K15 Open 2019

K15 Open 2019 - rules for the pinball competition

1. A summary of the rules and the schedule

1.0 Registration and country exemptions

While registering to the tournament, each player will choose one of the three qualifying sessions for the tournament. Qualifying spots will be filled in the order of registration, maximum of 30 players per session. Tournament organizers reserve the right to either reject additional registrations per group or expand the groups in case of overbookings.

In the spirit of being an IFPA European Circuit Series event, we provide four country exemption spots for every country until the start of open registration process. Contact your IFPA country director for an exemption spot.

1.1 A summary of the rules

The player will select six (6) out of the twelve (12) available qualifying machines for his qualification. Player has a total of 12 attempts for the 6 machines of his choice. All machines in the tournament are from the DMD era.

The best score of the player on each of the six machines will be accounted. For each machine in the competition, the player with the highest score will gain 80 points, and the players (scores) below him 75, 70, 66, 62, 58, 54, 51, 48, 45, 42, 39, 36, 34, 32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. The total score of each player in the qualification phase is the sum of the points he has gotten. The top thirty-two (32) will proceed to the playoff rounds on Sunday.

Playoffs will be played as two-player games in a double elimination bracket. On both sides of the bracket best of three games will determine the winner. The machines will be drawn randomly from the available games by the staff.

Two best players from winners' side and two best players from losers' side then meet in the final, where four games will be played. Each player chooses one of the final machines.

A Google Docs Spreadsheet is available here to visualize the playoff bracket and the schedule for Sunday.

In addition to the main tournament, a three-game PinGolf side tournament will be arranged. All players will play all three games twice in qualifications. About top 24 qualifiers advance to second round played on Sunday. On second round three games will be played. Top 12 players with the best combined qualifying and second round score advance to the Pin-Golf playoff rounds.

Pin-Golf playoffs will be played as a single elimination bracket best of three games.

Read more about rules from section 2.3.

1.2 Schedule

The start times in the playoff bracket are for worst case estimation. The playoff games are started as soon as the players are known. All players must be available on site and ready to start playing, in order to get through the competition on time, hopefully even ahead of the announced schedule.

The organizer reserves the right to change the schedule. Possible changes in the schedule will be informed on the event web page and to the players on site.

Friday 3rd Nov

At 17:00 Doors are opened.

At 17:00 Friday qualification session.

At 22:00 End of the qualification session. The venue closes.

Saturday 4th Nov

At 10:30 Doors are opened.

At 11-16 Saturday qualification group 1 qualification time.

At 16-17 The organizers reserve a possibility to empty the location from players to get more fresh air for players at later qualification session.

At 17-22 Saturday qualification group 2 qualification time.

At 22:00 Doors will be closed.

Sunday 5th Nov

At 10:15 Doors open. Registration for the playoffs start.

At 10:25-10:55 Warmup time of playoff machines for players qualified to playoffs.

At 11:00 Registration for the playoffs ends. The first round of the playoffs start.

At 21:00 Prize ceremony and closing words.

2. Detailed rules

2.1 Qualification

The players will play their qualification, consisting of twelve (12) attempts, using six (6) out of twelve (12) qualification machines of their choice, in the order and pace of their choice. The players themselves must ensure that all attempts have been played before the end of the qualification period. Possible unused tries will not give any benefit. Maximum number of attempts per machine is not limited. (Of course you should play the chosen six machines at least once, which leaves you 6 re-attempts).

Before starting a game, the player must ask the staff to confirm that a machine is available and that the game can be started. After the attempt the player must confirm that the score is written down correctly by the staff.

Player's best score for a machine will be compared to other players' scores. The player with the best score will gain 80 points, and the next best will score 75, 70, 66, 62, 58, 54, 51, 48, 45, 42, 39, 36, 34, 32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively. No points are given for positions 41 and onward. The qualification result of the player is the sum of the points for the six machines.

If two (or more) players are tied, a tie-break game is played only if one (or more) would proceed to the playoff round and the other(s) would not. If both (or all) will proceed to the playoff round, their positions are drawn. If both (or all) will not proceed to the playoff round, they will tie.

The bookkeeping will be done using an automated Google Docs spreadsheet. The public version will be displayed on site and on the competition web page, displaying the current points but not the scores. The scores are hidden to not provide benefit for the players in the latter qualifying groups. The scores are published immediately after the qualification is over.

The player will have a personal score card for writing down the scores and following progress. This personal scorecard is not the official document but meant for player's own use. Official bookkeeping is taken care of by the staff, and the results are automatically updated to Google Docs with a small delay.

