The IFPA / FWTG League courtesy of Rich Gannon gave away a pair of tickets to the Seattle Seahawks game last week. FWTG member Kevin Birrell won the tickets, and fellow top 40 ranked player Raymond Davidson joined him to check out the action. 

The raffles continue with the FWTG League, and the December fundraiser tournaments are also being added to the IFPA Calendar daily. Check out the IFPA calendar for the FWTG Tournament nearest you, and join the FWTG League to start getting involved in chances to win all these great prizes. Over $50,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs!

Please make sure to "Like" Gridiron Support and the IFPA on Facebook as well!

A quick reminder that there are TWO components of the Flippin' With the Greats campaign:

1) The LEAGUE – This is fantasy football meets pinball. Sign up and join the team of your choosing. All the WPPR points you have earned in 2014 will go towards helping that team in the standings. We will be raffling off prizes the rest of the year to league members, including NFL memorabilia, pinball memorabilia, spots into the Grand Final, and actual pinball machines. Click HERE for more details.

2) The TOURNAMENT SERIES – This will be the IFPA's December charity fundraiser campaign supporting the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. There will be 32 tournaments held in the various NFL cities, along with Coach Ditka Wild Card tournaments available for cities outside of the NFL markets, where players can donate to the cause, and play for a chance to advance to the Grand Final and win other prizes. Click HERE for more details.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

The IFPA / FWTG League couresy of Rich Gannon gave away a pair of tickets to the NY Jets vs. Buffalo Bills last week. Rich is doing it again this upcoming weekend, offering a pair of tickets for the upcoming Seattle Seahawks vs. Oakland Raiders game. These tickets will be waiting at will call for one lucky FWTG member. To be eligible simply contact the IFPA at [email protected] to be included in the drawing. All current FWTG members are eligible, as well as anyone that signs up between now and 12pm EST this upcoming Saturday. We will then contact the winner shortly after via random draw.

Remember, you MUST join the FWTG League to win.

Most importantly, your participation in FWTG League directly benefits Coach Ditka's Charity…Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.

Please make sure to "Like" Gridiron Support and the IFPA on Facebook as well!

A quick reminder that there are TWO components of the Flippin' With the Greats campaign:

1) The LEAGUE – This is fantasy football meets pinball. Sign up and join the team of your choosing. All the WPPR points you have earned in 2014 will go towards helping that team in the standings. We will be raffling off prizes the rest of the year to league members, including NFL memorabilia, pinball memorabilia, spots into the Grand Final, and actual pinball machines. Click HERE for more details.

2) The TOURNAMENT SERIES – This will be the IFPA's December charity fundraiser campaign supporting the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. There will be 32 tournaments held in the various NFL cities, along with Coach Ditka Wild Card tournaments available for cities outside of the NFL markets, where players can donate to the cause, and play for a chance to advance to the Grand Final and win other prizes. Click HERE for more details.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

blog post courtesy of Bob Matthews

CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN TRANSLATION

The new WPPR system presents a challenge for tournaments that want to obtain full value.  Not all events can or should seek full value; your tournament’s goals are your own to choose.  If high value is one of them, though, here’s an overview of various current formats, what happens to them under WPPR 5.0, and some options for change.  This does NOT address the need to have 64 players for full value; here, I’m just looking at the factor for the Tournament Grade Percentage [TGP] to be applied to your event and how to get the most out of it.

Single Elimination Match Play

Unless you’re doing best-of-5 or best-of-7, this format will not get full value for typical size fields.  Even a 64-player field, playing best-of-three, only grades out to 72%.  Basically, it’s not the format to use if full value is a goal.  If you combine it with a qualifying phase prior to match play, that might work.

Double Elimination Match Play

This format fares well.  A double elimination event with best 2-of-3 in both winners and losers bracket will grade out full with 9 or more players.  Events with 2-of-3 winners and a single game in the losers’ bracket will grade out full with 33+ players and at 96% with 17+ players.

