Lansing Pinball League

Category: News

  • Announcing the Lansing SummerSlam!

    This summer we will be running an extended tournament which we will call the SummerSlam. It is open to all, not just league members, and costs $1 for the entire season of qualifying (this covers the IFPA costs).

    This is not a “selfie league” – at least not exactly – because we will require a tournament official to record scores. For the purposes of this tournament, the officials are me, Joseph, and anyone we delegate during extended periods of unavailability (as we will likely be on a summer trip sometime during this period). We are designating seven games and each player’s top score on every one of them will count for qualifying. You may put scores on any of those games anytime a tournament official is on site to record them. We will have intermittent dates, announced on our Facebook group, during which players can come and record scores. Scores may also be recorded during league nights and the summer Rocket Robin tournament. Normal Lansing-modified IFPA rules will apply, except that players may play unlimited extra balls on qualifying games. Death saves, bangbacks, etc., are still disallowed.

    The qualifying games are Attack from Mars, Deadpool, Game of Thrones, Iron Maiden, Lord of the Rings, Medieval Madness, and Tales of the Arabian Nights.

    Qualifying is open immediately. Playoffs for this tournament will be on August 7. Top 8 (or half of eligible players, defined as those who have played at least 4 of the 7 games) go to semifinals, which will be a three-game match with PAPA scoring (4/2/1/0). The top two from each group then go to finals. This tournament will be eligible for IFPA WPPR points, which advance your state and world rankings in pinball.

    Note that this tournament allows for qualifying on Deadpool for Stern’s BOOM! leader board (until July 31).

  • Time for a Mad Monster Party!

    On Saturday, February 9, we will be holding Mad Monster Party: The Munsters Launch Party at The Avenue Café in Lansing. This is a launch party using the same format as our Battle of the Bands II launch for The Beatles. Qualifying will be from 3 pm (when the bar opens) until 6:30 pm. The qualifying format will be “best game” on The Addams Family, Ghostbusters, Monster Bash, The Munsters, and Scared Stiff, with the player’s best 3 of the 5 counting. Each player will be limited to two attempts on each machine. At 6:30 pm, the top 8* qualifiers will go on to to a 3-game semifinal match in two groups of 4, and then two from each group will go to finals and play a 3-game final match. The tournament is free except for coin drop.

    *If there are under 16 eligible players, defined as people who put in at least two qualifying games, this number will change as follows:

    14-15 eligible players: 7 go to semifinals (3/4 groups)
    12-13 eligible players: 6 go to semifinals (3/3 groups)
    10-11 eligible players: 5 go to semifinals (3 play off, 2 get a bye)
    8-9 eligible players: no semifinals, 4 go to finals
    6-7 eligible players: no semifinals, 3 go to finals
    5 or fewer eligible players: no semifinals, 2-player finals, I cry a little

    Note that if any of the games (besides the Munsters) goes down or is removed from The Avenue before the tournament, the substitute game will be Attack from Mars.

    For further information and the latest updates, join the Facebook event page.

  • Silver Balls in the City to Return Dec. 27

    The fourth annual Silver Balls in the City charity pinball tournament will be held at 6:30 pm on Dec. 27 at the Avenue Café in Lansing.  The tournament will once again support the Capital Area Humane Society, but this year there will be a new twist.  We will be holding a 10-strike progressive strikes tournament.  In this format, you receive a number of strikes according to how many people finished ahead of you in a four-player group.  If you come in first, you receive no strikes; second, one strike; third, two strikes; fourth, three strikes.

    The top three finishers will receive holiday-themed trophies.  Additional festivities will also be in store, including a random translite giveaway.  The cost to enter is $10 plus coin drop, with $9 of each entry going to CAHS and the other $1 going to the IFPA for our sanctioning fee.  Everyone who plays in this tournament will become a world ranked pinball player!

    For more information and the latest updates, please join our Facebook event page.

  • The Beatles are coming!

    Ladies and Gentlemen… THE BEATLES! LAUNCH PARTY!

