STERN ARMY Australian Pinball Museum Championship December 7th-9th

The AUSTRALIAN PINBALL MUSEUM, IFPA and STERN are looking for members to join the 1ST STERN ARMY EVENT being held in AUSTRALIA!

 

 

Josh and Zach Sharpe are open to STERN ARMY events being held at the Australian Pinball Museum, Nhill Oasis Motel.

 

Lyndon Carter, the manager of the Nhill Oasis Hotel, has offered us the opportunity to book the entire motel at discount for the weekend.

 

See the motel website for the event discount prices, starting at $85 for 1 person per night.

 

You MUST BOOK directly with the motel to secure these discounted rates (discounts not available through 3rd party online travel agents - expedia, etc).

 

Follow this link to apply the coupon code on the motels booking system:

 

https://www.oasismotel.com.au/bookings.php?coupon=MPINBALL712 or phone the motel on (03) 5391 1666 to make a booking.

 

OPEN FOR EVERYONE TO ATTEND!

 

HOWEVER CAPPED AT 32 PLAYERS MAX! Get in quick or you may miss out.

 

TOURNAMENT 1: STERN ARMY BEST GAME

GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. Qualifying on Friday December 7th from 11am-9pm.

2. Finals from 9-10pm sharp.

3. Best game qualifying with SINGLE game elimination finals on ONE STERN machine for 50% of the field up to maximum of 16 players.

4. In qualifying, players will play ONE game on each of the 10 STERN machines.

5. The scores on each machine will be ranked and players will be allocated points accordingly.

6. Only the ONE score on each of the 10 machines will count toward a players final tally.

7. Once the qualifying period starts all games played count. Games cannot be re-started and a player cannot walk away from a machine without having their score recorded. There is no warm-up during this period.

Scorekeepers will be monitoring very carefully to make sure there is no abuse of this format. Any player found breaking the qualifying rules will be disqualified from the tournament.

8. The higher ranked qualifier for the ONE game as the choice of either selecting: STERN machine played OR going first or second.

9. Entry is $20 per person.

 

- AC/DC Back in Black (Stern 2012)

- Aerosmith Pro (Stern 2017)

- Guardians of the Galaxy Pro (Stern 2018)

- Kiss Limited Edition (Stern 2015)

- Playboy (Stern 2002)

- Rollercoaster Tycoon (Stern 2002)

- Star Trek Premium (Stern 2013)

- Star Wars Limited Edition (Stern 2017)

- WWE Wrestlemania (Stern 2015)

- X-Men Magneto (Stern 2012)

 

FORMAT:

1. TOURNAMENT NAME: STERN ARMY Best Game Tournament.

2. DATE: Friday 7th of December at Nhill Oasis Motel 21/22 Dimboola Rd, Nhill Victoria 3418.

3. EVENT: Main.

4. TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: Michael Costalos.

5. ESTIMATED # OF PLAYERS: 32.

6. TGP: 56%.

7. UNLIMITED QUALIFYING: No.

8. FORMAT: 10 STERN MACHINES

QUALIFYING: Best Game. 50% of the qualifying field up to a maximum of 16 players will qualify for the finals.

FINALS: Single elimination game on ONE STERN machine. The higher ranked qualifier for each game has the choice of either selecting: STERN machine played OR going first or second.

 

TOURNAMENT 2: STERN ARMY AUSTRALIAN PINBALL MUSEUM CHAMPIONSHIP

GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. Qualifying on Saturday from 10am-5pm (LUNCH from 1-2PM).

2. Finals on Sunday morning at 10am sharp.

3. Group match play qualifying on TWO different machines each round , with heads up match play elimination finals on ONE machine, up to a maximum of 16 players.

4. Players will be grouped in fours and if necessary groups of threes. There will be SIX separate rounds of TWO matches. This means every player will play 12 matches.

