Scores have been updated on the scores page located here…

http://atlantapinballleague.org/index.php/player-rankings/

Well its time to recover, lick our wounds and prepare for MAY and John’s line-up.

At 6:00 Al opened up the gameroom to allow folks to start practicing on the league machines for the night: Bad Cats, Champion Pub, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Target Alpha. Folks slowly started piling in and trying to get a feel for the machines they would soon use to compete. At 7:00 practice ended and members were moved upstairs to introduce themselves and go over some basic information about how the League, and more importantly, the night will operate.

17 of our 20 regular members and three alternates were assigned machines and partners. The order of play was drawn to determine placement and the night began. Our league nights continue to operate with 4 machines and an “on deck” circle folks can use to take a break, grab some grub, and chat with friends. Good friends, good food, and most importantly – good pins (the real “tie that binds”) made for a great kick-off to 2013.

We would also like to welcome our newest alternates to the league: Mark K, Chris N, and Stuart A. Other new items this year include minor rules changes that allow for a player to drop their lowest night’s total score. This rule will be in effect starting after the third League night. Also this year, the APL is hosting the Southern-Fried Pinball Tournament at the Atlanta Pin Swap. Be sure to check it out. This tournament is open to the public.

Overall, a great way to begin another fun year with the Atlanta Pinball League!

Play Pinball! Win Prizes! Feed the Hungry!

Updated 4/23/2013

Southern-Fried Pinball Tournament! – Sponsored by the Atlanta Pinball League

Time: Qualifying from 10-2, Finals starts at 2:30

Games: 5 high-quality pinball machines will be cordoned off for “tournament only” play from the rest of the swap meet. Games available for tournament play will be AC/DC Premium, Avatar, Iron Man, CSI, and Nascar. (Games subject to change without notice)

Qualifying: Entry fee is $5 to play 3 games of your choice. Your scores will be logged for each of the 3 games with the top 30 scores for each game considered as a qualifying score. Should players choose, they can pay and enter another set of scores on any of the five available games although a player’s score will be calculated only using their three highest-scoring titles (of the five available). Only a player’s top score for each game title count towards their total score. Top thirty scores for each game will be given a point value to determine a player’s score. For example, if a player earns a 1st place score on a given game, they will get 30 points. If they earn a 2nd place score, they will get 29 points, 3rd=28, 4th=27, etc. Any points earned on other games will be added together for their total score. Only the 16 top-scoring players will advance to the bracket-style tournament being seeded appropriately by their scores.

Finals: The top 16 players will advance in a double elimination bracketed tournament. We will be using the software “Brackelope” to run the tourney. Players will compete on one of the existing 5 tournament pin titles chosen at random draw using the “Brackelope” software.

WPPR Points: This tournament is officially sanctioned by the IFPA. Qalified players will earn WPPR points for their final placement in the tournament.

Prizes: 1/2 of all entry $$ recieved will be distributed among the top 5 players. The distribution prize money will be as follows:

1st: 40% (Plus Trophy and Prizes)

2nd: 25% (Plus Prizes)

3rd: 20% (Plus Prizes)

4th: 10% (Plus Prizes)

5th: 5% (Plus Prizes)

6th – ???: Prizes as available.

Special thanks to Marco Specialties, Pinball Inc., Rottendog Amusements, and PinballShirts.com who have generously donated prizes for the tournament.

Charity: 1/2 of all entry $$ received in combination with any additional donations will be donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank where every dollar donated is equal to over $8 worth of food to a hungry family in the Atlanta area.

Rules:

1. The decisions and rulings of the tournament officials are final.

2. The ball is wild. Deal with it.

3. All games during qualifying are played as single-player 3-ball games.

4. If a game suffers a minor malfunction (stuck ball – see below)) all attempts will be made to salvage the player’s game. If the game cannot be salvaged, the player will be allowed to replay the game at no charge.

5. If a game suffers a major malfunction (catastrophic failure) early in qualifying, a game may be played in its place at no additional cost. If a substitute game is available, players will qualify on the substitute game. If no substitute game is available, players will select from the remaining working machines. If a game fails late in the qualifying time period, that game will be declared dead and all scores for that machine be considered final.

6. No slam tilts or bang backs (death saves)

7. In most cases, all extra ball awards have been removed. Should you receive an extra ball, all extra balls should be plunged without flipping.

8. Stuck Balls: 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.

9. Disrupting another players game intentionally could result in disqualification without refund. Keep your distance and be mindful of others.