    That’s right, The Beatles are coming to the Avenue Café in Lansing, in the form of the new pinball game. We will be one of the few places in the state to have this game on location! And to celebrate we are taking part in the official Stern launch party. That means PRIZES! TROPHIES! FUN FUN FUN!!!

    This will be run as Battle of the Bands II, the sequel to our Iron Maiden Battle of the Bands tournament. The format will be similar. Qualifying will be from 4 pm until 8 pm. The qualifying format will be “best game” on Elvis, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden and The Beatles, with the player’s best 3 of the 5 counting. Each player will be limited to two attempts on each machine. At 8 pm, the top 8* qualifiers will go on to to a 3-game semifinal match in two groups of 4, and then two from each group will go to finals and play a 3-game final match. The cost of this tournament is $1 per player to register, plus coin drop.

    *If there are under 16 eligible players, defined as people who put in at least two qualifying games, this number will change as follows:

    14-15 eligible players: 7 go to semifinals (3/4 groups)
    12-13 eligible players: 6 go to semifinals (3/3 groups)
    10-11 eligible players: 5 go to semifinals (3 play off, 2 get a bye)
    8-9 eligible players: no semifinals, 4 go to finals
    6-7 eligible players: no semifinals, 3 go to finals
    5 or fewer eligible players: no semifinals, 2-player finals, I cry a little

    For more information and updates, join our Facebook event page.

  • Announcing the 3rd Annual ‘Fear and Trembling’

    The third annual Fear and Trembling tournament will be held at the Avenue Café on Wednesday, October 24, 2018.  For the second year this will take the form of an objective-based pingolf tournament.  Fear and Trembling is the tournament where, as Kierkegaard said, “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” and we make our choices in fear and trembling.

    In an objective-based pingolf tournament, you are given some objective (for instance, “light extra ball through the Gangway awards”) and are scored according to how quickly you complete the objective.  If you complete it in 1 ball, you are scored one stroke.  The games will be set to 3 balls and anyone who does not make an objective in 3 balls will be scored 4.

    The unique twist of Fear and Trembling is that you have a choice of two objectives on each game, an “A” and “B” objective.  Both are intended to be approximately equally hard, but your opinion on that may differ.  You must choose, before you begin play, which objective you are shooting for.  If you choose the A objective and accidentally finish the B objective?  Too bad!  It doesn’t count and you have to keep shooting for the one you chose.

    Players may start anytime after 5 pm, but the cutoff for beginning the course will be 7 pm.  The cost will be $10.  $9 will go to the Capital Area Humane Society and $1 to the IFPA for our endorsement fee.  This will be a WPPR-eligible tournament and best of all, there will be custom-made spooky trophies.

  • Rocket Robin returns to the Avenue

    The Lansing Pinball League is pleased to announce the return of Michigan’s only round robin* tournament! The third annual Rocket Robin will support the Capital Area Humane Society. This is an IFPA sanctioned event, and the top three will receive trophies.

    Everyone is invited to play, and all skill levels are welcome.  The cost will be $10, with $9 from each entry fee going to the Capital Area Humane Society, and $1 to the IFPA for their sanctioning fee.

    *We will play however many rounds we can get in within the allotted time. Depending on turnout and other factors, this may or may not be a full round robin, but we will be using Swiss pairings, which results in a good simulation of round robin even if we do not get through a full round robin.

  • The Familiar and the New for Season 10

    Well, we’re less than a week away from starting Season 10, so I figure it’s time to get the final details out there. The main thing is, for the most part, league will run exactly as it always has: you’ll still show up, play 5 games with a group, and take down your scores. Your scores will still be compared with everyone in the league for the night and playoff qualification and seeding will still be based on total score over the season. I am going to keep the $10 dues for now and we’ll see if we need to adjust and re-evaluate that after this season’s over. There will be some extra expenses this time (notably, the use of MatchPlay software to run the league, which I’ll get to in a moment, as well as the $1 per person fee from the IFPA) but I think we can keep the dues the same and work around that.

    So here’s what’s going to change — some stuff I am tweaking because it will make it easier for me to run the league simply and be consistent and fair.

