ons 7. nov 2018 10:29
Hi,
thought id give some claps and slaps after this years DPO, from Norway.
Claps:
Layout - I liked the new layout for the tournament, with the stage, live camera etc. Looked good. A little tight in secon chance between the outer Stern row and the wall, but it worked out.
Food and drinks - It was good, nice price for beers (which us norwegians like!) and good sandwiches and snacks.
Tournaments - Though I prefer matchplay tournaments, I knew what I was going to, so the format was okay. Second chance was cool.
Slaps (Danger danger tilt):
Alright, my main issue with DPO and something that killed much of the fun, was the incredibly uneccessary tight tilts. Come on. Come on! I played in Austria Pinball Open in September, and not only were the tilts tight, but all ball savers was off. I really liked it, a whole new dimension of suspense and strategy. So I have no issues with fairly tight tilts, which gives a danger for a good nudge save, and a tilt on the next one.
But the tilt settings in dpo is just, sorry for english, fucking stupid. First, people coming from abroad spending money on the tournament, flights, accomodation, use several attempts tilting out machines in main and side, while many if not most of pinlab players knows exactly what they can and can not do. I have a suggestion to help with this later.
Of course, a good player must adapt, but there is a difference between going full retard, and having a fairly tight tilt.
Also, I will quote the ifpapa directors notes:
1. " If a game is giving warnings from gentle shaking or the action of a moving part on the playfield, the tilt mechanism is likely set too tight.": Gentle shaking gave double warning or worst case tilt on many, of not most, of the stern machines.
2. "If a game is set so the tilt mechanism is too tight, the setup favors players with better aim. If the tilt is set too loose, the setup favors players with recovery or nudging skills. ": The machines were absolutely favoring those hitting every aim, and punishing those trying to save and recover from a failed shot.
3. "It is the tournament director’s primary function to help discover who is the best overall pinball player, not who has the best aim while delicately stroking the flipper buttons with a handful of feathers. Nudging has always been a part of pinball and should be respected as a critical skill."
So, I understand the need to reduce game time, but there are other ways to do this:
- remove outlane posts
- Fairly tight tilt but less tight than was at DPO
- remove ball save completely
- Add rubber feet so the games is much harder to slide
- make the slingshots really sensitive. This will also at the same time need players to use nudging technique to save it, so you need some leverage on the tilt.
I assume the ones setting the tilt are unwilling to take this critique, since the pinlab machines has a real bad rep for being unreasonably tight and tilty for years. But I would hope you would take this and at least readjust it somewhat. If not I really do not feel like travelling to DPO (or EPC next year) again or recommend others to go. It just kills all of the fun, and only favoring those with not having a nudgy/savy play style.
Suggestion further on, would be to have a small knockout tournament friday before the main and side tournaments. Many international players arrive on friday anyways, and it would give us a chance to get a feel for the machines before the counting attempts.
Also, second chance is a great tournament being more popular, I was only let down by cutting it down to 3 rounds. And some finals were playing while almost everyone in the second chance was hanging around, slightly bored and just waiting. That is my impression from those I talked to. Might as well played the the tird round while the first set of finals were played, and then had time for the fourth round.
Cheers,
Morten