Ohio Pinbrew Fest 2025
The Metroplex Expo Center - 1620 Motor Inn Drive, Girard, Ohio 44420
April 10th - 12th, 2025
Match Play Tournament. IFPA sanctioned & certified for 250% WPPR boost (300% if there are 128 or more rated players).
Tournament is open to the public with paid admission.
The tournament will feature a main tournament with an A division and B division. There will also be a Women’s tournament &
Junior’s tournament.
The Junior’s tournament will take place on Saturday at 2 PM, for children ages 12 and under who don’t have an IFPA ranking better than 2000. The Women’s tournament will be a match play tournament that starts on Saturday at noon.
QUALIFYING
Match Play Sessions -
Match play sessions involve 5 single-game rounds of match play. Sessions are scheduled for 3 hour time slots, and each player may choose to sign up for whatever session(s) works with their schedule. Game scoring in 4 player groups will be done with 7 points awarded to first place, 5 points to second place, 3 points to third place, and 1 point to fourth place. 3 player groups will score with 7 points to first, 4 points to second, and 1 point for third. The first round will use IFPA rank for pairings, and the following rounds will use swiss-pairing based on point totals. Each player’s combined total pointage for all 5 games is the player’s final score for that session. A session must have a minimum of 8 players to fire.
Pricing -
A division players (ranked 1500 or better) cost $25 per session.
B division players (ranked 1501 to no IFPA rank) cost $15 per session
New this year we are offering the ability to pre-register online and pay for an “all-access pass”. This will allow a player to play in as many sessions as they’d like for one flat price. Price for A division players is $125, B division players is $75. Contact a tournament director through Facebook or Email to sign up. Contact info at the bottom of the page.
Players IFPA rank as of the first day of the event (Thursday the 10th) will be used
Tournament registration entry will be handled at the tournament desk. Players are encouraged to pre-register for qualifying sessions.
No refunds
Registration -
Players will register at the tournament desk for whatever session(s) they choose.
Players may register for a session at any time the tournament desk is open. Pre-registration is encouraged, but not required, however registration for a session will cut off 5 minutes before it begins (or if the session sells out).
Lists of registered players will not be available until their respective rounds begin.
Ranking -
Rankings will be determined by the total pointage of a player’s best four sessions combined together.
Any additional sessions that aren’t being used in a player’s ranking will be used for tie-breaking purposes.
B division tickets do not restrict upward movement, so, for example, a player who’s B eligible can still qualify for A division if their scores are high enough.
Top 24 players qualify for main division playoffs.
Top 8 B eligible players who did not qualify A division will instead qualify for B division.
Players can check qualifying standings on the MatchPlay Series page, https://app.matchplay.events/series/4102/
Schedule -
Qualifying rounds start times -
Thursday: 4:30 PM, 7:30 PM
Friday: 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM, 5:30 PM, 8:30 PM
Saturday: 10:30 AM, 1:00 PM
If for some reason a qualifying session runs past its allocated time slot and beyond the start time of another session, the next session will be delayed until the first one finishes.
If a round ends unusually early or does not occur due to low participation, another round may be added to fill a time slot.
Junior’s tournament takes place on Saturday at 2 PM
Women’s tournament takes place on Saturday at 12PM
A finals start on Saturday at 4 PM.
B finals start on Saturday at 4 PM.
Ties -
Significant ties (to make it into finals) will be played off on a randomly selected game, with the winner of that game being the winner of the tie breaker. These playoffs will occur on Saturday at 3:30 PM.
If the tie break has more than 4 players in it than the game will be randomly selected from a pool of games deemed to be faster playing, as to avoid the tie breaker going overtime and holding up the tournament
Ties for other positions in main division will be determined by whichever player has the higher ranking on their next highest ranking session that is not contributing to their standings. (ex. Both players in the tie have 60 total points from their best four rounds. Player one played a fifth round in which they got 14, player two played a fifth round in which they got 12. Player one would win the tiebreaker. If a player does not have results for an additional session it will be as if that player’s additional session was a 0)
