ARTICLE 1: TOURNAMENT OVERVIEW Section 1. Tournament Definition Pinburgh '99 is an official event of the Steel City Pinball Association, and is subject to all normal rules and regulations as specified in the SCPA Constitution. The Event Coordinator for Pinburgh '99 is Steve Zumoff. He is responsible for all normal Event Coordinator duties as specified in aforementioned Constitution. He may for the purposes of this tournament designate other officers in charge of handling specific duties, but he will still be ultimately responsible for all obligations, including any rulings that need to be made throughout the course of the tournament. All decisions of the Event Coordinator are final. Section 2. Tournament Structure There will be 4 divisions created for Pinburgh '99 as follows: * A Division * B Division * C Division * Women's Division Any player may enter the A division. However, once a player does enter in the A division, that player may not enter the B or C divisions, and any qualifying score previously acheived in either the B or C division will not be counted for the remainder of the tournament. Any player may enter the B division, except for those who have accomplished one of the following: * Player has won an individual award from the Steel City Pinball Assocation in a league that was not specifically designated a B-player league and was contested between at least 7 other league players. This restriction does not include machine high score awards. * Player has qualified in the A division of any PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournament. * Player has won B division of any PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournament. * Player has been a finalist in two of any combination of previous PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournaments. A player who has entered in the B division may later choose to enter in the A division, subject to all A division regulations. The above exceptions apply as well to entry in the C division, as well as the following exceptions: * player has Qualified in the B Division of any PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournament. * Player has won the C division of any PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournament. * Player has been a finalist in two of any combination of previous PAPA World Championships or previous Pinburgh tournaments. A player who has entered in the C divison may later choose to enter either the B or A divisions, subject to that division's regulations. Only women may enter the Women's Division, but a player who does enter the Women's Division may also enter and attempt to qualify in any other division without forfeiting her Women's Division qualifying entry. Section 3 - Entry Fees The entry fees for the divisions are as follows: A Division - $12 B Division - $8 C Division - $4 Women's Division - $5 These are not subject to change. A new entry fee must be paid for each additional attempt to qualify in any division. There are no limits to how many times a player may attempt to qualify in a division. A player may not purchase an entry in a division if he already has another entry pending or uncompleted in that same division. Any entries left completely unplayed at the end of the tournament will be entitled to a refund: partially incompleted entries will not be refunded. Section 4 - Prizes The Prizes for each division will be based on the amount of entries in that division. 60% of all entry fees will go to the prize ppol for that division, and 40% will go towards tournament operating expenses. The prizes for all divisions are as follows: First Place: 65% of prize pool, plus trophy Second Place: 25% of prize pool, plus large plaque Third Place: 10% of prize pool, plus small plaque Fourth Place: small plaque. The above prizes are not subject to change. However, other prizes may be given out for other awards or achievements, and are subject to change without notice, and will be given out at the discretion of the Event Coordinator. ARTICLE 2: GENERAL GAMEPLAY REGULATIONS Section 1. Proper conduct All players must be given sufficient room by other players and league officials to play. Any interference with a players game, either intentional or unintentional, will result in the option of replaying the current game, at the choice of the player. Interference sufficient to invoke this rule shall be defined on a per-case basis by the Event Coordinator. All players must conduct themselves in a professional matter, including refraining from the use of profanities, not abusing the machines, and not attempt to subvert either any of the regulations contained herein or any rulings made by the Event Coordinator. The Event Coordinator reserves the right to void an entry or exclude a player from the event. Section 2. Enterting a division After purchasing an entry sheet, a player must present that entry sheet to a scorekeeper for the division that player is entering before he/she is allowed to play. The order of play will be determined on a first-come-first-served basis, except as decided upon by the scorekeeper. Each person in an entry must play his/her machines in the order prescribed by the scorekeeper, and may not skip machines. At the end of each game, a player's score must be recorded by the scorekeeper and signed by both the scorekeeper and the player before that player may begin his/her next machine or