Pinball Tournaments (full rules)

Win cash in our pinball tournaments!  Have fun in our three main tournaments or a bonus tournament specifically for casual players!

This year's format is the same as California Extreme 1997 and 2007: three tournaments, each for a different era of pinball, each with four games to play.  Play in any or all of the tournaments.  The top three finishers in each tournament win cash prizes.

In each tournament, eight qualifiers will duke it out in head-to-head match play.  You can qualify for the finals by playing well on one game, or by playing well on all four games in the bank.

Casual players will also be eligible for a side tournament, the Casual Division.  A casual player is someone with little or no tournament experience; more specifically, a player who has never won a cash prize at any pinball tournament.  The top six casual players qualify for the finals, and will be joined by two wild-card qualifiers, picked among all casual entries!  Stick around on Sunday afternoon even if you don't qualify, since you might be picked as one of the wild cards!

Special thanks to the folks from PAPA, where the World Pinball Championship will be held in August, with over $35,000 in prizes.  PAPA is the largest pinball tournament in the US, and we thank them for their support of our tournament.  Visit www.papa.org for more information about this amazing event.

Thanks as well to the folks from IFPA, who have declared California Extreme to be one of the "major" pinball tournament events for 2008.

Need more details?  Keep reading!

We are always in need of helping hands in the tournament area.  If you are willing to spend some time helping us out, we would really appreciate it.  Talk to any staff member if you are interested in helping.

 

Prizes are subject to participation levels.  All entries in all tournaments will feed the same prize pool:

• 1st prize in each division: 15% of prize pool
• 2nd prize in each division: 10% of prize pool
• 3rd prize in each division: 5% of prize pool

15% might not sound like much, but last year's prize pool was over $3,000!

The top 3 players in the Casual Division will split the remaining prize pool:

• 1st prize in Casual: 50%
• 2nd prize in Casual: 30%
• 3rd prize in Casual: 20%

Although we do not have a set guaranteed prize this year, we expect the total prizes to be comparable to 2007.  Show up and play!

 

Qualifying may be available on Friday, but this is subject to machine availability.  While the show is not generally open Friday, it may be possible to buy and play entries after 7 pm Friday.  Qualifying will not be available later than 11 pm, and not all games may be available.

On Saturday, the tournament will be open for qualifying from 11 am (show opening) until 11 pm (one hour before show closing).  Some games may be unavailable at the start of qualifying if they have not yet been set up.

On Sunday, the tournament will be open for qualifying from 11 am (show opening) until each division closes.  The time of closing for each division varies:

• Modern -- 1:40 pm
• Solid state -- 2:40 pm
• Electro-mechanical -- 3:40 pm

Players must be on a machine, playing, at the closing time to be eligible.  Play early and often!

Final rounds begin promptly after the closing of qualifying in each division:

• Modern -- 2:00 pm
• Solid state -- 3:00 pm
• Electro-mechanical -- 4:00 pm

All tournament finals are expected to be completed by 6:00 pm.

Players may buy 1 game for $5, or 3 games for $10.

Your three-game entry may be played in several ways.  Play all the games on the same machine; play three machines in the same tournament; play one game in each of the three tournaments.  The choice is yours.  As a courtesy, if anyone is waiting to play the game you're on, we'll ask you to step aside for a moment rather than playing another game on the machine.

Remember first of all -- there are three tournaments being played at once.  They are completely separate!  Get in there and win all three!

There are two ways to qualify for the finals in any event.  Four finalists will be taken from each of these two categories.

 

 

Each player's high score on a game will be kept; the top 10 scores give ranking points. First place on a machine is worth 10 points; second is 9; on down to tenth place worth 1 point.

When the tournament ends, the top four players in ranking points will advance to the finals, receiving the top four seeds and a bye past the first round of the match-play finals.  A coin flip will resolve a tie unless that tie is for 2nd place or 4th place.  In that case, a one-game playoff will occur on a randomly-selected machine.

 

After the top 4 "overall" players, the other four qualifiers are taken by finding the #1 score for each game in the bank among players who have not already qualified.  Note that this may not be a #1 score, if the #1-scoring player made the top 4 overall.  Basically we'll wipe the top 4 from the face of the earth and take the #1 score from each game out of everyone who's left.  If someone could qualify more than once this way, their highest rank is used; if the player has two equal ranks, the games are counted left-to-right.

If you're confused, see the Example below. 

Warning: this is very badly formatted in HTML!  Hopefully someone who knows HTML can make this look better.

 

Here are the "top 10" results from four games from 2006.