5. In each round, each group will play a single game on two different machines and allocated points according to their finishing position; 7/4/2/0 for FOUR player groups and 7/3/0 for THREE players groups.

6. For the first round grouping will be based on IFPA rankings.

7. After the first round the computer will group players for subsequent rounds according to their standings.

8. At the close of the SIXTH round, players will be ranked.

9. Ties will be broken by the number of first place finishes, then by the number of second place finishes and if necessary a single game play-off.

10. Qualifying field up to a maximum of 16 players for the finals. 8 between 16-23, 12 between 24-31, and 16 for the MAXIMUM 32.

11. Finals will be HEADS UP SINGLE player games, with the WINNING player qualifying for the next round. The highest ranked qualifiers for each round will get to choose ONE of the STERN machines to play on.

12. Such that if 16 players qualify for the FINALS, 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, 3 vs 14, 4 vs 13, 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, 8 vs 9, will be the FIRST ROUND.

13. Entry is $20 per person.

 

FORMAT:

1. TOURNAMENT NAME: STERN ARMY AUSTRALIAN PINBALL MUSEUM CHAMPIONSHIP

2. DATE: Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th of December at Nhill Oasis Motel 21/22 Dimboola Rd, Nhill Victoria 3418.

3. EVENT: Main.

4. TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: Michael Costalos.

5. ESTIMATED # OF PLAYERS: 32.

6. TGP: 100%.

7. UNLIMITED QUALIFYING: No.

8. FORMAT: Qualifying: Group Match play.

1) Seeding: IFPA.

2) First round pairing: Slaughter.

3) General pairing: Swiss - Players will be paired against players with the same win-loss record.

4) Player order: Rotating - Rotates player order evenly.

5) Scoring system: IFPA (7/4/2/0) (7/3/0).

6) Arena draws: Balanced - Attempts will be made to assign an arena that has been played the fewest times by all opponents.

7) Duration: Six rounds.

8) Matches each round: Two matches.

9) Tiebreaker: Break ties by placement - Ties will be broken by number of first place finishes, then by number of second place finishes and if necessary a single game play-off.

10) Qualifying Field: 8 between 16-23, 12 between 24-31, and 16 for the MAXIMUM 32.

 

Finals: Heads Up Match Play Elimination.

1) 2 player SINGLE Match Play elimination on a STERN machine.

2) The higher ranked qualifier for each group match play has the choice of STERN machine.

3) Top finisher in each Match Play elimination final proceed to the next round, until a single elimination between the final 2 exists.

4) A single game elimination game will then be played between the 2 of them on a STERN machine selected by the higher seed remaining.

 

TOURNAMENT 3: AUSTRALIAN PINBALL MUSEUM FLIP FRENZY

GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. Saturday from 6:30pm-10pm.

2. Flip Frenzy tournament.

3. Once all players have registered, the number of players will be divided by 2.6 to determine how many machines will be used for the tournament.

4. As soon as all the information is presented the start button on the stop watch is pressed and the tournament runs for THREE hours.

5. There is no match play programme for this format, so the tournament will be run on hard and soft copy.

6. When the tournament starts each machine is randomly assigned 2 players. The remaining players are placed in a queue.

7. When a game is completed:

 

- Both players are to go to the desk to report the result, without any delay. The winner scores a WIN and the loser scores a LOSS.

 

Regardless of the result:

 

- The player who was Player 2 in the game stays at the desk, and goes to the back of the queue to await their next game assignment.

 

- The player who was Player 1 in the game returns to the same machine with the player from the front of the queue. The new player will be PLAYER 1 in the new game, and the returning player is Player 2.

 

- After that game, the process is repeated - results are reported, P2 goes to the rear of the queue, and P1 returns to the same game to play as Player 2 in the new game.

 

- Players who are absent from the queue when their name is called are to be credited with a loss, and placed at the back of the queue.

 

- All Frenzy games must be played in a competitive spirit. Any collusion in results (ie 1 ball games) will result in disqualification from the event.

