Table of the Week? Tournament of the Month!

BlahCade presents Tournament of the Month!

Here’s what you need to know. On the last Saturday of every month, there will be a tournament consisting of the last few Tables of the Week that have been played. There will be a 12 hour window of play for everyone to post their scores. Top 3 scorers will get a custom BlahCade avatar to display on the Pinball Arcade Fans Forum for bragging rights.

So how does it work?

A sign up thread will be created and posted no later than the Thursday before the tournament. You must sign up no later than Friday at midnight, Pacific Standard Time.

Each player will be placed into a group of 3 or 4 for each table. Within that heat, points will be earned. 10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, and 4 for 4th. If there are only 3 players in that heat, 6 points is the minimum to be earned. These groupings will be random, and will not be the same table to table.

There will also be overall scoring for each table, but this does not earn you any additional points. It is instead to determine who wins in the case of a tie. So if 4 tables are in the tournament, 40 points is the max someone may earn by winning all 4 heats they are in. If multiple people have 40 points, then actual tables scores will be taken into account to determine an overall winner.

Points earned in each tournament will be accumulated month to month, helping us to potentially seed people. So even if you do not own all the tables being played in a tournament, it is important to still play. You may come in dead last for a particular table because you had no score to post, but you can still earn 4 points from your heat.

Posting Of Scores

We will post a URL for all scores to be posted to. You will not see anyone else’s scores. We are hoping to give you a heads up as to who you are playing with in each heat, but no promises just yet. These scores will be entered into a tournament data base, which will be available for viewing once the tournament is over.

We are asking that you only play each table twice. Obviously there is no way of enforcing this, so it is purely an honor system. We aren’t interested in how good you are at grinding a table. That was what the Table of the Week was for! So please, get your practice in prior to that Saturday, or before the 12 hour window opens. Pick the best score from your two plays and post that.

We will not be asking for proof of everyone’s scores. However, if someone questions your score, you need to be able to provide a screen shot or photograph of that score with proof it was taken during the tournament time. Failure to provide proof will result in your score being thrown out completely.

Super Tournaments

Every 3 months, we will be holding a Super Tournament. Details are still to come, but the idea is that it will be comprised of all the tables from the prior 3 tournaments. We are working on having prizes better than just an avatar for this. Our friend Mike from WizardAmusements.com has already offered up a custom shooter rod to us as a prize. Hopefully we can line up a few other items. And by the way, if you visit that site and mention the BlahCade Podcast, you’ll get 10% off any order.

This Is All For Fun!

Anyone can play in these tournaments. You do not have to be a PAF member, there is no age restriction, platform restriction, and even FarSight employees are welcome to join in. We want everyone to just have a good time. So spread the word, and we hope to hear from you all at the end of each month!

By the way, reminders about Table of the Week and now Tournament of the Month are also sent out on Twitter. So sign in and follow @BlahCade to be always kept up on the latest!

I'm in!

Looking forward to that. How much do I have to pay never to get into the same group as Pinballwiz45b? ;-)

Ok, registering until Midnight PST on the Friday. At which time does the tournament start then? Since we have a 12 hour window it might be quite short depending on the time zone.

Thanks for organizing SYT!

This sounds awesome - I'm totally in!

Sign me up!

Xanija said:

Ok, registering until Midnight PST on the Friday. At which time does the tournament start then? Since we have a 12 hour window it might be quite short depending on the time zone.

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The short window of play is on purpose...no grinding! I don't have a start time for sure, but am thinking 10am PST. That should give our European and Southern Hemisphere friends a few hours of playtime.

For the first tournament... we're going to have at least 3 tables with relatively short game times, even for the top players: Genie, FP, and F2K. Only AFM presents a "challenge" game-time wise.

Of course next week's table might be Scared Stiff or Ripley's or some other table where it's possible to play "forever", which would balance things out again.

shutyertrap said:

The short window of play is on purpose...no grinding! I don't have a start time for sure, but am thinking 10am PST. That should give our European and Southern Hemisphere friends a few hours of playtime.

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I fully agree it should be a short time to avoid grinding, it would be just cool not having most of the time during sleep time.

10am PST sounds good though, this would be 6pm CET / 5pm GMT.

Is this the sign up thread? If so, sign me up. Or is that coming in two weeks?