before another player may begin on that machine. Any completed entry must have each score signed by both the player and the scorekeeper to be considered official. If a player has his score erased on a machine, then the player must play his game over again if the scorekeeper cannot remember the score of that machine to a margin of error of 100,000 adjusted points. If he/she can, then the scorekeeper must awarded the highest possible score that is consistent with what he/she remembers. Assuming that the player who erased the score did so unintentionally, there will be no penalty to that player. If it is deemed to have been done intentionally, then it shall be considered interference and will be subject to disciplinary action as defined in Section 2.1. If a game ends unfairly, such as due to a power failure, the player must play his game again, unless the scorekeeper can remember to within 100,000 adjusted points the score of the game, in which case the player also has the option of taking that score. Section 2.3 - Voluntarily voiding entries A player may, if he so chooses, take a zero for the remainder of the games on his entry, purchase a new entry for that division, and proceed to qualify again under normal criteria. The voided entry sheet must still be signed by both the player and the scorekeeper. Section 2.4 - Scoring rules Each entry will consist of one game on each of the machines in that qualfiying bank. The score the player achieves on the machine will be subject to a normalizer which will create a final adjusted score for that player on that machine. The normalizers shall be posted on each machine, and are not subject to change once the tournament has begun. All of the adjusted scores for each machine will be added together to come up with a total adjusted score for that player. Section 2.5 - Machine settings Machines will be set to tournament mode if at all possible. If it is not possible, the machines will be set as close to tournament mode as possible. Once qualifying play in any division has begun, no changes will be made to any machine settings. An exception to the above rule is that for the A division, machines may be placed on more difficult settings than is normally provided for under tournament mode play. Special rules as a results of these changes should be posted, but lack of knowledge of specific rule changes as a result of these new settings will not be considered grounds for a protest. If any extra balls are awarded by a machine, they are not to be played. The player is instead to launch the awarded extra ball and not touch the machine once the ball has been successfully launched until that ball is over. If the machine will not allow the player to simply end a ball without flipping, the machine will be tilted and then the ball launched. Section 2.6 - Illegal Moves The techniques known as the "bang back" and "death save" are both illegal, as are any other techniques used to bring the ball back into the field of play once it has gone beneath the flippers. If a ball re-enters the field of play without player assistance, play shall continue on that game without penalty. It is the decision of the scorekeepers as to whether or not the player used any illegal move to accomplish this. A slam tilt will result in a zero for that game. Repeated slam tilts will be considered machine abuse, subject to disciplinary action as specified in Section 2.1. Deliberately holding the plunger in to prevent balls from being successfully launched is an illegal move. Any illegal move will result in a zero for that game. Repeated use of illegal moves will be considered machine abuse, subject to disciplinary action as specified in Section 2.1. Section 2.7 - Malfunctions Section 2.7.1 - Stuck Balls If a ball is stuck and a standard ball search won't find the ball, the player should wait until a technician can remove the ball. The technician is to put the ball back into the plunger lane and allow the player to get into position before allowing the machine to continue play. If a player tilts a machine trying to get a ball un-stuck, there will be no compensation. If there is no technician available and the ball will not get unstuck, the player has the choice of either trying to get the ball unstuck through nudging, or replying his game. He must make this decision before attempting to shake the ball loose. Section 2.7.2 - Fixable malfunctions If a part breaks down on a machine, it is the responsibility of the scorekeeper to determine whether or not the malfunction is significant enough to warrant help from a technician. If it is, the player has the option of replaying his game or taking the current score on that machine. If the scorekeeper determines that a malfunction is not serious enough to warrant a technician, the player must continue to play as normal. Section 2.7.3 - Unfixable malfunctions If machine breaks down to a point that it cannot be fixed and it is deemed to be unplayable for tournament purposes, then that machine shall be eliminated from the qualifying bank. All previous entries shall have the scores from that machine eliminated and judged on the remaining machines only. Section 2.8 - Machine specific rules If any of the machines in the tournament are machines listed in Section 2.8, then play on those machines is subject to the additional rule changes as specified in this section. Section 2.8.1 - The Twilight Zone At the