Scores are up on the PAPA site for the penultimate week of the season, and the season champ award is Adam’s yet again.  The high score trophy will also go to Adam for the last time, before it’s repurposed into a new award for the season champ under the new handicapping system that we’re rolling out next season.  Most improved could come down to the last week of the season though, with Julian and Ian both extremely close to each other in the standings. 

We’re taking next Monday off for the PAPA world championships, and there will probably be several TOPL members competing in all divisions.  Leave a comment on the post and let us know if you’re competing so we can track the standings this weekend.  Immediately following that, Adam is competing at the IFPA world championship at the PAPA facility.  Good luck to everyone competing!  Also a reminder that this is the last year we’re taking a break from regular pinball specifically for PAPA.  We left the skip week in this time to get things on track for playoffs at the end of April, and a new season starting May 2, so enjoy the time off, and this should give everyone plenty of time to plan for next year.  The last regular season week will be on April 18 at Andrew’s place, followed by playoffs on April 24th at Pete’s place. 

In the past 5 – 10 years of TOPL the season has largely be ruled with an iron fist by either JRF or AB being the only names on the Season Champ Trophy.

The TOPL Leadership recognizes that creates apathy toward regular season nights with a large majority of our players never really in the hunt for an opportunity to win a Season Champ award.

With the transition to the FSPA/PAPA League management software this opens up a whole new world of possibilities one being the creation of a new handicapping system that, with the help of Joe Schrober, we have been able to implement!

The new system will work as follows:

After players have participated in 14 total weeks they will be assigned what we are calling a lifetime %.  The lifetime % is a calculation based on every single league night a player has ever attended that is currently entered into our system.  The reason we are using a lifetime percentage rather than the current season percentage is that the season percentage can vary wildly season to season and there can be quite the swing as a percentage settles down during the season.  The lifetime % will be more steady so players can count on or expect the points they are going to receive each night.

Based on a players lifetime percentage players will now receive bonus points on a every league night based on that percentage, the break down being:

20% – 30% – 6 points

30% – 40% – 5 points

40% – 45% – 4 points

45% – 50% – 3 points

50% – 55% – 2 points

55% – 60% – 1 point

This means that potentially a player who’s current lifetime percentage is in the 20% – 30% range, in the event they were able to achieve a 16 on the night would then actually earn 22 points on that given league night.

The lifetime percentage will decay in order to represent a players current skill level.  After a player has 90 weeks (6 seasons) of attended league nights in the system, the oldest results will drop off and we will calculate the lifetime percentage based on the most current 90 league nights in the system.  We feel this will give us a good sampling with which to base the lifetime percentage on while at the same time accurately reflecting a players improvement or decline as time goes on.

The award for this new system will be exactly the same as it is for the current season.  The players name on a trophy and a “Replay” into the next season.  With that in mind the TOPL Leadership has also decided to retire the Pinball Wizard (High Score award trophy) and repurpose it for this new System.  We feel that the high score award while fun to track is not relevant from an award perspective, chances are if you winning the season you most likely are going to win high scores as well so it just represents the rich getting richer so to speak.  All the current plaques will be removed from the trophy and we will award our first Pinball Wizard plaque under this new system in the upcoming season!

With the retirement of the high score award we are also hoping this will help speed up league play since player 4 when in the lead on a machine at the end of ball 3 does not have to play if they don’t want to in order to attempt to achieve a high score on the night.

Finally this does not replace the regular Season Champ award, that will remain in place exactly the same and our submission for WPPR points during the season will be based off those standings.

We hope this shows our continued commitment to our entire membership to hopefully make the regular season more relevant to more players.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask us in person or in response to this message.

Your TOPL Leadership Team

Mike, Chris and Adam

Thanks to Kim for hosting this week!  Scores are up on the PAPA site, and it’s still not quite a walk off for the season champ total, but it’s also going to be a challenge for anyone to catch Adam at this point.  Ian and Barry are continuing to lead the most improved category. 

Just a reminder that we’re taking next week off for Easter Monday, but that is is going to be the last year we take a break for Easter Monday and PAPA (details are here).  We kept those skip weeks in this season, as well as the 15 weeks of play, because people may have already made plans that depend on these skip weeks, and also because it made the season finish up at the end of April.  This way, we should still be able to get three seasons in a year (14 weeks starting this summer), and they should each fit into a 4 month chunk of calendar. 

We’re back at Luch’s in 2 weeks-see everyone then!

Thanks to Adam for hosting this week, and for getting the scores up and doing the groups after I couldn’t make it last night.  Results are here, and with 3 weeks left, it’s going to be hard to catch Adam for the season points total.  On the most improved front, Ian is holding on to the lead, but Barry, Josh, and Julian are all close behind.

Next Monday we’re at Kim’s-have a great week everyone!

