Wisconsin Pinball

Here is what I would like to propose for next years format. This is a pretty big departure form how we currently run things. KingPin and I have been bouncing ideas back and forth off each other for the past 2 months, talking about the constraints of our league, desire to make it more flexible, provide IFPA points (for those interested) and also keep it casual (for those more interested in that aspect). I think we also need to account for all of our busy an varied schedules. I know we all desire to make it to every league night but also regular life gets in the way.

My proposed format:
We meet during the months of Jan, Feb, Mar, April, May,..., Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec. We can use Pooley's and Schwoegler's on some months if we are having troubles finding a host

Take the months of June, July, and Aug off. These seem to be the busiest months for outdoor activities and I know I can handle less pinball during thise months.

Style of play >> no more match play. I find this to have lots of randomness, people complain about repeat games, and this provides and unlevel field of competition. Switch to a "Play every game" format. Similar to what happens at a Schwoegler's monthly. If a host has 8 games they want to use then we play ALL 8 games in pairs or 3 or 4 packs, write down scores and rank each other for the night based on how you seed up against everyone else on ALL the games. We can do a playoff also if desired.

League placement >> League points would be based on AVERAGE finishing position. You would want the lowest total accumulated points for the season. Finish first for a night you get 1 point. Finish last and you would get 20 points. We keep a running average of finish position and this determines your final league placement for the year. This will reward consistent good play but if you put up a stinker then it can all average out. This also will keep things very tight and allows each player to impact all other players form night to night (right now you may not even play the person in a given night that you are 'competing' with for league points)

Dealing with misses >> I am not a fan of the 80/60/40%. It is a pain to keep track of from month to month and I think provides too much leaway on misses. 3 misses in a proposed 9month season is too much for maintaining a real league. I propose everyone gets 1 drop at the end of the season and 1 50% cut at the end of the season. For example, let's say you pull a miss month 2 and hence have a 20th place finish, then you can toss that out. Let's say you happen to miss a second month, then can get cut by 50% and changes from a 20th to a 10th. If you make all the months then you still get to drop your lowest and half your second lowest.

Preplaying >> Preplaying you say??? Yes, this is something many other leagues around the nation use to deal with busy schedules. Since the format I am proposing is each player putting up a score on each game, that provides the potential for pre-playing your games. Basically 100% at the hosts choice they can state when they are going to allow preplay on their games during the week leading up to league. League members would be allowed to show up at this time and play through all the games being used. For example, Mike hosts league on say June 27th and he says in advance "people can stop over on Tuesday night prior to league and pre-play their games from 7-9 if they are unable to make it to league night on Sat. Again this is 100% at the choice of the host. For example, I could say " Call me and you can come over any night this week before league" or I could say "sorry I am too busy and not offering preplay". Ideally hosts would allow atleast 1 slot for preplay but not required.

Each member is allowed 1 preplay pre season. in other words the incentive is to come to the actual league night, but this provides the option to not take a miss when schedules just do not line up. Pre-play is also a benefit of this "play every game" format I am proposing since you are playing against the game. I should note that traditionally with pre-play you are NOT allowed any warmup games and your scores will be posted for all to see on league night. In other words, there is some disadvantage for doing a pre-play but you have the benefit of getting to not take a miss.

IFPA reporting >> This can be discussed after we decide if there is a format change in order, but in general I think we should maximize available points to the league. This is done by ensuring we have all league members play at least once in each reporting interval since base value is determined on # of players (only 12 people show up for a league night means 6point base compared to a night with 20 people). For those league members that liek IFPA points it is not good to have them invest time and then get fewer available points. We can also maximize points for each reporting interval by ensuring that we use 25 games per interval (or close to it). IFPA provides 4% TGP for each game needed to be played for victory. So for example when Mark and Ian host they could say we are playing all 25 available games and that would be a full fledged reporting interval with maximum value. On smaller collections we may need to combine a few months into 1 reporting interval. I do think that if we go to a "play every game format" and allow preplay, combined with focusing our play on the non-summer months, then we should be able to increase attendance at every night.

I have read through what you wrote Hilton, but have a couple of questions about the "pre-play" aspect.

as a host

* are we supposed to provide food and drinks on the pre-play night?
* is it the responsibility of the player or the host to record the scores?
* is the host allowed to pre-play (or just play) with the person(s) pre-playing?
* are other people (league members) allowed to come to pre-play and practice before league night, but not use it as there score?
* are other people (non league members) allowed to play with (or in the same room) at the league members that are there for pre-play? example, my brother or sisters happen to be in town that week and want to play, are the allowed to or does the room have to be off limits except for the league member(s)?
* does the host set the limit for the games played? if i have 10 pinballs does that mean that all 10 have to be used? for instance, (there is not fact on this as i do not know how many games each person has) if you host in january with 12 games, jimmy hosts in february with 7 games, does that if i host in march i should limit it to 8 games or should we play all 10?

as a player

* am i allowed to bring a guest with just to play (assuming it is okay with the host)?
* you state that you would like to see a limit of a one time use of the pre-play to be used. is that once per season (which is what you wrote) or once per 25 game session (if it has to be done at multiple venues)?
* what are my responsibilities to the host? am i still responsible for the host payment fee if i am not eating or drinking anything? (just a question others might have. as a host i believe this should still be in effect since if you were not there to pre-play i would possibly be doing something else therefore i should be compensated, slightly, for my time)


i would like to say that i prefer the "play all eligible games" format instead of "here's a group of people that may destroy you" format.