Demolition Man Funhouse

------------------ ------------------

#1 Elwin 10 #1 Kerins 10

#2 Kerins 9 #2 Massenkoff 9

#3 Belsito 8 #3 Belsito 8

#4 Shatz 7 #4 Stetta 7

#5 Newsom 6 #5 Shatz 6

#6 Porter 5 #6 Miyake 5

#7 Stoddard 4 #7 Augenstein 4

#8 Augenstein 3 #8 Porter 3

#9 Weston 2 #9 Mahaffey 2

#10 Massenkoff 1 #10 Newsom 1

Medieval Madness Warlok

------------------ ------------------

#1 Shatz 10 #1 Elwin 10

#2 Massenkoff 9 #2 Stetta 9

#3 Augenstein 8 #3 Belsito 8

#4 Weston 7 #4 Mahaffey 7

#5 Hurwitz 6 #5 Newsom 6

#6 Stoddard 5 #6 Augenstein 5

#7 Newsom 4 #7 Shatz 4

#8 Belsito 3 #8 Edelman 3

#9 Kerins 2 #9 Massenkoff 2

#10 Miyake 1 #10 Miyake 1

Here are the composite scores for all players with points:

#1t Belsito 8 + 8 + 3 + 8 = 27

    Shatz 7 + 6 + 10 + 4 = 27

#3t Kerins 9 + 10 + 2 = 21

    Massenkoff 1 + 9 + 9 + 2 = 21

#5t Elwin 10 + 10 = 20

    Augenstein 3 + 4 + 8 + 5 = 20

#7 Newsom 6 + 1 + 4 + 6 = 17

#8 Stetta 7 + 9 = 16

#9t Stoddard 4 + 5 = 9

    Weston 2 + 7 = 9

    Mahaffey 2 + 7 = 9

#12 Porter 5 + 3 = 8

#13 Miyake 5 + 1 + 1 = 7

#14 Hurwitz 6

#15 Edelman 3

So, the four "overall" winners would be Belsito, Shatz, Kerins, Massenkoff, and coin flips would decide who was #1 / #2 and who was #3 / #4.

Now, remove those names from the list and look for the high score on each game.  Elwin qualifies from Demolition Man (tie broken by the leftmost game), Stetta qualifies on Warlok (#2 score higher than the #4 score on Funhouse), Augenstein qualifies on Medieval Madness (#3 score, with #1 and #2 already in), and (amazingly) Miyake qualifies with the #6 score on Funhouse as the #1 through #5 players are all qualified.

Basically, just keep in mind that you can get in with one big score, or by doing well across all four games.  Belsito qualifies with the most points, even though he never scores better than 3rd on any individual game..

The games used in the final matches will be the same as the games used in the banks for qualifying.

The final rounds consist of head-to-head matches.  All matches are best 2 out of 3.  Before the start of any game, one player will have the "choice" of choosing a machine to be played or the order of play (selecting first or last).  The other player then makes the other choice.

After any game, the losing player has the first "choice" for the next game.  The games played in a match must be different from one another, so a player cannot choose to play any game that has been used previously in the match.

In the first round, the four "#1 on a game" qualifiers play.  A coin flip determines which player has first "choice".  Remember, after each game, the loser has first "choice" on the next game.

In the second round, the winners in the first round play the 3rd and 4th place qualifiers.  These qualifiers have higher seed, and will be given the first "choice" in this round.

In the third round, the winners in the second round play the 1st and 2nd place qualifiers.  These qualifiers have the highest seeds, and will be given the first "choice" in this round.

In the final round, the winners play for 1st and 2nd place, while the losers of the third round play for third place.  The highest qualifier has first "choice".  In the event that both qualifiers are "#1 on a game" qualifiers, a coin flip will be used.

 

 

Casual players may try to qualify in any of the three tournaments, but their progress will also be recorded for a special tournament final among only casual players.

California Extreme reserves the right to declare any player eligible or ineligible for this tournament.  Since there are 24 qualifying slots available in the main tournaments, we will be more strict about eligibility than prior B Division tournaments.  In particular, any player who has won any prize at California Extreme or other significant tournament will not be eligible for the Casual Division.  Players may be excluded from the Casual Division for other reasons, primarily known ability or prior performance in tournaments.

Casual players' scores will be recorded and the top 10 will receive points in the same manner as the regular tournaments.  The top 10 casual players' scores will be worth 10 to 1 point.  Casual players may play on any of the 12 tournament machines to earn points, so a maximum of 120 points may be earned.

The top six players, in total points earned, qualify for the Casual Division finals.  Casual players who do not qualify will also be entered in a Wild Card drawing, and two more players will be selected in this manner.

Note that casual players are still eligible to qualify in the main tournaments!  At least one player won a cash prize in both Casual Division as well as a main tournament in 2007.

