VPGL 17 - The Pinball Trap (Rules for the competition)

[JustAnotherRat]

Hi Pinballers,

Welcome to the Visual Pinball Gaming League with VPGL 17 - The Pinball Trap. This tournament is the 1^st of the year and part of the overall VPGL 2021 and all gamers worldwide are welcome to play. You can join in at any time and play.

Competition:
The player with the most points in this tournament will be the VPGL 17 champion. There will be 9 games played over 8 weeks, competing world wide on some of the most challenging and toughest pinball games of all time. 2 tables will be released at the start, then 1 table each week, with the final 2 tables released at the same time for the finale. Games are only open for 17 days each, so pinballer's must play their best in that time and post their scores before the game is closed. At the end of each VPGL, points will be accumulated for each gamer toward the Visual Pinball Championship of 2021 Scoreboard. The highest score after (the anticipated) four VPGL’s are completed will be the undisputed champion of Visual Pinball for 2021.

Prizes:
There are currently no prizes on offer for VPGL however if someone wants to offer something up, let me know.

Point system:
The incremental point system will be used for each pinball table. 1st place will earn 100 points, 2nd place 99 points, 3rd place 98 points and so on. All players will earn competition points for their scores. If there is a tie on the overall scoreboard, then a head to head game win count will be used to determine the final placings. For example, if two players tie for 18th place, then whoever has scored higher per game on a head to head basis will earn 18th place and the other gamer will earn 19th place. If there is a tie also on head to head game count, the gamer who has the highest accumulated game score points will be the winner.

Overall Point system:
The overall point system for VPGL 2021 will be that points are awarded to anyone finishing in the top 20 for each VPGL in the year. 25 points for first, 22 for second, 19 for third, 17 for 4th and then it decreases by 1 point per position down to 20th. If there is a ties after 4 competitions for the 2020 Champion, it will be based on a countback where the player with the most game wins will be the outright winner, if still even it will go on the number of second place and then 3rd places. If still even, it will be on total points awarded for placings from all games within 2020. If then the top players cannot be separated, it will be deemed a draw.

Games:
Tables are nominated by the competitors and sent by PM to the Game master (JustAnotherRat). Tables must be selected from those readily available to Visual Pinball 10 (VPX) that do not require additional installation such as P-Roc to run (games using PinUp Player are accepted). Original tables are not to be nominated without prior approval (we've had problems previously with them not being competition ready). If there are multiple versions of the same table available then the players can choose to use whatever version they wish to use. The game threads often contain discussions around what version seems to be the easiest and/or best to play.

Please nominate tables that you've played and tested (at least a little) so that we don't have broken games come up in competition

The number of games that can be nominated by each competitor in VPGL 17 is 6 which are to be made up of 2 x EM, 2 x SS and 2 x DMD. (Alpha numeric games can be nominated as either SS or DMD games at the nominators discretion. The games to be played in the competition will be randomly drawn from the pool of nominations. The order of game play will be determined by the Gamemaster and each game will be released weekly for competition.

If you would like to nominate games and have a say in what is played, please send them by private message (PM) to JustAnotherRat by midnight Sydney time on Wednesday 24^th February 2021. The first two games will commence on Friday 26^th February 2021.

Games can be played on a cab or desktop and is all inclusive.

Additional exclusions for VPGL 17 and not eligible for nomination for this VPGL are (all games from VPGL 2020):
Abra Ca Dabra (Electro Mechanical)
Aladdin's Castle (EM)
Attack from Mars
Batman - Dark Knight (DMD)
Big Brave (Electro Mechanical)
Big Hit
Black Pyramid (Solid State)
CARtoons
Centaur (SS)
Centigrade 37 (Electro Mechanical)
Comet (SS)
Diner (Alpha Numeric)
Elvis (DMD)
Fathom (Solid State)
Fish Tales (DMD)
Flash Gordon (Solid State)
Funhouse (Alpha Numeric)
Gilligan's Island (DMD)
Grand Prix (Electro Mechanical)
Heat Wave (EM)
Humpty Dumpty (Electro Mechanical)
Indiana Jones (DMD)
Jacks Open (EM)
Krull (Solid State)
Medieval Madness (DMD)
Paragon
PlayMates
Pro Football (Electro Mechanical)
Red & Ted's Road Show
Scorpion
Space Shuttle (SS)
Taxi
The Flintstones
The Walking Dead (DMD)
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard (DMD)
Total Nuclear Annihilation Counted as DMD)

Settings:
The ROM settings will be posted in each game thread and gamers must ensure they compete on these settings only. No continues are allowed when submitting a score and must be played from the beginning of the game.

Submissions:
Gamers are to post a screenshot/photo showing their score in the game thread. Games are only open for 17 days and any score submissions made after the game is closed will not be accepted.

Players:
Players can play all or just some of the games. Players do not need to nominate tables to play, they can play any table during the tournament. Streaming games and posting/sharing tips are encouraged, as is friendly banter in the gaming community. Striving for PBs, learning and playing the best you can are all highly encouraged. As all members at AA are registered, there is no additional registration process for the championship.

