BASIC GOAL: Stay alive and outlast the zombie hoard.  The last surviving human gets 50% of the prize pot, but even if you become a zombie, you can still win prizes.

ROUND 1: All players start off as humans and random 4-player groups are created and assigned randomly to games.  The goal in the first round is to finish in the top half (1st or 2nd place), which means you’re still a human.  If you finish 3rd of 4th, you’re a zombie.

(* If there are two extra players, they will play a 1vs1 match with the higher player staying human, lower player turning zombie.  If there is an odd number of players, that player will start as a zombie but is rotated in starting with Round 2.)

Example of a 4-player group:

Conclusion of Round 1: two players stay human, two become zombies.

ROUND 2: Now it is zombies versus humans.  4-player groups are created and the zombies are now trying to infect the humans to win prizes.

A zombie who infects a human wins prizes and keeps playing in the following Round.  An unsuccessful zombie goes on the zombie “wait list” and is rotated back into play in the order s/he went out.  For example, in Round 2, the first 4-player game to end and report the winners and losers will include the first zombies on the wait list.  Therefore, the earlier a zombie goes out in the previous round the better their chance of playing in the following Round(s).

If a zombie infects a human, he gets $5 or a prize (drink/app, or other).  If he infects 2 humans, he gets $10.  If there are 2 zombies and both of them infect both the humans (finish 1st and 2nd, or 1st and 3rd), they get $5 each.  If there are 2 zombies and both of them infect 1 human (finish 2nd/3rd), the top zombie gets the $5 prize and continues play, the bottom zombie goes to the wait list.

Sample Conclusion of Round 2

ROUND 3 and 4: Play continues as in Round 2. Groups are formed as follows*:

If there are 2, 4, 6, etc humans, then 2 Human vs 2 Zombie games will be formed.

If there are 3 humans left: Three 4 player games consisting of one human and three zombies.

5 humans left: Two 4 players games consisting of 2 humans and two zombies.  One 2 player game consisting of one human and one zombie.

7 humans left: Three 4 players games consisting of 2 humans and one zombie.  One 2 player game consisting of one human and one zombie.

9 humans left: Four 4 players games consisting of 2 humans and one zombie.  One 2 player game consisting of one human and one zombie.

etc.

(*Since there are four machines to play on, the above groupings are designed to allow as much play and as little downtime as possible).

ROUND 5 and on: Play continues like before except that each human gets 1 less pinball to play with, and from Round 6 forward they get two less pinballs to play with.  Outrunning zombies is tired and thirsty work.  The last remaining human is declared the winner.

ZOMBIE SWEEP: It’s possible that as early as Round 2, the zombies might “sweep” the humans, leaving no clear human survivor.  In that case, the top-performing half of human players continues, the bottom half become zombies, and play continues into the next Round, or, if only two humans left, a human player is declared the winner.  (In the case of 3 humans, the 3rd human is infected and the other two remain human.  For 5, the 4th and 5th player.  For 7, 5th, 6th and 7th.

Zombie SWEEP with TIE (Zombie Apocalypse): Though it’s unlikely, it’s also possible that in later rounds, the zombies might infect the remaining humans AND the humans finish in the same position.  In this case, the zombies responsible will divide up all remaining prize money, including the Grand Prize for the last human survivor.  For example, there are three human survivors left.  Three 4-player games consisting of 3 zombies and 1 survivor each are played.  The humans all finish in 3nd place.  The six zombies who finished 1st would divide up the prize pot.

General Rules:

• No bang backs or death saves
• Extra balls are plunge and one flip
• Players are responsible for coin-drop, however all entry money is paid back.
• Slam Tilt results in replay of game, with the offending player taking automatic 4th. 2nd Slam tilt results in Disqualification.

It was a crowded November for local pinball action.  Click each picture to see more pictures.

Pingolf at Playland not at the Beach

Vitus 11/8

2nd Pacific Pinball Open

Vitus 11/23

Jester guy sticks Superfriends inside a really crappy pinball machine.

*Warning* – Language, courtesy of the 9 inch nails song.

Tonights GRAND CHAMP: JIM VIERRA

2nd. Chris Heilig

3rd.TJ Beyer

4th Damien Charlety

5th Per Sshwarzenberger

5th Marice Tierney

7th Dotti Ledesma

7th Henry Huang

9th Keith Parkins

9th Jeannie Rodriguez

9th Nicole Anne Reik

9th Mitch Tunick

13 Nina G

13 Poppy Bell

13 Zoe Vrabel

Looks like something about putting your money in the bank.  Also, the pinball they’re playing looks like it needs some serious board work.

http://www.ina.fr/video/PUB3249376092/livret-d-epargne-manuelle-le-flipper.fr.html

Here’s the final results of the 2nd Pacific Pinball Open.

Thank you to everyone for coming out, especially the volunteers: Chris Kochan, Dottie Ledesma, Andrei Massenkoff, Tim Hansen, Mark Altvater (also made awesome plaques), and several others I know I’m missing.  Thanks also to the PPM staff who kept the place open well past closing time so we could play the final games.

For the Finals, the top 10 average scores advanced, and then the top 6 high scores on the games after that, for a total of 16 finalists in the Open Division.  Novice took the next 8 best average scores of players who qualified for the Novice division.

Novice Division Finals:

	John Lautmann
2nd	Jim Anderson
3rd	Molly Reisman
4th	Michael Schiess
5th	Dylan Eichenbaum
6th	Stephen Kleckner
7th	James Squires
8th	Selena Shook

.

(Thanks to volunteer Damien Charlety for running the novice finals.)

Erica Reikki and Mads Kristensen

Two tries were allowed on the short flipper game with the better score recorded

Zoe Vrabel tries Tilt, the malt beverage of pinball. Hard to tell if she liked it or not.

Chris Heilig plays TRON in the final four

Grand Champ Andrei Massenkoff, who put up over 100M on his first ball on TRON, always has time for mom. Aww...

Onto to the open bracket.  The top 16 places were decided in head-to-head play, after it came down to average position across the three games.  Also note that performance in the novice finals doesn’t modify overall position.

Congrats to everyone and see you next time.  More pics and full write-up will be posted to pinballnews.com.