IFPA League and Tournament definitions
New for 2016, the IFPA is more clearly defining the differences between what we consider an endorsed “IFPA Tournament” and an endorsed “IFPA League”.
The IFPA will be managing two separate registration processes, one for “Tournaments” and one for “Leagues”. The IFPA Calendar will continue to only display “Tournaments”, while our IFPA Leagues page will show a list of all the active IFPA Leagues and the dates of their current season.
IFPA Leagues (Registration found HERE / Active season listing found HERE):
- Can be private or require membership.
- Involves the concept of a “season” where multiple sessions are held and results are tallied.
- League season must be registered to the IFPA prior to the start of the season or it will not be endorsed.
- When registering your league season, please include the Start Date and End Date in the submission, with all meeting dates in the comments of the submission.
- Leagues CANNOT hold separate private tournaments for just their members.
- Leagues have the option to submit season results based on the regular season standings OR standings after any Finals/Playoff, but not both (assuming the regular season has direct play – if it doesn’t then it has to use the finals standings).
- Leagues can no longer submit results after each session, because that defeats the purpose of what a “league season” is all about. Any league that’s interested in doing that is welcome to submit these sessions as TOURNAMENTS on the tournament calendar, and must be open for anyone to participate (see tournament rules below).
IFPA Tournaments (Registration found HERE / Calendar found HERE):
- Single Competitive Event. Can be a single day, or over a period of time.
- Open to anyone who wishes to attend, but no special treatment of players. Only limitations allowed:
- Age restrictions due to legal requirements.
- Number of Competitors – Due to tournament space, length of tournament, etc.
- Must be submitted to the IFPA Calendar 30 days prior to the event.
- Can be held at private locations, but limited to 4 events per year.
- Only events over 16 people will be eligible for points if they are listed as private.
*Please note that any ‘Circuit/Series’ with a final tournament that consists of a predetermined closed group of players must be approved by the IFPA. This includes events like the State Championship Series, PAPA Circuit, IFPA World Pinball Championship, etc.
Will there be a grace period for start dates for pre-approval? Tucson started yesterday. 🙂
We’ll have to clean things up a bit . . . email me 🙂
If any leagues are looking for some great (free!) scorekeeping software, check out http://league.papa.org 🙂
Are Leagues that run 4 Seasons per year still allowed to post results for each Season?
Cary – Leagues are welcome to run as many “Seasons” as they want, and can absolutely submit results at the end of each of them. It’s important to note that each season has to registered separately through League section on our website.
Can a league impose restrictions on guest players and still be considered an open league in order to recieve wpprs? Let’s say the league allows someone to play as a guest two times per season.
so “super league”, weeks of best game qualifier leading to one PAPA style final would still be under tournament? I assume it is similar to a PAPA tourney just having qualifier over longer period of time?
Per – Leagues are welcome to do that no problem.
Germain – You are exactly correct. “Super League” in most cases isn’t actually a “League” at all under our clarifications between “tournament” vs. “league” . . . it’s a TOURNAMENT with month long qualifying and should be submitted to our tournament calendar appropriately.
The does the DHPL (Die Hard Pinball League) have to resubmit all league dates because of this new change or are we okay.
For IFPA Tournaments has there been thought about limiting the submission of results to IFPA to only 30 days after an event.
DHPL will have to be resubmitted through our League registration page. It’s currently on the tournament calendar when it shouldn’t be.
As for limiting submission of results, we’re working on an automated process that will be contacting tournament directors on a weekly basis as a reminder to get results in.
ifpapinball
Follow up question: Can a league decide that guest players are not eligible for playoffs and still keep their ifpa endorsement?
@Per ifpapinball
For leagues, yes, because they can be open to ‘members only’.
Many leagues have rules regarding participation (i.e. you have to play in 5 out of 7 events to be eligible for the playoffs). The guest rule is another way of saying something similar (obviously as a guest they won’t have the stats to compete against others based on a full season of results).
@germain
Correct . . . Super “League” is actually a “Tournament”.