We’ll be having a launch party for Jaws on February 27 at 7:00 pm. This will be a 4-strikes head-to-head tournament with one match each round played on Jaws. The winner will get a plaque and translite and there will be another random translite giveaway. This tournament is open to everyone! The Lightning Flippers will have their women-only party on 3/9 at 4:30 pm, with the same format. Contact Heather for more information.
Category: News
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Get ready for Silver Balls in the City
It’s time for the annual Silver Balls in the City charity tournament, supporting the Capital Area Humane Society! The tournament will be on Thursday, Dec. 28 at 6 pm. This will be a ten-strikes group (progressive) strikes tournament. The cost is $10 plus coin drop. $9 from each entry goes to the Capital Area Humane Society and $1 to the IFPA. There will be holiday-themed trophies and random prize giveaways!
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The madness returns!
The annual Stephen T. Kendrick Memorial March Hare Madness tournament, a charity tournament benefiting the Rabbit and Small Animal Rescue of Westland, returns to The Avenue Cafe on March 7, 2023. This will be a timed group matchplay tournament using the Critical Hit deck. If you haven’t played a Critical Hit tournament before, you’re in for a treat! Every player is dealt cards that allow them to “cast spells” during the tournament. You could force someone to play a game without viewing the display, shake the game to give someone tilt warnings, or even trade scores. It’s a wild time fitting for the name March Hare Madness! Plus, rabbits and magic… it’s a whole thing.
The tournament kicks off at 6 pm and we will play rounds until 10 pm at which point the top four players will play a three-game finals match. The entry fee is $10 which goes 90% to RASA Rescue and 10% to the Sharpe cartel.
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Silver Balls in the City returns
It’s time for the annual Silver Balls in the City charity tournament, supporting the Capital Area Humane Society! The tournament will be on Dec. 27 (there will be no league meeting that day). This will be a group (progressive) strikes tournament. The number of strikes is tentatively set at 10. The cost is $10 plus coin drop. $9 from each entry goes to the Capital Area Humane Society and $1 to the IFPA. There will be holiday-themed trophies and random prize giveaways!
The start time is TBA but will probably be 6 pm.
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Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom
So said existentialist Søren Kierkegaard. It’s time for the annual Fear and Trembling Charity Pingolf Tournament, the only pingolf tournament that includes the terror of choice.
Our annual spooky-season pingolf tournament will take place this year on October 18. The course may be started anytime after 4 pm, and the last entries will be permitted at 7. The early start time is to ensure the tournament can finish at a semi-reasonable time. The fee for the first entry is $10, and subsequent cards can be bought for an additional $5 provided they are started by 7 pm. All proceeds minus IFPA fees go to the Capital Area Humane Society. In addition to trophies for the top four finishers, there will also be random prize drawings.
This will be a nine-hole, objective-based course. Competitors will choose one of two objectives on each game and have to stick with the one they chose. Players get a stroke for each ball it takes to reach the objective, up to four strokes for not completing the objective at all in three balls. The lowest four scores on the course will move on to a three-game final match (with non-pingolf 4/2/1/0 scoring).
Please come and, as Kierkegaard said, make your choices “in fear and trembling.”
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Lansing Lightning Flippers: a Women’s Tournament Series
I’m going to be trying something new for the Lansing scene, a women’s tournament series called the Lansing Lightning Flippers. If it is successful it may become a regular monthly tournament. It will be free, novice-friendly, and eligible for women’s ranking points with the IFPA, which can be used to qualify for the women’s state championship (new this year). The format will be four-strikes knockout. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about women’s tournaments in pinball.
What’s the point of a women’s tournament? Can’t women compete with men at pinball?
Yes, of course, women can and do compete successfully with men at pinball. However, the IFPA recognizes that women are underrepresented in pinball. The reasons for this are diverse and complicated, but one likely factor is that pinball has not always been a socially welcoming hobby to women. The purpose of women’s tournaments is to try to encourage greater participation by women and to bring greater attention to women in pinball.
Can women’s-restricted tournaments be sanctioned by the IFPA? How does that work?
The IFPA has a separate WPPR (World Pinball Player Ranking) points system for women’s -restricted tournaments. They follow the same rules as other IFPA tournaments except for being restricted to women. Because there is no prize pool, women’s tournaments are not charged the $1 per player sanctioning fee, which is why ours can be free.