end of a player's game in a multi-player game, the machine will possibly prompt the player to buy in. While it does this, it might also serve a ball to the plunger lane. Plunging this ball without hitting the buy-in switch will cause the next player's ball to not only be started, but to immediately be awarded a slot machine award. This move is illegal. If a player does this, he will be penalized the amount of the mode that he started, plus 10 million. It is the job of the Event Coordinator to determine this amount, even if it requires estimation. Section 2.9 - Rule Sheets Each scorekeeper for a division will have a copy of the full rule sheets for all machines available for all players in that division. However, the rules contained in those sheets are considered to be solely guide, and not definitive. Any discrepency between the rules of a machine and the actual gameplay, or any lack of knowledge of the exact rules of a machine are not grounds for any type of protest. ARTICLE 3: PLAYOFFS Section 3.1 - Qualification Round Rankings Players in the qualifying round of each division shall be ranked according their total adjusted score. If any two or more players are tied, the players shall be ranked in the order that they achieved the score, with the person who achieved the score first recieving the highest ranking, and so on. Only a player's highest total adjusted score for that division will be considered when determining qualification rankings for each division. Section 3.2 - Number of qualifying players for each division The number of qualifiers for the first round of playoffs for each division are as follows: SEMIFINALS A Division - 9 B Division - 9 C Division - 9 Women's Division - 9 FINALS A Division - 4 B Division - 4 C Division - 4 Women's Division - 4 If at the start of any playoff round any qualified entrants are not present to begin play, the next higher person in the qualifying list will take their place, and all qualifying places will shift upwards to accomodate. If a playoff round has already begun, and a player is not present for this game or for his ball, the appropriate number of players will start the game regardless, and the scorekeeper will launch the ball for the absent player. No other player is allowed to play the ball for the absent player. If there is an award upon ball launch that is dependent on plunger strength, the scorekeeper must launch the ball at full strength. If it is dependent on timing, the scorekeeper must close his/her eyes when launching. The scorekeeper must give a reasonable grace period before doing this. If because of players not showing up there are not enough players to fill the playoff brackets for that division the Event Coordinator will construct a new set of playoff brackets. Section 3.4 - Playoff Round Scoring In all playoff rounds players will be ranked based upon the number of playoff points that they received in that round. The number of points players receive in playoff rounds will be determined by the number of players on their game. In four player games, points will be distributed on a 10-5-1-0 basis, in three player games on a 10-5-1 basis and in two player games on a 10-5 basis. If two or more players tie on any machine in a playoff round, they must play a one-ball playoff on that machine. If that fails to resolve the tie, they must begin over and play a one-ball playoff again, and so on until the tie is resolved. Their original score on that machine will not change based on the score of the tie-breaker ball. If two or more players are tied at the end of any playoff round their ranking will be determined by the total adjusted score of their games in that playoff round only. If they are still tied, they will play a one game playoff on the first machine they played in that round. If they tie in that they will continue to play additional games on that machine until the tie is broken. Section 3.5 - Playoff Round Seedings After players from a previous round are ranked, they are to play against each other in the next round in the following groups: A, B, Women's Division Semifinals 2,7,8,9 3,4,5,6 C Division Semifinals 2,11,12,13 3,8,9,10 4,5,6,7 In all divisions, the top entrant from the qualifying round will be awarded the #1 seed for the Finals Round A, B, C, Women's Division Finals 1,2,3,4 Section 3.6 - Playoff Round Gameplay All rules in Section 2 regarding gameplay apply to machines in the playoff round, unless otherwise specified in Section 3. In multi-player games, the highest seeded player in that round gets first choice of position in each game, the next highest player gets second choice, and so on. Section 3.7 - Playoff Round Malfunctions If a machine in the playoff round malfunctions to the point of not being playable or replaceable, then that machine shall be removed from that playoff round and all subsequent playoff rounds. Any results acheived on that machine for that playoff round will not be counted towards the seedings for the next round, or final playoff standings. If a malfunction on a machine in a playoff round results in giving player the option to replay his game, he must make the decision of whether or not to replay his game or not at the time of the malfunction. If the player chooses to simply continue his/her game, that decision cannot later be changed.
This page last updated July 3, 1999
All tournament information subject to change without notice.