Four weeks into a new season, and we have a second new host to add to the TOPL rotation.  We had a great night at Josh’s place this week, and got to play a couple of unique games to the league, so a huge thanks to Josh for having us over.  Scores for this week are up on the PAPA site.  At this point, keep in mind that the new software is more aggressive about the three dropped weeks (in that it’ll drop them right at the beginning of the season), which is why the “adjusted points” are basically only your best week now.  The totals are there though, and the adjusted scores will start to become much more meaningful after a couple more weeks.  Next week we’ll also be able to start tracking Most Improved.

See everyone at Adam’s next week!

Thanks to Nick for hosting us for the first week back in 2016!  A good turnout for the first week back, and a great chance to get back into weekly pinball.  Scores for this week are up in the usual place. 

We have another first time host coming up next week when we play at Josh’s place, which is pretty central for everyone.  Have a great week everyone!

It’s not very often that we get a new host location for the league, so a big thanks goes out to Don for hosting this week.  Not only does does Don’s place give us a new location, but he has a great game lineup, with some unique titles that we don’t get to play anywhere else.  Scores for this week are up on the PAPA site.  We also brought back the mystery score giveaway this week, and gave away sets of headphones to Pete, and new member Mario on his first night out!  Thanks again to Myles for the donation. 

This was also our last league night of 2015, so enjoy the break from weekly pinball, have a happy new year, and hopefully we’ll see everyone at Nick’s place on Jan 4.

Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey that we put up!  We got a good number of responses, and some good feedback that we’ll be considering as we plan the next year for TOPL.  The question of whether or not to go to 14 weeks was pretty decisive:

It also seems that lots of people want to play most Monday nights:

The “other” responses had some great comments like this one: “Playing the Monday after a pinball intensive weekend like ReplayFX or Allentown is better than not playing for 13 days. Somehow, I could muster the energy. “ 

In the past, we’ve skipped the Monday after major events like the PAPA world championships, Pinburgh, and Expo, just because we wanted to encourage people to attend, and there were only a few decent sized pinball tournaments every year.  These days though, the IFPA calendar has something virtually every week, and while there is certainly a large contingent of players who travel for tournaments, there are a lot who don’t or are unable to who still want to play pinball.  We’re also not scheduling competing TOPL events during other tournaments, and would encourage everyone to represent TOPL in as many events as possible. 

As for the playoff dates, it looks like Sundays still have the edge if we factor in the “don’t care” responses:

So, based on all of this, I’ve put together a revised schedule for the next few years that you can check out here.  There are a few changes from what we’re currently doing.  After this current season, we’re running a 14 week season (and in one case, 13), and the only Mondays we’re skipping are the Monday after playoffs, and anything that’s a long weekend.  We’re still allowing players to drop their 3 lowest scores, and league fees will remain the same.  This also means that playoffs and season breaks will be at or very close to the end of April, the end of August, and the end of December every year.  For 2016, we’ll keep the dropped week for PAPA in April.  Conveniently, ReplayFX has been held at the same time as the August long weekend in 2015 and 2016, so if that continues, we’ll probably get a skip week in there as well for the foreseeable future if you really don’t want to have to play after driving back from Pittsburgh. 

And just as we finish one TOPL season, the next one starts up right away.  Thanks to Kim for hosting a big crowd this week, including an incredible 6 new members.  Welcome out guys, and hopefully you had a great time.  Sorry it was a little chaotic getting everyone signed up, but it all worked out in the end.  Scores are up on the PAPA site, and with only one week in the books, a player who isn’t Adam is in the lead.  Fresh off his 2nd place finish in the playoffs, Josh is tied for the lead with Henrik.  The question, of course, is how long will this hold for? 

Next week is going to be our last week of 2015, and it’s at a new location: Don Arpa’s.  Remember to check the facebook and yahoo groups for event details, including addresses for host locations.  Have a great week everyone!

Another TOPL playoff is complete!  Thanks to Luch for hosting and arranging food-everyone was definitely well fed through the day.  We played a full 20 rounds of match play, followed by a playoff for the top 8 spots based on their performance today.  Here’s what the final standings looked like going into the playoffs:

If you want to check out the round by round breakdowns, the tournament is still online at https://matchplay.events/app/tournaments/883. 

