Location
Format Details
| Event Name : | League |
| Qualifying Format : | Matchplay Qualifying |
| Finals Format : | Ladder Format |
| Player Limit : | Unknown |
| Unlimited Qualifying? : | No |
Tournament Overview
Start Date: March 23, 2025
End Date: June 29, 2025
Michigan Flippers is hosting a free-to-enter league open to all ages & all skill levels. Sessions will be held on select Sundays at 5:00 PM from March 23 to June 22, with ladder playoffs to follow on June 29.
Qualifying sessions: Mar 23, Apr 6, Apr 27, May 18, Jun 1, Jun 22
Playoffs for qualified players: Jun 29
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).
SESSION FORMAT:
Every session, players will play 6 randomly selected games, and each game will be played by 3-4 total players. Players will be paired up to face each possible opponent roughly the same number of times across the entire season. For each game played, players will be awarded points based on their placement in that round via 7/5/3/1 scoring.
At the end of the night, a session-winner is determined by the sum total of points. There will be no tie-breakers for session results. Any outright session winners will earn a momento: a custom dog tag with their pinball initials given at the end of the season.
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 playoffs will be played as a two-tier “ladder” style, followed by a four-way finals. The top four players will receive A-division trophies.
A-Division Ladder:
The top half of all tournament players will play in the A-division ladder. Starting from the bottom seed, the ladder will progress with 4-player games. The winner and second place in this game will move on to face the next-highest seeded players from the season. This repeats, with each round two players moving forward.
This continues until only four players are left in the top ladder (seed 1, seed 2, winner of the ladder, runner-up of the ladder). These players will move on to the three-game finals.
B-Division Ladder:
Other players will be seeded into the B-Division ladder, which will work the same way as the A-Division ladder. Each time a player is knocked out of the A-Division ladder, they will be added to the top of the B-Division ladder.
The B-Division ladder will determine the final tournament ranking for all players who do not reach the finals. When only two players remain in the B-Division ladder, they will play a head-to-head match to determine the B-Division champion (5th overall) and B-Division runner-up (6th overall).
The order of elimination will be each player’s final rank for the season. The winner of the consolation ladder will be fifth in the season overall.
Note: It is not possible to reach the finals from the B-Division ladder.
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.
Qualifying sessions: Mar 23, Apr 6, Apr 27, May 18, Jun 1, Jun 22
Playoffs for qualified players: Jun 29
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).
SESSION FORMAT:
Every session, players will play 6 randomly selected games, and each game will be played by 3-4 total players. Players will be paired up to face each possible opponent roughly the same number of times across the entire season. For each game played, players will be awarded points based on their placement in that round via 7/5/3/1 scoring.
At the end of the night, a session-winner is determined by the sum total of points. There will be no tie-breakers for session results. Any outright session winners will earn a momento: a custom dog tag with their pinball initials given at the end of the season.
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 playoffs will be played as a two-tier “ladder” style, followed by a four-way finals. The top four players will receive A-division trophies.
A-Division Ladder:
The top half of all tournament players will play in the A-division ladder. Starting from the bottom seed, the ladder will progress with 4-player games. The winner and second place in this game will move on to face the next-highest seeded players from the season. This repeats, with each round two players moving forward.
This continues until only four players are left in the top ladder (seed 1, seed 2, winner of the ladder, runner-up of the ladder). These players will move on to the three-game finals.
B-Division Ladder:
Other players will be seeded into the B-Division ladder, which will work the same way as the A-Division ladder. Each time a player is knocked out of the A-Division ladder, they will be added to the top of the B-Division ladder.
The B-Division ladder will determine the final tournament ranking for all players who do not reach the finals. When only two players remain in the B-Division ladder, they will play a head-to-head match to determine the B-Division champion (5th overall) and B-Division runner-up (6th overall).
The order of elimination will be each player’s final rank for the season. The winner of the consolation ladder will be fifth in the season overall.
Note: It is not possible to reach the finals from the B-Division ladder.
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.