Two Strikes

If it’s one game, one strike, then no tournament yet held would get 100%.  You need 65+ people just to get to 60%.  Two strikes only grades full for typical size fields when it’s best 2-of-3.  In that case, just 9 players gets you there.

Three Strikes

Three strikes is almost always done as single game, not best-of-3, due to how long it takes in the latter case.  Best 2-of-3 grades out full for just 5 players, while single game doesn’t grade full until you reach 129.

HERB-style Qualifying plus PAPA-style Playoffs

First, note that HERB or any other unlimited qualifying format will not reach 100% unless at least 20 hours of qualifying takes place.  This is because the new method only gives 80% value to the games played [GP] factor in these cases.

The most common versions of unlimited qualifying grade out in the 50-90% range.  Most HERB events use 4-9 machine scores, 2 or 3 rounds of 3-game PAPA-style playoffs, and at least 12 hours of qualifying.  That works out to 10-18 games played, or 40% to 72% value.  Add the 12% to 20% for hours of qualifying and you get 52% to 92% total.

Since most events of this type have chosen their playoff format to accommodate their schedule, it will often be impractical to increase the number of playoff games to raise the TGP value.  Tournament directors then have two primary choices to improve value:  change the playoff format to get more games played in the same number of available hours, or count more of the qualifying games towards making the playoffs.

Counting more qualifying games is easy; just take a player’s best 2 scores on each machine, or best 10 results across all machines, things like that.  [I would suggest limiting the number of best scores taken to 2 or 3 per machine; it wouldn’t do to have someone make the playoffs by having the top 10 scores on just one machine!]  For those using software, it would need to be rewritten, but that’s doable.

Let’s look at the other option, playoff formats, with respect to the time needed.  PAPA-style playoffs take about twice as long for the same number of “games played” as regards TGP as does match play.  It’s simple math:  if there a 4 players in a PAPA playoff group and an average game played takes N minutes, it takes 4N minutes to get one value game played in PAPA game.  In match play, with 2 players, the same value game played requires only 2N minutes.  So you can roughly double your GP with the switch to ether single or double elimination match play.

HERB-style Qualifying plus Match Play Playoffs

As long as the match play is double elimination best 2-of-3, this will make it to full value with even 4 machines used if 8 people or more are in the playoffs.  For single elimination, match play is worse off than PAPA-style if it’s single game.  If the matches are best 2-of-3, single elimination match play adds 3 games played compared to PAPA-style.  So if you take 16 to the playoffs, [or take 12 with the top 4 getting byes], you can just make it to 100% if you have 20+ hours  of qualifying and count 8 or more qualifying games:

20% for20 hours qualifying

32% for 8 qualifying games played

48% for 12 playoff games [4 match play rounds of 3 games each]

Limited Qualifying plus Match Play

Like HERB, most limited qualifying events use 4-9 machine scores, for 16% to 36% value.  With no hours value, most of the total value comes from the playoffs.  For the single elimination format commonly used with limited qualifying, a large number of rounds using best 2-of-3 is needed.  For 4-6 machine scores, you’d need to take 65+ players to the playoffs, so the total field would need to be 130+ players to meet the 50% reduction rule.  For 7-9 machines scores, you need to take 33+ players to match play and have a beginning field of 66+.

PinGolf

Pingolf alone needs 25 holes to work, regardless of whether the holes are in qualifying or playoffs [so long as the playoffs, if any, cut the field by at least 50%].  PinGolf as qualifying followed by other playoff formats works so long as the playoffs add enough value:

18-hole PinGolf plus PAPA-style makes it with 3 rounds of 3-game PAPA playoffs; 2 rounds of playoffs get you to 96%.

18-hole PinGolf plus single elimination match play works for best 2-of-3 playoff matches with 5+ people in the playoffs.

9 hole PinGolf plus double elimination best 2-of-3 works for 5+ players.

Disclaimer

I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible here, but in the end, the IFPA staff make the final determination as to an event’s value.  If you have any questions about your event’s value, you should probably contact IFPA before your event’s final rules are announced.  Thanks, and I hope I’ve helped.

