I use “driving” direction not “pure birds flight” distance, the point was more toward that there is no driving distance ones 
I believe I rounded up City champ in SF which was around 800m but the other ones were definitely above 1k miles.
There is only that many tournament that one can attend when you have to fly there unfortunately.
As mentioned above by Josh, Pin Masters is in Texas next year, so 2 events actually.
Just as a point of comparison I have never driven to a Circuit event, and up until now the nearest to me is 500 miles away.
Pin Masters in the 2016-17 Circuit was in Las Vegas and has already occurred.
so Pin Masters 2017 will be in the 2017-18 circuit? Are any other events that happened this year before PAPA in the 16-17 circuit?
no only Pin-Master, must be the IFPA exemption power 
I think I read Pin Masters was the first event, and that going forward the Circuit will begin on March 1 in order to establish a more consistent calendar (since PAPA can slide a month forward or back).
easier when you have your name on banners to show up and win Us average guys have to try at it in more events
Okay… you’ve got a higher seed than me…
Note to the PNW folks:
The circuit event closest to you, City Champ, is limited to 72 players.
I’m going to go way out on a limb and say that it will likely fill up fast. Just a hunch. I could be way off base.
oh yeah, it sold out pretty fast last year as well. Great tourney down there a FGW by @haugstrup and Per 
…and about a dozen other people who worked hard to make it all happen!
Pretty sure LAX (Louisville) is the first event that is Circuit back-to-back event years that skips a circuit year.
I was a little bummed about that. I keep saying I’m going to do a " big year" someday. Which must include Louisville since I live in the Southeast. I guess my big year will have to be 2017.
That’s actually less true than you’d think: single-vote FPTP with no runoff is ubiquitous in the US and Canada, and relatively rare elsewhere. It’s also never used in several-member electorates (like this one), since it doesn’t work in practice.
If I were PAPA, I’d make the following changes to the system:
First, eliminate the five-point feedback scale. Yes/no will get you better data, since the current data is like app-five-star ratings (mostly all fives, with a few people unhappy). Probably two yes/no questions would get you more information: I’d guess “Did you enjoy this event?” and “Was this event run to the standards you expect from the PAPA circuit?” will get you the data you want.
Second, switch the voting system. Having thought about it a bit, I think you want something approval-based rather than based on a ranked list. In which case, single divisible vote is probably your best bet. You set up your poll to allow people to “Vote for all events you think would make good PAPA circuit events”, and then use SDV to run the election.
This divides each voter’s votes amongst all the places they voted for (1/2 a point to each of two, 1/3 to each of three, etc.), and then eliminates them progressively from fewest to most votes. As an option is eliminated, any partial votes for that option go away, so if I vote for Unpopular Expo and BestTournamentEver, my initial vote is 1/2 a point to each. After UE get eliminated, my whole vote goes to BTE.
This mostly eliminates the need for strategic voting, and allows people that have been to a bunch of places to tell you about them all, rather than just bullet voting for their favourites. It also reduces the effect of drum-beating by the various TOs to go vote for them as an important source of votes, as people will hopefully, once they get to the page, vote not just for the one they were sent by but also the other ones they think highly of.
it will also tend to get more diverse candidates. If everyone in Seattle votes for the NWPAS and the NW Champs, probably one will get in this year, but not both, and so on for other places, with the one more-popular with out-of-town competitors winning out.
I’d be happy to help with the backend data processing, or to suggest other alternatives; I’m vaguely a voting-systems nerd.
From the players’ perspective, they just have to ‘vote for all that you think should be on the circuit’, so the load for them is really easy. There’s no need to worry about strategic voting.
Third, and this one I’m not sure how to think about, there’s perverse incentives here on the player feedback. I know that several players were unhappy about how NWPAS’s finals turned out, and so they presumably gave bad feedback. However, they’d probably prefer to have the NWPAS be on the circuit than have no Pac-NW shows on the circuit, so there’s an incentive to vote up your local show. I’m not sure how to fix this problem, or if it’s even a problem in practice.
(Tagging @mhs, @PAPA_Doug for visibility.)
Doug,
Just saw the new Circuit list with the vote winners. For both the returning ten and the vote-in eight, I have been unable to find the dates for some of these events. Can you post those for us? Thanks.
Bob
2800+ Votes. Circuit is going to be crazy packed next year! 
it will be interesting to compare votes to actual players at events
I assume it’s not very practicable but shouldn’t votes be linked to IFPA ID and emails so they are attributed to pinball players? I think the worst part of the system was that most votes came from non pinball players as people were just reaching out to random friends and other communities to just get the most votes possible. Also having some more notice next year to reach “less internet friendly” players and bring them into the process.
I wouldn’t be surprise in most cases if less than half or even third of the votes would actually end up participating?
IFPA ID votes with ranked top 8 choices (if 8 are needed) would give a better representation. Though I would still think PAPA, as the governing body, should have the final say in a way to balanced events regionally if they really want to promote the circuit across the US.
There were surveys for attendees at each event, that’s how you wound up with the staying in/in danger/definitely out events this year. At least I’m assuming there were because I remember getting one for expo, the only non-Replay Foundation one I went to.
I get what you’re saying about the voting, but everyone really already voted if they did the surveys.