 

- A player is free to end their ball if they think they have enough points to win, or plunge a ball if they want to concede. However, all balls must be played and the game must be in GAME OVER state when the players leave the game. Turning a machine on/off to end a game is not allowed.

 

- Extra balls should be turned off, however if not "skillfully plunged" is OK - ie you can line up a skill shot etc, but no attempts to flip the ball are allowed.

 

- At the end of the 3 hours, no more games may start.

 

- Standings are to be based on net wins (i.e. wins - losses = your score) The best score at the end of the competition is the winner.

 

Ties will be broken by head-to-head results, and if still tied, by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random. If needed, the single game playoff will only be used to break ties for first and second places.

9. Entry is $20 per person.

 

FORMAT:

1. TOURNAMENT NAME: Australian Pinball Museum Flip Frenzy Tournament.

2. DATE: December 8th at Nhill Oasis Motel 21/22 Dimboola Rd, Nhill Victoria 3418.

3. EVENT: Main.

4. TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: Lyndon Carter.

5. ESTIMATED # OF PLAYERS: 32.

6. TGP: 80% approx.

7. UNLIMITED QUALIFYING: No.

8. FORMAT: Flip Frenzy.

1) When the tournament starts each machine is randomly assigned 2 players. The remaining players are placed in a queue.

2) When a match is completed: Please refer to the process above.

3) At the end of 3 hours no more games may start. Whoever has the most WINS MINUS LOSSES in that time is declared the winner. Ties will be broken by head-to-head results, and if still tied, by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random. If needed, the single game playoff will only be used to break ties for first and second places.

4) Strictly NO ONE BALL GAMES are to be played, and CONCEDING can ONLY be done after BOTH PLAYERS HAVE PLAYED 2 BALLS with all 3 BALLS to be PLUNGED OUT.

TOURNAMENT 4: STERN ARMY 5 STRIKES

GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. Sunday from 12pm-3pm.

2. 5 STRIKE tournament.

3. Players will be grouped into fours and if necessary groups of threes.

4. In each round, each group will play a SINGLE game and allocated STRIKES according to their finishing position; 1ST - 0, 2ND - 1, 3RD - 1, 4TH - 2 or 1ST - 0, 2ND -1, 3RD - 2.

5. For the first round grouping will be based on IFPA rankings.

6. After the first round the computer will group players for subsequent rounds according to the strikes attained.

7. Winner will be awarded to the ONE left without 5 STRIKES.

8. Entry is $20 per person.

FORMAT:

1. TOURNAMENT NAME: STERN ARMY 5 STRIKES.

2. DATE: Sunday the 9th of December at Nhill Oasis Motel 21/22 Dimboola Rd, Nhill Victoria 3418.

3. EVENT: Side.

4. TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: Michael Costalos.

5. ESTIMATED # OF PLAYERS: 32.

6. TGP: 80%.

7. UNLIMITED QUALIFYING: No.

8. FORMAT: 5 STRIKES.

1) Seeding: IFPA.

2) First round pairing: Slaughter.

3) General pairing: Swiss. Players will be grouped with those of similar strikes.

4) Player order: Rotates player order evenly.

5) Scoring system: STRIKES 1ST - 0, 2ND - 1, 3RD - 1, 4TH - 2 or 1ST - 0, 2ND -1, 3RD - 2.

6) Arena draws: Balanced - Attempts will be made to assign an arena that has been played the fewest times by all opponents.

7) Duration: FIVE STRIKES.

8) Matches each round: ONE match.

9) Winner: The final individual without 5 STRIKES.

That's a total of 4 x IFPA COMPETITIONS being held over the entire WEEKEND.

REMEMBER: MAXIMUM entries for this weekend event is capped at 32, so BOOK your ROOM ASAP!!!

Feel free to MESSAGE me on 0412958091 to reserve your spot.

