For any pinballers who haven’t yet purchased a hotel room for ReplayFX (or to anyone who feels like doing us a favor): the Westin has significantly oversold our block and is cutting into our contract with the Omni, causing me a headache, so I need to drive a bit more traffic away from the Westin and toward the Omni over the next two months to make sure everything stays on the level. If anyone reserved at the Westin feels like switching over to the Omni and getting a cheaper / nicer room, it would help our cause a bit. For anyone who still has to purchase a room, please do so at the Omni. I’ve removed the Westin option from our website.
As for Pinburgh and FX in general, everything is shaping up to be a solid event and tournament. We’ve added more tables and chairs to the Pinburgh area to try and help you all get off your feet a bit more. We’ve also made some improvements to the stage design that will lessen the impact of vibrations and movement from other players. The Intergalactic tournament will be in a new area to help with space issues, and we’ve added televisions to the Pinburgh viewing area so people in the back will have a better view.
If anyone has any questions, please ask away. Many aspects of my personal life have calmed down recently, so I’ll be checking in on tiltforums more regularly.
VIP packages are in my opinion great value, particularly so if you were thinking of picking up a tshirt or two anyway. The new for 2017 t-shirt designs aren’t usually announced ahead of time, but they will likely have a selection of previous years shirts (some of which you can see on the PAPA store: http://papa.org/store/ )
There are multiple raffle prizes, again - I don’t think prizes are announced ahead of time but all good stuff.
Whilst here I’ll also say that I stayed in the Omni last year and thought it was great. Really nice, and just a short stroll to the venue. That would have been my preferred choice again, but I won’t be making the trip this year sadly.
If you’re into architecture or just general ambiance, the Omni is a 100-year-old downtown hotel; the lobby is super posh. I frequently walk through it on my way across town just because it’s so fancy. There’s a Starbucks and a Brueggers’ bagels accessible from the lobby, and several restaurants and taverns on site.
And if you leave the Omni through the right exit you’re just across the street from the subway station (Steel Plaza). The subway is free for local stops, so you can go across to Allegheny for a football/baseball game or the casino.
Switched to the Omni. Sad to leave an SPG hotel, happy to save $300USD. Thanks! Hope it helps the cause.
Also, what happens if you miss the draws on Sunday and you are lucky enough to get a prize. I fly out at 5pm Sunday and international flights have me saying peace at 3pm. Whats the scoop on that?