    First, we’ll be switching to a different scoring system. Previously you received 1 point for every person you finished ahead of for a league night. Simple enough! But one down side of this method is that it means the number of points you can potentially earn on a given night is heavily dependent on how many people show up that night. Plus, it’s more complicated to calculate versus the alternative I’m going to switch to. Which is this: we’ll be using a 100 point scoring system. Coming in 1st on a given machine that night will earn 100 points. Coming in 2nd will earn 99 points, 3rd earns 98 points, etc. So the top scorer on a given night will always get 100 points no matter how many other people are there.

    Second, the makeup rule is going to be this: no makeups.  Instead, everyone will drop their lowest of 8 league nights. Your best 7 nights will count. So you can come to all 8 and try to keep improving or you can miss one without it totally hurting you. If you do miss a league night, you will be recorded as having a zero machine score on every game rather than a zero score. In other words, you will be scored as though you came in last that night — still not impossible to overcome, and comparable to how much missing a night hurt you under the old scoring system. We’ll be using the MatchPlay software/site to manage the league, so everyone will be able to easily look up current standings and see past results.

    Third, finals will work like this: first we’ll determine the number of people who played at least 4 nights of the season. Whatever that number is, half of that number (rounding down) will play in A division finals. Anyone else who shows up to finals will play in B division.

  • All Good Things

    As you might have heard, our beloved league president Matt has decided he needs to focus on running the home stretch to his degree this coming semester, and after that, may be leaving town to pursue his career. As a result, he is going to hand off league-running duties to me.

    I want to express my sincere gratitude that Matt started this league. I have been a member since the third meeting of Season 1, after Joseph and I saw a flyer for it at Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor (oddly enough). Originally, pinball was Joseph’s thing, which he got me casually interested in, but neither of us had ever played in an organized competition before. League really ignited a fire in both of us, resulting in something I would not have predicted at the time: competitive pinball is now a major part of our life together. Moreover, I have the whole Michigan pinball community as friends and associates, and having such a fun crowd to hang with really feels like being back in the days of my youth again. As the song says, “these are the good times.”

    Matt’s goal in creating the league was to encourage Pinball Pete’s to keep their games at the Avenue and maybe, just maybe, add a few more. My understanding is that the league formed when there were only three games at the Avenue, though by the time I attended my first meeting there were four. We now have well over twenty. Truly, pinball at the Avenue is “the house that Matt built” and as long as the league goes on I hope it will be remembered that way.

    I consider it a great privilege to take over from Matt, one that I will carry out to the best of my abilities. I will need to get the league’s 10th season approved by the IFPA and on the calendar shortly, but before I do that, I wanted to make sure that there are no objections to continuing on the schedule we currently use, which is two Tuesdays a month in alternate weeks to the Grand Rapids Pinball League. If I don’t hear any concerns about that, I will go ahead and submit that to the calendar, which will mean our next season will begin on January 9.

  • Announcing the Second Annual Fear and Trembling Tournament

    The Fear and Trembling Pingolf Tournament will be returning to The Avenue on October 25 beginning at 6 p.m.  As with last year, the theme will be “hard choices,” but this year there will be a new format and IFPA endorsement for WPPR points.  The registration fee is $10 (all of which goes directly to the charity) and players are additionally responsible for coin drop on the games.

    Each game on the course will have a choice between two objectives.  The goal is to try to meet your objective in 1 ball for a hole in one – or in as few balls as possible.  The catch is that you must declare your choice of objective before starting.  If you call one objective and accidentally meet the other sooner, tough luck!

    Four finalists will go to a three-game final series, and all four finalists will receive a Halloween-themed trophy.

    Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the event!  If you’re on Facebook, join our event page.

  • Rocket Robin 2017

    The Rocket Robin charity pinball tournament is returning for 2017 with a different format.  This time we will be doing a Swiss style “pseudo-round-robin” tournament with head-to-head matches.  It will cost $10 plus coin drop with all entry fees benefiting the Capital Area Humane Society.  The tournament is tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on June 20 at The Avenue Café in Lansing.  There will be trophies, prizes, and probably a return of the popular “closest to the pin” charity side tournament.  For more information, join our Facebook event page or email heather@lansingpinleague.com.