 

Regards,

Michael Costalos

Edited November 3, 2018 by mcaussie

Will try and make it!

Would love to go, however it's on the same weekend as the QLD State Pinball Championship.

 

I see that there's four others qualified for the QLD gig that might otherwise want to go to the Nhill event.

 

Cheers,

 

G

Would love to go, however it's on the same weekend as the QLD State Pinball Championship.

 

I see that there's four others qualified for the QLD gig that might otherwise want to go to the Nhill event.

 

Cheers,

 

G

 

thanks for the heads up maybe move your gig up to qld ? :) @mcaussie

thanks for the heads up maybe move your gig up to qld ? :) @mcaussie

 

Perhaps a month of Stern Army events across the (AUS) states?

 

@ifpapinball

 

G

Shame that it's on the same weekend as the Qld Champs. Good to see IFPA have finally agreed to allow the Stern Army into Australia. I assume they will be supplying the usual bootie for players?

I understand @G and @JoeSoap however this is the only weekend available for us to secure the entire venue.

 

With the success this event is garnering I am hopeful that it will become a monthly IFPA Stern Amry competition at the museum!

Edited October 27, 2018 by mcaussie

The Australian Pinball Museum would love to include some signed pinball memorabilia and Pinball Museum merchandise to the prize pool for the weekend tournaments.

This should be a great weekend of pinball!

Thank you!!! Only 20 SPOTS LEFT!

 

Confimed attendees so far:

 

1. Andre Thompson

2. Stuart McLean

3. Michael McMinn

4. Shannon Paull

5. Stuart Thornton

6. Luke Marburg

7. Tom Casey

8. Livi Lange

9. Scottie Taylor

10. Michael Costalos

11. Lyndon Carter

12. Matthew Owen

Edited November 14, 2018 by mcaussie

So frustrating that I don't know what my work calendar is yet.

Hopefully it works out for you to be able to make it @ajfclark 🤞

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Aussie Arcade mobile app

Heaps keen for another weekend away, was great last time!

Should be a great weekend and looking forward to catching up with some of the interstaters!

UPDATED attendees:

 

1. Andre Thompson

2. Stuart McLean

3. Michael McMinn

4. Shannon Paull

5. Stuart Thornton

6. Luke Marburg

7. Tom Casey

8. Livi Lange

9. Scottie Taylor

10. Michael Costalos

11. Lyndon Carter

12. Matthew Owen

13. Darren Bonnett

14. Chris Dobell

Edited November 14, 2018 by mcaussie

For this huge tournament weekend, we are including some mini events for those who want more pinball action during the downtime between tournaments or for anyone else who would like to visit the museum but isn’t participating in the major tournaments.

The mini events include:

Pinball Scavenger Hunt: as far as I know something like this hasn’t been done before, you will find out the exact details of what we are planning on the day ;)

Stall Ball: a fun way to fill in some time, it is sort like a “pass the bomb” type of game – an evil variation of “pass the parcel”. You drain the ball and you lose, to be safe you need to stall the ball in anything that temporary locks the ball away to pass the game onto the next unfortunate player.

Split Flipper: A team based game. 2 players, each controlling one flipper each. Let’s see who are the best players at working together.

 

For more information about these mini events see http://www.pinballmuseum.com.au/?p=Events-SternArmyEntersAustralia

 

The trading hours of the museum have been extended to be able to fit everything in!

Saturday 10am to 10pm.

Sunday 10am to 9pm.

 

As Michael mentioned above, the pinballs at the museum will be available on unlimited free play in between tournaments on the Saturday and Sunday. We encourage everyone to come to this exciting weekend, if you are not entering a tournament you can still enjoy the unlimited games for $20 per day.

Iron Maiden Pro is now at the museum.

 

This machine will be in the "Stern Army Australian Pinball Museum Championship" and the "Stern Army Australian Pinball Museum 5 Strikes".