Good gaming and good luck to all competitors.

JustAnotherRat

[RusstyT]

JAR,
What were your thoughts around competitors inputing their score into a table that can be checked and transferred into an excel spread sheet on less frequent basis. The process I normally go through is to put in the picture and check the leader board so I don’t think this is a big change to input a score update from what I currently do. There would still be a reviewer check in place, just less frequent. Also there was some tooing and frowing with correcting scores so players do check their scores anyway so it’s probably best players keep track of their own scores. I think you were reluctant to change anything because the last comp was so successful. I understand this as it has taken a long time to build the comp but is important not to burn out the person(s) running it. Jed also showed some interest in helping with updating scores. I guess I’m mindful that you are freed up to play more pinball and less admin. I think it can be done.
Happy to discuss this privately if you wish.
Cheers
RusstyT

[JustAnotherRat]

JAR,
What were your thoughts around competitors inputing their score into a table that can be checked and transferred into an excel spread sheet on less frequent basis. The process I normally go through is to put in the picture and check the leader board so I don’t think this is a big change to input a score update from what I currently do. There would still be a reviewer check in place, just less frequent. Also there was some tooing and frowing with correcting scores so players do check their scores anyway so it’s probably best players keep track of their own scores. I think you were reluctant to change anything because the last comp was so successful. I understand this as it has taken a long time to build the comp but is important not to burn out the person(s) running it. Jed also showed some interest in helping with updating scores. I guess I’m mindful that you are freed up to play more pinball and less admin. I think it can be done.
Happy to discuss this privately if you wish.
Cheers
RusstyT

Thanks for the thoughts.

I'm all for making it easier for the competitors, that's why I have the scoreboard on the first post meaning people don't have to scroll through everyone's post if they don't have the time. I'm not opposed to others adding their own scores, it just means more work for the competitors which I think might turn some people off. If anyone wants to help out, I'll grant them permission to the Google Spreadsheet so they can update the scores. We'll just need to come up with a system so we don't double handle. As I was the only person updating scores, I knew if I had liked the post then I knew I had updated the score. It actually doesn't take long at all to put the scores into the spreadsheet so that side of it doesn't really take away from my playing time. I have plenty of other things on the go that eat into that.

[RusstyT]

[QUOTE=JustAnotherRat;n2194918]

Thanks for the thoughts.

I'm all for making it easier for the competitors

How about this for the competitor input?
1./Take your photo of your score
2./input your score into a table on the 2nd post of the league if you have time. (Pretty well this would be the place to go to check where your sitting on a day to day basis rather than the main spreadsheet in the first post.)
3./ post your photo of your score but don’t input the score with the photo.


for the score keeper
1./check the pics, tick the like for each post
2./check scores against the table in there 2nd post and update if necessary. (Can do this a couple of times a week. )
3./ copy and paste it into the official spreadsheet for the final standings. (Do this once per week)


I guess for the competitor it means they would enter the score into the second post instead of with the current picture.
i think with virtual pinball it’s very much a self governed honesty system anyway.
What do you think?

[JustAnotherRat]

I like the player to type the score for me as it's then a simple copy and paste into the spreadsheet and a quick visual check against the photo (yeah I understand that goes against my making it easier for the competitor).

Tapatalk used to advise me when there was an update to the thread(s) so it was easy but Tapatalk no longer works with the site so I have to remember to check.

Once a score is added to the spreadsheet, it calculates positions and finals standings etc. itself.

The most cumbersome part of the whole thing is posting the games. I'd love to be able to put aside a hour or so and set them all up and have them automatically post on at a preconfigured time but the forum doesn't have that functionality (that I'm aware of).

[RusstyT]

Cool. It’s it’s very minimal change for the competitor. I’ll have at checking scores and cross checking the table and copying the data and pasting into the main spreadsheet. Hopefully that doesn’t interfere with the formulas in the spread sheet. Any thoughts around that? Is Paste Special Values ok?

[JustAnotherRat]

Sorry... I don't fully understand what your last message meant. Are you wanting to help add scores into the spreadsheet?

[RusstyT]

Sorry bad gramma. Meant to say have a go at checking scores and updating the spreadsheet. With respect to a table this can be generated in Microsoft word and pasted into a post and is editable in the post provided the competitors have authority to edit the post. I’ll copy this and paste it into the spreadsheet. How does that sound?

[RusstyT]

Ive got no idea whats going on JAR.

[RusstyT]

Oh OK. Looks like you're using your tried and true method for updating scores. All good mate. You know that system and helps you keep track of the tournament. I'll let you run with it as I find this form of communication frustrating..cheers

[tcholeaway]

Hi all,

Just saw this league through VP Addict on Facebook, and love the concept, which is not too heavy and stick to what I'm willing to spend (and discover).
I'll be joining the leagu as from Game 3 so.

Thanks for organizing this 👍