All posts by Adam Becker

New Sponsor! – SeeDeeS Images

Would like to take moment today and announce the newest sponsor of TOPL!

http://www.seedeesimages.com/

SeeDeeS Images is a Pittsburgh based photography and imaging studio run by the talented Cryss Stephens. Along with being a top tier player Cryss also runs a great studio making some really amazing pinball related artwork.

Cryss was generous enough to donate this print to the league. It’s actually printed on metal and mounted on wood for hanging.

20150804_080911

This will be given away on the Aug 17th League night at Andrew’s place via our Mystery score Giveaway!

Thanks very much for the donation Cryss, I’m sure someone in the league will be very happy come Aug 17th!

Please make sure to check out Cryss’s site and drop him a line to say thank you for the sponsorship, also if any of his works intrigues you tell him you’re from TOPL and I’m sure he will work out a deal for you

End of Season House Keeping

First and foremost I wanted to thank everyone who make it out week after week, the membership and our hosts are what make the league as great as it is and I’m quite proud of the community that we have built!

In our ongoing effort to remain as transparent as possible with all the funds that come into the league I’ve finished the Financial Ledger for the Summer of 2015 Season, it can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QrBvb3hLypZ12Qgdiw-xO0eRMGfMmoCdgXr7uG8DLM0/edit?usp=sharing

As you can see before playoffs we have $1440 to use for prizes.  We are going to hold back $400 of the money taken in the season to use for giveaways and to put towards the pinball machine giveaway.

Right now the Bally Rock Makers in my basement is going to be the machine we will be using for the giveaway, but we are keeping our eyes out for something a little nicer J  If we can find something within the budget.  We will keep everyone updated on that progress.

I also wanted to let everyone know that we are going to be doing the mystery score giveaway more frequently, starting the first week of the new season on July 27th.  We are going to be doing at least 3 – 4 of the Grey TOPL shirts donated by Eddie this Season, I’m also on the hunt for other prizes and will be announcing those as they become available!

On behalf of the TOPL Leadership team I wanted to thanks for another great season and I look forward to seeing everyone at playoffs!

Adam, Chris and Mike

 

Playdium Store Presents The KISS Pinball Launch Party @ Wacky Wings – Fri Jun 26th

Kisslaunch

With the upcoming release of their latest pinball machine, Cineplex Starburst in association with Stern Pinball and the IFPA proudly presents the Toronto KISS pinball Launch Party

Come and get a chance to try out the brand new KISS pinball machine, and while you’re there also enjoy some of the great food that Wacky Wings offers.

There will also be a tournament with trophies, apparel, and of course cash prizes, 100% of all entire fees taken in will be paid out.

The cash prizes break down as follows:

1st place – Trophy, 40% of the cash pot
2nd place – 30% of the cash pot
3rd place – 20% of the cash pot
4th place – 10% of the cash pot

Entries are $5 each and you can try as much as you like.

But even if you don’t want to play in the tournament, it’s still no excuse not to come as there will be a KISS pinball machine for everyone to try.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via the website!

I look forward to seeing everyone on June 26th at Wacky Wings

1248 Dundas Street East, Mississauga, Ontario L4Y 2C1

Scores and Standings: Week6 – New Software Preview

As the old saying goes, while the cat’s away the mice will play 🙂 Since Chris is off this week and I was back to doing scores I thought it might be a good time to introduce everyone to where we are headed with the league in terms of upgrading our scoring system.

For as long as I have been in the league, the week to week scores and groupings have all be handled on a excel spreadsheet that has is really a work of art in and of itself, and kept working on the sheer perseverance of one member, that being Charles Blaquiere. I can’t even imagine how much more difficult it would have been to run this league without that Excel spread sheet all these years, so thanks very much Charles for your hard work up to this point.

Staring with Frolic last year TOPL started an initiative with Joe Schrober of the FSPA, to move onto a new system for scoring in the league. With the help of Joe doing all the back-end work and PAPA donating the hosting services we are very close to finally moving off onto this new piece of software.

This will open up a realm of new opportunities for us from a tracking and data perspective as all information is kept available at all times on this site, forever. One thing is to get all the historical data into the system but that is a long term project.

Keep in mind we are still working out the kinks, we only have 2 full seasons worth of data, plus the current in session season and the most improved award hasn’t been added in yet.

But everything else is there, so without further ado I’d like to introduce everyone to the Toronto Pinball League Manager, brought to us by the FPSA and PAPA!

Main page:

http://topl.league.papa.org/

This week’s results:

http://topl.league.papa.org/meetResults/2/6

The spreadsheet will get updated this week so we can publish the most improved, but for now I wanted to give everyone a glimpse into some of the stuff the leadership team has been working on in the back-end.

“Mystery Score” T-Shirt Giveaway – Sponsored by Eddie D’Orazio & The DRAPL

First and foremost before I introduce everyone to the new initiative we are going to try I want to thank Eddie for his generous donation of $300 to the League to help fund the purchase of these shirts.  Without Eddie’s donation it would not have been possible for us to be able to offer this to the membership, so please if you get a chance thank Eddie if you see him in person, attend a DRAPL league night (details here http://www.drapinballleague.com/) or send him an email expressing your gratitude.

So without further ado I would like to introduce the Toronto Pinball League Mystery Score T-Shirt Giveaway.

The concept is simple, just like a mystery score on a pinball machine, a 5 or 6 digit mystery score will be written down on a sheet of paper and sealed in an envelope before the start of league night.  The only person who will know the score will by myself (which will obviously mean I am ineligible to participate).

The player who’s last 6 or 5 digits on any machine that was played during league play that is closest to the score written down on the paper will get 1 of the TOPL Grey Colored T-Shirts for Free!

We are not going to set a schedule for when these giveaways will be happening but we will make sure that we announce when we are doing them at least 2 weeks in advance to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to attend.

So with that in mind I would like to announce that the first Mystery T-shirt giveaway will take place on Monday May 25th at Luch’s place!

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Adam Becker

President – Toronto Pinball League

Community Spotlight – InPlay Family Fun Center

Inplay

I wanted to take a moment and recognize a family fun center that has been kept running by the sheer determination of one of the founding members of the Toronto Pinball League.

InPlay now with 2 locations, one in Newmarket and one in Barrie was started by Sarah Brown, I want to say some 10 years ago now.  It is a great location that the league used to visit until we out grew the location.  My last visit, Sarah was still keeping the pinball spirit alive with Medieval Madness, Cirqus Voltaire and Monster Bash at her Newmarket location.

We wish Sarah continued success in her venture and if you are ever in need of a location for a party you should give InPlay a look.

http://www.inplayinc.ca/ 

Scores and Standings: Week15

Thus ends another season of the Toronto Pinball League!

Thanks as always to Jim for opening up his amazing collection of machines for the league to enjoy!

A small turn out for the final night, but not unexpected as most things are already firmed up before the final league night.

High scores this week went to:

Week15-highscores

Bringing the final totals for the season to:

Week15-Highscorestotal

In the most improved race Congratulations to Tim Sanderson for being the Most Improved player for this TOPL Season!  Tim will get possession of the most improved trophy for the entirety of next season as well as a “Replay” for the next season!

Week15-Mostimproved

Here are the results from the final week and final standings:

Week15

 

Week15-Standings