The opponents for the first round of the finals are as follows:

• 1st, 4th, 5th, and Wild Card Qualifier 1
• 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and Wild Card Qualifier 2

The Casual Division Finals consist of four-player matches with three games in each match.  The three games will be selected randomly, one from each bank used in qualifying.

Each game of a match is scored using the PAPA scoring format:

• 1st Place = 4 pts.
• 2nd Place = 2 pts.
• 3rd Place = 1 pt.
• 4th Place = 0 pts.

At the end of the three games, the two highest-scoring players in each group will advance to the final round.  In case of ties, a head-to-head tiebreaker on a randomly-selected game will determine who advances.

In the first game of each match, the highest-seeded player (from qualifying) selects their position (first through fourth), then the second-highest-seeded player selects from among the remaining three positions, and so forth.

In subsequent games, the winner of the previous game chooses first in the next game, followed by the second-place finisher from the previous game, and so forth.

The two highest-scoring players in each group will advance to the four-player final round, played using the same rules as the first.  The top three finishers in this round receive cash prizes.

If both Wild Card Qualifiers make it to the final round, the Wild Card Qualifier with more points in the first round of the finals will be given the precedence in selecting their position for the first game of the finals.

 

 

CAX reserves the right to make whatever decision seems appropriate should something happen that is not specifically covered by these rules.  In any case, CAX's decision is final.

All non-EM games will be set for three balls, with no extra balls.  If you are somehow awarded an extra ball, stop, and tell us about it.  Playing the extra ball would be an unfair advantage.  Depending on the difficulty, EM games may be set for three or five balls, and all efforts will be made to shut off or eliminate extra balls.

All efforts will be made to remove random awards from the games.  Specials will award points if possible.

At the end of each game, it is the player's responsibility to have their score correctly recorded by a tournament volunteer.

Any attempt to rescue a ball after it has "drained" (fallen below the flippers or gone through an outlane) will void your game's score.  Do it more than once, and we'll probably boot you (to the head).

A slam tilt will result in a score of zero or a game disqualification during match play.  If a player slam tilts during match play with more than one opponent, players whose games are still in progress will have the choice of keeping their existing score as a final score and starting a new game.

This is a family show!  Watch your mouth, you.  Failure to maintain a family-friendly attitude (including, but not limited to, swearing, kicking, biting, stealing, or Stewie-esque tantrums) may result in disqualification, forfeiture of any T-shirts, and das boot from the event.

Interfering (deliberately or not) with another player's ball will result in a game disqualification during match play.  This includes causing a tilt or tilt warning on an opponent's ball before they touch the machine.  Interfering with another player's ball during qualifying is just plain mean, and may result in us kicking you out of the tournament.

If the ball gets stuck, stop playing and ask for a tournament staff member to assist you.  If a ball becomes stuck during multiball (a potential advantage), stop immediately and ask for assistance.  If you continue to purposely play a stuck-ball multiball, your game will be declared void.

While there is no specific definition of "malfunction", there are several physical aspects of pinball which are not considered malfunctions -- a ball falling out of a hole or getting rejected from a ramp, or flying over a flipper, or rolling off a habitrail into an outlane, or a ball saver not kicking in when it "seemed" like it should.  None of these things will be "fixed".  Hey, it's only pinball.

If a malfunction occurs during gameplay, stop immediately and ask for a tournament staff member to assist you.  We'll try to fix the problem if we can.  In cases where the game can be fixed but not immediately, we will record your score in progress then attempt to continue the game where it left off.  For example, if the malfunction occurs during Ball 3, we'll write your score down, and give you one more ball on a new game.  Tournament staff reserve the right to make whatever ruling seems appropriate regarding a malfunction, including termination and restart of a game in progress.

Players may not take advantage of "positive" malfunctions such as a repeatedly registering switch.  If this occurs, we will make whatever ruling seems appropriate, including termination and restart of a game in progress, or a reduction in score to offset the effect of the malfunction.

If a game cannot be repaired, either of these will happen:

• If the game failure occurs early enough in the qualifying, the game may be replaced or removed from the qualifying bank.  Affected players will be allowed to replay the additional game on any valid game in the qualifying bank.
• If the game failure occurs late enough in the qualifying, the game will be shut down for the remainder of qualifying, and all scores posted on that game will be considered final.

This decision is partially based on time and partially based on game availability and will be made at CAX's sole discretion if necessary.

Since tournament games are coming from private collections, it is possible that one or more banks may be short by a game, in which case the top 5 overall winners will qualify along with 3 game winners.  In this situation the #5 overall winner will replace the fourth game winner in the finals bracket, and will be positioned to play the #4 overall winner in the second round.