Northwest Women's Pinball Championship
Sponsored by 8-Bit Arcade and The Triple Knock
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Please refer to the IFPA Gender Inclusion Policy.
Tournament Summary
Four Qualifying Rounds up to 24 players in each. Each round consists of a 5 rounds of group match play that will include 4-player and/or 3-player games on five different machines against varying opponents. Top 4 finishers will qualify to the TOP 16 finals. There will be online registration for these qualifying sessions, details on main page. Registration for each round remaining spots opens at time specified; closes 5 minutes before scheduled start time of round, or earlier if a round is full.
Qualifying, Round A: Friday 1:00pm-4:00pm. Registration opens Noon.
Qualifying, Round B: Friday 4:30pm-7:30pm. Registration opens 3:30pm.
Qualifying, Round C: Friday 8:00pm-11:00pm. Registration opens 7:00pm.
Qualifying, Round D: Saturday 11:30am-2:30pm. Registration opens 10:30am.
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Entry
$25 to participate in one qualifying round. Up to one retry may be allowed on a very limited basis, as described here.
Preference for registering in all rounds will be given to players who have not yet competed in the Women tournament. Ten minutes prior to closing Round B, C or D, if there are any open spots remaining, then players who finish best in a prior round but failed to qualify will be given priority to rebuy for one of the remaining spots. Players must be present at tourney registration desk 10 minutes before round start if they want a chance at obtaining the rebuy.
Note that this championship is available to Women in addition to the other tournaments at NWPAS. Women are encouraged to participate in the Open tournament, Match Play Classic events and Revenge knockout, as well as the Rookie & Amateur event if eligible, for alternate chances at big cash and prizes. The schedule has been set up such that the Women's Championship final does not conflict with the finals in any other division.
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Finals
Women's Championships Finals begin on Saturday at 3:00 PM, and players are required to check-in by 2:45 PM, or they forfeit their finals spot.
Finals will be played using a modified "PAPA style" format. Finalists will be placed into groups of 4 players. They play 3 games. At the beginning of each round, the top seed in each group gets to the pick one of the available bank of 3 games (each bank consist of an OLD/MID/NEW machine). The group highest seed may elect to chose the bank for the round or position for game #1, if they chose position the next highest seed will have the same choices.
Their group will then play the machines in order as show for the bank. Player order for pins #2 and #3 are chosen in reverse finishing order from the prior pin. Once a particular bank has been chosen by a group for a round, that bank may not be selected by another group.
A player cannot select the same bank twice for the duration of the finals, until the player has selected all available banks.
If a pin has a catastrophic malfunction, then any groups assigned to that pin will reach out to a tournament director for a replacement machine. Final round tie-breakers are still settled with one full game played on the OLD game from the bank the group with tied player just played, higher seed player will have a choice of position.
Scoring is 4-2-1-0 for the four finishing positions. After 3 games, the top 2 players from each group advance.
In the event of a tie:
Ties to qualify for finals or for a bye in finals will be broken on a pin selected by tournament officials, while for seeding only will be broken through the highest number of higher scores for each players qualifying standings.
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Prize Pool
$750 for the winner. All players that reach quarter finals will receive prize money of at least $50.
Trophy for 1st place with plaques for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers.
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Minimum prize guaranteed for 1st place; final value can be more.
Scoring and General Tournament Rules
Malfunctions and Rulings
Anytime an abnormal circumstance occurs, a tournament official should be notified. To ensure consistency throughout the tournament, PLAYERS SHOULD NOT RESOLVE ISSUES ON THEIR OWN. Except for customized rules explicitly covered on this website, PAPA/IFPA Tournament Rules will be used to address malfunctions and as the basis for rulings. Note also that any rule posted at the event, such as on the backglass of a machine, will override any rule described herein. The rules listed here are generalized for all NWPAS events, and might not apply to some specific formats.
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Delay of Game: Due to the tight show schedule, delays due to players not being ready to play are problematic. Please refer to official IFPA Rules, section "Intentional Delays" and "Absences".
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Machine Setup Changes: Tournament officials reserve the right to modify any machine between games or between rounds, including changing of settings, tilt sensitivity, machine level, or any other adjustment that is deemed desirable to make the tournament run more smoothly and be more fair and fun. Since a player is only competing against the other players in the same game, all players will encounter such changes at the same time, and it is part of pinball to be able to quickly adjust to changing conditions of a machine.
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Extra Balls: Extra balls will be disabled whenever possible at the main event, but likely will still be enabled in most satellite tournaments. Any extra ball is to be plunged, unless a note on the backglass says to play it. If an extra ball is to be plunged, then player may NOT touch flipper buttons to setup skill shot, then plunge ball in attempt to get the skill shot. The player may also choose to tilt the machine prior to plunging in lieu of skill shot and end-of-ball bonus, but a tilt anytime after a first plunge attempt will result in disqualification. Once ball is in motion the player must step back and cannot touch the machine, unless the ball returns back to plunger lane and is not auto-plunged, at which time they should plunge again. In the case that a player has a compensation ball awarded due to a major malfunction, and they earn an extra ball, they may choose to play the extra ball in lieu of the compensation ball in a new game.
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Machine Availability: In case of machine unavailability, the maximum player count listed for a round could be reduced, or a backup machine from the Expo floor may be selected for use in lieu of the broken main bank machine.
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Prize Pools: The advertised prize pools assume attendance on par with previous year, and are subject to reduction in case of major problems that reduce the number of available paid entries in any of the tournaments. This includes but not limited to COVID, power failures, natural disasters, weather-related closures, and significant technical issues.
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Additional Information
Tournament Co-Directors: Germain Mariolle, Lonnie Langford, Ashley Weaver & Richie Terry.
For questions and inquiries regarding tournaments at NWPAS, please contact contact@seattlepinballservices.com.