i would like to get away from the 80/60/40 format also. if we only have 9 league nights i think you should be able to make it to 7 of them. throw out a bad night (or a missed night) and that leaves one extra bad night or missed night. any more than that is just lack of commitment. i know we all have busy lives, but (in my case) i decided to bowl last fall/winter/spring instead of making it to the pooley's monthly. that is a choice that i made because i didn't want to sign up for a bowling league and then miss 1 out of 4 nights per month... i have since talked it over with my teammates and we now have a sub that will play for me the second wednesday of each month (this also will give my sub the required number of matches to qualify for state and national tournaments, so we both get something we want out of it).

I do like the idea of taking off june-august. there will be months where things will become crowded (March-April with pooley's, schweoglers, league, and MGC) (september with pooley's, schweoglers, league and Mad Rollin) (etc), but i would rather have too much pinball to play than not enough.


in the end it is all about playing pinball and having fun doing it, but if it can become more enjoyable for the majority (i will not even attempt to say for all because there will never be a time when everyone is happy) then i am all for that. I would probably never use the pre-play card myself (if find that i actually enjoy the time i spend with you guys... as corny as that sounds), but i am sure there will be a time where it could be useful. Had there been a pre-play for this last session i would have given it serious though. it was just so beautiful last night that i would have loved to put another 270 miles on (that is what i did yesterday).

my thoughts but not necessarily the right answers.

as a host

* are we supposed to provide food and drinks on the pre-play night?
NO

* is it the responsibility of the player or the host to record the scores?
The player gets to play exactly 1 game on each of the games being used. No warm up. I think the player writes down all the scores and they need to have the host verify.


* is the host allowed to pre-play (or just play) with the person(s) pre-playing?
I would say no. If you can attend the actual league night then you should not be pre-playing. I think of pre-play as a host provided opportunity to allow players that have a conflict on league night to drop by and play their games/ not take a 20th for that month

* are other people (league members) allowed to come to pre-play and practice before league night, but not use it as there score?
Yes. In general, nothing is stopping anyone from having friends over to play pinball in the week lead up to their league night. If a host wants to be open for pre-play on a tuesday night ans also says "anyone can stop on over to hang out for fun and play" then that sounds good to me, and fun.

* are other people (non league members) allowed to play with (or in the same room) at the league members that are there for pre-play? example, my brother or sisters happen to be in town that week and want to play, are the allowed to or does the room have to be off limits except for the league member(s)?
Host can do as they wish. They are opening the house to the player and already being nice enough to even provide a pre-play opportunity. I think the player doing a pre-play needs to deal with whatever constraints are provided (crying kids, relatives hanging out, other people just playing pinball for fun)


* does the host set the limit for the games played? if i have 10 pinballs does that mean that all 10 have to be used? for instance, (there is not fact on this as i do not know how many games each person has) if you host in january with 12 games, jimmy hosts in february with 7 games, does that if i host in march i should limit it to 8 games or should we play all 10?

Host decides what games are in/out for any league night, just like now. Different hosts have different numbers of games. I am assuming most people will use the majority of their games. I personally would use everything I have that is playing good. I can see that we may find an upper limit based on time, but in general 20 guys can easily play through 12 games or fewer in our standard league time. I have no issue with the minimum of 4 games all the way up to 25 if some host really wants to do that (they may want to start a little earlier and in that case they may want to set an end of night closing )

as a player

* am i allowed to bring a guest with just to play (assuming it is okay with the host)?
If the host says so, I don't see why not. ALL is up to the host

* you state that you would like to see a limit of a one time use of the pre-play to be used. is that once per season (which is what you wrote) or once per 25 game session (if it has to be done at multiple venues)?
One time per entire season. If 9 months in a season, you get a drop, you get a 50%, and you get 1 preplay. That means you only need a commitment of 66% to not have a huge penalty for missing


* what are my responsibilities to the host? am i still responsible for the host payment fee if i am not eating or drinking anything? (just a question others might have. as a host i believe this should still be in effect since if you were not there to pre-play i would possibly be doing something else therefore i should be compensated, slightly, for my time)
Host provides you with NOTHING but the opportunity to pre-play. You STILL pay the standard $10 for the opportunity to come play your night of games in advance and because the host was nice enough to allow this. As most hosts know $10 does not always cover food/beer anyway so this should be paid to them.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. The board is putting together an official survey to be given to members to vote on at the next league. For those unable to make it, we'll still figure out a way for you to get your votes in.

- Sean

If anyone is wondering where your IFPA points form league went, they are making the adjustment to the once every 3 month reporting and had to delete the previous single months before we can add the past quarterly/ 3 month reporting.

Will hopefully be fixed in a few days with Spring (JanFebMar) and Summer (AprMayJun).

"Spring" and "summer"

results now submitted to IFPA and should show back up in point tallies in the next couple days.

looks like IFPA points finally updated for new combined format.

We should talk about end of year cap stone at Jimmys and determine if we want to do something fun/different since it is just the 1 night (compared to the spring, summer, fall which are now reported as 3 night conglomerates)