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Fundraiser event for the Pinball Outreach Project. One great cause, two awesome tournaments!
Date and Time
Saturday, November 21st, 2015.
Tournaments at 12:00pm and 3:30pm.
Event Schedule
11:00 AM: Doors open.
12:00 — 2:30 PM: Pinball! Pinball! Pinball!
2:30 PM — 3:30 PM: Lunch break/practice time
3:30 PM: 4 Strikes Knockout
Location
Magic JuJu Boathouse, 143 3rd Street, San Rafael, CA.
The Boathouse is a magical place packed with an amazing collection of electro-mechanical pinball machines! Huge appreciation to Dan Fontes and Julie Lucchesi for opening their collection to us for this event!
Public Transit
The Boathouse is accessible via public transportation. For players coming from San Francisco, you can take Golden Gate Transit route 70 or route 101 to the San Rafael Transit Center, which is a 10 minute walk from the venue. If you're traveling from the East Bay, you can take the Golden Gate Transit line 42 from the El Cerrito Del Norte or Richmond BART Stations to the San Rafael Transit Center. To figure out the best route for you, check Google Transit.
Cost to Play
$20 entry fee per tournament, or $30 to play in both!
This event is a fundraiser for the Pinball Outreach Project (POP). All money paid in entry fees will be donated to POP. The tournaments will not have cash prizes. (But they will award points towards your world pinball player ranking, and be super fun!)
Format
Both tournaments will be played entirely on electro-mechanical machines.
Pinball! Pinball! Pinball!
Two hours of ongoing head to head play. All tournament machines are being played at all times. Players not currently playing are placed in a queue to await their next match. When a match on one of the machines ends, one player leaves to machine and is placed at the back of the queue, and the player from the front of the queue goes up to face the player who remains on the machine.
At the end of the two hours, players are ranked in order of how many matches they won during the tournament. The player with the most wins is the winner!
For more details about the specifics of the format, scroll down to the format details section.
Knockout!
Four strikes knockout with best-of-one matches.
Each round, you will be paired with another player and assigned a machine. You will each play the machine once (playing single player games), and the player who ends up with the lower score receives a strike. When all the matches are finished, a new round will begin. Each round, you will be paired (as much as possible) with a player who has the same number of strikes as you.
Once a player accumulates four strikes, they're out of the tournament.
Awards
Since this tournament is a fundraiser, there will be no cash prizes at the event.
However, there will be awards for first through fourth place in each tournament, as well as the highest ranking novice player. To be eligible for the novice award, a player must have a world pinball player ranking no better than 2000, and cannot have placed in the top three at a previous open Hella Heart Pinball tournament.
Hopefully we'll get some donated prizes as well.
Eligibility
These tournaments are 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
Both tournaments are 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!
Games List
All games at the Magic JuJu Boathouse are electro-mechanical.
A list of anticipated tournament machines will be posted here closer to the start of the event. Sorry, I was never able to get a list from our hosts! It will be a surprise for all of us. The collection is amazing, though, you won't be disappointed.
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. Players will have an opportunity for a lunch break between the two tournaments.
Format Details
Pinball! Pinball! Pinball!
Two hours of ongoing head to head play on all available machines.
At the beginning of the event, players are be placed in a queue according to their order of registration. Players are only added to the queue after they have paid their entry fee to the tournament director.
The first two players in the queue will be assigned a match on one machine, the next two players on the next machine, and so on until matches are being played on all the machines being used in the tournament.
Players play one two-player game on their assigned machine. When the game is over, the player with the higher score (the winner) collects a point and then goes to the back of the queue to await their next match.
The player with the lower score remains on the machine to face their next opponent - whoever was at the front of the queue, and the process repeats. (There is only one queue for the whole tournament, players are assigned machines and opponents based solely on what becomes available first when they are at the front of the queue.)
If a player loses two matches in a row on the same machine, then they go to the back of the queue following their second loss and the winner remains on the machine to face the next player in the queue.
If a player is not available when their name comes up to play, they will be skipped and sent to the back of the queue.
When the clock runs out, players may finish any matches currently in progress, but no new games will start.
Players are ranked based on how many games they win during the tournament. In the event multiple players have the same number of wins, the tiebreaker will be who has the fewest number of losses.