July Tournament

July Tournament is underway, and here's a link (Thanks to Steven120566) to see standings/results:

http://pinballarcade.com/Tournaments/

Indy 500
HS2
Harley Davidson
Earthshaker
F-14
ToM
NGG
Cyclone

Playing in the Mobile tournament for a change.

Indy 500 - start Turbo Boost multiball, stay in Turbo Boost multiball for 20 minutes collecting easy 90Ms
HS2 - Red Line Mania/Super Jackpots
Harley - Video Mode
ES - Spam the ramp, mix in the odd jackpot maybe?
F-14 - Multiball all the way
ToM - Bonus X and Illusions and Grand Finale at least once; Multiball can help too
NGG - Multiball
Cyclone - Cyclone and Bonus X hole and Ferris Wheel

Question about these tournaments...

I have joined one for the first time, and I was just wondering something. Is only your best score counted.

For example, if I scored 250,000,000 on Harley, and wanted to improve the score, but in my quest failed and scored lower than my original score, is that lower score now counted, or does my original score still stand?

ShakinRaven said:

Question about these tournaments...

I have joined one for the first time, and I was just wondering something. Is only your best score counted.

For example, if I scored 250,000,000 on Harley, and wanted to improve the score, but in my quest failed and scored lower than my original score, is that lower score now counted, or does my original score still stand?

Click to expand...

The only score kept is your highest.

Thank you Sir

ShakinRaven said:

For example, if I scored 250,000,000 on Harley, and wanted to improve the score, but in my quest failed and scored lower than my original score, is that lower score now counted, or does my original score still stand?

Click to expand...

Tournaments should work like this. Only the last score saved, even if it is lower than the previous one. It would induce some randomness in the tourney leaderboard and more strategy.

And a "Pause and Restart" would grant 0 points.

It has been requested many times but it seems we will have the current "grinding rule" forever.

Tann said:

Tournaments should work like this. Only the last score saved, even if it is lower than the previous one. It would induce some randomness in the tourney leaderboard and more strategy.

And a "Pause and Restart" would grant 0 points.

It has been requested many times but it seems we will have the current "grinding rule" forever.

Click to expand...

While I see those points, since time limit of 20 minutes is imposed, and the tournaments have a definitive start and stop time, well, Farsight seems to have it covered prety well. I would not want my best score achieved within the paramaters to not count if I had a worse one later. That's just my opinion. Maybe because I am not a very good player LOL. One of these days, I just may get out of Bronze

At about 8 1/2 hours before the end of the tournament, the number of players in the tournament were:

Mobile: 346+261+401 = 1,008
Steam: 72+103+270 = 445
PSN: 205+211+711 = 1,127

You'd think that FS would support their PSN customers a little better than they do, as they are their biggest fans.

Been lurking here for a while, but I registered today to say thanks for the strategies and help. After two days of beating my head against a wall with Earthshaker, I read some tips here, walked away for a while, only to come back and fix my previous top score of 12,000,000 to this:



Best of luck in the closing hours to everyone.

Byte said:

You'd think that FS would support their PSN customers a little better than they do, as they are their biggest fans.

Click to expand...

PSN players are just milking cows for FS. Last update on PS3 was in December, 2015: 7 months ago (last table: Frankenstein).

I bet the next update (maybe in September?) will only add the missing tables and only that. No fixes, no physics 3.0 on older tables.

Sad.

There may be more psn players but there is more people that join playstation tournaments and don't do worth a **** cause they don't own all the tables so there is a large number of players and a low number actual competing players, plus more people play games on playstation than on the PC or mobile. It takes a PC with a dx11 compatible graphics card to really enjoy tpa on steam and in the grand scheme of things statistically most people don't have that as outdated crap computers make up the majority of whats out there. playstation offers a solid gaming platform for a chunk of the price of a gaming pc of course they are gonna have a large number of players there, ios/mobile sucks ass **** that garbage gives me a headache and it feels very railroaded. I don't have opinions and any statement I make should be taken to heart as actual 100% scientific facts. These points are not open to argument as I have no wrong answers. I am devine. Your the all singing all dancing crap of the world. cant we all just hit a bong?


Mommy mommy look mom I did it I won something!! look look. July 2016 TPA Steam Silver tier #1

Congrats, Nate. I was #5. Not sure if I'll do any more tournaments. Wife does not like how "animated" I get. Like, say, when I get 3.5 million on the first ball of F-14 and finish with about 4.5 million. A flying iPad gets me grounded.

I'll play again, I enjoyed the week, and the competition. See you next go around

CHEERS

Tann said:

Tournaments should work like this. Only the last score saved, even if it is lower than the previous one. It would induce some randomness in the tourney leaderboard and more strategy.

And a "Pause and Restart" would grant 0 points.

It has been requested many times but it seems we will have the current "grinding rule" forever.

Click to expand...

That'd suck. A person like me has a great game early and then would need to quit for fear of losing that score. Besides, would the tourney results really vary much regardless the method?

I'm glad that the system is the way it is. I had to battle for my 2nd finish, and it did take some good luck on Earthshaker and Harley to get to that position. Plus, all week I was trying to just gain a spot or two, the points really did make a difference. If I concentrated on a table and just took my time. However some I just resigned to the fact that a better score just wasn't in the cards for me this time around....like on F-14... I put so much time, and swearing in that table. But good scores will stand, just need a little luck.

Nate said:

Mommy mommy look mom I did it I won something!! look look. July 2016 TPA Steam Silver tier #1

Click to expand...

Congrats to you and your mom! Good scores, and you beat [MENTION=5727]Voof[/MENTION], which is impressive. Looks like you'd have been in the top 10 in Gold. I'll look forward to competing against you guys in Gold in August.

Finished 46th overall.
Just play enough to get in the top 50. Was happy with my all time HS in F-14 of 6.3 mil. Cyclone was another one that I out did myself and finished 29th. Gorgar was my best result at 12th.
Not too sure how real the top score at NGN was, with someone scoring 777 mil+.

Elvis-Parra-Eels gave Voof a run for his money.

Look forward to the next one.

yespage said:

That'd suck. A person like me has a great game early and then would need to quit for fear of losing that score.

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That's the real fun. More dilemma, more strategy.

When I see some crazy top scores, how many tries it took to achieve these perfect runs? When I meant "tries", I mean "pause and restart" until the perfect play scheme happens.

I know it, because I did it in the past, when I wanted to win some tournaments (1st in Silver, 2nd in Gold, were my best results).

Now, I just play two or three games by table (sometimes only one, when I achieve a correct score on the first run), and I never "pause & restart" a game. When I own all the tourney tables, I finish around 20-30th rank, with less than 20 overall games in the tourney (not full 20mn for each game, obviously).

I have no desire anymore to grind games on some tables, to enter the Top 5.

Besides, would the tourney results really vary much regardless the method?

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, when you get, let's say, a solid 600M on HD3, would you risk to lose everything by trying to improve it, knowing there's a low chance percentage that you'll do better? It would be the same for the opponents, even for the current TPA wizards.

Of course, if a "pause & restart" would give a harsh 0 points. Otherwise, it wouldn't change anything.

Tann said:

Oh yeah, when you get, let's say, a solid 600M on HD3, would you risk to lose everything by trying to improve it, knowing there's a low chance percentage that you'll do better? It would be the same for the opponents, even for the current TPA wizards.

Click to expand...

You didn't really answer the question. How would the results change? I doubt that they'd change very much, but I'm just guessing.

I hope we don't start placing moral values on the different ways of playing games in tournaments. Some people like to play just one or two games, others like to play a lot of games. Some people like to "grind", to restart many times in search of an excellent start to a game, and others don't. It's just personal preference and none of these are morally superior to any other.

I don't think we should get too hung up on whether some tournament format is the "best" measure of pinball skill, either. Deciding that is a hard problem, a mathematical one. Unless someone's interested in doing some serious research, arguing that one format is a better measure than another is just arguing, stating opinions that as often as not are not founded on facts, and often simply BS.

I'd personally like to see some variety in tourney formats. If someone has suggested some format, I'd probably be interested in trying it. Variety is the spice of life . But I also don't think I'd want to permanently replace the current format, which seems to work very well and is a heck of a lot of fun, with some other format, without trying it out first.

invitro said:

You didn't really answer the question. How would the results change? I doubt that they'd change very much, but I'm just guessing.

Click to expand...

Except the few well-known TPA wizards roaming here (those who can put a crazy highscore almost when they want -well... I suppose- , 1 or 2 tries at most), tourney final results for a common player mostly depend on how much time you have spent on it.

At least limited attempts (3 or 5 per table?) would change the results in some way. You have a predefined number of attempts per table and that's all, "pause & restart" consumes an attempt. That's what I call a tournament, not a grind fest depending on how many times you restart, or how many games you play until you get a decent score (especially on tough tables).

I don't judge anyone, as I used that myself too in the past, but since numerous tourneys, I stopped, because it had no sense and was just boring as hell, because I didn't feel like I was actually playing a pinball tournament.

Some people like to play just one or two games, others like to play a lot of games. Some people like to "grind", to restart many times in search of an excellent start to a game, and others don't. It's just personal preference and none of these are morally superior to any other.

Click to expand...

Well, in a pinball tournament, when your turn comes, and you mess up your first ball, you don't say: "Hey, I failed my first ball, I restart the game".

Or when after your 3 attempts (or less, depending of the format), you still have a weak score, you don't say: "Hey, I will play until I get the top score. By the way, can I restart the game if I mess up my first ball?" ^^