Portland Pinball League

[ROM]

Here's the site for the .

They meet every Wednesday, at 8pm. Locations change. But every other week it takes place at Ground Kontrol. Around 5-9 people show up each week.

I go pretty much every week. (And I'm the boints leader right now!) It's fun, and everyone's cool, and it's a nice way to practice competition.

At the end of each season there's a tournament at Ground Kontrol. You have to attend at least one meeting during the season to be eligible to enter the tournament. I'm not sure when this season ends, but it's probably some time in late April.

This week's meeting is at Billy Ray's!

[Plunger]

When does the next league start? Anyone? Anyone?

[bounceback]

PPL has a yahoo site that usually has some info but i find it a bit hard to navigate. ROM was telling me their next meeting is a playoff/tournament, and then the next round of league should start the following week? no idea when the tournament is, though, or if non-league players are eligible. danny b swept down and won the last one, ryan seems to be hoping to have little competition for this one. i'm interested though, i always end up working stupid late on wednesdays.

[ROM]

To be "in the league," you just have to attend one meeting. It makes sense to me that the tournament should be for "league members" - but that's not a rule, and anyone can enter. I just think it's kind of lame for people to hop in for only the final tournament. That said, it doesn't really matter. And I don't know when the tournament is. It hasn't been listed yet. Yeah, the yahoo group is sort of wack. But if you're signed up on the list, you're getting all the same information as me. bounceback, didn't you go to a meeting this season at c-bar/ship? maybe that was last season...

Danny B didn't win the last one. I won the last one. Danny B won the one previous to that. And I won the one previous to that one, too.

The next season will probably start a few weeks after the tournament. Or they will wait until after the holidays...

[bounceback]

yeah i went to the first meeting of the season, and couldn't make it to any after that because i can't manage my time. i think since you have so much practice against the league guys you should have an advantage in the tournament against outsiders-- you get weekly head-to-head play, that's the big draw for me. i still want to keep going. nice job on winning the last one with no danny B involvement. maybe if he doesn't come this time you'll win this one too. am i eligible to come and take you down since i came to one meeting?

i'm j/k by the way-- i see what you're saying about the idea of having a league playoff. i guess there are a couple of ways to look at it. you could just have a rule that you have to attend at least 3 meetings or so to be eligible for the tournament. or you could say it's an open tournament, to try to get more people interested in regular league play. if you consider it the actual championship of the league, like in a sports league, it seems like you should have to qualify for the tournament with your regular season standing-- say the top 8 players qualify for the tournament, then have a showdown to decide the champion. that would be if you look at it as a league where anything can happen once you make the playoffs-- you could maybe even have some head-to-head playoffs for a wild card slot in the tournament. on the other hand, you could do it like euro soccer, where the best regular season record gets the league championship, and the tournament is a cup or auxiliary prize. if you win the league AND the tourney, you win the double, and should have extra pride and reverence.

i like the fact that anthony has been open to doing scoring different ways in different seasons of the league. how did it go having cumulative boints this time? that was an interesting idea.

any word on whether he's been in touch with the IFPA to get the league sanctioned? that would probably make it more attractive to some-- especially since a few tournaments exist that are invitation-only, and having a better ranking in the IFPA would be good for that.

BB

[ROM]

I have no idea how the cumulative boints thing went this season. Anthony doesn't share the boints until the end of the season. And the whole point of the boints is to decide who plays who in the first round of the tournament. aka they don't really matter a whole lot. The boints qualify you for an initial placement (1st plays against last in the first round etc.). It wouldn't be cool to boot people out before the tournament even starts. I won the first one starting in dead last place because I'd only been to one meeting (or possibly none) that season. It was heroic.

Yes, you're eligible because you went to one meeting. And I sort of want to make clear that I'm not, like, a representative of the PPL - I think perhaps people don't quite realize how casual and easy it is. You just show up and play pinball for an hour and a half. I make like 1 to 2 meetings a month. You can, too! And then you'll be a resident expert just like me! Even the tournament is not a big deal. The winner's prize for last thursday's tournament, which we set up in two hours, was twice as much as the PPL tournament prize.

I don't think he's been in touch with IFPA. I don't think the regular league play would qualify for boints. The mini-tournament we did last night would be closer to qualifying than the PPL league play.

For the record, dannyb was in the first ppl tournament I won, and I took him out on Black Knight 2K.

[bounceback]

wow, the truth comes out-- i thought DB was a black knight master! but really he's enslaved... amazing.

i don't know how IFPA boints work exactly for leagues, but when i talked to josh he did say that they give ranking boints to league participants and they are setting up tournaments specifically for leagues. he said in his email that he really wanted the PPL to be involved.

i don't know what the deal with IFPA is overall though. they're less responsive on the whole than CFF. we should be the fucking governing body of pinball. not because we're that great or whatever, (i wouldn't even want to deal with that much regulatory shit,) but we seem to have it together more than anyone else. even these serious dudes are pretty much part-timers and home players. CFF is on the streets, every goddamn day damnit! Stern can't even write a fucking reply to an email full of good thoughts and ideas. these people are the ones that are dooming pinball and crying that it's just failing on its own the whole way down. seriously, what company or industry or sport or anything has ever survived with a bunch of people at the helm whining about how insurmountable the challenges are? we need proactive players, with real love!

[ROM]

The new season starts today, Wed. Dec. 3.

The meeting tonight is at Ground Kontrol, 8pm.

The tournament from last season hasn't happened yet. But I think it's going to be on the 13th.

I'm pretty sure that you can't see the calendar unless you're signed up for the yahoo group. I wonder if anthony can change that setting... I bet that turns away people from the league.

I might go tonight - I'm not sure. I finished my final last night, so I am play pinball.

[ROM]

Tonight (12/10) is at Alleyway. 8pm.

[DannyBackglass]

WHOA! WHOA! LETS SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. TRUE, ROM DID WIN THAT FIRST TOURNY. HE DID NOT HOWEVER, BEAT ME ON BLACK KNIGHT 2K. HE BEAT, MY BROTHER ORBITS ON BLACK KNIGHT 2K ON A GLITCH LOOP EXTRA BALL. I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE. AT THAT POINT, I WAS ALREADY OUT OF THE TOURNY. WOW, AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GENIUS. I BELIEVE THE GAME YOU TOOK ME OUT ON WAS, SHADOW. 100 PERCENT SURE IT WAS NOT BLACK KNIGHT 2K.

[ROM]

oops crap, I forgot. Sorry. No need to yell at me! That was the first time I'd met either of you. and you're brothers... so I was mixed up.

glitch loop extra ball? I don't know what that means, but I didn't win that match by getting a bunch of extra balls.

[DannyBackglass]

GLITCH LOOP EXTRA BALL!

[bounceback]

the shadow is fun.

[ROM]

Agree. I utilized it well on my way to the win on Saturday.

btw, the ppl meeting tonight is at Ground Kontrol. But with the weather being what it is supposed to be, I doubt I'll make it.

[ROM]

Tonight (1/7) at Good Foot. 8pm.

[ROM]

tonizite (1/21) at C Bar / Ship.

But it's also the season premiere of Lost... so, see you next time! MAYBE.

[ROM]

Meeting tonight is at Florida Room. 8pm.

I plan to sweep it. Straight firsts.

Last chance for some casual competitive play before the NW show!

[ROM]