After the playoff rounds, the final standings and prizes were:

1. Adam Becker ($300)
2. Josh Zilberberg ($200)
3. Mike Luciani ($150)
4. Brian Trenholm  ($100)
5. John Flitton ($90)
6. Andrew Aiken ($80)
7. Eddie Dorazio  ($70)
8. Ian Harrower ($60)

Congrats to all the winners.  Adam took home three trophies this season:

Josh, Luch, and Brian also had their best ever finishes in a TOPL event:

Thanks for another great season everyone!  Next season starts up again on Dec 7th at Kim’s, so hope to see everyone there!

Earlier this year, we announced the biggest prize the league had ever given out:we’d be giving away a full size pinball machine to one league member.  For every week you attended, you’d get a ticket, and at the end of the year, we’d draw for the game.  In the end, there were over 1000 tickets in the draw.  This giveaway would not have been possible without a lot of effort from a lot of people:

• Mike Luciani acquired the original Disco Fever game, and supplied a board
• Kim and Jim both supplied parts
• Chris Frolic donated the cash from the remaining shirts (which freed up funds to finance this giveaway)
• Adam Becker not only supplied parts to fix the game, but spent many hours getting the game clean, working, and ready to award.

The final draw ended up with John Flitton as the winner of the machine (with over 40 tickets in the drum).  John then turned around and gave the machine to Ciaran Bernard on the spot, so now our youngest league member has a game of his own at home (even if the theme is a little before his time).  Congratulations to John and Ciaran-it’s great to see that the game will go somewhere that it’s appreciated!

Another TOPL season is in the books!  Thanks to Andrew for hosting this week, where we had a better turnout than we usually do this late in the season.  Scores are up on the PAPA site, and as expected, Adam has taken the season points and high score trophies again.  Luch also managed to hold on to his lead for Most Improved, so he gets the trophy and a replay into next season.  As for the mystery scores this week, Barry and Josh came closest to the mystery scores, so they each won a pair of headphones (thanks again Myles!).

This week is another busy one for pinball.  Thursday night is the Game of Thrones launch party at Wacky Wings, and then Sunday is the TOPL playoffs at Luch’s place.  Doors open at 10, and match play starts at 11.  There’ll be plenty of food for everyone, and a guaranteed 20 rounds of match play.  We’ll also be doing the draw to give away a pinball machine at the end of the tournament.  Everyone will get entries for the draw based on the number of times they’ve been out over the past 3 seasons, and one winner will take home the game.  A big thanks to Adam and Luch for finding the machine, and getting it back to working condition again.  Hope to see everyone there!

Over the past few years, we’ve tried a few different ideas for scheduling seasons and trying to get three seasons into a calendar year, including doubleheaders, summer breaks, or just letting seasons fall wherever they happen to end.  Looking at the schedule though, one thing we haven’t tried is changing the length of the season.  15 weeks is really pretty arbitrary, but a 14 week (or at minimum 13) week season would let us keep the seasons to more predictable time frames.  The basic idea is this: we can either keep playing 15 week seasons, which means that some years will only have 2 full seasons, and playoffs will drift.  The other option is to say that season 1 is Jan-Apr, season 2 is May-Aug, and season 3 is Sept-Dec, and we get as many weeks in as we can (click here for an example of what this might look like for the next few years). 

We don’t want to just change things arbitrarily though, so we’ve put up a survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/86W53SG with a few questions about plans for future seasons to get some feedback.  Please take a couple of minutes to fill it out if you’d like a say in how things will be scheduled going forward.  Also, anything you put in the comments won’t be shared publicly, so if you have feedback, please share it. 

Thanks!

Chris, Adam, and Luch

Only one week left in the season!  Scores are up on the PAPA site, and from the looks of things, Adam has the season well in hand.  There’s still been some movement in the standings though, and there’s still room for the overall standings to change before the playoffs.  Not only do point totals count towards WPPR points, but they also dictate who gets to choose play order in the playoff match play rounds. 

We’re at Andrew’s next week for the last night of the season, and then playoffs are the following Sunday at Luch’s.  Have a great week everyone!