2015 League Rules

[u2sean]

Hey Flippers! Thanks for your patience as the board has finalized the 2015 season based on YOUR feedback. So - thanks to everyone for taking the time to fill out the surveys.

Attached is the league rules for the MadCity Flippers League. Please review and read it, and feel free to contact me, Tully, Tim Enders, Mike Sievert or Mark Seidler with any questions. Some highlights:

1. $15 annual fee to go towards a trophy / small prize $ at the end of each season
2. You MUST sign up on the Calendar to attend/decline each monthly league night. This will let the host know how many are attending so they can plan accordingly.

Thanks to Tim N, you now only have to log into the WI Pinball site to get into the Members Only section. If you are not logged in, you won't be able to see this section or the calendar events with league night information.

There will be a separate signup for hosts that will be posted in the very near future. Because I can't attach a PDF - it is below in text format.

- Sean

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MadCity Flippers League Rules

These rules can be amended or changed with member votes, which will occur annually for the upcoming
season at the final league night of the prior season.

Rule 1. The MadCity Flippers pinball league season will run on a calendar year basis from January
through November. The league will play once per month at a Host house, which is a league member’s
personal residence. The league will not occur during the months of September and December, so the
final annual evening event will take place in November.

Rule 2. The league has a Board of directors, which consists of 5 league members. The Board members
are voted in by existing members and will serve a 2 year term. Every other year, voting of Board
members for the next season will occur on the final league night. One of the 5 board members will also
be Treasurer for the same 2-year term. The Treasurer is responsible for keeping the list of current
members, any waiting list to get into the league, as well as collecting and managing annual dues.

Rule 3. MadCity Flipper league will be limited to 24 members. Existing members can continue into the
next season unless they state they do not wish to. Decisions on whether or not members are continuing
next season must be decided by the final league night in November.

Rule 4. New members will typically join at the start of a new season. If we do not have full membership
at the start of a season, new members may still join a current season in progress if they participate on or
before the second league night, typically February. After that time, the league is locked for the season.

Rule 5. Due to the fact that league is held at individual Host residences, all new members must be
sponsored by an existing league member, and will then be subsequently voted into the league by
existing members through a closed ballot vote, coordinated by the Board. If the maximum number of
members is met (Rule 3) or league is locked (Rule 4), anyone requesting to become part of the league is
put on a waiting list. Each year existing members will have a closed ballot vote to fill open member
positions with those on the waiting list. Any ties will be decided by the Board.

Rule 6. League stats will be reported to IFPA on a monthly basis. This will be voluntarily done by a
league member, who will also be responsible for keeping track of scores during the league nights. There
should be two members responsible for this to ensure backup coverage for those occasions when one
cannot attend.

Rule 7. There is a $15 annual cost, due the first month of member participation and is payable to the
Treasurer. All of these funds collected each year will be used to purchase trophies with the remaining
funds to be used as a cash prize for the top 3 finishers at the end of the season based on total league
points. No money will be kept/carried over year over year.

Rule 8. Drug use at league will not be tolerated. Complaints will be addressed by the Board and a
warning given. If the behavior continues, the member can be expelled from the league by the Board.

Rule 9. Members must refrain from obnoxious behavior at league (extensive swearing, aggressive
behavior towards members or property, etc...). Complaints will be addressed by the Board and a
warning given. If the behavior continues, the member can be expelled from the league by the Board.

Rule 10. Members are allowed to participate in other leagues.

Rule 11. There is a $10 nightly cost to attend league, payable to the Host. The Host for that evening will
provide a light meal, snacks and beer/water/soda. If there is something special you would like to drink
or eat, feel free to bring it along as well.

Rule 12. There are times when you may want to bring a guest along to league with you (significant
other, relative or friend). Whenever you’d like to bring a non-member to league night, you must ask the
Host for permission. Most of the time this will likely not be a problem, but depending on the number of
members that will be participating that night along with space limitations of the individual Host, it may
not be feasible.

Rule 13. Hosts generously open up their houses and make this league possible. Having 4 functioning
machines is all that’s necessary to host a league night!

Scoring
Each league night will consist of 4 games for all players. All machines to be used during league night are randomly drawn until the number of games required to complete the night are chosen. The first round is then randomly chosen as well and players assigned to a machine. There must always be 3-4 players per machine. Points per game range from 1-7, so the most points an individual can earn each month is 28. The points for a 4 person game are 7-5-3-1. Points for a 3 person game are 7-4-1. The top four 1st place finishers from each round will play against each other, the 2nd place finishers against each other, and so on until all the games are chosen. If there are more teams than available machines to play, the waiting team will play the first available machine. These four games are used for league standing.
The top four total point finishers for the evening will playoff for the official top 4 spots for IFPA points. Ties will go to the member with the lower league average, or if not yet established the lower IFPA World ranking. These 5 machines should also be chosen randomly before league begins. These additional IFPA-only rounds will be played as follow:
Game 1: All 4 players compete, with the bottom score being eliminated (4th place)
Game 2: Remaining 3 players compete, with the bottom player being eliminated (3rd place)
Games 3-5: Remaining 2 players will play a best 2 out of 3 games (1st and 2nd place)

League average restarts each season, and is established with scores from at least 3 months of play. If an individual is unable to attend one month, they will receive an absentee score of 80% of their average. (Note: absentee scores are not used to compute your league average). If they are unable to attend a second night their percentage drops to 40%, and 20% for a third absence. All additional absences will yield a score of 0. These absent scores will be calculated retroactively in cases where a member misses league night before an average has been established.

