The ruling depends… i had a stle with flaky warp ramp opto that would pick mode and sometimes even auto launch ball. It was finals and i was at a collectors house. I spent a minute looking at issue and wound up removing game from event.
2 Likes
For games like GOT where a flaky pre-plunge switch changes game-state and scoring potential for the WHOLE GAME, I think there needs to be an exception where it is not simply ruled a Minor Malfunction. What would be the ruling if a phantom switch hit forced a choice of Novice play instead of Regular play on games like Batman Forever or Who Dunnit? Minor malfunction, and play on in timed Novice play? No way.
2 Likes
We pulled GOT from league last night for this reason after 1/4 players had their house picked for them (Stark).
Since some players got to pick and some did not, we ruled it a “reverse beneficial malfunction”, or significant advantage to the players that were lucky enough to not have their mode auto-selected. The language on beneficial malfunctions leaves it up to the TD to determine what is a significant advantage.
Current as of the time of this post:
- Beneficial Malfunctions
Any malfunction which provides at least one player with a significant advantage over any other player competing on that machine is known as a beneficial malfunction. Tournament officials shall determine what constitutes a significant advantage.
…
Any beneficial malfunction which provides one or more players with a significant scoring or strategic advantage in a way that is not part of normal gameplay will void the score of the affected player(s), unless all immediately-affected players and tournament officials can agree on a suitable adjustment of the score or other elimination of the advantage.
All immediately-affected players and a referee that was not part of the affected group agreed that the only way to eliminate the advantage without restarting games and playing ball one until all four players got a chance to pick was to swap the game.
Or force-stark everyone.