Michigan Flippers is hosting a free-to-enter league open to all ages & all skill levels. Sessions will be held every other Sunday at 5:00 PM from March 10 to June 16, with ladder playoffs to follow on June 30.

Qualifying sessions: Aug 11, Aug 25, Sep 8, Sep 22, Oct 6, Oct 20
Playoffs for qualified players: Nov 3

Each session will be a set number of rounds of matchplay and will take about 3 hours. Players will need to pay a normal coin drop for each session (about $6 per session).

LEAGUE FORMAT:

Players will be invited to play 6 total qualifying sessions. The sum of all the points earned in a player's top 4 sessions will determine seeding into the playoffs for the top half of players. For remaining players, the point total across their top 4 sessions will determine their standing.

SESSION FORMAT:

Qualifying sessions will be matchplay format (specific details TBD, please see website linked for updates).

DROP-INS & VISITING PLAYERS:

Players are invited to join sessions at any stage of the league, and we invite new or visiting players.

If a player attends fewer than 3 sessions overall, they will not be included in IFPA submission of league results and will not be eligible to participate in the playoffs.

PLAYOFFS OVERVIEW

The top half of players who have attended at least 3 qualifying sessions will be invited to the playoffs, which will be played in ladder format. The sum of all the points earned in a player's top 4 qualifying sessions will determine seeding into the playoffs.

Playoffs will be ladder format (specific details TBD, please see website linked for updates).

PRIZES

We will be securing some kind of award/trophy for at least the top 3 finishers. There will be no cash prize or sidepot for this league.

The playoffs are expected to take 3-4 hours total, and players are welcome to play other machines/arcades after they check-in, so long as they are available promptly when their round starts.

PLAYER CONDUCT

This tournament is run at an operating family arcade. In addition to the normal IFPA conduct, players will receive penalties for any behavior which could disrupt normal arcade patronage/operations. General guidelines: https://www.ifpapinball.com/conduct/

BACK-TO-BACK MACHINES IN SESSION PLAY

Because machines will be randomly selected by Matchplay software, it is possible to be assigned the same game multiple rounds in a row. If any player in a group has just played a machine, any player in that group may request a randomly reselected machine.

OCCUPIED MACHINES

It is possible a machine will be occupied by regular arcade patrons. If this is the case, the affected group will be randomly assigned a new game, excluding any tables which were played by any player in the affected group in the previous round.

In the playoffs, a game may not be selected in the pool if it is occupied by a regular patron at the time of selection. We will not be delaying any playoff rounds or finals waiting for machines to become unoccupied. However, if a league player is playing a non-tournament game on a machine, they will vacate if needed.

MALFUNCTIONING MACHINES

We will not have staff available for hotfixing machines. We will do our best to ensure only games in reasonable working order are in the tournament pool.

If there is a significant malfunction which impacts a game more than twice during a single round, a new machine will be drawn and players will start over. Otherwise, we will be using IFPA guidelines to give compensation balls in the case of major malfunctions.

PLAY ORDER

We do not have any games in our collection which have play-order advantage such as ball lock steals.

If a player accidentally plays an opponent's regular ball, that player will receive 0 points for the round. The opponent, whose ball was played out of turn, can choose to either step in and play the ball (if possible) OR choose to play one compensation ball after the game is concluded.

A player who accidentally plays out of turn order for the first ball will be given a warning on their first offense, and an automatic disqualification (0 points) for future offenses during the league.

EXTRA BALLS

We are unable to turn off extra balls. To save time, players must plunge out extra balls without playing them. A player may use any combination of the flipper buttons to set up the ball, but may not hold a flipper while plunging nor touch the game at all once the ball has left the shooter lane.

In some cases, a game may fail to validate the playfield during an extra ball. An opponent may announce they are stepping up to validate the playfield any time after the first 10 seconds of an extra ball. This means they will step up to the machine and use a flipper to hit the ball one time.

If a player steps away from the machine and allows their extra ball to be played by another player, BOTH players will receive a disqualification (0 points) for the round. All players are responsible for ensuring extra balls are disposed of properly.