I’m a female player and I see myself listed in two different women’s rankings on the IFPA. What’s up with that?
The IFPA keeps two rankings for women. One is the women’s open ranking, and one is the women’s restricted ranking. The women’s open ranking uses only points earned by female players in open tournaments. The women’s restricted ranking is based on points earned in women’s restricted tournaments and does not consider open ranking points.
Which ranking is used to qualify for the women’s state championship?
Both rankings will be used to determine the qualifiers for the state championship. The higher of the two will be used for each player, based only on tournaments played in 2022. There will be 16 slots for the state championship this year. The odd numbered seeds will be drawn from the women’s open rankings for 2022, and the even numbered seeds will be drawn from the women’s restricted rankings for 2022. Unlike in the open state championship, there is no limit on the number of events that can be used toward someone’s ranking.
I’m a female player but I don’t see myself in the women’s rankings. Can I fix that?
Yes! That means that the IFPA does not know you want to be included in the women’s rankings. You can email ifpapinball@gmail.com and tell them you would like to be included in the women’s rankings.
Can men come to the event?
Men are welcome and encouraged to come, watch, socialize, and cheer on players.
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The Madness Returns to Lansing
See? Rabbits are magic! The annual Stephen T. Kendrick Memorial March Hare Madness tournament returns to the Avenue Cafe in Lansing on March 18, and we will be bringing back our popular Critical Hit format. What are rabbits known for? No, the other thing. Magic! Critical Hit is a format that uses a deck of (IFPA-sanctioned!) cards that allow players to “cast spells” during the tournament. Spells that, for instance, allow you to force everyone in your group to replay a game, or make a game disappear for the whole rest of the tournament, or let you shake a game in an attempt to give someone else tilt warnings. Players will all be dealt two random cards to start, and additional cards may be earned by meeting specific goals during the course of play.
We will play four-player (or in some cases three-player) rounds with Pinburgh (3/2/1/0) scoring from 6:30 until 10:00 pm. After the last round, the top four scoring players will move on to a three-game final round. Players are asked to be on-site by 6:20 to register as we will begin promptly at 6:30.
To borrow from Watership Down: “be cunning and full of tricks” and you will carry home one of this year’s custom rabbit-themed trophies, one for each of the four finalists. This tournament honors my lost rabbit Stephen, a giant among rabbits, and thus it benefits the rabbit rescue from which I adopted him, Rabbit and Small Animal Rescue (RASA Rescue) of Westland, a registered nonprofit charity. The cost of the tournament is $10 plus coin drop. $9 goes directly to RASA Rescue and $1 covers our IFPA fees.
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League cancelled 1/11/22
Sorry, Capital City crushers, but due to the out of control Covid numbers in our county and state, league will not meet 1/11/22. We will re-evaluate things in two weeks.
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Godzilla Launch Party
The launch party for Godzilla will be taking place at The Avenue Cafe on November 30, 2021, at 7 pm. It will be a three-strikes head-to-head tournament using all the games at the venue, but with Godzilla used for the final match. The winner will receive a Grand Champion plaque and (most likely) a translite. Further details to come.
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The return of Fear and Trembling
Quarterly charity tournaments will return to The Avenue Cafe with Fear and Trembling, the annual Halloweelection pingolf tournament, on November 2. The course may be started anytime after 4 pm, and the last entries will be permitted at 7. The early start time is to ensure the tournament can finish at a semi-reasonable time. The fee for the first entry is $10, and subsequent cards can be bought for an additional $5 provided they are started by 7 pm. All proceeds minus IFPA fees go to the Capital Area Humane Society. In addition to trophies for the top four finishers, there will also be random prize drawings.
This will be a nine-hole, objective-based course. Competitors will choose one of two objectives on each game and have to stick with the one they chose. Players get a stroke for each ball it takes to reach the objective, up to four strokes for not completing the objective at all in three balls. The lowest four scores on the course will move on to a three-game final match (with non-pingolf 4/2/1/0 scoring).
This is our first charity tournament since the pandemic started. Please come and, as Kierkegaard said, make your choices “in fear and trembling.”