Professional and Amateur Pinball Association
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The Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) is an organization supporting the game of pinball as a recreational and competitive sport. PAPA is currently owned and operated by Kevin Martin and is based in Scott Township, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh.
The main activity of the organization is hosting the annual World Pinball Championships, which brings hundreds of serious pinball players from around the world to compete for a number of large cash prizes. The tournament runs for four days and allows competitors to register in any of three different divisions in order to accommodate beginners and skilled players alike. Each occurrence of the tournament has been denoted by a number; for example, the 2005 tournament is known as PAPA 8.
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[edit] History
PAPA was originally created by Steve Epstein, owner of the former Broadway Arcade in Manhattan. PAPA 6 was the last tournament organized under his tenure. The PAPA name was resurrected in 2003 and applied to the pinball tournaments formerly held under the name of Pinburgh; PAPA 7 was the first of these, held in 2004.
In September 2004, shortly after PAPA 7, the remnants of Hurricane Ivan flooded the tournament area, ruining more than 200 games. However, the organizers managed to restock and rebuild in time to host PAPA 8 in 2005.
[edit] Tournament Format
The format of the PAPA tournaments has changed over time. In the current format, players declare a division (A, B, or C, with A being the most skilled) and may enter as many times as they like, paying entry fees each time they choose to play. During an entry, a player will choose and play a certain number of games from a predetermined bank of machines (for example, five out of a possible nine machines). Each game score is assigned a point value based on how it compares to all of the other entries on that same machine. Interestingly, this point value may decrease over time as more games are played by everyone. An entry's overall score is simply the sum of the individual machine scores; thus, it too can decrease over time.
A player's best entry over the course of the qualifying period determines the player's qualifying score, and the qualifying scores are used to determine the rank of each player. A player's rank may go up or down, even without continuing to play. There is a fair amount of strategy that can be employed to deal with this.
At the end of the qualifying period (typically several days), the top-ranked players in each division (the actual number varies) compete in a head-to-head, bracketed format to determine the winners.
[edit] Tournament machine configurations
If possible, the game software is put into a tournament mode. Typically, this means that the game rules will avoid giving random awards, so that scores reflect mostly skill and not luck. Also, extra balls are disabled in most competitions if the game software supports doing so.
Physical setup of the machines is intended to make things as challenging as possible. This can be done in a number of ways, for example:
- Adjusting or removing outlane posts, which make the side drain gaps larger.
- Increasing the playfield angle (by adjusting the legs on the cabinet). This increases ball speed and makes it more difficult to make shots in the back of the playfield.
[edit] List of Tournament Winners
- PAPA 1 - Joey Cartegena - (2/2/1991)
- PAPA 2 - Rick Stetta - (February 1-2, 1992 - 300 top players competing at the Lone Star Roadhouse, New York, NY)
- PAPA 3 - Lyman Sheats - (2/13/1993)
- PAPA 4 - Bowen Kerins - (2/8/1994)
- PAPA 5 - Paul Madison - (February 3-5, 1995 - Omni Park Central Hotel, New York, NY)
- PAPA 6 - Keith Elwin - (2/8/1998)
- PAPA 7 - Lyman Sheats - (9/12/2004)
- PAPA 8 - Bowen Kerins - (8/14/2005)
- PAPA 9 - Lyman Sheats - (8/20/2006)
