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!

With playoffs only a couple weeks away I wanted to take a moment and clarify how the division structure works for playoffs.  We have had allot of new people join the league in recent years and information on the B division of the TOPL playoffs hasn’t really been made clear recently.

It’s all written down in our official rules:

http://topl.ca/topl-rules/

But I know it’s a LONG read so I figured I would offer up an FAQ on the B division so people can make a more informed decision this playoffs on which Division they would like to play in.

 

What is the B Division?

The B division is a separate division we offer to members during the playoffs to give lesser skilled and more casual players an opportunity to compete amongst themselves for cash/prizes.

 

Who is eligible to play in the B Division?

Everyone that has a valid percentage is eligible for the B division assuming that they have not won cash in the A division in the last 3 years and they have not won the B division at the previous playoffs.   Anyone who does not have a valid percentage is automatically slotted into the A division.

 

Doesn’t the A Division get more money?

Not specifically, at the end of the year we tally up all the fees that have been taken in.  We then subtract out league expenses (Web hosting costs, giveaway expenses, food for playoffs, etc) and that gives us a final value.  We then divide that value by the number of players we have had in the current season.  That gives us a “player value”.  That player value follows you to your division.

So if there are more people in B division then there are in A the B division will have the larger prize pool

 

So what’s the difference between A and B then?

The only difference is who is eligible to play in the B division and WPPR points.  Everyone that plays in the A division will be ranked higher than anyone who plays in B.  So while everyone will get some WPPR points to contribute to their Provincial Championship eligibility:

http://www.ifpapinball.com/rankings/custom_view.php?id=109

The last place person in A will be ranked higher than the first place person in B.  So if you care about trying to make the Ontario PCS or your ranking in general A division would be where you want to play, otherwise feel free to play B.

 

So this all sounds great, how do I play in the B division?

At the start of the playoffs on the 29^th one of the SLO’s will come around and ask every eligible person which division they would like to play, A or B.  The player then makes the choice for themselves and assuming we have 6 people or more a B division will be run.  The playoffs still play exactly the same, but in the Standings for the match play a player in B division will be marked with a B and will be ranked separately from the other players.

 

I don’t want to play in B, I want to play in A what will that do to the prizes in A?

Nothing really, the only difference might be the number of positions we are able to pay out in the A division.  The previous few years we have been able to pay out down to 8 spots.  If we ran a B division those extra spots of payout in A would then go to the B players.

 

Hopefully the above makes things more clear on what the B division at playoffs is, how it works, and who is eligible to play.  But if you have any other questions, feel free to speak to Adam, Chris or Luch at the next league night or respond here.

 

Thanks

Your TOPL Leadership Team

Adam, Chris, Luch

Thanks to Jim for hosting this week!  With only a couple of weeks left Mike is getting close to overtaking John for 2nd, although at this point I think it’s impossible for anyone to catch Adam for overall points.  Luch has also maintained a lead on Most Improved, so it’s likely he’ll hold on to it.  Full scores are up on the PAPA site. 

Just a reminder that playoffs are Nov 29th at Luch’s place in Newmarket.  The tournament is open to anyone who wants to come out, so feel free to bring friends or pass along the details.  We’re aiming for an 11 AM start again for match play, so it should be a good day of pinball. 

See everyone at my place next Monday, and have a great week!

Thanks to Adam for hosting this week.  Not only did we get to play some new machines this time out, but everyone got to see the progress on the new pinball building.  Still a ways to go, but things are really coming together.  This week though, we had 29 players out for week 12.  Scores are up on the PAPA site, and Adam has now won the High Score trophy for the season.  Luch has also retaken the Most Improved lead, but there’s still room for those standings to change, so it’ll be another few weeks before that’s decided.  We also gave away two more pairs of headphones (thanks Myles!) to Julian and Jack as with a Mystery Score giveaway. 

We’re back out to Jim’s place next week, so hope see everyone there.  Have a great week!

Thanks to Nick for hosting this week!  As we get into the last third of the season, Adam has a 14 point lead on the points total, with 5 players between 95 and 100 points.  Adam has also almost clinched the high score title for the season, with a current lead of 21 to 8.  Luch has also moved into the lead for most improved for the season.  A lot can still happen in the last few weeks though, so we’ll see where things end up after the next four Mondays.

Next week we’re back up to Adam’s place-have a great week everyone!

Thanks to Luch for hosting this week-we had a good turnout, and some new games to try out, some of which didn’t make it into rotation due to issues.  Everything should be up and running for the playoffs at the end of November though, so at least people got a chance to try everything out.  Scores for this week are up on the PAPA site.  As expected, Adam has pulled way ahead in the points and high score totals, but it’s still theoretically possible for someone to catch him.  The rest of the standings are pretty close too, so there’s lots of room to shift for WPPR points.  We also had two more Mystery Score giveaways this week, with Kirk and Mike C each winning a pair of the headphones that Myles donated (thanks again Myles!). 

Next week we’re back out at Nick’s place-have a great week!

It’s not very often that we get to put a new host into the rotation, and this week was different because it was our first public location since the Pinball Cafe closed down.  Many thanks to Dan and the whole crew at 3030 for having us out.  Good beer, good food, and good pinball.  Hopefully everyone enjoyed the change of pace.  We also picked up a few new players this week, so hopefully this will be a good way to convert some more regulars to the league. 

Scores for this week are up on the PAPA site, and the standings are still pretty tight.  Adam has a 10 point lead on John, but there’s also a bunch of people in the 70s that could still catch up.  Also, keep in mind that there are WPPR points for season standings, so even if you’re not topping the list, higher standings do affect your overall ranking (including for the Provincials next year).  Luch is still holding on to most improved by a percentage point, so we’ll see how that holds for the rest of the season. 

We’re taking next week off for Thanksgiving, and then the week after we’re at Luch’s place on the 19th.  Enjoy the long weekend, and remember that the election is on the 19th, so if you’re planning on going straight from work to pinball, you might want to detour to go vote, or get it taken care of ahead of time.