WPPR formula change to v5.3 for 2017!
Since the release of WPPR v5.2 for the 2016 season, the IFPA has continued investigating ways to make the World Pinball Player Rankings more accurate for how we rank players across the globe.
These latest changes will be incorporated into WPPR v5.3 which will be implemented starting January 1, 2017.
Please note that for all 2016 IFPA related activities (qualifying for 2016-17 SCS, 2016-17 ECS, IFPA14, etc), version 5.2 will be used for that qualification process.
Below is an overview of changes for the updated 2017 formula:
- For any IFPA endorsed tournament or league with a qualifying portion, only players that participate in at least 50% of the games used in determining those qualifying positions will be included in the final results. Any players that don’t meet this minimum participation requirement should be removed from the results by the tournament director (TD) prior to submitting those results to the IFPA. For example, a Best Game qualifying format where 10 machines are available with the best 7 scores counting towards the player’s qualifying position, any player that plays fewer than 4 machines will be removed from the standings submitted to the IFPA. For leagues, this means that players must participate in at least 50% of the sessions of the regular season to be included in the final standings submitted to the IFPA.
- Certain formats (Selfie Leagues, TOPS Tournaments, etc) rely on players submitting their own results without the verification of a TD or authorized scorekeeper on site. Any qualifying format that includes “unverified” results where a TD, league official, or authorized scorekeeper is not present to record their score, will not have the qualifying portion included in the TGP calculation. The IFPA will classify these qualifying formats as strictly for seeding purposes, with only the finals format counting towards the TGP calculation.
- The TGP will now include games played that are fewer than 3 balls, including timed formats where players are attempting to reach a score or objective as quickly as possible. Any game where it’s possible for the player to finish on the first ball in play, will be calculated at 33% value for TGP purposes. For example, if players have a goal of reaching a certain feature in a game as a way of winning that game or match, the fact that it is POSSIBLE for the player to reach that objective on ball 1 means this will count as 1/3rd of a game played towards TGP. The exception to this rule will be the Pin-Golf format, which will have it’s own set of grading rules (see next bullet points).
- The IFPA is launching the IFPA Tour of endorsed Pin-Golf events. We are now enforcing stricter rules regarding how organizers can score a IFPA endorsed Pin-Golf format tournament, and events must meet this criteria with their course design to award WPPR points as an IFPA endorsed event. The WPPR points awarded for Pin-Golf events will now include a Pin-Golf Multiplier (PGM) adjustment. This metric is used to grade the difficulty of the course. Full details on the IFPA Tour, rules of course design, and the calculation of the PGM adjustment are available HERE.
For full detailed information on the 2017 formula, click HERE. Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at ifpapinball@gmail.com. Please check back when we announce that WPPR v5.3 has been implemented for 2017 as the details may always change prior to launch.
We spend all this money putting an awesome selfie league together with 30+ players out of the gate then you pull the points off of it WTF!
If I can see game scores with my game room HD security cameras does that count for TD confirmed score to count qualifying rounds?
If there isn’t someone there to handle malfunctions, rulings, stuck balls and the recording of scores . . . it’s ‘unverified’.
You spend all this money putting this awesome selfie league together, and those players will still have to participate if they want to WIN the tournament, especially if you are only taking the top 4 or 8 qualifiers for the A division.
Nice, a series of endorsed Pin-Golf events! Will Pin-a-Go-Go Pinball Show qualify? There’s a really popular Pin-Golf tournament there (138 contestants this year).
Josh, would HD cameras above the games be good enough to verify qualifying games for a super league? There isn’t anyone on site to record scores, but all gameplay is recorded in HD and can be reviewed after a score is submitted.
Nope . . . If there isn’t someone there to handle malfunctions, rulings, stuck balls and the recording of scores . . . it’s ‘unverified’.
Depends on the format details Josh. If they follow the guidelines that we have listed to be included on the IFPA Tour then it shouldn’t be a problem.
IFPA – International Flipper Pinball Association right I don’t care about points I’m never able to travel to any IFPA events but as an operator being able to offer a month long qualifying event with max points is a draw for players if I can just throw a single day event and save myself the headache of score entry for the same amount of points what’s the draw?
This way seeds people higher and gives them a better guaranteed rank out of it, rather than having to compete from the same starting point against each other. If you wanted to add value, I’d think changing up your finals format to include more games would be the way to go,
The headache of the score entry is what drives the cash in the cashbox.
Rather than holding a single day event with random seeding (where ‘anyone’ can win), this qualification process still eliminates a majority of the players from winning the tournament.
In our selfie league, you need to qualify in one of the top 4 spots to have a chance to win the big prize money for the month. You can’t get into one of those top 4 positions without playing (and in our league with our player base, you have to play quite a bit).
While there’s no WPPR value associated with that qualifying, it still has a huge impact on the results of the tournament.
Will these changes be like v5.2 and change all of our results going back years? Thanks
I just read through the description, and I’m confident that our event would have qualified “as is” and still have a high TGP value. Once I’m caught up, I’ll look into compiling the necessary stats and entering scores from playoff rounds. I’m open to IFPA using our 138-player event to test how 5.3 would affect WPPRs. Maybe Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen can help make this easier with updated Match Play software.
I guess I’m just not understanding I will research more and PM with questions thanks for the dialogue I know what your trying to achieve is a difficult balance. Thanks!
We will be submitting the Volleyball House Pingolf Championships for next year’s IFPA Tour!
No Brett. The only retroactive changes that get made are “formula” changes.
All of the v5.3 changes are ‘manually inputted’ stuff from the organizers, and I’ll kill myself before I go back through the 2500 results every year in the past adjusting things 🙂
Ok thank you.
Jake, just make your finals PAPA style 16-8-4 with 4 player groups and 4 games per round. Boom, 96% value. That’s what we’ll be likely to be doing going forward (i.e. 2017 onwards, since the changes don’t take effect until then).
Thanks Kevin that is likely what we will do. I’m still trying to learn how this is all calculated. I fear my sarcasm is not appreciated;) just thought the timing of the announcement was funny right after we started our league I know they have been working out these rules for some time just a bit of ribbing.
Oh yeah, I didn’t mean my comment in a negative way either. It is pretty funny how things are kinda yo-yoing back and forth between formats as people scramble to try and get points after every new change. Nature of the beast I guess. 😛