[League Rules]

Each week the Pacific Pinball League features a different format. It can be a little confusing at first, but the rules for each format are reviewed before play begins. If you have questions, ask!

Each league night is worth up to 30 points towards your season rankings and you’ll get an automatic 5 points for participating. You must attend a minimum of 3 league nights to qualify to play in the Finals.

Attendance is rewarded: If you attend 5 – 6 nights, you get 3 extra points in Finals. 7-8, 4 points, and 9-10, 5 points.

Time Attack

In Time Attack 2 players are assigned to a game in each round. Games are played single player and each player has 2.5 minutes to put up their best score. 10 rounds are played.

Extra balls may be played.

Restarts are allowed within the 2.5 minute match duration, however, that voids the game in progress. Whatever score shows on the game at the end of 2.5 minutes is the one that counts. As for why you may wish to restart, if you’re playing a game and you lose your first 2 balls quickly with a lot of time still on the clock, you might want to restart to hopefully get a better score.

Flipper Frenzy

In flipper frenzy, continuous matches are played for a set duration, typically 2 hours. As soon as a player completes a match, they go back into the queue of players waiting for the next available machine. The player with the best Win/Loss record at the end of the 2 hour session is the winner.

Pin Golf

In Pin Golf, “Achievements” are set on each machine (or ‘Hole’).  For example, score 3 Million points on Scared Stiff, or complete the FILM letters on Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The player attempts to complete the Achievement on each Hole with the fewest number of pinballs as possible (like strokes in golf).  In other words, the lower your score, the better.

Achievements will be posted on the game and explained to players. If you still have questions, ask!

We play 6 holes and the stroke limit is 6.  If you don’t complete the Achievement by the end of your 5th ball, you get an automatic 6.

Once a player completes the Achievement on a Hole, they discontinue play. Any remaining balls are plunged out when their turn is up.

Extra balls can be played, and don’t count against your stroke count.  So if you get an extra ball on your first ball, but drain, and then go on to complete the Achievement on your Extra Ball, you still get a hole-in-one.

Player order increments each game, so if you’re Player 1 on Game 2, you’ll be Player 2, and so on.

The best possible score is ‘6’ (6 hole-in-ones).  The worst possible is 36.

Match Play

In Match Play, players are placed in groups of four. A Round consists of 3 games, and two Rounds are played in an evening (6 games total).

The first Round is randomly paired. The second round is based on your performance in the first round. If you did well, you’ll be paired with other players who did well. If you didn’t, you’ll be placed similarly.

Extra balls are not played.  If a player earns an extra ball, they are required to plunge the ball(s) and “walk away”.  However, before the plunge the player is allowed to change lit rollover lanes and “skill plunge” for the skill shot. The reason we don’t play extra balls in Match Play is because some games award an excessive amount of extra balls and it causes Rounds to take a very long time.

3 Strikes and 7 Strikes

In 3 strikes, head-to-head matches are played in Rounds and the loser gets a strike. If a player gets 3 strikes, they’re knocked out of the tournament. Round play continues until only one player is left, who is the winner.

9 strikes is played the same way except in 4 player groups. The winner of the group gets no strikes. 2nd place gets 1 strike, 3rd gets 2 strikes and 4th gets 3 strikes.

If time requires, a final match will be played and the results are decided on strikes remaining.

Finals

The Finals is a Target Match Play event. There are two groups for Finals, A and B.
Players are seeded by their total points during the season. Higher seed always gets choice of order. Bonus points are awarded for good attendance. Each Round of play will focus on a different era: Electro-Mechanical, Solid State and Modern.