From: grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com (Dean Grover)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Midwest Pinball Championships in Colorado
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:33:15 GMT
Reply-To: grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com
Organization: Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA

So, did anyone else from r.g.p go to the pinball tournament in Colorado last 
weekend ??  I looked through the list of players, and didn't recognize any names.
Of course, I only checked the EXPERT division. :-) :-)  

I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it until Wednesday, when I was
lucky enough to have a business trip place me about 3 miles away from FUNWORLD.

One disclaimer before the event description:  I am not a reporter, so I didn't take
any notes.  This was my first real competition, and I wanted to make a good showing.

Qualifying took place Saturday from 10-6.  For a $5 entry fee, you were given
a score sheet, and recorded your 2 scores from each of the 4 machines:
	TAF, HSII, L-3, MARIO
I believe the best score was kept for each game and totaled up.  There was plenty of
time to qualify 3 or more times, but only the best entry was kept.  I qualified twice,
not really changing my standings.  At the end of the day, each players best scores
were ranked, with 1/3 going to expert, 1/3 for intermediate & 1/3 for beginner.
This was the 17-up age group.  There was one 16 & under division also.

There were 10 sets of machines there (40 total), and most were in excellent shape
(maybe all new, or shopped out.)  I believe these were donated by the manufacturers.

Sunday we started a double elimination tournament, with 32 players in each division.
(Maybe 28 & 4 empty slots).  Each match was best of 5, and players were required to
play a different game each time.  Loser could determine the next game to play.
If a fifth game was required, a random machine was drawn, and the match was decided
on that.

Here are the top 4 from EXPERT (sorry, I didn't always get last names)
	1) Paul ???   (From Minneapolis)	$450 & pinball machine (ICE FEVER)
	2) Bob Winters (From COLORADO)		$250 (I think...)
	3) Dean Grover (From CA  yea!!!!! :-))	$100 (this I know :-))
	4) Fred ???   (also from Minn)		$50 (I think...)

There were only a couple of problems here:
- The game chart was not drawn correctly at the end.  A few matches were left off!!
	This was nearly disasterous, but Bob found the mistake as he was about to 
	play me for the second time.  I had alreadly lost to him in the winners
	bracket (we were 2 of the final 4 undefeated players), and he had just
	lost to Paul in the final game of the winners bracket.  As it turned out,
	he should have played the winner of the losers bracket.  It took about 20
	minutes to get things fixed, and none of the final matches had been played
	yet, so there was no harm done (except to a few people who thought they had
	reached the top 4, but had 2 more matches to win).   As it worked out,
	I took the losers divison and had to play Bob anyway, but this time it was
	for the chance to play Paul.  Confused ??  

- The other problem was that Super Mario Bro's was set WAY too easy.  Ok, maybe it
	is too easy of a game in the first place.  Some players were lasting over
	15 minutes on that game alone (with no extra balls)!!  That made the
	tournament drag on for about 12 hours total.

Overall, I had a great time.  And even though some of the top players were not there,
I was happy with my finish.  (I was really happy since I had not played a L-3 or
Super Mario game until Friday !!)  I also learned a few special tricks that I hadn't
seen before.

- Some personal notes (WARNING, some TAF "bragging" ahead ;-))
    Thanks to this list for SECRET MANIA help.  Not many people knew about that!
    Also thanks to this list for the L-3 hints.  I couldn't have come up to speed
		so quickly without them !!

    I went UNDEFEATED on TAF, which helped give me a  mental edge against my
	opponents (except Bob, who still beat me both times).
	Yes, there was some luck involved there, but having one at home to practice
	on really helped.

If you were there, sorry I missed you.
Dean
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Dean Grover                            Mappy - The ultimate game of cat
Hughes Aircraft Company                        and mouse
adgrover@hac2arpa.hac.com or grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com