The inaugural IFPA European Championship Series is now through Event #14 out of 17, after Finland hosted the K15 Open. Full results for K15 Open are available HERE.

An incredible 1050 players have taken part in at least one ECS tournament, with [player]Michael Trepp[/player] maintaining his lead by 21 WPPR points over fellow Swiss [player]Robert Sutter[/player] and 26 WPPR points over [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player]. The current ECS standings are available HERE.

The next ECS event takes players to Hungary (the Denmark event happened this past weekend), where the 2014 Hungarian Pinball Open will be taking place November 7-8. Details of that event are available HERE. The entire ECS schedule can be found HERE.

The IFPA is excited to announce that December will be Flippin' With the Greats month! We are teaming up with Gridiron Support to benefit Mike Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF).

Similar to the other fundraiser campaigns, the IFPA plans on treating each of these Flippin' With the Great fundraiser tournaments as a unique event, worth full value WPPR points, even if a particular location is already hosting another annual event in 2014. Get in touch with the IFPA at [email protected] if you're interested in setting up an event or submit to the IFPA calendar directly. We hope to set up events nationwide and use competitive pinball as a way to help raise funds for this great charity. The tournament must be scheduled to be played in the month of December to qualify.

A minimum donation of $30 is required to register for the FWTG tournament. This will go to Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assitance Fund. Every player will receive a Gridiron Greats medallion as a memento of playing in the event and supporting the charity. Players are also responsible for the cost of the games to be played if applicable.

The winner of every FWTG tournament will represent that NFL team at the Grand Final. Should the same player win additional FWTG tournaments or have already advanced to the Grand Final through other ways, we will select the 2nd place player to advance to the finals in any of those additional cities. These 32 players will compete for the BRAND NEW pinball machine, additional prizes and WPPR points in the "Flippin' With the Greats – Grand Final".

Additionally, cities that do not have an NFL franchise to represent will be able to host an event as a "Ditka Wildcard" city. These winners will also advance to the Grand Final and a chance to win a BRAND NEW pinball machine.

Full details are available HERE.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

The IFPA / FWTG League is excited to announce that Rich Gannon has donated a pair of tickets for the upcoming NY Jets vs. Buffalo Bills game. These tickets will be waiting at will call for one lucky FWTG member. To be eligible simply contact the IFPA at [email protected] to be included in the drawing. All current FWTG members are eligible, as well as anyone that signs up between now and 12pm EST this upcoming Saturday. We will then contact the winner shortly after via random draw.

Remember, you MUST join the FWTG League to win.

Most importantly, your participation in FWTG League directly benefits Coach Ditka's Charity…Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.

Please make sure to "Like" Gridiron Support and the IFPA on Facebook as well!

A quick reminder that there are TWO components of the Flippin' With the Greats campaign:

1) The LEAGUE – This is fantasy football meets pinball. Sign up and join the team of your choosing. All the WPPR points you have earned in 2014 will go towards helping that team in the standings. We will be raffling off prizes the rest of the year to league members, including NFL memorabilia, pinball memorabilia, spots into the Grand Final, and actual pinball machines. Click HERE for more details.

2) The TOURNAMENT SERIES – This will be the IFPA's December charity fundraiser campaign supporting the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. There will be 32 tournaments held in the various NFL cities, along with Coach Ditka Wild Card tournaments available for cities outside of the NFL markets, where players can donate to the cause, and play for a chance to advance to the Grand Final and win other prizes. Click HERE for more details.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

The IFPA / FWTG League is excited to announce (just in time for "Expo") – a Time Warp Pinball is up for grabs!

This machine is shopped out and ready for your home game room.

Time Warp will be awarded to a randomly selected FWTG League Participant on Oct 23rd @ 9pm CST.

Winning player will be responsible for any shipping charges (we will help coordinate a wholesale carrier), or the Pinball can be available for pick up in the Minneapolis or Chicago areas. As an alternative prize, Gridiron Support is offering a set of (5) GGAF Hall of Fame Medallions with matching serial numbers, if the winning player declines the Time Warp as their prize.

