Christmas tournament is underway

I've only participated in one tournament, long ago. Apparently I'm now playing in the PSN silver level. Do the star icons next to the top players mean that they'll rank up to the gold level for the next tournament? And, does Farsight still offer ball skins as tournament prizes? Is there any indicator for whether you'll qualify for a prize?

I'm on the PS3 and I've promoted all the way to gold (I think because I own most of the tables so get points on everything), but never won anything. I have never finished top 50 in Gold.

tomwaits said:

Do the star icons next to the top players mean that they'll rank up to the gold level for the next tournament?

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Yes. The top ten percent of all players in a division move up, the lowest 10% move down in the next tournament, as indicated by the icons.

tomwaits said:

And, does Farsight still offer ball skins as tournament prizes? Is there any indicator for whether you'll qualify for a prize?

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There have only been once or twice ball skins as a prize, as far as I remember. There will be a hosted tournament in January, where we should see prizes again:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/12154-MLP-tournament-January

Egad! I set a personal best in Theater of Magic (just a 10 minute game!), by a long shot, in the sense that I had to drain three or so balls in the last several seconds to get the bonuses.

Out of curiosity, how high are the top scores on ToM for the gold level PSN tournament? I'm currently in first place on ToM for the silver level tournament... scored 1.7 billion before time ran out.

tomwaits said:

Out of curiosity, how high are the top scores on ToM for the gold level PSN tournament? I'm currently in first place on ToM for the silver level tournament... scored 1.7 billion before time ran out.

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You can keep track of all the scores across all platforms and tiers on the official site. There is the usual delay in posting new scores, but it should provide all of the information you need.

Currently your score would be 18th place in the Gold PSN tournament. High score is 2,875,718,650. Your score is still very good. Nice job.

http://www.pinballarcade.com/Tournaments/

Thanks for the link! Now I can spend the next 8 days obsessively checking my tournament standings on any device that's handy.

Crazy Newt said:

You can keep track of all the scores across all platforms and tiers on the official site. There is the usual delay in posting new scores, but it should provide all of the information you need.

Currently your score would be 18th place in the Gold PSN tournament. High score is 2,875,718,650. Your score is still very good. Nice job.

http://www.pinballarcade.com/Tournaments/

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How does one check standings for individual tables from within the ios app? With the new interface I can't figure that out.

Quick tourney question: How are scores counted? Can you play as much as you want and it'll save your best score, or only your last score is counted?

Bahnzo said:

Quick tourney question: How are scores counted? Can you play as much as you want and it'll save your best score, or only your last score is counted?

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You can play as many games as you can on any table until the deadline expires for the tournament. The highest score is kept for each table.

Paul Petrissans said:

How does one check standings for individual tables from within the ios app? With the new interface I can't figure that out.

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I don't see an option for this with the Steam/PC version either, only a total score. To get the most information, you have to use the official website. I typically check my performance at the official website, and make a note of the score I need to achieve for a specific table before staring the Steam app and starting a game.

I just recently started playing in these tournaments (android tablet here). I quickly made my way through bronze and silver tournaments, finishing in and around the top 10 each time. Now in my second gold level tournament, I find myself starting off near the top, and slipping downward. I finished around 50th last time, and I'm currently 37th. I don't know what it is, but I find myself unable to consistently have good games, even on tables I'm generally really good at. Every shot seems destined to either bounce off an obstacle near my target, and go right between the flippers, or sail right into the outlane. One common issue I have is when I try to aim a shot, it will suddenly bounce off the corner of the opposite slingshot, and go right down the middle.

My general question to pinball pros is how do you consistently post such great scores? For me, it seems to only happen once in a blue moon, and I've been playing pinball ever since I was little. I've read up on all the techniques, but I can't seem to find one approach that seems to work all that well. My aim seems to be inconsistent, my timing seems to be off a lot of the time, and I never nudge, because when I try it, it doesn't seem to affect the ball in any way. Is nudging the only way to perform well in a gold level tournament, and if it is, how do I make it work for me?

I love pinball, and I will always play it no matter what. I'm just looking for any advice to help me compete with the best of you guys.

Some players can spam a shot over and over for 10 minutes (used to be 20 minutes). It's really hard to do, and I wouldn't call it cheating but I would say for me that it would make the tournament zero fun.

Short answer - knowledge, skill, and luck
My strategy is to know the table well enough to have a solid game plan to get the most points possible in 10 minutes whether it's a MultiBall or a high scoring wizard mode that is possible to get to in 10 minutes. Building up huge end of ball bonuses or even draining extra balls at the end of the games if they are worth it.

Yeah I would say learn to love the nudge. On TPA versios with analog controls good players micro-nudge and micro manage the ball all day long. On mobile its 3 nudges you tilt so you use it sparingly and with purpose - but you use it. Slap save for SDTM and up nudge to keep the ball away from the outlines are just two examples..

No more hints (from me) this is a tournament

I will say "Good Luck!"

Theater of Magic has been a new experience for me. In this tourney (I suppose the 10 min limit, instead of 20 min, is a big factor), I am finding it a matter of scoring a high enough score in 10 minutes instead of playing a full game that ends before the timer.

I'm hitting the same wall with Medieval Madness. Never played against a time limit before, and it's interesting trying to find a 'better' way to play the tables for 10 minutes. Need to figure out the best way to score points quickly instead of just playing a normal game and working through all the modes until time expires.

I'm currently sitting at second place in the PSN silver tier. I should have enough points already to ensure ranking up to gold level for the next tournament. Not sure if it's worth playing further just to try for a tournament 'win' if there are no other rewards...

Not bad tomwaits. I had what I thought was my best game of MM so far last night but I'm still 22 places behind you.
Had a great Space Shuttle last night too which got me #3 there. Hoping I can get top 10, but I'm not touching Starship Troopers again. Once was enough.

edit: ok now I had my best MM. Barely passed by you by 1m. I was destroying a castle as the time ran out, would have been another 8m.

Have they fixed the cheating issues that plagued early tournaments?

inspector42 said:

Have they fixed the cheating issues that plagued early tournaments?

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What cheating issues did they have?

I went to this forum just to know how Bronze, Silver and Gold-Tier for PC-release works... I always thought you only could be in one tier but I see top player "VirtualPinballFanatic" in Bronze Tier is also one of the top players Gold Tier. Bugged I guess...
I also noticed you can play the tables you don't own and get score counted for them as long as you don't hit the score limit for the trial. Right now I got over 280 points just from this, will probably drop a lot. Hopefully I can get them all on a Steam sale tomorrow.

psykil said:

Not bad tomwaits. I had what I thought was my best game of MM so far last night but I'm still 22 places behind you.
Had a great Space Shuttle last night too which got me #3 there. Hoping I can get top 10, but I'm not touching Starship Troopers again. Once was enough.

edit: ok now I had my best MM. Barely passed by you by 1m. I was destroying a castle as the time ran out, would have been another 8m.

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Boosted my MM score slightly and leapfrogged 3.5 million past your score. Still haven't found a better strategy for quick scoring in 10 minutes though. Queuing up all the 'madness' modes at once and racking up super jackpots during multiball seems to be the best strategy I can find, but I'm not very good at doing that.

Here's the current highest scoring game on Theatre of Magic, 3.6b.