The tournament live standings will be available at http://live.k15.fi as soon as the tournament starts.

2.2 Playoff rounds

The playoffs will be played among the top 32 players. If a player announces to drop off or fails to appear on site on time for playoffs, the player will be replaced by the best not qualified players, respectively.

Until the 4-player final, the playoffs will be played as two player games using double elimination bracket. The matches are best of three games on both sides of the bracket.

Qualifiers 1-8 receive a bye and start their matches on the second round of winners' bracket. Qualifiers 9-24 start on the first round of winners' bracket. Qualifiers 25-32 start directly from the losers' side.

The playoff games are started as soon as the players are known. All players must be available on site and ready to start playing, in order to get through the competition on time.

The machines will be drawn among the available playoffs games. A machine can't be drawn twice during a head to head match.

The remaining two players in winners' bracket and two remaining players in losers' bracket eventually meet in the 4-player final match. Each finalist chooses one of the final machines. In the final, 3-2-1-0 points will be awarded from every machine. The player with the most points after four machines will be the winner. All tied positions after four machines will be settled on a random drawn tie-break machine.

2.3 PinGolf side tournament

A player registered to the main tournament is eligible to participate in PinGolf side tournament during his qualification session. PinGolf is a three-game tournament, where player tries to reach the target score of every game with least amount of balls used. All three games will be played twice and both of the attempts on every game will be counted towards the final qualifying score of the player.

PinGolf games are set to 5-ball play with tournament mode on and extra balls off. If a player doesn't reach the target score during his 5-ball game, a score of 6 will be recorded. Otherwise the score will be the ball number (1-5) when the target score was reached. Player's total PinGolf score will be the sum of the six games (6-36).

24 best (see tie-break rules below) PinGolf qualifiers will advance to the second round played on Sunday starting at 11:00. The second round will be played on the same three games played in qualifications.

12 players having the best the combined score of the qualifying round and second round will advance to PinGolf playoffs. Top 4 players receive a bye.

In PinGolf playoffs head to head matches best of three games will be played. The qualification machines and possibly some additional machines will be used, all games set to PinGolf target scores.

Primarily the ball number to reach the target score determines the winner in PinGolf head to head matches, but the overall score will determine the winner in case of a tie in the PinGolf score. This means that in PinGolf playoffs the ball leading to the target score should be played to as high score as possible, if the opponent still has a ball to play.

PinGolf tie-break rules

The nature of PinGolf tournament scoring makes it probable that some tied positions will occur in qualifications and in playoffs. The following rules will settle most of the likely tie-break scenarios.

The cut-line tie rules for qualifications

all players tied on cut-line (qualification position 24) will advance
(only in case of excessive number of tied cut-line players (more than top32 advancing) organizers may limit the number of advancing players to less than top24)

The cut-line tie rules for second round

all players tied to advance to the playoffs will play a tie-break match with the playoffs tie break rules

The tie-break rules for playoffs

For the two first games the ball number to reach the target score determines the score in PinGolf head to head matches. After two games players have the score from 2 to 12. In case of tie for both of the players, third game will be played. In third game, the overall score will determine the winner in case of a tie in the PinGolf score. This means that on third game in PinGolf playoffs the ball leading to the target score should be played to as high score as possible, if the opponent still has a ball to play. There is a tie only in the unlikely scenario, where the overall score of both players is equal.

3. The staff

The organisers will provide a sufficient number of staff for the competition. The staff is allowed to participate the competition as well, but may not call judgement regarding their own play.

Some additional qualifying spots outside the three 25 players groups may be assigned for the staff and scorekeepers. These players may play their qualification entries in available slots during all the three sessions. No scorekeeper of staff may submit his own score to the tournament score database.

4. General rules

The PAPA/IFPA Tournament Rules document will be the baseline for all the rulings.
Competition machines are set on three balls and tournament modes. Extra balls have been disabled.
If a machine awards an extra ball, it can be played. This must be always informed to the staff, though.
Competition machines are for competition play only. Practicing (outside the Sunday warmup period for qualified players) and free play is forbidden.
If a machine breaks down during the qualification phase so that not all players have a result, the staff will decide based on the schedule and practicalities whether the machine will be replaced with another one, the scores ignored or the scores left final. If a machine breaks down during the playoffs phase it will be replaced with another machine.

Issues outside this document will be dealt with by the staff. They will do their best to call judgement as fairly as possible.