Thanks to Nick for hosting again this week!  Scores are up in the usual place, and  while Adam has pulled a little further ahead in the total standings, we now have 4 players in double digits for most improved, so that is likely to come right down to the wire.  Next Monday we’re at Adam’s place-have a great week, and see everyone there!

Scores for this week are up on the PAPA site, and as we head into the last 5 weeks of the season, Ian has pulled into the lead for most improved, with Barry and Josh both in double digits.  The overall standings haven’t moved much, but it’s still looking competitive for the season standings, and Barry and Jack are catching up to Adam for high scores.  We’re at Nick’s next Monday, so have a great week, and if you’re still looking for more pinball, don’t forget about Walt’s Pinball for Change event this weekend.  Even if you can’t make it, he’s got some great raffle prizes available, with the money going to a great cause, so check out the website, and play some pinball for a good cause. 

Thanks to Scott for opening up his warehouse for us this week, and giving us our third new location this season.  It was great to play some games that aren’t as common in other host locations, and it’ll be good to have another ever-changing lineup to add to the host rotation.  Now that everyone has been there once, it should be easier to find next time too.  Scores for the week are up on the PAPA site.

We’ve also got playoffs booked for April 24 at Pete’s place out in Janetville.  It’s a little further than we’d usually book for a regular league night, but for a weekend it’s much more reasonable, and it’s a chance to play at another new, large location that not everyone has made it to.  It should be a great time-for those that haven’t been to playoffs before, it’s a full day match play tournament, so you’re guaranteed to play at least 20 rounds of pinball if you show up.  Entry is included with league memberships, so if you’ve paid for the season, all you’re on the hook for is the host fee.  If non-members want to enter, they’re welcome too.  Thanks in advance to Pete and Ann for hosting!

Next week we’re back out at my place in Mississauga-have a great week everyone!

2016 Marks the 20^th anniversary of TOPL and to mark the occasion we would like to get new shirts made up with a variant of our logo to help commemorate the occasion!

The problem is the TOPL leadership team has nary an artist bone in our combined bodies.

So we are reaching out to the membership to see if an artist among us would help us come up with a variant on the TOPL logo to help celebrate the 20^th anniversary of TOPL!

Compensation wise we don’t have allot in the way of budget (as you can tell from our ledger)  to put toward actual costs that are associated with this type of work, but that being said we are willing to offer up Free league fees for X (X to be worked out with whoever wants to take on this task) number of seasons in order to attempt to compensate you for your work.

If you want to help the league out and take on this task you can email me directly at adam.becker@changepoint.com or just talk to me in person at league.

Thanks for the consideration

Chris, Mike and Adam

As always thanks to Andrew for opening his home and allowing us to play his collection of machines and providing food and drink for the night!

Scores can be found in the usual spot

http://topl.league.papa.org/meetResults?leagueId=1&latest=true

The season race is still very tight half more than half way through the season!

Ian still has the lead in the most improved category, we will see if he can hold onto it.

There is no league this Monday on account of Family Day, so enjoy the long weekend!  We’ll see everyone on the   Feb 22^nd at another new location for TOPL, Scott has opened a warehouse location without about 20 some off games, should be interesting!

Hey everyone, as you know, we’re taking Feb 15 off for Family Day, but if you’re still looking for some pinball, Eddie D’Orazio, who runs the Durham League, is hosting a tournament at Todd’s place.  From Eddie:

Todd is hosting for DRAPL on family day.  

Monday February 15th 2016.  League play starts at 7pm.  60 games.

As he has an impressive line up I thought we would open the doors to our friends at TOPL. 

Game line-up:

• 300
• Abra Ca Dabra
• Alien Poker
• Aztec
• Big Brave
• Big Deal
• Big Hit
• Black Knight
• Blue Chip
• Boomerang
• Bow and Arrow
• Cpt. Fantastic
• Cleopatra
• Count Down
• Cyclone
• Dracula
• Eight Ball Deluxe
• Evel Knievel
• Firepower
• Future Spa
• Genie
• Gorgar
• Grand Lizard
• Grand Prix
• Hang Glider
• Harlem Globetrotters
• High Hand
• Hokus Pokus
• Hot Hand
• Joker Poker
• Kiss
• Little Chief
• Lost World
• Mars Trek
• Mata Hari
• Monaco
• Night Rider em
• Night Rider ss
• Old Chicago
• Pat Hand
• Pioneer
• Playboy
• Power Play
• Prospector
• Quick Draw
• Rawhide
• Royal Flush
• Ship Ahoy
• Sinbad
• Solar City
• Space Odyssey
• Spin Out
• Stingray
• Sure Shot
• Surfer
• Time Line
• Toledo
• Triple Action
• Triple Strike
• Xenon

The address is 1223 Simcoe st south I have parking in the driveway for 6 cars.There is no parking on my street but there are side streets around that can be used.

$10 dollars

If you’re interested, email Eddie at eddie.dorazio@structuredss.com if you want to attend.