10. When you finish your game, write down your own score and have it verified by a tournament volunteer. If your score sheet is not verified, it will not be entered into the database. Recording your score is YOUR responsibility.

11. In the event of an unforeseen issue that ends a ball, a tournament official may rule to record the score and allow a 1-ball makeup game to be played to be added to the recorded score. However, it may be the officials ruling to simply replay the game.

12. This is a family event. Don’t be a jerk and watch your language and attitude, otherwise you will be asked to leave without a refund.

13. There may be a circumstance not covered in these rules. Southern-Fried Pinball Tournament directors reserve the right to address unforeseen problems on-the-fly. Again, all official’s decisions are final.

14. Qualifying is held from 10-2. Any unused tickets will not be refunded.

15. Should there be a tie between players when determining the finals brackets, a one-game tiebreaker game will be chosen at random.

16. These tournament machines are the personal property of members of the Atlanta Pinball League. Please respect them and be sure to thank the kind folks whose games you are playing. Without them, there would be no tournament.

More Information Available at Atlanta PinSwap Site!

As has become tradition on league night, some games were acting up so substitutions had to be made in the lineup. The final four games played for competition were Flash Gordon, World Challenge Soccer, The Rolling Stones, and World Poker Tour. The games played great and offered a varied style of play and challenges. I know plenty of people, myself included, that are now on the lookout for a Flash Gordon.

Several upset points were awarded this night, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough to knock Ray off of his perch at the top, although Scott K did make a valiant attempt to catch up. The final regular season scores have been sent off to the IFPA and should be posted to the World Pinball Player Rankings shortly.

Here are the night rankings:

Robert Hay    37
Preston Burt    37
Craig Selby    37
Ray Smith    34
Scott Kutheis    34
John Frisco    31
Creepy Kenny    30
John Schlarb    30
Shannon DeWitt    30
Paul Kiefert    29
Clayton Smith    29
Al Warner    28
Charles Gehlhaus    28
David Spake    26
Joel Reeves    25
George Hay    24
Joe Walters    21
Dana Reeves    21
Scott Edling    20
Tim Christie    16
Patrick Wall    16
Bryan Bryoyles    16

Overall Rankings:

A Division
Ray Smith    181
Scott Kutheis    161
Shannon DeWitt    149
Paul Kiefert    149
Robert Hay    147
George Hay    144
Craig Selby    144
Charles Gehlhaus    143

B Division
Al Warner    141
Preston Burt    140
Creepy Kenny    135
Tim Christie    134
David Spake    128
John Schlarb    128
Joel Reeves    125
Patrick Wall    120
Dana Reeves    120
Joe Walters    119
Clayton Smith    110
Scott Edling    107

The final regular season scores now decide who is going to go head to head during our end of season tournament on October 20th. Please click the links below to view the brackets. An email will be sent to memebers regarding tournament logistics. Good luck to all!

APL-DivisionA-Bracket

APL-DivisionB-Bracket

Overall, another fantastic evening!!

Standings after Meet #4

The third meet of the Atlanta Pinball League was held in a local pinball pub – Creepy Kenny’s basement. Sure, it’s not open to the public, but I’m certain I wasn’t the only one who thought I’d hear a unanimous shout of “NORM!” when the door opened.  Aside from the delicious home brews and cans of Heinekin doled out from behind Kenny’s hand-crafted bar there was a large assortment of premium offerings on tap – pinball machines. Grade A, 100 Proof pinball machines.

The four games set aside for competition were Theatre of Magic, Big Shot (EM), Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Scared Stiff. In addition to these pristine examples, Kenny’s offerings also included Target Alpha, Cirqus Voltaire, White Water, and a High Roller Casino on loan from Ray. If the pins weren’t your cup of tea (and if they weren’t, then why are you in this league?), plenty of classic video arcade games were on hand to confound and delight as well.

After our typical hour-long practice session and brief business meeting, the competition began. Remember, now that the qualifying rounds were completed, this was the first time those in the “B” division could earn upset points by defeating any “A” division player in a round. When dealing with 20-30+ year old mechanical equipment, problems are the rule and not the exception, and unfortunately only one round was completed on Scared Stiff before Elvira was laid to rest in favor of White Water. All the games were great, but from multiple people I spoke to, the consensus was clear: Creature was one fast and furious monster!

