Orange County Pinball League Rules 2018-2019 League Season Document Revision 11.0 Copyright 2018 UNDER REDEVELOPMENT Background: The Orange County Pinball League is a for fun pinball league started by Chris Enright for pinball enthusiasts. The goal is to give the group a chance to play, compete, build skills, and facilitate social interactions on games of different eras not normally found on location. Our website is www.ocpinball.com/league. Contact and RSVP email is pinball@audihere.com This League is private, and its monthly tournaments are not endorsed for competitive ranking points. IMPORTANT NOTE: Alcoholic beverages and/or illegal drugs are not permitted at Orange County Pinball League meetings. When And Where We Meet: League Season: The league will meet year-round. Unless stated otherwise, the league will meet on the first Sunday of each month, based on availability of a host, at 2:00PM. Approximately 2 hours of practice time will be held from 2:00PM until 4:00PM. At 3:30 PM any announcements or other league business will be addressed. Please acknowledge your arrival at the meeting by marking the sign-in sheet no later than 3:45PM or your name will be scratched off the pre-printed Tournament Schedule sheets. The tournament will begin following any announcements or at 4:00 PM, whichever is later. Attendees not participating in the League tournament should show up at 6:00 PM or when the tournament is completed, whichever is later. Volunteer Hosts: Any league participant who has a collection of at least four reliable working games can offer to host a night of competition. A host should be able to accommodate up to (and sometimes more than) 40 people for approximately (and sometimes longer than) six hours. Hosts should be ready for arrivals and practice starting at 2:00pm on the day of a meeting. - 1 -
Game Requirements: Each host should provide a list of games that will meet the following list of league requirements: 1. All playfield switches must be fully operational. a. Any game that supports a test report cannot display an entry for test switch x or similar diagnostic code. b. A switch required for play cannot be in a stuck closed or stuck open state. c. A switch should not be causing phantom switch closures that can unfairly award a player additional points or prevent a game s features from operating properly. 2. All flippers must function in both the flip and hold states. 3. All feature lamps must be working prior to the start of an event. 4. The game must properly display the score for (four) players. 5. Any game adjustments that alter the game play from the standard location/tournament setting should be disclosed to all players prior to the start of an event. 6. All games must be properly leveled left to right. 7. All solid-state games must be set to 3-ball play prior to the start of an event. EM pinball machines that do not allow for easy selection of this feature may be left at 5-balls per game. 8. Any games that support a buy-in feature or extra ball feature should have those features disabled. The Host s Machines: If one or more games are not fully functional for the night of an event, the host or Tournament Director may declare a game offline for the evening. There will be substituting of games and offline games will be removed from the Tournament, all player s scores on offline games will not be included in the Tournament. The Tournament will proceed with only the original remaining operational games to its completion. - 2 -
Competition: Determination of the competition games: 1. The host will choose games that he/she feels qualify for the evening s event. 2. These four games will be entered as Tournament games and used to pre-print all the Tournament documentation. Player Ranking: Each month will be a stand-alone Tournament with one winner each night. Determining the player order: Player order will be determined by a spreadsheet that has been developed specifically for the Orange County Pinball League. This spreadsheet attempts to slot players so that there is some time gap between their plays. Monthly Meeting Play (Qualifying, Playoffs, and Finals): Members will be supplied with an Orange County Pinball League lanyard. This lanyard will be used to indicate who should be playing which game and help move the qualifying along at a good pace. The lanyard allows you to click into a game by attaching a nameplate assigned to one of the four Tournament games. There are two nameplates for each of the four games during qualifying. One nameplate for the member that is currently playing the game and one nameplate for the member that is in queue to play that game next. After completing a qualifying game and writing down your own score, find the next available player on the schedule not already playing or in queue and give them the nameplate to click into. This player should proceed directly to that Tournament game s queue or begin playing if the game is already available. During the league meeting each player is scheduled to play qualifying in three of the four Tournament games. These three scores will be used as qualifying scores for the playoff rounds. The top three scores on each of the four games will qualify players for the playoff rounds on each respective game. A fourth player from each game will also qualify for each playoff round based on the 100,000 s digits of their qualifying score. The player with highest 100,000 s digits score from each game will make the playoffs as the 4 th player. For example, if your qualifying score was 24,973,120 points, then your 100,000 s digits are 973 and you d have a very good chance of taking the 4 th spot in the playoff round for that game. Ties will be broken TBD. Players may only qualify for the playoff round on one game. The qualifying players will be determined from game 1 to game 4. For example, if you have the highest score on game 3 and game 2, you will only qualify on game 2. The 100,000 s digits qualifier will be chosen after the top 3 scoring players are determined. - 3 -
