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A Day at the Office Tournament
- Thread starter Lecari
- Start date
Itch
Registered
Awesome
Doggard
Site Supporter
Yay, deffo up for this 
Itch
Registered
Deffo lol, well more to keep my daughter interestedHungry for more now you have a trophy shelf?
Of course mate - what a good parent you are, so thoughtful
. I plan on coming too. Only for the kids of course...
Sadly not able to make this so will let someone else win, who else is going to take on the mantle of 'drink all day and still triumph' 
D
Deleted member 2463
For those in the London and SE league there is a chance this day might be round 3. hopefully confirm by the weekend.
Gutted to say I can't make this one, it's my nephew's christening. 
DanSeldon
Registered
Gutted. Away that weekend.
Oh no,
We tried to get a date where we were free (shiftwork
) and there were no other Pinball events in the calendar. I guess there's always a chance there's a league meet that will clash as not all dates are announced far in advance. Definitely didn't want to clash with something that isn't too far away.Hopefully things will work out though
Gutted to say I can't make this one, it's my nephew's christening.
Real shame, hopefully you can make another, we're all just testing the water with the first one to see how things work out.
Next time!
Oh no,
We tried to get a date where we were free (shiftwork
Hopefully things will work out though
@David_Vi I may be wrong (I often am!), but the way I interpreted @Neil McRae's post was that there is a possibility that this event at The Office may be able to be counted as round 3 of the London and SE league rather than round 3 being a separate event which clashes? I certainly hope so!
Hopefully @Neil McRae could clarify?
In any case, it would be helpful if the league events were published further in advance to enable people to plan/arrange availability. Round 2 is apparently on 20th March (got notification by email on 27th Feb), although it's not on the UkPinball website yet:
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OP
OP
Lecari
Site Supporter
I interpreted it the other way - that it's a potential date clash. I haven't heard anything if it is potentially going to be part of the London and SE league! But yes, would be good to know for sure.
I agree, it would be helpful to have the upcoming dates available so that potential date clashes don't happen - David and I are looking at a potential date for the next Flip Frenzy event at ours.
Right Claire - you would already know if you were part of the SE and London league tournament venues. I'm pretty sure on this because your tournament format doesn't match the uk pinball league format, which is not matchplay based at the regional meet level. (The format is instead a number of pinball machines are selected and each player plays one game on each of those pinballs and the scores are ranked from top to bottom on each and summed).
Hope that helps to clarify.
Hope that helps to clarify.
Hopefully Neil is right and a date for London/SE league meet #3 is confirmed by the time registration opens on Saturday for this Pinball office tourney. I have the 3rd of April free, but it would be disappointing (but not the end of the world..) if both events clash 
D
Deleted member 2463
the league event is not an IFPA event in the normal sense and you can always drop one league event in any case.
in an ideal world the league dates would be set out and simple enough but as the vast majority of league events are played in peoples homes, and despite what the government says, COVID is still a significant concern arranging league dates is harder - this is why we had Fun Land for round 1 and PBR for round 2 in the hope that by round 3 we would have long passed the winter covid period. Unfortunately this is making scheduling tougher but I hope to have it resolved this weekend. And provide clarity on the other dates.
The reason the website isn't updated with London and SE results or schedule is the fact that I haven't been informed as League Coordinator I would have hoped to have been.
Maybe @Neil McRae could provide the details?
Maybe @Neil McRae could provide the details?
The london/SE league is to a certain extent a victim of its own success.
40+ people isn’t uncommon which means larger venues are needed. 15 people can easily fit into a house but it’s harder with three times this number.
The league is also relatively fluid. The success of Pinball Republic and the London league as well as various one off events in the area has drawn a new crowd of people in. Potentially this could realistically see yet more people attend league events as people become more confident at coming out to things. (At the first L/SE event there were quite a few new faces).
This means there have to be venues where people are happy to host, the organisers are happy it’s safe and people feel comfy attending. It’s a logistical challenge.
Cards on the table time. I’ve hosted for the last 10 years. However, my games are in two relatively small room. The main room has limited ventilation and gets rather aromatic / warm in the best of years. The kitchen also gets very crowded.