With both of these tournaments being Stern Army tournaments, that means I have been able to apply to the "Up The Irons Tournament".

These two tournaments held on the weekend are the ONLY events in Australia where you can submit Iron Maiden scores to the Stern Army Up The Irons Competition as found here:

https://www.ifpapinball.com/maiden/

 

"Up The Irons" eligible events can be viewed here for official confirmation - our tournaments are 3/4 down the list:

https://www.ifpapinball.com/maiden/events/

 

Current standings for the competition are shown here:

https://www.ifpapinball.com/maiden/standings/

When posting this, the current #1 is 4.4 billion, and the current #10 is 649 million.

We need to get some Aussies on that scoreboard!

 

How the competition works - during the Stern Army tournament, take a photo of yourself with your score, to enter your score you need to email the photo to the ifpa.

All details are on the ifpa website linked above.

 

 

 

So AWESOME @Brk_oth

The value of the prizes up for grabs for these tournaments is well over $500!

 

Stern Army Best Game - Friday

1st Prize - Walking Dead Flyer signed by John Borg + Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug + $20 giftshop voucher

2nd Prize - Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug

3rd Prize - Stern Army keytag

 

Stern Army Championship - Saturday/Sunday

1st prize - Iron Maiden translite + Aerosmith flyer signed by Donny Gillies+ Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug + $20 giftshop voucher

2nd prize - Walking Dead flyer signed by John Borg + Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug

3rd prize - Aerosmith flyer signed by John Borg + Stern Army keytag

 

Flip Frenzy - Saturday

1st prize - Guardians of the Galaxy flyer signed by John Borg + APM keytag + $20 giftshop voucher

2nd prize - Australian Pinball Museum key ring

3rd prize - Australian Pinball Museum key ring

 

Stern Army 5 Strikes - Sunday

1st prize - Guardians of the Galaxy flyer signed by Christopher Franchi + Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug + $20 giftshop voucher

2nd prize - Stern Army keytag + Australian Pinball Museum mug

3rd prize - Stern Army keytag

 

-------------------------

 

All extra mini-events have a prize of a $20 giftshop voucher.

 

-------------------------

 

Every player that enters the Stern Army tournament receives one "Stern Army Dog Tag".

How's it looking for you @ajfclark??? 😁

How's it looking for you @ajfclark???

 

No hope. :'(

 

Flip out this weekend, but no can do 7-9.

The weekend is over, congratulations to all the winners!

 

 

Tournament #1 – Stern Army Best Game

1) Tom Casey

2) Stuart Thornton

3) Matthew Owen

 

Tournament #2 – Main Event - Stern Army Australian Pinball Museum Championship

1) Tom Casey

2) Andre Thomson

3) Matthew Owen

 

Tournament #3 – Flip Frenzy

1) Matthew Owen

2) Tom Casey

3) Michael McMinn

 

Tournament #4 – Stern Army 5 Strikes

1) Andre Thomson

2) Michael Costalos

3) Stuart Thornton

 

Can someone please explain what the stern army is exactly?

Can someone please explain what the stern army is exactly?

 

no :-)

no :-)

 

Fair enough lol

Basically its a brand name to help get the world of pinball tournaments out there into the real world.

 

The Stern Army members are "the street team and brand ambassadors" for Stern Pinball and the IFPA.

The purpose of it is to promote pinball tournaments at public locations and bring new people into the world of pinball.

 

If you follow the Stern Army in the US, you'll notice the majority of Stern Army events are in country towns trying to promote pinball in places that previously didn't have any pinballs.

 

Current "pinheads" join up to the Stern Army and need to get a public location to host pinball tournaments. Stern provides some prizes to help sweeten the lure of playing in tournaments... These "pinheads" are the "brand ambassadors"... They are rewarded for recruiting new players into tournaments, running frequent tournaments at new locations that never had tournaments, and even for helping to push the Stern brand to get more pinballs at the locations.