The 4-player playoff games will take place on each remaining operational game with the 100,000 s player playing 1 st, 3 rd highest score playing 2 nd, 2 nd highest score playing 3 rd, and highest score playing 4 th. Players will click into playoff game nameplates TBD. The winner of each playoff game will advance to the Finals. The Finals game will be played on a game chosen by the host or Tournament Director. Playing order TBD. Players will click into finals game nameplates TBD. The winner of this game will be crowned monthly champion and will win a prize if - one has been donated for the meeting. Note: During the entire Tournament, electricity permitting, all other games will be available for free-play. In between Tournament games, players can play other non-tournament games for their enjoyment. If a player is clicked into a Tournament game, he/she should proceed directly to the game to keep the Tournament moving along at a good pace. After playing your Tournament game, check that game s schedule and find the next available player to hand off the nameplate to. It is not crucial to follow the exact order of the schedule. There will be times that the next player on the schedule is either playing another Tournament game or is in queue to play another Tournament game. In these types of cases, find the next available player on that game s schedule to hand off the name plate to. Players only play 3 out of the 4 games, so do not just hand the nameplate to anyone as they may not be assigned to that game! - 4 -
Calculation of the League Score: Score Tie Breaking Procedure: In the event of a tie, the following criteria will be used to determine who has tie-breaking advantage: 1. TBD 2. Case by case. The list is applied until there is a criterion that breaks the tie. Game Player Order Tie Breaking Procedure: TBD Score keeping: It will be the responsibility of every player to make sure that their own score is recorded accurately according to the rules. The player in queue may confirm the score is recorded accurately. Additionally, it is also his/her responsibility to halt the round in the event any mechanical problems or player error causes some players to gain an unfair advantage. Any of these events need to be brought to a judge s attention immediately. Play will resume when a judge declares it safe to do so. Absentee Scoring: Any member of the league who is unable to attend an event will not receive points for the missed event. Due to the game selection, the nature of the competition, and the consideration of our host s schedule, pre-playing is not permitted. Making up an absence is not permitted. Judges: There will be two people acting as judges for the evening to make sure all scores are being kept in a fair and concise manner. The host will automatically act as one judge and League founder, Chris, will act as the other judge. If Chris is hosting, then another member will be appointed to be the second judge. All players should put their best effort forward to accurately and legibly record their own scores during the qualifying, playoffs, and finals rounds. - 5 -
Game Rules: 1. Extra ball awards shall be disabled. If extra ball is not disabled, then player shall plunge the extra ball and refrain from any interaction with the game, before and after the plunge, then just allow the ball to drain. Should the extra ball get stuck on the playfield for any reason, the player can nudge the game with risk of tilt, or ball can be manually drained by removing glass. Points awarded during this process are allowed and added to players overall score. 2. Ball savers are permitted at the discretion of the host. It is recommended that the host disclose the configuration of the ball saver times. 3. In the case of a stuck ball: a. If a ball becomes stuck on a game with a manual plunger, the ball will be placed in the shooter lane. The player may resume play any time after the lock down bar has been re-secured and coin door closed. b. If a ball becomes stuck on a game with an automatic plunger and no interlock, the ball is to be placed on the lower right flipper held by the player whose turn it is. The player may then restart the game by flipping any time after the lock down bar has been re-secured and coin door closed. c. If a ball becomes stuck on a game with an automatic plunger and an interlock, the ball is to return to the shooter lane. The player will then be permitted to close the coin door when they are ready for play to resume. d. If a ball becomes stuck in a game where the lock will release all the held balls during the third ball search, the player is not permitted to use the released balls and the round must be replayed. 4. Games that support the ball chase feature adjustment should have this setting turned off. If a ball chase occurs, the round must be ended and replayed. Also see 8 below. 5. In the event of a mechanical problem that prohibits a game from functioning properly, the round is to be suspended and be replayed when the problem has been fixed. The host can determine if a problem can be fixed. If the problem can not be fixed the following course of action will be taken: a. The game is completely removed from the Tournament and all previous plays have no effect on the Tournament. No substitute game will be used. Playoffs and Finals rounds will only use original Tournament games that have not been taken offline. 6. It is not required to change feature lamps or flash lamps that burn out during competition. 7. In the event that a player tilts a ball that is not the player s own, or in the case of a slam tilt, the player that caused the tilt/slam tilt will consider their round complete: a. In the event a player has tilted another player s ball, see 8 below. b. If the player causes a slam tilt, the offending player will receive a zero score. Also see 8 below. 8. At the time of an inadvertent tilt, slam tilt, or game malfunction that has been remedied (that did not involve a considerable scoring discrepancy) - all scores will be immediately recorded. Then if any player(s) did not play the same number of balls as another player, they will play one ball of a new game to equalize the number of balls played across all remaining players. The score from this one ball will be recorded added to the player s existing score. Optionally in addition TBD by Tournament Director: After all players in the - 6 -
original game have played the same number of balls, a new game will be started and the remaining players will play this new game to completion. The scores from all balls across all games will be added to determine winning positions for that round. If the game malfunction involved a considerable scoring discrepancy for one or more players, then a new game may need to be started. TBD - 7 -
League Night Player Schedule: All players must RSVP by email, no later than 4PM on the Friday before the meeting, to be entered into the schedule to secure their slots in the Tournament. The Tournament play schedule will be randomized by order of RSVP. The schedules will be printed for everyone to view. One Game Schedule will be printed for each game. These sheets are to remain with their respective games throughout the evening. Scores will be written directly on the schedules by each player. Individual player lanyards will also be used to indicate play schedule and help keep the Tournament moving along at a good pace. Anything not covered in these preliminary rules: All Tournament decisions will be made by Tournament Director and are final. - 8-2018