If we can get people into the garden then that takes a lot of the pressure off but that means it has to be later in the year. Other hosts will be in similar situations.
I’m willing to host again this year but it has to be done in a safe way. Much as we would all like covid to be over I’d estimate that roughly 1 in 25 people I have close contact with at work at the moment are positive at any given time.
Hopefully, we will have more clarity in the upcoming weeks as more data comes in.
40+ people isn’t uncommon which means larger venues are needed. 15 people can easily fit into a house but it’s harder with three times this number.
The league is also relatively fluid. The success of Pinball Republic and the London league as well as various one off events in the area has drawn a new crowd of people in. Potentially this could realistically see yet more people attend league events as people become more confident at coming out to things. (At the first L/SE event there were quite a few new faces).
This means there have to be venues where people are happy to host, the organisers are happy it’s safe and people feel comfy attending. It’s a logistical challenge.
Cards on the table time. I’ve hosted for the last 10 years. However, my games are in two relatively small room. The main room has limited ventilation and gets rather aromatic / warm in the best of years. The kitchen also gets very crowded.
If we can get people into the garden then that takes a lot of the pressure off but that means it has to be later in the year. Other hosts will be in similar situations.
I’m willing to host again this year but it has to be done in a safe way. Much as we would all like covid to be over I’d estimate that roughly 1 in 25 people I have close contact with at work at the moment are positive at any given time.
Hopefully, we will have more clarity in the upcoming weeks as more data comes in.
@Neil McRae - I didn't assume that was the case (I did say that I could be wrong, and often am). It is just that given the way you phrased the statement:
--- it COULD (wrongly) be interpreted that "this day might be round 3" may refer to the Office event. If you'd posted that "this event may clash with round 3", there would have been zero ambiguity.
In any case, thanks for clarifying, and apologies for any confusion I may have caused with my question/post.
Regarding my comment/question on the availability of future dates in the league, from an "outsider/newbie" point of view, it just seemed strange that other leagues have published future events up to May (Northern) and June (Midlands), whereas the only event listed for London/SE on the website is for the past event at Funland on 20th Feb. Although an email has gone out (on 27th Feb) saying that the next one is on 20th March at Pinball Republic (3 weeks notice isn't that much if one has a fairly busy diary), this still isn't listed on the website, so it did make me wonder if other future events were already arranged, but hadn't been published yet. I don't think that's an unreasonable impression to have, particularly given that, as of the time of this post, even the results of the february Funland event still haven't been updated on the website (to be clear, no criticism intended of @Wayne J, as he can only update the website when he's provided with the necessary information).
What I hadn't realised/appreciated regarding the London/SE league was that its recent popularity was causing logistical challenges for hosting events, as so helpfully explained by @johnwhitfield below:
I do feel disappointed for @Lecari, @David_Vi, and @Hiltoncriss that their event at The Office may potentially be adversely affected if there is a clash with round 3 of the London/SE league (assuming that many people would go to the league event in preference) - particularly given that they have organised it in good faith on a date which didn't clash with any other events that were published at the time.
Hopefully the league event will not clash, and even if the league event is pencilled in for the same date currently, maybe it could be moved to an alternative date then we can all go to both? Either way, it will be good to get confirmation of the league date later this week, as indicated by @Neil McRae.
On a personal note, if there is a clash, I think I'll be supporting The Office event, which is already in my diary.
Finally, just to be clear, no criticism of anyone is intended - people organising these things are doing so in their own time, and their efforts are very much appreciated, as if they didn't put in a lot of effort to these things, there wouldn't be any events for us all to enjoy, so thanks to all involved.
I'll defo be attending the Day at the pinball office (pending registration on Saturday; have set a reminder on my phone!)
@Neil McRae - I didn't assume that was the case (I did say that I could be wrong, and often am). It is just that given the way you phrased the statement:
--- it COULD (wrongly) be interpreted that "this day might be round 3" may refer to the Office event. If you'd posted that "this event may clash with round 3", there would have been zero ambiguity.
