Pinball Tournaments

The Southern-Fried Gaming Expo is pleased to host pinball tournaments throughout the weekend of the event. There will be plenty of opportunities for both the serious competitive pinball player and the casual fan to have fun, compete, and (hopefully) win prizes!

Southern-Fried Pinball Tournament Returns for 2019!

Since our inception, we’ve been a cornerstone event in the competitive pinball arena. Over the years at SFGE, top-ranked tournament players and casual fans alike have competed in our world class tournaments. In 2019, the Southern-Fried Pinball tournament returns to offer players a chance to win cash, prizes, IFPA points, and pinball glory throughout the weekend! All events will be IFPA-sanctioned events, unless specified. Players must have an SFGE membership to participate.

Tournament 1: Two-Day Pingolf

$20 ticket to enter; Single entry
Two qualifying sessions – one on Friday, one on Saturday
Finals held Saturday night ~ 7PM

Participants will play nine qualifying holes. Each hole will have an objective to reach. Some holes will have progressive scoring when possible (variable strokes added depending on how close the player came to reaching the objective for that game. Once the groups have finished playing out their first holes, they will select (up to) three holes to be replayed in an attempt to improve their score. Improved hole scores will replace the original scores. Players can choose to attempt to qualify either Friday or Saturday. Player limits will be determined by a cut-off sign-up time. Players wishing to qualify Friday must register and be ready to start the course by 5 PM Friday evening. All attempts will be made to have players in groups of 4. Players wishing to qualify Saturday must be registered and ready to play by 9 AM Saturday. No late registrants will be allowed to participate. Fee is $20 per participant. There will be an option to purchase one additional hole replay (at the end of the original 9 hole playthrough) for a $5 donation to the Project Pinball Charity. The finals field will be comprised of either the top 24 players based on final stroke count for the course or the top half of the field should less than 48 people compete. Ties for qualifying position will be determined first by number of holes in 1/2/3. Any remaining ties for qualifying spots will be determined by a one-ball game on a machine to be determined by the tournament director prior to the first course play on Friday.

Finals for the Pingolf Qualifier will be held Saturday night. We will aim to begin this by 7:30 but the time may be adjusted as early as 7 PM or later based on Strike tournaments. Finals starting time will be advertised in the tournament area by 5 PM. Finals will be run as matchplay events on three game banks pre-selected to represent multiple eras of pinball. Scoring for the finals rounds will be PAPA style 4-2-1-0. Two players will drop from each group until we have the final four. Top eight qualifiers (given a 24 player field) will receive a bye during the first round.

Prize pools will be awarded based on the number of participants. $1 for each registration will go directly to IFPA for processing and $2 from each registration fee will go to defray minor repair costs during the tournament.

Tournament 2: Fair Strike Knockout tournaments

$20 ticket to enter; Single entry
Friday @ 6PM
or
Saturday @10AM

There will be two completely separate Fair Strike Tournaments – one Friday beginning at 6 PM and one Saturday beginning at 10 AM. Players will play in matchplay groups of four (when possible). Each player has 7 strikes to work with. Strikes will be determined by place on each game: 1st – 0 strikes, 2nd/3rd – 1 strike, 4th – 2 strikes (3 player matches will award 0-1-2 strikes). Matches will be determined using balanced pairing. With 7 strikes each person is guaranteed at least four matches though most players will get to play many more matches. Matches continue until a winner is declared. In the event the top three spots (or more) are tied, we will continue playing until 1-2-3 places have been determined. Each tournament (Friday and Saturday) is completely separate so players can choose to participate in both (at the expense of participating in the Pin-Golf qualifier). Fee for these tournaments will also be $20 per participant.

Women’s Event: TBD

We will continue our tradition of having a women’s only pinball tournament, but are still working out the details. Stay tuned!

“Fun and Casual” Event: Sunday (TBD)

Not looking for the intensity of high-stakes competitive pinball? Then this tournament might be up your alley. We’re still working out the details, but this could be a pingolf event, a doubles event, or a silly challenge we haven’t even thought of yet. This one will be just for fun (but with prizes!) and is not IFPA-sanctioned. Stay tuned!

ifpa