UKCS and League Finals 18, 19 Feb near Huddersfield

[robotgreg]

My thoughts are that a league format followed by Wayne's suggestion of 1v 2, 3 v 4, 5 v 6 etc. Is the way to keep the finals as close to a league format as possible, that way after the league portion no player can move up or down by more than one spot and keeps as much of the integrity of the league as possible. (Also no need to have A & B playoffs or change the qualifying spots from the year long advertising!)

I disagree with Wayne about posting the results next year after each league meet, this is mainly because the UK league overall will be the biggest comp of the year.

I too am very disappointed the finals are taking place next year. I did speak to Greg a while back about the fact that with the rule changes IFPA are bringing in at the end of the year, many people that participated may not even be included in the results unless they attended more than half of the meets. Playing the finals in this calendar year would have prevented this.

Greg, can you please confirm that the trophies for each league will be presented on the day?

Agree that if we do league style it needs to have some meaning, rather than just seeding. Need to see how much head to head is needed to satisfy WPPR, waiting to hear from Martin who I expect is catching up on sleep after his work at BBC for US elections.

Thought better to combine finals with another event to make more worthwhile for travel when it is a national final vs just another UKCS event where you tend to get more local people attending and fewer of the top players but maybe I was wrong?

Yes trophies for top 3 in each region and top 4 in A and B finals will be presented on the day.

 

[Matt Vince]

I would agree about combining the finals with another event if it was 'open', but the UKCS finals are not. So that only benefits some of the players, not all. personally, I do not like the ladder format of the UKCS or the high cost for potentiality one game. If the events are on different days, I will only be playing in the UK league finals personally. If both finals are on the same day, (and I qualified for UKCS) I would take part in that final but only because I would have spent a lot of money already getting there.

I don't believe it would be difficult to re-arrange the league finals for this year at a location like Tilt or Arcade club which would enable all those that entered the league to still be counted in the results for this year. we do not even need exclusive use of the venue, just a space to setup the organising desk.

If the finals take on a league format as suggested (IFPA only require an element of head to head play this year) can you confirm that all those that qualified as advertised will be able to participate? That way you do not have to disappoint any players that thought they had qualified, and any drop outs also won't effect the format.

 

[robotgreg]

I would agree about combining the finals with another event if it was 'open', but the UKCS finals are not. So that only benefits some of the players, not all. personally, I do not like the ladder format of the UKCS or the high cost for potentiality one game. If the events are on different days, I will only be playing in the UK league finals personally. If both finals are on the same day, (and I qualified for UKCS) I would take part in that final but only because I would have spent a lot of money already getting there.

I don't believe it would be difficult to re-arrange the league finals for this year at a location like Tilt or Arcade club which would enable all those that entered the league to still be counted in the results for this year. we do not even need exclusive use of the venue, just a space to setup the organising desk.

If the finals take on a league format as suggested (IFPA only require an element of head to head play this year) can you confirm that all those that qualified as advertised will be able to participate? That way you do not have to disappoint any players that thought they had qualified, and any drop outs also won't effect the format.

Arcade Club is definitely not possible, Tilt maybe but we're running out of weekends now this year and can't see getting it organised in time to fit in with free weekends and a bit short notice for some players as already have:
27 Nov Shine
4 Dec Xmas Cracker
10-11 Dec Festive Gathering

Yes if we are able to do league style under WPPR (with some other head to head and fit it in timewise) then yes all can participate in either A or B as per website.

 

[Wayne J]

With regard to the allocation of places in A & B finals. Surely that could be decided at the start of the season, based on the previous years entries. To continue with your Champions League analogy, it is known at the start of the season that the top 3 in the EPL will reach the knockout stages and the 4th will reach the qualifiers. This is based (in part) on previous years performance.

I was also under the impression that competition formats had to be submitted to IFPA at least one month before the competition was due to start?

Personally I think that we should go ahead with the dates decided at David's. As you point out, we are running out of time to fit something in this year - I certainly wouldn't be able to attend any final in 2016 as I'm already fully booked up.

As for the UKCS being expensive to enter with the potential of only a single game. Isn't it going to be free to enter for all qualifiers, due to the fact that money is being collected from every UKCS competition? I know that I've already added money from the WCR comp I ran. I assume that other competitions have been doing the same?
By my reckoning there should be at least £129 in the fund with 3 further comps to go this year. Maybe not enough to make it free for everyone, but certainly cheaper than previous years

 

[robotgreg]

With regard to the allocation of places in A & B finals. Surely that could be decided at the start of the season, based on the previous years entries. To continue with your Champions League analogy, it is known at the start of the season that the top 3 in the EPL will reach the knockout stages and the 4th will reach the qualifiers. This is based (in part) on previous years performance.

I was also under the impression that competition formats had to be submitted to IFPA at least one month before the competition was due to start?

Personally I think that we should go ahead with the dates decided at David's. As you point out, we are running out of time to fit something in this year - I certainly wouldn't be able to attend any final in 2016 as I'm already fully booked up.

As for the UKCS being expensive to enter with the potential of only a single game. Isn't it going to be free to enter for all qualifiers, due to the fact that money is being collected from every UKCS competition? I know that I've already added money from the WCR comp I ran. I assume that other competitions have been doing the same?
By my reckoning there should be at least £129 in the fund with 3 further comps to go this year. Maybe not enough to make it free for everyone, but certainly cheaper than previous years

In theory yes, places can be allocated at start of the season but firstly numbers can significantly vary year on year, we had the Irish league start this year and my initial format needed 16 players which was fewer than the tables on the website. Yes once we finalise the format for this year, can determine places for next year based on this year's attendance.