Annual Standings
Total points earned throughout the season will determine your final standing in the MadCity Flippers
league. 1st through 3rd will receive awards as well as split the cash prizes 50/30/20. If there is ever a
Playoff needed as a tiebreaker game to clearly define the top three, it will occur on the final league night
through a random draw of three different machines at the Host location for each pair of participating
players. First participant to win 2 games will secure the position.

[KingPin Games]

Looks really good. Thank you to all board members for working on the details.

Thank you to the hosts for letting us in your homes.

Christopher

[Hilton]

duplicate

[Hilton]

very nice gentlemen!

Quick questions that are likely just editorial in nature.
1. Is annual fee $10 or $15? Up top is says $10, but rule 7 says $15.
2. Are we really starting in November (Rule 1 says we are).
3. Are non-members now able to see this section since no more sign in needed to the Madcity section?

[u2sean]

Good questions, Hilton!

1. Is annual fee $10 or $15? Up top is says $10, but rule 7 says $15.

My mistake. My tired brain was thinking $10 when it should have been $15. I'll correct the original post.

2. Are we really starting in November (Rule 1 says we are).

No, January through November (taking Sept and Dec off). The *final* event will take place in November.

3. Are non-members now able to see this section since no more sign in needed to the Madcity section?

Non-members are NOT able to see the Members Only section. The only way to see the Members Only section is if your login name is a member of a security group that Tim N setup.

- Sean

[Hilton]

Thanks for all the hard work guys!

Do we have an official members list?

[Methos]

I will post the official memeber list this evening, as well as a hosting schedule.

[Ken]

Looks great guys! Can't wait to start planning my pinball schedule for 2015!

[BigDaddyBanjo]

Thanks to you guys for getting this organized. I too can't wait to get going again and continuing my role of bracket fodder for all you aces in this league!

G#

[Ran]

You guys did an amazing job organizing this!
Thanks again for helping take this pinball league to the next level.

Random question.
Since there are now a few leagues in Wisconsin has here been talk of organizing a "playoff" between each league's top 4 players. 2 A division players and 2 B division players from each league. Round robin tourney. Best of 7. Like a World Series of Wisconsin Pinball?
Maybe there already is and I'm just late to the party.
Maybe the playoff could be held late night at MGC?

[Hilton]

May I raise a suggestion to the board for slight modification due to new IFPA points rules for 2015? I am not sure what the formal process for this is so please let me know if there is a correct way or if you want this removed from this spot/thread?


With the changes to IFPA points for 2015 our league events will be worth pretty limited monthly amount and I think there may be some simple ways to increase their value with little effort.
In general terms the new calculation is an algorithm based on number of people in the event and the number of games played.

Last year each event was worth ~2.8 points per month
Starting in 2015, with our current set up of 20 people and only 4 games needed to win (path to victory is what matters) our current monthly value will be ~1.6 points.

2o people times .5 = 10 then 10 times a game count multiplier (4% per game) of 16% = 1.6 points to the winner

I like how we do stuff for our actual league additive point accumulation, but would like to suggest that just for the purposes of IFPA monthly reporting that we increase the game count which will increase the rigor and WPPR points available at league.

Time for each night is obviously a concern so shooting from the hip I would suggest something like:
Play the 4 games like always. For IFPA strength purposes the top 4 finishers from the night will go on to play X number additional 'playoff' games to crown a monthly tournament champ and reshuffle the finishing position for those 4 people. For every game added to the total path to victory you can add 4% to the multiplier value of the event. For example >> 4 regular games plus the top pack at the end of the night plays through 4 more games for a total game count of 8 and a total event base value of 3.2 points. I think this could have the side effect of being some fun added goal for the night. make the top 4 and you get some more evenly matched competition for the evenings "playoff" bracket. This would likely mean those 4 people are playing an additional 45-60 minutes depending on X games played for the playoff. Could cut that time down by doing 4 person for 2 more games and then only top 2 for 2 more games.

Of course anyone not in the top 4 would be playing for fun and dollar games like normal post the standard nightly game play.

I hope I am explaining this correctly/clearly. I respect whatever decision the board makes, just a thought I wanted to throw out as many of us are always looking for points towards the SCS. At the same time I see this as a way for the more competitive in the group to have more "game day" practice.

[MikeS]

Thanks for the suggestions Hilton!

The board has been discussing this over email and decided it would be best to start a new thread/poll where members can vote on whether they want to keep things as-is/ or make a change to boost IFPA points by adding playoff rounds. If the majority of members support the change we will amend the rules with the proposed changes. If the majority wants to keep things as-is then it will remain the same for 2015.

I will copy your suggestions to a new post and we can vote/discuss what we want to do.

Mike

[u2sean]

Scoring section updated to include an additional playoff for the top 4 finishers each night to increase IFPA points.