I applaud the Dudes, NormaJ and crew and the die hard players for taking this on. The level of dedication to tourney pinball is impressive!
As always my feedback is meant to be constructive, as I greatly want to see tournament pinball in Florida thrive.
Comments:
What’s in a Name: I agree while “24 Hours with the Dudes” was never advertised as such, there was definitively an initial perception that it was going to be either a flip frenzy or similar to matchplay for 24 hours straight like the Sanctum event up north which has a similar title.
I told several people asking me after the initial posting and even as late as FPF that was NOT the case, but sometimes initial thoughts are hard to change.
Timing: The holiday weekend is a tough time, especially occurring right after a long 3-day weekend at FPF.
24 hours of qualifying is plenty. The only suggestion would be maybe start a little earlier in the afternoon on day one. Maybe 2pm to 2pm ? That way if finals start at 3pm they can end early enough on Day 2.
The finals started at 6pm, but there were only 8 players. And there were 4 games per round. If there were 16 players in finals as anticipated, then add another round to what occurred. That’s a long potential 2 days for everyone.
Cost: I thought the pricing and description made sense, but then again I understand the language of a “PAPA ticket”.
In my experience, money math is weird for some pinball players. On one hand the same type of people who will gladly pay $220 to play exactly 40 games at Pinburgh (required show entry fee plus tourney fee) will argue 7 games for $20 in a Herb Style is not a good value and costs too much to compete. Fact: $120 buys 42 qualifying games at FPF or most Herb Style events.
(As explained in one of my various Pinball Tourneys 101 articles, set a budget; nobody is forcing a player to “pump and dump”)
Cost Suggestion: Since nobody used all of their initial entries and had to buy in again, maybe consider calling it a flat fee of $50 and a player can play all they want. (Think Point Monsters Main). Players love that concept.
Format: I don’t think this deterred people. I think most players are somewhat familiar with it now. There have been 5 PAPA Style events at the Asylum and 1 at John I’s years ago (that was the first in Florida).
The concept is only challenging when understanding how ranking points are tallied and that you compete against yourself. On the most basic level, I usually tell people just pick 5 games you like and play them.
Having a fixed fee as describe above eliminates pressure for some people.
In closing, I would like to see this happen again, and hopefully I can make it, particularly since it is in my easy travel area and I love the format.
Thanks again to everyone for their efforts and passion for competitive pinball.