Remember, you MUST join the FWTG League to win.

In the coming weeks there will be many more great prizes awarded (including Pinball machines), so get in the game now!

Most importantly, your participation in FWTG League directly benefits Coach Ditka's Charity…Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.

Please make sure to "Like" Gridiron Support and the IFPA on Facebook as well!

A quick reminder that there are TWO components of the Flippin' With the Greats campaign:

1) The LEAGUE – This is fantasy football meets pinball. Sign up and join the team of your choosing. All the WPPR points you have earned in 2014 will go towards helping that team in the standings. We will be raffling off prizes the rest of the year to league members, including NFL memorabilia, pinball memorabilia, spots into the Grand Final, and actual pinball machines. Click HERE for more details.

2) The TOURNAMENT SERIES – This will be the IFPA's December charity fundraiser campaign supporting the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. There will be 32 tournaments held in the various NFL cities, along with Coach Ditka Wild Card tournaments available for cities outside of the NFL markets, where players can donate to the cause, and play for a chance to advance to the Grand Final and win other prizes. Click HERE for more details.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

Once again the FWTG winning player came from the NFC North, with Dave Gorka (representing the Bears) taking home this classic Las Vegas Hilton Slot Machine.

The next Prize to be awarded will be a Pinball Machine, so join the FWTG League today to get in on the action!

Again, we are pleased to announce that the FWTG Tournament Series will be expanded beyond the 32 NFL team markets. Any city in the world can host a " Coach Ditka Wild Card" FWTG charity fundraiser tournament. The winner of each "Wild Card" Tournament will also be awarded an Invitation / Entry to the Grand Final Event.

Remember, The "Flippin' With the Greats" season long Pinball initiative Directly benefits Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund…Your participation literally helps Change Lives!

There are many more BIG prizes on deck to be given away to League players throughout the NFL season. Don't miss out! Join in now to get in on the action!  

A quick reminder that there are TWO components of the Flippin' With the Greats campaign:

1) The LEAGUE – This is fantasy football meets pinball. Sign up and join the team of your choosing. All the WPPR points you have earned in 2014 will go towards helping that team in the standings. We will be raffling off prizes the rest of the year to league members, including NFL memorabilia, pinball memorabilia, spots into the Grand Final, and actual pinball machines. Click HERE for more details.

2) The TOURNAMENT SERIES – This will be the IFPA's December charity fundraiser campaign supporting the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. There will be 32 tournaments held in the various NFL cities, along with Coach Ditka Wild Card tournaments available for cities outside of the NFL markets, where players can donate to the cause, and play for a chance to advance to the Grand Final and win other prizes. Click HERE for more details.

The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund (GGAF) is a non-stock, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing financial grants and ‘pro bono’ medical assistance to retired NFL players in dire need. The organization focuses on the humanitarian side of post-football related issues, which include coordination of social services to retired players who are in need due to a variety of reasons including inadequate disability and/or pensions.

Get behind Coach Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and "LIKE" Gridiron Support on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gridironsupport.org.

The booming competitive pinball scene up in Wisconsin isn't the only exciting pinball activity going on. The Wisconsin State Journal recently published a piece on new pinball manufacturer Spooky Pinball. Click HERE to watch the video and read the article.

The inaugural IFPA European Championship Series is now through Event #13 out of 17, after Belgium hosted the Belgian Open Pinball tournament. Full results for Belgian Open Pinball are available HERE.

An incredible 1012 players have taken part in at least one ECS tournament, with [player]Michael Trepp[/player] having regained the lead by 23 WPPR points over fellow Swiss [player]Robert Sutter[/player] and 27 WPPR points over [player]Daniele Celestino Acciari[/player]. The current ECS standings are available HERE.

The next ECS event takes players to Finland, where the 2014 K15 Open will be taking place October 17-19th. Details of that event are available HERE. The entire ECS schedule can be found HERE.