In any case, thanks for clarifying, and apologies for any confusion I may have caused with my question/post.
Regarding my comment/question on the availability of future dates in the league, from an "outsider/newbie" point of view, it just seemed strange that other leagues have published future events up to May (Northern) and June (Midlands), whereas the only event listed for London/SE on the website is for the past event at Funland on 20th Feb. Although an email has gone out (on 27th Feb) saying that the next one is on 20th March at Pinball Republic (3 weeks notice isn't that much if one has a fairly busy diary), this still isn't listed on the website, so it did make me wonder if other future events were already arranged, but hadn't been published yet. I don't think that's an unreasonable impression to have, particularly given that, as of the time of this post, even the results of the february Funland event still haven't been updated on the website (to be clear, no criticism intended of @Wayne J, as he can only update the website when he's provided with the necessary information).
What I hadn't realised/appreciated regarding the London/SE league was that its recent popularity was causing logistical challenges for hosting events, as so helpfully explained by @johnwhitfield below:
I do feel disappointed for @Lecari, @David_Vi, and @Hiltoncriss that their event at The Office may potentially be adversely affected if there is a clash with round 3 of the London/SE league (assuming that many people would go to the league event in preference) - particularly given that they have organised it in good faith on a date which didn't clash with any other events that were published at the time.
Hopefully the league event will not clash, and even if the league event is pencilled in for the same date currently, maybe it could be moved to an alternative date then we can all go to both? Either way, it will be good to get confirmation of the league date later this week, as indicated by @Neil McRae.
On a personal note, if there is a clash, I think I'll be supporting The Office event, which is already in my diary.
Finally, just to be clear, no criticism of anyone is intended - people organising these things are doing so in their own time, and their efforts are very much appreciated, as if they didn't put in a lot of effort to these things, there wouldn't be any events for us all to enjoy, so thanks to all involved.
Thank you so much Conrad for your comment.
I remember, last Saturday when I was discussing this tournament with @Lecari and @David_Vi our main worry was not to clash with any other pinball event. So we did our homework and checked every event that was already announced and we picked the 3rd of April as being a free pinball event date. I am very sorry if this event will clash with another one but it’s completely impossible for me to know about events that aren’t listed anywhere. I really hope that this won’t be the case.
Again, I would like to apologise for the short notice, @David_Vi told me that this could be an issue for some, but looking at our calendar and the events calendar the next date that we could’ve use was somewhere in July. Because I didn’t want to drag it for almost half a year we decided to hold it in April.
This being our first organised event at The Pinball Office, I hope that pinheads will understand this. Definitely the next ones will be announced with at least 6-8 weeks before if not more.
I’m doing my best to bring at this event new blood, people that never played before in a pinball tournament so this isn’t exclusive to the veterans only.
As @Matt Vince and @Neil McRae mentioned, UK has only around 500 players on the IFPA list. We should do our best to try and increase that number. It will be a positive thing for everyone veteran or beginner. Let’s try to make Pinball a proper sport not just a very very niche hobby.
Beside this, considering how rubbish I am at Pinball, playing against some beginners will give me some confidence and will boost my morale. (Don’t tell this to anyone
I’m just being selfish here)Chris
If you subscribe on www.thepinballoffice.co.uk (bottom of each page), on Saturday everyone will be notified when the registration starts. Like this it will be impossible to miss it. (Unless you won’t read your email)
If anyone else wants a better reminder than the email method, I can call you myself to remind you for a measly £50/call plus £25/each additional minute.
Pick your choice please))
If anyone else wants a better reminder than the email method, I can call you myself to remind you for a measly £50/call plus £25/each additional minute.
Pick your choice please
))
D
Deleted member 2463
i don’t think anyone has done anything wrong here with leadtimes etc- its just a fall out from covid. I will confirm on Saturday what’s happening, but if the few pieces of the puzzle align then that date is likely to be the league date. It’s unfortunate but not the end of the world.
Just don’t arrange anything for Mother’s Day. I’m still getting bollocked three years later for that one