Having personally dropped 10 slots in my ranking that night, I can personally attest that it is still anyone’s game. Score keeper Paul Keifert summed up the total scores with the following message:

“There were a total of 27 Upset points earned last night. Ray extended his lead to 20 pts ahead of section place.  But the spread between 2nd place and the start of the B league (9th place) is only 7 points, so there are quite a few of us tightly packed in a small spread of points.  Two members entered the A group (Craig and Scott) and two members sunk to the B group (John Schlarb and Preston I think) ”

After the competition almost everyone stayed around to enjoy the rest of the evening full of pinball. Adding even more competition to a competetive night, a high dollar, winner-takes-all, $1 a game cash competition was started on High Roller Casino. Charlie Gelhaus was the winner of a whopping eleven dollars as the grand champion of the impromptu tourney. Overall, the night was a blast! With Paul Keifert hosting the next League night, I can only imagine what sort of fun we’ll all have.

The second meeting of the Atlanta Pinball League took us to the home of John S. to battle it out in the Swampfire Arcade. John’s lineup was impressive and featured a wide variety of makes and models of machines ranging from a pristine Fathom all the way to an almost new CSI from Stern that was able to make it’s public debut for league night. Our leage machines for the evening echoed the variety by making members duke it out over the following very different games: Embryon, Space Station, Revenge From Mars, and Iron Man.

 Two of our members were unable to be in attendance, but no worries, our two alternates Jon and Bryan were more than willing to step in and save the day providing for four groups of four players. After the initial meeting it was decided that some rule changes needed to be implemented to allow for more variety in competitor, so after we drew our individual numbers from a hat, our names were put into a special software program created by Paul to randomize the night’s match ups.

To my knowledge, there were no hiccups as far as gameplay was concerned. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the variety of games, although not necessarily their individual performances. It seemed that Space Station was a suprise favorite for the unique challenge provided with many players adding one to their “want list”. No wonder it is John’s favorite game. When determining game titles for league play, there were certain titles that were purposely avoided due to being considered “marathon games”. Now we can certainly add Revenge From Mars to that list as each round required the rest of the group to wait for the RFM folks to finish.

The night finished with Shannon being dethroned by Ray and a massive 6-way tie for 9th (or 1st in B division). Our A and B divisions are decided, but such a slim margin between players exists, and with July’s meetbeing the first opportunity for players to earn upset point, that it really is anyone’s game.  Great night, everyone. See you July 21 at Creepy Kenny’s!

 League Standings After Round 2

It’s official. After a year in the making, the Atlanta Pinball League is finally underway. Our first meet was a raging success.  Al W. generously offered to be our first “guinea pig” and offer up his home for the inaugural meet. With a phenomenal collection that boasts tons of great pinball machines and arcade games, including such rare gems as a Big Bang Bar and Varkon, we knew this would be the perfect setting for a pinball showdown.

At 6:00 Al opened up the gameroom to allow folks to start practicing on the league machines for the night: Strikes N Spares, F-14 Tomcat, Guns N Roses, and Monster Bash. Folks slowly started piling in and trying to get a feel for the machines they would soon use to compete. At 7:00 practice ended and members were coraled upstairs to introduce themselves and go over some basic information about how the League, and more importantly, the night will operate.

19 of our 20 regular members and one alternate drew numbers to determine placement and order of the first machine. Our league nights operate with 4 machines and an “on deck” circle  folks can use cool their jets, grab some grub, and chat with friends. Once everyone knew where they were headed and who their “buddy” was for the night, we headed downstairs for round 1. Before we knew it, the first set of 16 players were  already hitting start buttons and plunging balls.

Each game proved to be a completely unique experience. For instance, Monster Bash certainly didn’t like very much nudging giving many a player a warning, and several tilts along the way. The light and lofty Strikes and Spares was unforgiving when it came to ball saves, and the recently-shopped F-14 Tomcat was so ruthless that it left one player awestruck and waiting to play a ball that he didn’t even see drain!

Overall it was an exciting night that offered some surprises. F-14 reset and caused a rematch to be played, but other than that no issues arose, and Dark Horse Shannon D. upset the favored-front runner Ray S. for the top spot by playing 4 1st place games. While scores were tediously input by Paul and verified by Preston, the rest of the league went back downstairs where Al turned on all the games in his huge collection for all to enjoy.

We learned a few things from our first meet that we hope can be carried with us and improved upon. Thanks to everyone who participated for making the inaugural meet a huge success. Now, on to the next meet for all to try and claim victory against some fierce pinball competition!

Click here to see current rankings.