Batter Up!
Christmas is coming early for Bay Area pinheads! The second weekend of December brings us City Champ tournament, San Francisco's premier annual pinball event, now in its fourth year and this year part of the PAPA Circuit!
This year's City Champ is bigger and better than ever! The sold-out tournament itself is now a two-day extravaganza, and your friendly local tournament organizers are expanding the fun with bonus tournaments on both sides. So if you missed your chance to get in on the main event, you can still partake in the holiday fun.
On Thursday, our favorite pinball photographer Gene X Hwang is hosting a Pre-City Champ Barroom Brawl at Gestalt Haus in San Francisco. Then on Sunday, Hella Heart Pinball is bringing you the world premiere of what we're certain is going to be the next big thing in tournament formats: pin-baseball!
This event will be held concurrently with the City Champ playoffs at Free Gold Watch in San Francisco, and so you'll have the opportunity to catch some world class play in between your own tournament games. Everyone is welcome to join the fun!
Date and Time
Sunday, December 13th, 2015.
Tournament starts at 1:00pm.
Location
Free Gold Watch, 1767 Waller Street, San Francisco, CA.
Cost to Play
Free for players who participated in the City Champ tournament on Saturday. For everyone else, $10. Players will also be responsible for the cost of games played during the tournament.
Format
Pin-Baseball!
In groups, players will play through a bank of twelve machines.
Each machine will have four posted score objectives, representing a single, a double, a triple, and a home run.
At the end of a three ball game, if a player has reached the home run score, they will earn a run. If a player has reached any of the other score objectives, they earn a hit and will put a runner on base corresponding to the score objective they reached. Any existing base runners will advance the corresponding number of bases.
(Example: a player has one runner on second base and scores a single. This places a runner on first base and the runner on second base advances to third. On the next game, the same player scores a double. The runner on third will advance to home, scoring a run, the runner on first will advance to third, and the new runner will be placed on second.)
If a player fails to meet any of the score objectives for the machine, they will earn an out. If the player gets a tilt during their game, this will also earn an out. When a player's out count reaches three, all runners currently on base will be cleared and the out count resets to zero.
At the end of the twelve games, players will be ranked in order of how many runs they've earned. In cases where players have the same number of runs, the player who collected the most hits will get the higher ranking. If there is a tie beyond that, we'll compare home runs, then triples, then doubles, then singles. The final tiebreaker will be the player who earned the fewest outs during their game.
Awards
We'll have awards and cash prizes (assuming there are any cash entries) for first through fourth place.
Eligibility
This tournament is open to anyone who wants to play! Players of all skill levels, even total beginners, are encouraged to participate. We're here to have fun.
WPPRs
This tournament is sanctioned by the International Flipper Pinball Association and will award points towards your World Pinball Player Ranking. If you don't have a ranking, you will after you play in the tournament!
Food and Drink
No food will be provided at the tournament venue, but players are welcome to bring snacks from home for themselves, or to share. There are many places to grab a bite to eat in the immediate vicinity.