing it, as our copy at The Pinball Asylum plays beautifully. Knock-Out at 12 plays is a very controllable simple game.

Air Aces, El Dorado, Attack From Mars, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, College Queens, and Hokus Pokus were mysteriously all avoided with 0 play choices.

I’d be curious to hear some player feedback as to why certain games were chosen and others were not.

The first number on the list below represents the number of times the game was chosen by the top 32 players. The second number (in parentheses) is the times the game was previously played, i.e. randomly chosen before the 64 original players had been whittled down to 32:

Argosy, 14 (9)
F-14 Tomcat, 14 (8)
Congo, 13 (9)
Knockout, 12 (9)
Black Rose, 8 (7)
Avengers Infinity Quest, 8 (9)
Aztec, 7 (9)
Meteor, 7 (5)
Jurassic Park, 7 (8)
Captain Fantastic, 6 (8)
Mars Trek, 5 (9)
Dialed In!, 5 (8)
Disco, 4 (10)
Dr Who, 5 (8)
Fathom, 5 (8)
Harlem Globetrotters, 5 (8)
Taxi, 5 (8)
Surf N Safari, 5 (8)
TX Sector, 5 (8)
Sorcerer, 4 (9)
Star Trek, 4 (8)
Fish Tales, 3 (8)
NBA Fastbreak, 3 (8)
Deadpool, 3 (8)
Warlok, 3 (8)
Demo Man, 3 (8)
Whirlwind, 3 (9)
Cherry Bell, 3 (7)
Funhouse, 3 (8)
Guardians of the Galaxy, 3 (8)
Andromeda, 2 (8)
Flash Gordon, 2 (8)
Quicksilver, 2 (8)
Jack*Bot, 2 (8)
Bon Voyage, 1 (7)
2001, 1 (10)
Paragon, 1 (8)
Eight Ball Deluxe, 1 (9)
Air Aces, 0 (9)
El Dorado, 0 (9)
Attack From Mars, 0 (7)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 0 (8)
College Queens, 0 (9)
Hokus Pokus, 0 (8)
Target Alpha, 0 (10)
Volley, 0 (5)
World Cup Soccer, 0 (8)

3 Likes
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I love seeing data like this. Thanks for compiling!

Looks like you’re missing Taxi, which was my go to MID pick. Nice strong flippers, a reliable plunge and no bad feeds/garbage drains. TX Sector is also missing and from what I can remember was at least a moderately popular pick. I can think of at least one high leverage game on it :smirk:

Argosy is no surprise as the most popular pick. In any EM lineup it’s always one of the most controllable / repeatable options. Knockout was also super controllable. I think there was a round where every group picked it as Game 1 which caused a logjam. The saucer was sticking like 90% and giving a very reliable feed to a trap. I kept choosing it because it was rarely burning me and most drains were from my own missed spinner shots.

More than anything in playoffs game choice situations like this I think high level players are looking for options where they won’t get hosed and are mostly in control of their own destiny. At least that’s my personal approach.

Thanks again for all the effort in hosting. I had a great experience playing at the Asylum and hope to make it back!

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Thanks, John! I somehow truncated the list on first posting. I’ve edited the above and added the missing games, including Taxi and TX Sector.

It was great meeting you. Hosting was a blast too. All the players were incredible, and I definitely feel like we made a lot of new friends!

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Interesting data. Thanks for compiling and sharing! There are a few games that were unavailable to choose due to catastrophic malfunctions from earlier rounds. I know that Hokus Pokus was one. AFM was another, IIRC.

1 Like
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Yes, I’d forgotten about AFM going down. And I think you are correct as well on Hokus Pokus.

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100% sure on Hokus Pokus being down… because I wanted to select it, and could not. :frowning: