August Tournament

Tournament for August is on:

Frank Thomas Big Hurt
Elvira and the Party Monsters
Cactus Canyon
Medieval Madness
Funhouse
White Water
Monster Bash
Ripleys

The countdown clock doesn't show.

http://pinballarcade.com/Tournaments/

The countdown clock does show... once I switched out of the beta version

Yep the H2H beta is missing stuff like that.

I've got a big problem - the tournament standings on the website is showing my email instead of my username (Neinhalt). Without being logged on, sadly. This started with this August's tournament, and I didn't change any account settings before.
Can anyone help, everybody can see the adress

Send a note to Farsight at:

support@pinballarcade.com

dave950lam said:

Send a note to Farsight at:

support@pinballarcade.com

Click to expand...

I did that and they (luckily) changed that already, but, nearly as expected, they claim that I did it myself, which I certainly did not. Since registration in 2014 I never changed my user name and until yesterday it was always displayed correctly as Neinhalt.
I looked for an option to change the name yesterday, after I noticed the problem, but I could not even find such an option anywhere. It is not available under "account settings" and the "my account" tab is displaying nothing for me.
So, where could I change my username in case this problem arises again?

hmmmm....... how do I track points in tournament? HoF points are still broken on android and I don't know if that matters here. I can see my score per table but can't (or don't know how to in this wonderfully practical new UI) see my overall standing in tournament.

Played this on PS4 and it's my first tournament. Currently #1. What does the star by user name mean and how do you get promoted to silver and gold?

Since you are currently #1, you and the top 10% will have a star next to your 'name'. Remain in the top 10% and you'll be bumped up to silver. The top 10% in silver get moved to gold for the next tourney.

And I think those in silver and gold have a relegation 'risk', finish in the bottom 10% and you get bumped down a level.

I have had tournament fatigue for awhile, but decided to try it out again this month on steam. Strict rule though. Only one attempt on each table (I broke the rule on MM when I got a house ball on ball one but otherwise I will try to stick to the rule)

I have no desire to milk a table dry, playing it again and again, just to get to the top 10. It will only suck all the fun out of it.

I wish there were some strict rules for the tournaments. Like not being able to reset the game in play, or only 3 attempts on each table. No extra balls and other stuff would also be welcome.

BTW, I can't see the tournament standings. They all show 0. Maybe it is because I am playing in the beta and that my scores does not even count, but at least I get the timer and can post results. Not even sure if I am in Gold, Silver or Bronze. It has been awhile since the last time I played all the tournament tables. 5 tables down and 3 to go.

dave950lam said:

Since you are currently #1, you and the top 10% will have a star next to your 'name'. Remain in the top 10% and you'll be bumped up to silver. The top 10% in silver get moved to gold for the next tourney.

And I think those in silver and gold have a relegation 'risk', finish in the bottom 10% and you get bumped down a level.

Click to expand...

If you don't play, does it mean demotion? You'll obviously be in the bottom 10%.

Mark Miwurdz said:

If you don't play, does it mean demotion? You'll obviously be in the bottom 10%.

Click to expand...

You can skip tournaments and stay in last reached group. Be carefull to join a tournament without playing. Maybe than it's different and there's a demotion, not sure about this...

I don't believe not playing gets an automatic demotion. I had gotten into silver and then didn't play for quite a few months, but when I did last month I was still listed as silver level. So that's my experience, but don't quote me.

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I've played in non beta, where tourney results are listed, and in beta where they are not. Couple of days ago beta wouldn't show the 20 minute timer but now does. Another difference is that in the beta it has the 8 tables separated by whether you've completed all the wizard goals, are in wizard, or in standard. Seems strange to break it down like that when you can't earn any of the goals while actually playing in the tourney.

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I always wind up with tourney fatigue at some point. I totally agree that there should be a shakeup in how they play, but that doesn't mean a complete elimination of what we have either. I'd like it to switch up every month. 20 minutes, 5 minutes, one ball, limited entry, last score is posted score, no extra ball, tournament difficulty, etc.

I've also tried the self imposed play limit, but usually can't resist breaking it. Instead what I do is give each table a play and see how that does with the standings. I'll then go back and hit a few of the tables I know I can do much better on, and play until I get an acceptable to my average score. I pretty much ignore the tourney then until the final 24 hours, and if my scores are good enough to advance a level then I'll let 'em sit. If I'm on the cusp, I go into a playing frenzy. Last month I advanced to gold, and right now my score is firmly in the middle. This means I don't need to play much more at all since I know I'll never catch the top ten so won't even bother. If I go chasing each month, I'll stop playing the tourneys way sooner than I'd like because usually at the end, I hate those particular tables too much to even play for fun!

shutyertrap said:

I totally agree that there should be a shakeup in how they play, but that doesn't mean a complete elimination of what we have either. I'd like it to switch up every month. 20 minutes, 5 minutes, one ball, limited entry, last score is posted score, no extra ball, tournament difficulty, etc.

Click to expand...

I know I've said it before, so I apologize for that, but this is what I want, also. I do still enjoy the current format plenty enough, but a monthly switch-up would be even better. It's small potatoes and I'm being autistic again, but I would personally remove 5 minutes and one ball from your list, and add 10 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 3 hours, unlimited time, one entry, three entries, five entries, four tables, sixteen tables, and 32 tables .

invitro said:

I know I've said it before, so I apologize for that, but this is what I want, also. I do still enjoy the current format plenty enough, but a monthly switch-up would be even better. It's small potatoes and I'm being autistic again, but I would personally remove 5 minutes and one ball from your list, and add 10 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 3 hours, unlimited time, one entry, three entries, five entries, four tables, sixteen tables, and 32 tables .

Click to expand...

I'll take as many variations as possible! It's like with swimming in the Olympics, where there are so many variations of length just for one type of stroke, and different people emerge as favorites just with that change.

Knowing FarSight though, they'd do 60 minutes with all the EMs

Mixing it up sounds good. Tons of variations they could do in that regard.

I wouldn't mind a month with a 4 or 6 tables instead of 8 either.

This was one of my favorite tourneys yet. Half the reason is that all the tables (save FTBH) are an absolute joy to play, and while a couple of them (CC, EatPM) get a little tedious, they never get unpleasant. The other half is that I did really well. I blasted my high from previous tourney(s) on RBIoN/MM/MB/EatPM/WWater, and I did it quickly, on 2-5 plays on each table. So I don't think I played nearly as much as I usually do in tourneys. I've been working my way off a highly addictive medication and so really feeling crappy both physically and mentally (the excuse why I haven't posted a Top 100, which I'll try to rectify soon), and so I'm surprised I played so well. Or maybe I didn't actually play all that well, I dunno, my logic is shot to hell right now, but I'm happy with #2/2/2/3/3/4/4/5, keeping in mind that Tarek's nemesis didn't play, and while Voof made his Steam Gold debut, he didn't seem to play much, and neither did switch3flip or pbw45b (as usual), though Lord Squeak, A-Jey, and jammer played a lot and seem driven to take "that next step". Some quick comments on the tables...

CC: 350M for #2 Steam. Finished only one game, but with a few restarts until I got the 1M bonus Bounty, didn't drain until 0:58 left, had 81X for a 301M bonus. I meant to try again, and restart until I had two 1M bonus Bounties, but kept getting busy working on things or yammering in this forum. That's fine, CC will be back in about six to eight months, and it's about time to take another crack at the regular leaderboard (and track Bounty probabilities). I have a note to self that says the CC difficulty increased sometime between the June 2015 tourney (I got 353M, but that was only #4) and the Dec 2015 tourney (250M, was good enough for #2), but no details. It didn't seem difficult this time, I'm gonna have to figure out why I made that note, sometime.

FTBH: 7842M for #4. The Glove kept disappearing on DX11, so I played on DX9 and it did fine. I still don't know the rules... I extracted them finally last night, haven't read yet. I put this table off until the end because I wasn't looking forward to either playing it or trying to learn it. I had acquiesced to having about a #10 until I hit a L orbit shot for 1B, then another and another. I thought it was from 7th Inning Stretch, but it looks like it's just a combo (OK I read that section of the rules). I believe I got very lucky to score what I did, as I've tried FTBH a few times outside of the tourney since, and haven't gotten another 1B.

RBIoN: 178M for #2, in about five games lasting >10 min. I missed the R ramp a lot and don't think I really played all that well. I dunno, but I remember that making the ball go down the right lane of the upper PF (for 2X PF) started out being easy, then got tough for awhile, and in this tourney, seemed to go back to being easy.

MB: 1900M for #2, in about four games. I started MB quickly and efficiently (I had zero Mosh Pits after the 1st MoR ended), and didn't fail at collecting instruments (much, I think I had to redo Bride once), and had 499M and 719M MoR's. But I'll need to do even better in MoR next time. I'm sort of wondering if the Franky multiball might be worth playing in the tourney, with certain or several other modes going. I don't know the exact rules for points in Franky MB. Reason #57 why pinball is awesome: I feel like a know a table very well, but there's always something I don't know which is probably important. It's hard to know everything about a DMD table.

MM: 360M for #3, in two plays. I think I played this table stupidly in its previous tourney (only 288M), but I did better this time, and tried only for BftK. I started it with 2:51 left, and didn't win it, but also didn't drain until the end of the game, and got a 131M bonus. I wanted to try this table again & try to win BftK, but now I'm glad I didn't, so I can go for it next time.

EatPM: 75M for #3, in three full plays, many restarts though. Not much to say about this one... I missed a couple of 3M's (ouch, I know) and that's a third of the difference between me & Tarek now.

WWater: 3019M for #4, in three full plays, but many restarts again. I'm gradually getting better about hitting the lock standups and starting a 4th (and a 5th, I think) multiball, but I didn't play them well, they were short and I usually had only 2X jackpot, with one 5X going. I don't know when is best to stop getting Rafts and building the jackpot, but I don't think I'm too far off. I used Whirlpool Challenge to build jackpot, and don't know if that's good. Tourney White Water is complex for me.

FH: 120M for #5, in very many plays, at least ten. This is the only table that really frustrated me, I just couldn't find the jackpot shot, and I did try a few PAF recommendations, and played it on both DX9 and DX11. I kept hoping that getting the 1M's in Quick MB is a decent way to score (at my skill level), but I'm pretty sure I was really fooling myself. I don't even know if those Rudy hits in QMB count toward the end-of-ball bonus, which I need to know.

Farsight has been nice the last few months, giving us great WMS/Williams tables, and not making us play quite so many of the other (probably) low-selling tables that they had been doing. Hopefully this will continue, oh wait who am I kidding, I can't wait to play tourney HH/Victory/SpSh some more. I probably just jinxed it. But Farsight: c'mon and put PotO, CentPk, Fireball, ElDor, and (especially) Judge Dredd in a tourney soon, please.

I enjoyed it again, wish I had 1 more point to crack the Top 10 in Silver PSN, but it wasn't in the cards, ohhhh well....on to the next.

But very very happy on pulling out a #1 on Arabian Nights, 160,772,270 is my second best score, luck was on my side

I placed #150 in the PSN gold tier. Only played 3 tables, daughter played 3 of the others.

Did really good on WW with over 1.3 billion.

FH with 55 million, worked on getting better with juggling the multi-ball.

RBION had 58 million, really starting to like this table the more I play it.

Daughter played Elvira, MB and MM.

Didn't get around playing Tails or CC.

Gave myself 5 attempts or less on the three that I played.

Agree with mixing up the tournaments with different time limits, allowed balls, and number of tables.

Ghost in the machine in August tournament

When playing this tournament I noticed The tilt feature was disabled on my iPad three. It wasn't possible to tilt out on any game in this tournament. Nudging had no effect. This was true of every game in in the tournament. Then I tried a non-tournament game. Same deal. Now this morning, with tournament over, all is back to normal. This means I was handicaped throughout the entire tournament. Hardly fair. I now question all the scores in this tournament.