Seattle Pinball League Finals – 2016 Version

The SPL Finals format is a ladder lasting 13 rounds, with the higher seeded players waiting at the top for the lower seeded players who must fight their way to the top, and ultimately become Seattle Pinball League Champion.

The 2016 bracket for the tournament is available here, based on the final standings shown on the SPL Website: http://spl.wapinball.net/results/2016/standings.htm.

Round M (First Round)

1.       The four players are seeded for Game 1 of Round 1 by their SPL seed (13th, 14th, 15th, 16th)

a.       Top seeded player gets machine choice.

b.      For play order in this first game, top seed gets first choice, then second seed, then third seed.

2.       The four players play the chosen game, with the winner of the game moves on to the next round, does not play remaining games this round.

3.       The remaining three players will then be re-seeded for Game 2 using the following rules:

a.       Highest seeded player gets machine choice. It cannot be same machine used in Game 1.

b.      For play order, the players choose order based on their finish Game 1. The player who finished second in Game 1 gets first choice on order, and player who finished third gets second choice of order.

4.       The three players play Game 2, with the winner moving on to next round, and not playing the final game of the round.

5.       The remaining two players then play an Elimination Game 3.

a.       Higher-seeded player gets machine choice. It cannot be the same machine used in Game 1 or Game 2.

b.      For play order, 2nd place in Game 2 gets first choice of order.

6.       The winner of Elimination Game 3 moves on to next round. The loser of the Elimination Game 3 is eliminated from the finals, and obtains the final SPL season ranking as determined by that round.

Rounds N thru Y

Every round after the first, except for the final round, will play out the same way as Round M with the only difference being how players are seeded for Game 1:

1.       The new person coming into the round will be highest seed for the round.

2.       The remaining three players are seeded based on which game they won in the previous round (player who won Game 1 is second seed, player who won Game 2 is 3rd seed, and player who won Game 3 is the low seed.

Final Round Z:

For round Z, the final round, there will be a 5 game set where all four players play all five games, scoring 4-2-1-0 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively. The seeding for all 5 games will be determined the same way as prior rounds (top seed gets 1st choice, then it goes by positions on the previous game, etc.) The person with the most points after 5 games is the SPL League champion, with the runners up being ranked according to how many points they have (2nd most points = 2nd place, and so on). In the event of a tie, the 6th unused game from that round will be used as the tie-breaking game. The higher seed in Round Z gets to choice of position. If there are multiple tie breakers, play out the lower rank tie breaker first, then play the deciding tiebreaker for 1st place after. In the event that there are 5 or less working machines at this point, any other machine will be chosen at random by the tournament official.

Machine Malfunctions and other rules:

If a machine shall malfunction during the course of a game that makes it completely unplayable, a new machine must be chosen. To do this, follow the same rules of seeding and choosing machine (people may choose differently than how they did the first game)

SPL uses the PAPA/IFPA rules as a blanket template for any rulings, but exceptions can be made by the SPL board members in attendance for special cases due to logistical differences between the league and the PAPA/IFPA major tournaments. Any deviation to PAPA/IFPA rules made approved by at least TWO SPL Board Member who are not currently playing in that current round in finals. In the case that board members are in the match and there is only one board member not playing that round, that one board member may make a ruling without secondary approval. If there are no available board members to make the ruling, the board may appoint one or two other players to make the ruling.