If the tied players also tie in their additional sessions, then whichever player had the single highest scoring session will win the tiebreaker.
In the extremely rare case that both players have the exact same scores across all qualifying attempts, the tie will be broken by a coin flip.
For ties outside of the finals (used for IFPA standings purposes) if it were to come to a coin flip they will instead remain as ties.
FINALS
General information -
A and B Division finals begin at 4 PM on Saturday.
Players should check-in before 4 PM that way we are ready to start immediately at 4 PM.
A and B Finals are played in 4-player “PAPA Style groups”.
Four player games are scored with 1st earning 4 points, 2nd earning 2 points, 3rd earning 1 point, and 4th receiving 0 points.
Three-player games will be scored as if a nonexistent fourth player received the 4th place finish (i.e., 1st earns 4 points, 2nd earns 2, and last earns 1).
The top two players from each group will advance to the next round.
If there is a tie in point totals for the top two players in a group, the tied players will play off on a randomly selected game that they have not yet played that round. Play order selection will be based on seeding.
Finals brackets can be found online at https://matchplay.live/pinbrew2025finals and https://matchplay.live/pinbrew2025b
Game Selection -
The group that contains the highest-seeded player gets first choice of machine and order of play. The highest-seeded player within each group may choose either the machine to be played, or the order of play.
If the highest-seeded player chooses the machine to be played, then the next highest-seeded player chooses the order of play, with the remaining players choosing order of play in decreasing order of seeding.
If the highest-seeded player chooses order of play, the remaining players may choose their order, in descending order of seeding, and choice of machine then goes to the next highest-seeded player in the group.
Once a player verbally announces their game choice, or chooses position, that decision cannot be changed.
Note that the original seeding of players when entering the final rounds from qualifying is used in every round. At no time does a player’s seeding change from round to round; therefore the advantage of qualifying in first place can be significant.
No group may select a machine which has already been selected to be played by a higher seeded group, nor may they choose a machine on which they have already played in that round (unless machine malfunctions have made this unavoidable)
The same player can’t pick the same game two rounds in a row.
Final Standings -
Final standings for people who were eliminated in the same round as each other will be determined by the points players earned in the round they were eliminated in. Ties in in these points will remain as ties.
Prize Pool -
Prize pool pays out 100% of the entry money (minus the IFPA fees)
10% of the main tournament’s prize pool will be delegated to the B division.
A division awards cash prizes to the top 16 finishers with 1st receiving 25%, 2nd at 16%, 3rd at 11%, 4th at 8%, 5th through 8th each at 5%, and 9th - 16th each at 2.5%.

1st
23%
2nd
15%
3rd
10%
4th
8%
5th - 8th
5%
9th - 16th
2%
17th - 24th
1%
B division awards cash prizes to the top 4 finishers. With 1st receiving 40%, 2nd receiving 25%, 3rd receiving, 20%, and 4th receiving 15%.

1st
40%
2nd
25%
3rd
20%
4th
15%


All other rules and procedures for anything gameplay related are based on PAPA rules (ex. malfunctions, interference, stuck balls, etc.)
Full rule documentation available here - https://www.ifpapinball.com/.../PAPA_IFPA-Complete...
All or any Rules, procedures, and regulations can be changed before tournament start time on Thursday April 10th at 4:00 PM.
Miscellaneous
Machines on the show floor -
In the case that the tournament does not have enough machines to use, machines on the show floor that were deemed fit for tournament use may be added to the tournament, they will be arranged in the tournament area.
Tournament timing -
This tournament operates on a tight schedule and although we build in tolerances for rounds going long, extreme cases may arise that cause a round to run overtime. If time is becoming a concern the tournament directors have the right to remove long playing games from the bank or declare a mercy rule.
For other questions and information please contact either Jeffrey at leveltwogames@gmail.com or Tommy at gamesrus774@yahoo.com