Afraid won't be free once we take into account cost of trophies, contribution for host and prize monies and no UKCS Hangover which helped towards the cost of food, etc. It should be cheaper than in past but will need to work out the finances. I am still waiting for one set of UKCS fees to come through though. At mo should be 21+26+30+23= £100 once and assuming all paid up (remember no charge for UK Cup and we didn't start charging until after 8 bit flip). 4 comps to go this year - Shine, Xmas Cracker, Festive Gathering, Robot Bash.

 

[Wayne J]

I wasn't expecting Shine to contribute, due to it being for charity (same as 8 Bit), had forgotten about the UK cup being for charity also.

 

[Matt Vince]

Just to confirm, the Shine competition will not be making any contribution to the UKCS. All monies taken are going directly to the charity and all costs are covered by myself or Pinball Heaven and Tilt.

Hopefully the event will still be used towards the UKCS rankings but if the financial contribution is mandatory then it won't be.

 

[robotgreg]

That's fine, Matt. Any charity based comp shouldn't have to pay any UKCS fees as we wouldn't want to take away any money from a good cause.

 

[robotgreg]

Following the feedback on here, we've reviewed the format and decided to change the finals as follows to take into account some of the concerns raised:

Format
The finals will now have league style qualifying on 5 machines and then a play off for the top 8. This will be the same format as I use for the Robot Bash comp as follows:

1st and 2nd get bye to final, 34d and 4th bye to semi, 5th to 85h play 4 player game with top 2 going through to the semi where they are joined by 3rd and 4th. Repeat with top 2 then joining 1st and 2nd qualifiers in final.

This way we retain the league style qualifying, with some benefit based on qualifying position but satisfy IFPA rules for some head to head.

All matches in the knockout stages will be 4 player games over 3 machines with 3,2,1,0 points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and machines will be drawn from the bank of 5 at random but need to be 3 different ones.

Qualifiers
Will allow all players noted on the league website as having qualified for A or B division to participate in the respective finals if they can and wish to, in order to avoid any disappointment of not having qualified when league website said otherwise. Also if any B division qualifiers are not able to make it, will allow up to 3 of the next placed players to participate.

I'll email all qualifiers separately with more information and to confirm attendance.

Cheers
Greg

 

[yellowreggae]

 

[robotgreg]

Very many thanks to David for hosting the UKCS and league finals over the weekend, providing some fantastic food to keep us going with a great selection of machines from all ages and generally being an all round top host. I'm sure everyone appreciated all the effort David put into getting the house and machines ready and the excellent range of hot and cold food.

Very many congratulations to Martin for winning the UKCS for a 3rd year in a row, Andy for a very close second with the final being decided by the very last ball of the last game of 6, Rich in a clear 3rd and Peter in 4th.

In the A division finals, Andy got his revenge to win, with Wayne coming second after winning a playoff to pip Martin who ended up 3rd with Peter making the final again but ending up 4th.

In the B division finals, it went down to the last ball of the last game of 3 with all players in with a chance of winning on a very close game on Star Trek. Colin came out the winner, Kate was second, David 3rd and Garry 4th.

I've attached the files so anyone interested can see the full results and scores.

In summary, the places were as follows:

UKCS
1 Martin Ayub
2 Andy Foster
3 Rich Mallett
4 Peter Blakemore
5 Will Dutton
6 Wayne Johns
7 David Mainwaring
8 Dan Williams
9 Tom Fletcher
10 Greg Mott
11 Paul Owen
12 Nick Marshall
13 Mike Kindler
14 David Dutton
15 Vin Jauhal
16 Nick Hamill
17 Tim Thornton
18 Nick Baxter-Sibey
19 Ian Walmsley

League A Qualifying

1 Andy Foster 45
2 Wayne Johns 40
3 Paul Owen 39
4 Martin Ayub 39
5 Peter Blakemore 37
6 Timothy Raison 36
6 Greg Mott 36
8 Mike Kindler 33
9 David Mainwaring 30
10 Will Dutton 28
11 Eddie Lehan 17
12 Phil Dixon 10

After Playoffs:

1 Andy Foster
2 Wayne Johns
3 Martin Ayub
4 Peter Blakemore
5 Paul Owen
6 Timothy Raison

League B Qualifying

1 David Dutton 55
2 Colin Clunie 46
3 Garry Speight 43
4 Rich Mallett 43
5 Kate Rothwell-Jackson 37
6 Helmut Langenbruch 35
7 Elliott Roberts 33
8 Terry Sullivan 32
9 Adrian Donati 30
10 Vin Jauhal 28
10 Dawn Raison 28
12 Chris Meggat 26
13 Richard Rothwell-Jackson 19

After Playoffs:

1 Colin Clunie
2 Kate Rothwell-Jackson
3 David Dutton
4 Garry Speight
5 Rich Mallett
6 Helmut Langenbruch

Cheers
Greg

 

[cooldan]

Congrats to Martin, Andy and Colin. What is the UKCS by the way?

 

[replicas]

Way to go Colin.

 

[Moonraker]

Congrats to Martin, Andy and Colin. What is the UKCS by the way?

UK Championship series the seeding is determined by who finishes where at each tournament throughout the year.

Thanks to the Duttons for hosting a great meet with super machine to play although I'm not sure I want to hear "move your car" ever again....!