No, this is not. Look for it on the 25th or 26th. Will be asking people to list their forum name and in game user names

How can I prove a screenshot was taken during a certain timespan?

For those taking a pic of their monitor, I will be asking you to attach a post-it note or something to the screen with a specific word of my choosing, issued that day. For those on mobile taking a screen shot, Jared assures me the meta data shows date and time of photo. Best solution? Don't be a cheating dick!

So... we're playing three or four tables, twice each, in 12 hours... that's 1.5 hr / table, which is cutting it very close on time. If the window opens at 12am PST, good players will be pretty much required to begin right at 12am and play for the next 12 hrs to get all eight games completed in time. I'm not sure if this is intentional -- I don't mind it.

You certainly don't have to play each table twice. I was just being nice instead of demanding only one play per table. I play in a league where we play 6 machines and are done in a 3 hour window. Would be shorter, but waiting for each round to start, as well as players playing, that's where most of the time is spent. Now if you are some pin god that can go hours no matter the table, well congrats. Manage your time wisely.

Look at it this way folks. I've seen people's Twitch streams, and even the really good players have bad games. Sometimes multiple times in a row. Give someone enough time, yes they are going to probably have at least one awesome game. Give them 2 cracks only? Well now we'll see. The fun is, you might be a piss poor player and get lucky with a great game, and the top player might have one of those games we all have suffered through, where the ball drains almost immediately. Embrace this. We know who the top dogs are already given unlimited plays. Let's now see how things shuffle with limited play.

I know the temptation to start a game over when your first 2 balls suck will be high. Don't do it. I know you'll play 2 games that blow and think, well those were just practice rounds. Don't do it. Challenge yourself with the limits, focus on the fun of the situation. Laugh and mock yourself in the forum when you have a bad score. Cheer when you have a great score, only to have someone else also score great and top yours. Tournaments are only fun if you actually think you have a chance, regardless of your ability.

I really hope we have players with honor here, who get their enjoyment from just being part of this rather than to win at all cost. I know it will be fun for me even if I end with the lowest score.

Sounds great. Time to get rid of my reflex to restart after a lousy first ball!

Hi there, I want to definitly join in on this and will be signing up when the time comes. And I also vouch to have nothing less than 100% honesty.

Just as a side note, what is this "twitch streams" you were talking about? I'd love to learn more about it and what it does

jdoa said:

Just as a side note, what is this "twitch streams" you were talking about? I'd love to learn more about it and what it does

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Visit Twitch.com and see for yourself. You can record and broadcast your game sessions for others to watch.

shutyertrap said:

Visit Twitch.com and see for yourself. You can record and broadcast your game sessions for others to watch.

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awesome thanks, thats pretty cool

jdoa said:

awesome thanks, thats pretty cool

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Me and Pinballwiz45b are really experienced at streaming so if you need any help, let us know.

EldarOfSuburbia said:

For the first tournament... we're going to have at least 3 tables with relatively short game times, even for the top players: Genie, FP, and F2K. Only AFM presents a "challenge" game-time wise.

Of course next week's table might be Scared Stiff or Ripley's or some other table where it's possible to play "forever", which would balance things out again.

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Black Hole...

Be careful what I wish for, I guess?!

Captain B. Zarre said:

Black Hole...

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I dont want to be picky or anything, but I'd much rather prefer Big Shot ( cant abreviate it other wize it might seem like Im talking about bull sh!t lol) or Taxi than Black Hole.... That table and Black Knight are definitly my least favorite tables on this game

jdoa said:

I dont want to be picky or anything, but I'd much rather prefer Big Shot ( cant abreviate it other wize it might seem like Im talking about bull sh!t lol) or Taxi than Black Hole.... That table and Black Knight are definitly my least favorite tables on this game

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Well don't worry, there's still another 50+ weeks for whatever table you like to get picked for!

By the way gang, I think now is as good a place as any to say that Black Hole will be part of the next tourney, not the one coming up.

This seems like a fun idea. I've been waiting for DX11, but I might dust the game off for some fun competitive play. I'm a bit worried about how grindy it'll get though. If there are EMs or difficult tables in general that'll just extend the time you have on the forever slappers in the 12 hour window. There's no real way to constrain time by table though so I guess it's all fine and good.